Bold leap into retirement

Smudgeismydog

BridgetTheCat said:

I plan to boldly leap into retirement exactly 4 years and 8 months from today 😀

I have absolutely no qualms about it. After a long career in the sciences I plan to make art and study history entirely for my own amusement.

That sounds fabulous, good for you

Simon11

 barnstar2077 said:

julicorn said:

Hi all! I'm a long way off retiring, but made a bold leap into going part time earlier this month. I now only work half my previous hours, and am enjoying this thread immensely because it gives me some inspiration for what to do on the other days too!

I figured I was working hard and getting immensely stressed, and all just with the goal to retire as early as I could - so I'm now trying a different approach and just enjoying some of that free time earlier (with the trade off of pushing actual retirement back a fair few years). We'll see how that goes. 

I dropped Wednesdays a couple of years ago.  I can honestly say it has changed my life.  From DIY projects to lunch with friends, not to mention more time to meet that special someone.  I still wish I could drop more days, but am working towards retiring completely at some point, and don't want to put that sweet, sweet day back too far! :  )

I am quite tempted to consider 4 days a week and then work a bit longer. Wednesday sounds the ideal day to make sure you do drop a full day worth of work (worst has to be Friday as less work would be under taken).

However my role is a hybrid type role and my concern is that if I go down to 4 days a week, the work load would still by 90% of the full time equivalent.

Then when I consider that some weeks I may only work 3-4 days per week, I would therefore be 'giving' up a day that I wouldn't actually work (typically filling with household chores) and losing pay.

So unless I reach the full £60k pension allowance limit and start to get taxed at 40%/ lose child benefit it doesn't look worth it on paper. 

Sarahspangles

Simon11 said:

 barnstar2077 said:

julicorn said:

Hi all! I'm a long way off retiring, but made a bold leap into going part time earlier this month. I now only work half my previous hours, and am enjoying this thread immensely because it gives me some inspiration for what to do on the other days too!

I figured I was working hard and getting immensely stressed, and all just with the goal to retire as early as I could - so I'm now trying a different approach and just enjoying some of that free time earlier (with the trade off of pushing actual retirement back a fair few years). We'll see how that goes. 

I dropped Wednesdays a couple of years ago.  I can honestly say it has changed my life.  From DIY projects to lunch with friends, not to mention more time to meet that special someone.  I still wish I could drop more days, but am working towards retiring completely at some point, and don't want to put that sweet, sweet day back too far! :  )

I am quite tempted to consider 4 days a week and then work a bit longer. Wednesday sounds the ideal day to make sure you do drop a full day worth of work (worst has to be Friday as less work would be under taken).

However my role is a hybrid type role and my concern is that if I go down to 4 days a week, the work load would still by 90% of the full time equivalent.

Then when I consider that some weeks I may only work 3-4 days per week, I would therefore be 'giving' up a day that I wouldn't actually work (typically filling with household chores) and losing pay.

So unless I reach the full £60k pension allowance limit and start to get taxed at 40%/ lose child benefit it doesn't look worth it on paper. 

In 23/24 I dropped a day on a flexible basis, but couldn’t actually take most of it, as an expected ‘trough’ didn’t materialise. So my employer repaid half. The following year I did manage to work four days, but only because I had told my employer I would be retiring at the end, so they started to shift responsibilities to others!

When I could take it, I chose Monday as it’s quieter, but found that many places I would have liked to go are closed then. But there is an advantage to working Friday, as when it gets to 1700 most colleagues have closed their laptops, there’s no self-inflicted guilt that some issue has been left unresolved as there could be if you are the one not working Friday.

katejo

Simon11 said:

 barnstar2077 said:

julicorn said:

Hi all! I'm a long way off retiring, but made a bold leap into going part time earlier this month. I now only work half my previous hours, and am enjoying this thread immensely because it gives me some inspiration for what to do on the other days too!

I figured I was working hard and getting immensely stressed, and all just with the goal to retire as early as I could - so I'm now trying a different approach and just enjoying some of that free time earlier (with the trade off of pushing actual retirement back a fair few years). We'll see how that goes. 

I dropped Wednesdays a couple of years ago.  I can honestly say it has changed my life.  From DIY projects to lunch with friends, not to mention more time to meet that special someone.  I still wish I could drop more days, but am working towards retiring completely at some point, and don't want to put that sweet, sweet day back too far! :  )

I am quite tempted to consider 4 days a week and then work a bit longer. Wednesday sounds the ideal day to make sure you do drop a full day worth of work (worst has to be Friday as less work would be under taken).

However my role is a hybrid type role and my concern is that if I go down to 4 days a week, the work load would still by 90% of the full time equivalent.

Then when I consider that some weeks I may only work 3-4 days per week, I would therefore be 'giving' up a day that I wouldn't actually work (typically filling with household chores) and losing pay.

So unless I reach the full £60k pension allowance limit and start to get taxed at 40%/ lose child benefit it doesn't look worth it on paper. 

I can't comment on your workload but I avoid household chores on my 'free day' though I do feel obliged to arrange routine appointments on that day rather than on work days. I still don't fully understand the way that my employer calculates bank holiday hours when someone has Monday as their non working day, particularly during periods such as Xmas/new year when the whole place is closed. 

michaels

I had various periods of working between 70% and 90% full time hours. In most I ended up working close to full time, luckily I also got paid as such but there always seemed to be a good reason why the extra was needed.

GenX0212

Simon11 said:

 barnstar2077 said:

julicorn said:

Hi all! I'm a long way off retiring, but made a bold leap into going part time earlier this month. I now only work half my previous hours, and am enjoying this thread immensely because it gives me some inspiration for what to do on the other days too!

I figured I was working hard and getting immensely stressed, and all just with the goal to retire as early as I could - so I'm now trying a different approach and just enjoying some of that free time earlier (with the trade off of pushing actual retirement back a fair few years). We'll see how that goes. 

I dropped Wednesdays a couple of years ago.  I can honestly say it has changed my life.  From DIY projects to lunch with friends, not to mention more time to meet that special someone.  I still wish I could drop more days, but am working towards retiring completely at some point, and don't want to put that sweet, sweet day back too far! :  )

I am quite tempted to consider 4 days a week and then work a bit longer. Wednesday sounds the ideal day to make sure you do drop a full day worth of work (worst has to be Friday as less work would be under taken).

However my role is a hybrid type role and my concern is that if I go down to 4 days a week, the work load would still by 90% of the full time equivalent.

Then when I consider that some weeks I may only work 3-4 days per week, I would therefore be 'giving' up a day that I wouldn't actually work (typically filling with household chores) and losing pay.

So unless I reach the full £60k pension allowance limit and start to get taxed at 40%/ lose child benefit it doesn't look worth it on paper. 

Do you have the option of reducing yours hours only slightly or working compressed hours? I reduced my hours only slightly 37 and now do 4* 8.5 hour days. Other colleagues do compressed hours working full hours but across 4 instead of 5 days.

Simon11

GenX0212 said:

Do you have the option of reducing yours hours only slightly or working compressed hours? I reduced my hours only slightly 37 and now do 4* 8.5 hour days. Other colleagues do compressed hours working full hours but across 4 instead of 5 days.

Not really for my role.

During Jan- March I was working 20 hours per week during quiet months but for the next few months it will be around 35.

Thus if I reduced my hours, the actual number of working hours wouldn't reduce by the same amount as loss in pay. Although the thought of ‘not being on stand by’ does appeal! 

pterri

Just had a sandwich and drinking tea while chilling in the garden. If this were the weekend and I was working during the week I’d be thinking I ought to do something more useful. I’m a low energy kind of guy so this works for me. Mind you I do cycle from Guildford to Brighton yesterday down a disused railway so it’s all relative. 

HedgehogRulez

unsolicited crotch shot

pterri

HedgehogRulez said:

unsolicited crotch shot

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