Bold leap into retirement

pterri

MetaPhysical said:

pterri said:

So my ‘last day’ paid was last week (27th may), after taking accrued leave. I’ve not worked for seven or so weeks before that and I’ve not missed it as all. Zero regrets. I’m sleeping better, cycling more and just enjoying the mooching around. Met some colleagues from a previous big project, four are retired. Three early and one at retirement age. We were giving the young ‘uns sage advice, although none of us envied the house buying situation they have to deal with. 

So, a new chapter begins….. 

Many congratulations, great to hear about the cycling!  I'm a cyclist too and it is time consuming.  Great that you can now just go whenever the heck you like!
I've got the rest of this tax year before I pull the 'chute on my working life although I may go at Christmas if I can't stand it any longer.

I was the same, I was going to hang it out to my 57th birthday but a stressful last few months and the finishing line looming meant that I wasn’t really on it at work so jumped at the end of the tax year, I didn’t realise that we have some great rules around leave and special ‘retirement leave’ so that and hovering up the bank holidays means I got a good few weeks in this tax year, billy bonus! 

I intend to do some multi day cycling trips along the south coast. Travel lodge allow you to store your bike in your room - worth knowing. 

cfw1994

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

Pat38493

cfw1994 said:

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

It's a combination of things - I told my boss that I would try to give them 6 months notice about a year ago, so I am trying to stick to my word, so maybe a bit of misplaced loyalty there.  Also - working till the end of October will mostly fill my 20% tax allowances for this year so I have no reason to trigger the MPAA for an extra year.  

I am already down to 3 days per week so it's not too bad at the moment anyway.

If I have 2 many bad days I can just accelerate my departure.

I also tentatively floated the idea of me taking extra time off over the summer, and then working a month or two at full time in the autumn to train up a replacement - they did not shoot this idea down so it might be a possibility - to be discussed.

Another thing is I am currently having a few medical tests and my company has me in BUPA so I'll at least wait to make sure I don't have anything that requires treatment with large waiting lists.  

SouthCoastBoy

Pat38493 said:

cfw1994 said:

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

It's a combination of things - I told my boss that I would try to give them 6 months notice about a year ago, so I am trying to stick to my word, so maybe a bit of misplaced loyalty there.  Also - working till the end of October will mostly fill my 20% tax allowances for this year so I have no reason to trigger the MPAA for an extra year.  

I am already down to 3 days per week so it's not too bad at the moment anyway.

If I have 2 many bad days I can just accelerate my departure.

I also tentatively floated the idea of me taking extra time off over the summer, and then working a month or two at full time in the autumn to train up a replacement - they did not shoot this idea down so it might be a possibility - to be discussed.

Another thing is I am currently having a few medical tests and my company has me in BUPA so I'll at least wait to make sure I don't have anything that requires treatment with large waiting lists.  

nearly 100k a year for a 3 day week? I think i would carry on for a while longer.

eastcorkram

SouthCoastBoy said:

Pat38493 said:

cfw1994 said:

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

It's a combination of things - I told my boss that I would try to give them 6 months notice about a year ago, so I am trying to stick to my word, so maybe a bit of misplaced loyalty there.  Also - working till the end of October will mostly fill my 20% tax allowances for this year so I have no reason to trigger the MPAA for an extra year.  

I am already down to 3 days per week so it's not too bad at the moment anyway.

If I have 2 many bad days I can just accelerate my departure.

I also tentatively floated the idea of me taking extra time off over the summer, and then working a month or two at full time in the autumn to train up a replacement - they did not shoot this idea down so it might be a possibility - to be discussed.

Another thing is I am currently having a few medical tests and my company has me in BUPA so I'll at least wait to make sure I don't have anything that requires treatment with large waiting lists.  

nearly 100k a year for a 3 day week? I think i would carry on for a while longer.

  you'd never stop!  

Cobbler_tone

SouthCoastBoy said:

Pat38493 said:

cfw1994 said:

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

It's a combination of things - I told my boss that I would try to give them 6 months notice about a year ago, so I am trying to stick to my word, so maybe a bit of misplaced loyalty there.  Also - working till the end of October will mostly fill my 20% tax allowances for this year so I have no reason to trigger the MPAA for an extra year.  

I am already down to 3 days per week so it's not too bad at the moment anyway.

If I have 2 many bad days I can just accelerate my departure.

I also tentatively floated the idea of me taking extra time off over the summer, and then working a month or two at full time in the autumn to train up a replacement - they did not shoot this idea down so it might be a possibility - to be discussed.

Another thing is I am currently having a few medical tests and my company has me in BUPA so I'll at least wait to make sure I don't have anything that requires treatment with large waiting lists.  

nearly 100k a year for a 3 day week? I think i would carry on for a while longer.

It's all relative I guess.
I know one local multi-millionaire (mainly inherited) who still works 60-70 hours a week in a modestly paid role. Whilst my OH has a friend who inherited a lot of money and hasn't lifted a finger (work wise) since she was 25 but is out in her field every morning to tend to her horses, with her other job being unpacking the Waitrose delivery. 
It must depend on whether you have found your vocation, or if money takes that problem out of the equation. 
Unless you need that £100k for your 3 day week (and want to keep working), why not have a 0 day week! 
You can always have more money...time on the other hand.

I've always liked my job (well, most of the time) but I'm envious of people who 'love' theirs. I should have bought that foodie wagon.

MayDogsandCoffee

With one thing and another I have been off six weeks.  Today was my first day back in, palpitations from yesterday afternoon, irritating emails to trawl through today; I might be going a year earlier than planned.  Job for this afternoon is to check where my pension is up to.

Pat38493

SouthCoastBoy said:

Pat38493 said:

cfw1994 said:

MallyGirl said:

That all sounds great

Agreed, congrats @Pat38493 💪
….although….I have to ask: if you could leave now, & only have a months notice: why not leave now?
I have always felt spring is the best time of year to end….why wait until autumn, with nights drawing in - why not enjoy an extra summer now?
(one of James Shack’s very good videos talks about how many more summers do you have….& I tend to agree, it makes sense to maximise them!)

It's a combination of things - I told my boss that I would try to give them 6 months notice about a year ago, so I am trying to stick to my word, so maybe a bit of misplaced loyalty there.  Also - working till the end of October will mostly fill my 20% tax allowances for this year so I have no reason to trigger the MPAA for an extra year.  

I am already down to 3 days per week so it's not too bad at the moment anyway.

If I have 2 many bad days I can just accelerate my departure.

I also tentatively floated the idea of me taking extra time off over the summer, and then working a month or two at full time in the autumn to train up a replacement - they did not shoot this idea down so it might be a possibility - to be discussed.

Another thing is I am currently having a few medical tests and my company has me in BUPA so I'll at least wait to make sure I don't have anything that requires treatment with large waiting lists.  

nearly 100k a year for a 3 day week? I think i would carry on for a while longer.

I am pretty high paid but not that much - I have already put my relatively small £13K DB pension into payment as I was anticipating finishing work this year, and I got a bonus in April, which only some of it went to the pension, and a few taxable benefits.  That said, it still looks tempting because if I calculate the daily net pay rate for each calendar month, it is pretty high - especially in the months where I take a week or two off on holiday.

I am currently paying 40% tax on the DB pension but I will presumably get some of that back later as I don't intend to pay any 40% tax this tax year.

pterri

MayDogsandCoffee said:

With one thing and another I have been off six weeks.  Today was my first day back in, palpitations from yesterday afternoon, irritating emails to trawl through today; I might be going a year earlier than planned.  Job for this afternoon is to check where my pension is up to.

I was like that for a year at least, I checked and rechecked my numbers and pulled the trigger

MetaPhysical

I nearly resigned today after another BS episode at work.   I'm 58 nearly and can't stand this !!!!!! much longer, it is such utter BS that it is vomit-inducing. They want forever more and more from less and less people and resources.  I'm thinking of getting my holidays out of the way in June and another in September and then handing in my notice when I return in September. They'll probably patio leave me until xmas on full pay.  I was going to hang on until next March but I'm not sure I can stand it that long now.  I feel sorry for younger people in the workplace.  

Very much looking forward to joining you folks who have done it