Retirement is great!

alanjones60

Taken evr in 2015 aged 54 after 35 years. Best thing i ever did.
If you can afford it to retire early,do it. Iv not regretted 1 second of being retired

pensionpawn

Pat38493 said:

It probably also depends partly on how much your employer perceives that they need your experience, and how worried they are that you might just retire completely - after all their workload issues will be even worse if you retire completely or find another job that will let you work 3 or 4 days.

Precisely. If you are fiscally independent then just let them know, subtly, that they are negotiating how much of you they can retain as opposed to them deciding on what level of reduction they are willing to let you have. It's gently communicating to them, without it coming anywhere near a threat etc, that you are in control of this process. Of course you have to be willing to call their bluff if they say no, however the onus is on them to prove how any reduction will adversely impact the business, and that also needs to take into account you quitting and them immediately finding someone who will effortlessly slip into your role with no degradation in performance. It is an employees market at the moment however judging by where I work, and the Muppets that have joined recently, I would do everything possible to retain proven staff than roll the dice on someone new.

katejo

sgx2000 said:

katejo said:

sgx2000 said:

katejo said:

43722 said:

I agree that retirement can be great, and so far has worked well for me. However, this does depend on having a sufficient income, bit sure that i would be saying that retirement is great if i could not pursue my interests.

1 friend of mine retired pretty early at 57 last October. She is with a partner who was a high earner (also retired but younger I think). Since retirement, they have been on several holidays. I do wonder how she can be sure that her income will last.

I think the answer to that is to keep a careful eye on your pension incomes.
If in drawdown - perhaps take 3% in periods of high inflation and 4% in periods of low inflation....
(yes I know that is too simplistic - but it cant be too far out)

My thoughts aren't as much about how much I will get. My pension is a university superannuation one so not money purchase. It's more about how long I will be healthy enough to go away on holidays and avoiding my savings being swallowed up in potential care home fees. 

I have exerienced old age close up in the last few years. 
My mother is 87. Had 4 serious falls in the last 3 years....
She has her own flat in wardened accomodation.
But has needed carers to attend  twice daily....
Because she depleted her savings to less than 20k the local council fund most of the care cost. 
When she can no longer care for herself they will then fund a nursing home.
From what i have seen in the last few years the difference between private nursing homes and state funded is not much....

I remember reading an article several years ago which featured the following situation: 2 people living alongside each other in a nursing home. Both had similar level of education and incomes. Both had bought a single property but one had paid the mortgage off and now had savings while the other had paid mortgage interest only, had spent the money on other things and now had little saving due to gaining much less from the sale of the house. The one with little money pays much less for the nursing home fees. 

Rich1976

Ebeneezer9 said:

Johnnyy_Boy said:

I am coming up to 68, got more than enough money and still go to work because I enjoy it. At the moment it would seem very strange not working. Just thought I would give the other side 😉

I’m due to retire March2027 but concerned about the impact on my mental health.  I love every aspect of my job, get a massive kick from passing on my knowledge and skills to apprentices and even enjoy my hour commute on various TFL transport networks.  If my health is good enough I would like to carry on working ( arthritis  ) but if I have to retire I will miss good people, and the challenge of delivering results.  I can’t bear the thought of doing relatively nothing all day, just having a weekend off work drives me insane with boredom leading to depression. My OH is eight years younger and will not retire till 2035, by which time I will be 75 (if I’m still about) and probably a miserable curmudgeonly pain in the rear.

There is no need to retire if you feel fit and healthy and still capable of doing your job.

the days of compulsory retirement at 65 are long gone. 

If you want to continue working and it’s right for you then go for it. 

chubsta

pensionpawn said:

There is a subtle difference between retiring and becoming fiscally independent.

I am going early next year at 57 - plenty of people say to me that I am too young to be retiring but I always point out I am not 'retiring', I am just becoming 'financially independent', the two things are very different. As far as I can see there are only 2 reasons to work - you either need the money or you enjoy it, in my case it is neither so why would I bother? Financially my income after 'retirement' will be approximately £200 a month less than I currently earn so I would effectively be working full-time on shifts for £200 a month.
Being financially independent will give me the time I need to do all the myriad things I just don't have time for now and if, after a few months, I find myself with spare time I will start working again, but in something completely different to my career.
I cannot imagine what it must be like for those who say they will be bored in retirement, there is far too much to learn and do - I am currently coding a Sinclair Spectrum version of a classic Atari VCS game which will probably only ever be played by a handful of people but I am looking forward to the time I can concentrate on it instead of getting half-way through a problem and then getting ready to go to work.

kipsterno1

@GibbsRule_No3 your post really made me smile. Thank you.

Green_hopeful

Turns out at 53 and due to a change at work I have become ‘financially independent’. Only two weeks notice so tomorrow is my first day on my new life. I have enough money in savings to live on until I get my first pension at 60. No mortgage so hopefully things will be ok financially. Not rushing to make any decisions. 

MallyGirl

I also cannot wait to retire early - planning for 59 when daughter finishes uni. I would go tomorrow but OH is not ready and it won't work unless we go at the same time - we are very close in age so everything dovetails nicely that way. Last month my line manager, who worked 4 compressed days a week, and his line manager were both made redundant. I was gutted that I didn't win that lottery. I just got half of his workload on top of what I already had and now have to deal with unhappy clients with less snappy turnarounds on their requests. I have too much length of service and am too near the end to change job now so I just need to stick with it and hope to be luckier if there is another redundancy round.
OH would rather work longer to ensure that we have the funds to live the retired life we want but several friends are living with serious ill health that should make him lower his aspirations a little - it just hasn't happened yet so I have fingers crossed for the premium bonds till it does.

robatwork

chubsta said:

pensionpawn said:

There is a subtle difference between retiring and becoming fiscally independent.

I am going early next year at 57 - plenty of people say to me that I am too young to be retiring but I always point out I am not 'retiring', I am just becoming 'financially independent', the two things are very different. As far as I can see there are only 2 reasons to work - you either need the money or you enjoy it, in my case it is neither so why would I bother? Financially my income after 'retirement' will be approximately £200 a month less than I currently earn so I would effectively be working full-time on shifts for £200 a month.
Being financially independent will give me the time I need to do all the myriad things I just don't have time for now and if, after a few months, I find myself with spare time I will start working again, but in something completely different to my career.
I cannot imagine what it must be like for those who say they will be bored in retirement, there is far too much to learn and do - I am currently coding a Sinclair Spectrum version of a classic Atari VCS game which will probably only ever be played by a handful of people but I am looking forward to the time I can concentrate on it instead of getting half-way through a problem and then getting ready to go to work.

Pong on that rubberised keyboard would be no fun!

BikingBud

lisyloo said:

Thumbs_Up said:

lisyloo said:

Sounds like some jobs are a lot better than others.
I'm lucky that my job is a lot better than that.
yeah sure there’s still frustrations and restrictions but generally it’s fun.
puts a different spin on it.

You must have walked to work then. I’ve done it all one time or another, traveled by company car, by train, the underground, and the bus. No so bad when you are young, I do not miss that crap, road rage, women pushing you out the way to get the last seat, nah, stuff work.

I work from home 4 days a week, but I have few issues on my commute - mostly by car but sometimes by motorbike.

@lisyloo And the beauty of having the option is that on a weekday as others are commuting, that you can ride straight past work and go to find that great cafe for a breakfast roll and take the long route back, sometimes extremely long. With fewer bikes on the road and ensuring you go when the weather is fine you could end up anywhere, recently found myself riding down and then up the Fosse Way, nearly heading west into the Clee Hills but saved that for another day

Perhaps after I've been to the seaside, maybe Cleethorpes for fish and chips, or the ACE cafe