What made you 'pull the trigger'?

thriftytracey

After three and half years of retirement it is surprising how quickly you get used to the lie-ins, no commute, no stress and feeling exhausted most of the time!  In fact, I find it hard to remember how awful my working life was (compared to now - I did enjoy the job itself but hated the corporate BS, performance reviews, exhortations to work harder and harder and improve my skills - no I do not want to learn how to code!).  I know I never could go back to it.  

I find it is crucial for my mental health to keep myself occupied.  If I have nothing to do I get depressed, especially in the winter months.

So, be it gardening, volunteering, U3a groups, meeting friends, hobbies, dog walking or going away in the caravan I make sure I am occupied.  I think that is very important for a fulfilling retirement.  Indeed, I think it takes 18 months to discover what you want to do.  Pandemic for two years didn't help of course.

Albermarle

I'm 62 and would love to retire
But my greed constantly gets in the way.
My income currently exceeds my expenditure by £1000 per month....
So, my mind keeps saying every month you retire early has cost you £1000..

In fact you are not only saving £1000 per month, but paying for everyday expenses out of your salary, rather than out of your retirement pot. So in purely financial terms, you will be gaining significantly more than £1000 a month by continuing to work . I calculated that for every extra year I worked, I effectively gained two years financially.

Apologies if that puts you off retiring even more !

Anonymous101

Albermarle said:

I'm 62 and would love to retire
But my greed constantly gets in the way.
My income currently exceeds my expenditure by £1000 per month....
So, my mind keeps saying every month you retire early has cost you £1000..

In fact you are not only saving £1000 per month, but paying for everyday expenses out of your salary, rather than out of your retirement pot. So in purely financial terms, you will be gaining significantly more than £1000 a month by continuing to work . I calculated that for every extra year I worked, I effectively gained two years financially.

Apologies if that puts you off retiring even more !

The same occurred to me but I was reluctant to exacerbate the issue! 

The reality is its the total of the expenses and investments plus any investment growth.

Cottage_Economy

Personally, as soon as I can make the numbers work I'm off, otherwise I'm never going to get to spend any quality time with my DH. On my current forecasts that will be when I'm 55 years old.

There are the possibilities of two inheritances that may come in before then, so that could be a trigger for me to go sooner. Then again, the cost of living increases and possible recession could put that back, but if I broadly execute the main tenets of the plan it will be 55. 

Tabby_cat

I suspect, like most people here, it was a combination of things that finally made me jump ship.

In my early 30's I was told I'd probably be blind by my very old age. I returned to work the next day and was trying to read a drawing from the 1950's that had had a hard life. "Is that 3 ft 8? or 8 ft 3?" I really struggled and decided that day, I couldn't do this for another 30 odd years. I found an IFA and started my plan to retire at 55. My OH is 10 years older than me and was going to go at 65, so 55 would work for me.

We had a comfortable life and good holidays, but every spare penny I had, went toward my pension, and I achieved the FI part of FIRE in my late 40's, but mentally wasn't ready to retire then. It took a takeover of the company I worked for, by a big American corporation, (one I had no respect for) for me to start on the home stretch. I asked to be made redundant. No hope there because I was too useful and reliable. So, I dropped my hours and worked 3 days a week. After 18 months I could see there were no interesting projects coming up. There was work I could do, but nothing that excited me, so pulled the trigger aged 52 and three quarters, in December '18.   

Do I miss it? Like hell do I miss the corporate BS, pointless box ticking exercises and getting up at 5.30 in the morning. I do miss some of the people but since COVID most now work from home, so the social side of office work has disappeared. 

I don't miss the arguments with graduates who think they know best because they have a degree and I don't.
Grad - We're going to build it like this.
Me - We can't actually build it like that. There's no way of doing the bolts up.
Grad - But X (senior member of staff) says we are.
Me - But if you do it like that you can't get to the bolts. Explain to X we need to do it a different way.
Grad - Can't you make it work somehow?
Me - How? You can't do the bolts up! WHAT PART OF YOU CAN'T DO THE BOLTS UP DONT YOU UNDERSTAND....

This just happened once too often. 

Now, no stress. I get up at 7 but only because I want to. I'm lighter by 4 stone, fitter than I've ever been in my life and happy. You can't put a price on that and now nothing would make me return to my former profession. Yes, the last year has been interesting finance wise. But I still have enough to enjoy life and if my IFA ever suggested that wasn't the case, I'd happily go and stack shelves at Waitrose. Until then you'll find me at a fitness class or on my allotment.

sgx2000

Albermarle said:

I'm 62 and would love to retire
But my greed constantly gets in the way.
My income currently exceeds my expenditure by £1000 per month....
So, my mind keeps saying every month you retire early has cost you £1000..

In fact you are not only saving £1000 per month, but paying for everyday expenses out of your salary, rather than out of your retirement pot. So in purely financial terms, you will be gaining significantly more than £1000 a month by continuing to work . I calculated that for every extra year I worked, I effectively gained two years financially.

Apologies if that puts you off retiring even more !

lol..
I think the problem is having to fund the 3 years without state pension out of savings
Oh!
And probably the £20k of jobs my wife has decided I need to do....lol,  but they do need doing
Bathroom, kitchen, driveway.....

arnoldy

My workplace was becoming increasing unpleasant...low level bullying, passive aggressive individuals, a culture of keep quiet, it was not the sort of place where these issues could be raised - in fact the most unethical department was HR! I was 47 when I decided I had had enough and started serious saving - fortunately I was on a good salary and opened a SIPP to avoid the horrible marginal rates of income tax I was paying. I thought I would aim to get out at 58 but over time the behaviours and cultures of the organisation made be bring that forward to 55. The only good thing about the place was the money and some brilliant people. 

Then there was yet another reorganisation/apply for your own job type thing. I had dodged the bullet many times before in these but this time I didn't at 52y 3m. Fortunately i had a good severance and more stuffing of the SIPP (and I did have a DB luckily) . But after 34 years of giving your all to the company, its hard mentally to be cast aside - you feel like "Brooks" out of the Shawshank redemption.

3 months later mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the shoulders were sagging a bit. But I set up my own company and worked to past my 55th birthday which was psychologically important. At that same time OH was unable to work because of stress so we both stopped - and now at 56.5 we are very happy emotionally and financially. Things have a habit working out in the end.

barnstar2077

Tabby_cat said:

I suspect, like most people here, it was a combination of things that finally made me jump ship.

In my early 30's I was told I'd probably be blind by my very old age. I returned to work the next day and was trying to read a drawing from the 1950's that had had a hard life. "Is that 3 ft 8? or 8 ft 3?" I really struggled and decided that day, I couldn't do this for another 30 odd years. I found an IFA and started my plan to retire at 55. My OH is 10 years older than me and was going to go at 65, so 55 would work for me.

We had a comfortable life and good holidays, but every spare penny I had, went toward my pension, and I achieved the FI part of FIRE in my late 40's, but mentally wasn't ready to retire then. It took a takeover of the company I worked for, by a big American corporation, (one I had no respect for) for me to start on the home stretch. I asked to be made redundant. No hope there because I was too useful and reliable. So, I dropped my hours and worked 3 days a week. After 18 months I could see there were no interesting projects coming up. There was work I could do, but nothing that excited me, so pulled the trigger aged 52 and three quarters, in December '18.   

Do I miss it? Like hell do I miss the corporate BS, pointless box ticking exercises and getting up at 5.30 in the morning. I do miss some of the people but since COVID most now work from home, so the social side of office work has disappeared. 

I don't miss the arguments with graduates who think they know best because they have a degree and I don't.
Grad - We're going to build it like this.
Me - We can't actually build it like that. There's no way of doing the bolts up.
Grad - But X (senior member of staff) says we are.
Me - But if you do it like that you can't get to the bolts. Explain to X we need to do it a different way.
Grad - Can't you make it work somehow?
Me - How? You can't do the bolts up! WHAT PART OF YOU CAN'T DO THE BOLTS UP DONT YOU UNDERSTAND....

This just happened once too often. 

Now, no stress. I get up at 7 but only because I want to. I'm lighter by 4 stone, fitter than I've ever been in my life and happy. You can't put a price on that and now nothing would make me return to my former profession. Yes, the last year has been interesting finance wise. But I still have enough to enjoy life and if my IFA ever suggested that wasn't the case, I'd happily go and stack shelves at Waitrose. Until then you'll find me at a fitness class or on my allotment.

Whenever we have similar conversations to your "You can't do the bolts up!" at work with management, they always end up saying "You guys are just negative, and you don't like change!"

Then they do it anyway and leave us to deal with the consequences.  After the dust settles they inform their own boss what a brilliant idea it was and how it has saved x amount of money, despite the reality of it taking twice as long as the old way and needing workarounds to get it done.

Anyway, I don't think you really tried hard enough to do those bolts up!  Maybe we should discuss some extra training for you in your next one to one! :  )

NedS

barnstar2077 said:

Tabby_cat said:

I suspect, like most people here, it was a combination of things that finally made me jump ship.

In my early 30's I was told I'd probably be blind by my very old age. I returned to work the next day and was trying to read a drawing from the 1950's that had had a hard life. "Is that 3 ft 8? or 8 ft 3?" I really struggled and decided that day, I couldn't do this for another 30 odd years. I found an IFA and started my plan to retire at 55. My OH is 10 years older than me and was going to go at 65, so 55 would work for me.

We had a comfortable life and good holidays, but every spare penny I had, went toward my pension, and I achieved the FI part of FIRE in my late 40's, but mentally wasn't ready to retire then. It took a takeover of the company I worked for, by a big American corporation, (one I had no respect for) for me to start on the home stretch. I asked to be made redundant. No hope there because I was too useful and reliable. So, I dropped my hours and worked 3 days a week. After 18 months I could see there were no interesting projects coming up. There was work I could do, but nothing that excited me, so pulled the trigger aged 52 and three quarters, in December '18.   

Do I miss it? Like hell do I miss the corporate BS, pointless box ticking exercises and getting up at 5.30 in the morning. I do miss some of the people but since COVID most now work from home, so the social side of office work has disappeared. 

I don't miss the arguments with graduates who think they know best because they have a degree and I don't.
Grad - We're going to build it like this.
Me - We can't actually build it like that. There's no way of doing the bolts up.
Grad - But X (senior member of staff) says we are.
Me - But if you do it like that you can't get to the bolts. Explain to X we need to do it a different way.
Grad - Can't you make it work somehow?
Me - How? You can't do the bolts up! WHAT PART OF YOU CAN'T DO THE BOLTS UP DONT YOU UNDERSTAND....

This just happened once too often. 

Now, no stress. I get up at 7 but only because I want to. I'm lighter by 4 stone, fitter than I've ever been in my life and happy. You can't put a price on that and now nothing would make me return to my former profession. Yes, the last year has been interesting finance wise. But I still have enough to enjoy life and if my IFA ever suggested that wasn't the case, I'd happily go and stack shelves at Waitrose. Until then you'll find me at a fitness class or on my allotment.

Whenever we have similar conversations to your "You can't do the bolts up!" at work with management, they always end up saying "You guys are just negative, and you don't like change!"

Then they do it anyway and leave us to deal with the consequences.  After the dust settles they inform their own boss what a brilliant idea it was and how it has saved x amount of money, despite the reality of it taking twice as long as the old way and needing workarounds to get it done.

Anyway, I don't think you really tried hard enough to do those bolts up!  Maybe we should discuss some extra training for you in your next one to one! :  )

LOL. I once had a manager who would say "Bring me solutions, not problems". If it were me, I would keep quiet and let them get on with it, and then when they found out they could not do the bolts up I would ask knowingly "How did you think you were going to do the bolts up when you planned it, or did you not realise you wouldn't be able to do the bolts up?". As a mentor frequently reminded me - you can't argue with stupid.

I believe they even have a term for this now - quiet quitting. I have definitely quietly quit, just haven't informed my employer yet.

Pat38493

This was a very interesting thread to read over the last days - I am 54 so I am hoping to make some major adjustments to my life some time in the next few years - I am not sure whether I will call it retirement as I might go part time for a while, or take a much lower paid job.  

TBH at the moment I am focused on when I will declare myself to be be "financially independent" which could be as early as Summer 2024.  There are one or two very low probability but high impact downside risks that are personal to me so I need to balance that as well.  

After that I am not sure what will make me actually pull the trigger but it will probably be a combination of
- More and more funerals and losses as I get older, including one parent last year.  My father was 78 but was a very fit man who was literally playing tennis on the morning of the day he was diagnosed with Covid 19 - 8 weeks later he was gone.  He had been diagnosed with a rare respiratory disease a couple of years before but it was fairly well managed until he got Covid.  His death at a much earlier age than we were expecting (his ancestors, at least the male ones, tended to have long lives) made me re-double my efforts to be able to choose what I do rather than forced to do it to pay the bills.

- Just getting bored of the corporate world and the daily lunacies of work interactions.  I feel much less motivated to put in 100% at work than I did a few years ago.  We were taken over but a company which has a much more centralized approach with an HQ in another country.  I'm actually surprised they didn't make me redundant as I am under utilized based on what they are paying me and my historical skillset.

- My wife took early retirement from an NHS role last year.

- Kids becoming relatively independent and University costs ending (the will continue for a couple of years but that is modelled in my retirement model).

- Combination of LTA considerations and avoiding 60% tax gives a rather strange and perverse incentive to stop or reduce work rather than seek promotion or whatever.

- Specific company actions e.g. they are threatening to make me work at the office most of the week even though I was already working from home most of the time (if I wasn't travelling for projects) for many years before the pandemic - I had bosses who were in other countries for many years whose attitude was that they didn't care where I was sitting as long as I got the projects done.  If this happens, I might take the view that if I have to travel to a work place very day I will make it a place I will enjoy, even if it's a much lower salary.

- This - this is an example of the longevity adjusted success rate in Timeline for us as a couple - at age 70 there starts to be a visible gap where one or other of us will not be here any more - I don't want to only have 5 years to enjoy together...