Bold leap into retirement

Albermarle

Ciprico said:

I gave my notice on Wednesday and haven't even had an acknowledgement from my director. I work from home, am well paid, was the only employee in the UK and had minimal contact with head office so was a tough decision to cut the rope. I gave my notice about a year ago citing a medical issue as one of the  reasons, and my director refused to accept it. I resigned this time citing lack of interest and enthusiasm as the reason.. They are nice people  and I feel guilty. I'm 61

I was in a very similar position. I was not the only employee in the UK, but I had only minimal contact with UK colleagues on HR, and payroll issues. Otherwise all my close colleagues were from other European countries, which I visited often and the rest of the time I was effectively here on my own dealing with the customers.
I retired at 62 a couple of years ago.
I also found some reluctance to accept my resignation, but they soon accepted my mind was made up.

As the sole UK employee I gave them a few months notice more than necessary ( I had good persoanl relations with them) and then they had to find a replacement, and then a transition period was needed. All in all it was about 15 months from resignation call to leaving. On the positive side I left with good relations with colleagues and customers, and got OMY money in the bank !
One downside of the situation is that I have no ex work colleagues to socialise with. Unless I go to Milan, Paris, Dusseldorf etc 
Although I am still in a Whatsapp group with them.

pensionpawn

QrizB said:

I had a business contact who would, if asked, say he was "three bad days away from retirement".

The day came when I asked to speak to him and he'd left a few weeks earlier. I guess he had his three bad days!

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm close ...

Lol, I say to my colleagues "when the fun stops, stop" or to my management, and to paraphrase Dirty Harry, "go on punk, make my day"! My wife retired 18 months ago just before turning 57 and I reduced my hours to effectively 3 days a week 2 years ago at 56. During my negotiations I made management fully aware that on turning 55 I was now fiscally independent and that I now only come into work because it suits me, which gave me the upper hand and took a lot of pressure off me. I now only do what I want to do at work as they know that if they cause a "retirement trigger event: RTE" to occur I'll just walk, and with just a months notice and accrued days as part of my reduced hours contract, I could be out of the doors in days, leaving them in a tricky situation. That said I still actually enjoy my job and the money isn't too bad, it's just a shame that I mainly work with idiots and the bureaucracy is almost unbearable. I could have handed in my notice last week however I'm trying to hang on until the autumn to cover the last of the significant capex costs and hopefully catch a redundancy opportunity. I really can't see myself working past next June as my wife will be home alone and potentially getting bored and I have hobbies that I currently don't have sufficient time to enjoy, even with my reduced hours. The last of the (grown up) children should have flown the nest by then too. Tomorrow is never promised and our bodies are beginning to creek, so I suspect I'll call time sooner rather than later.

Ciprico

Albermarle said:

Ciprico said:

I gave my notice on Wednesday and haven't even had an acknowledgement from my director. I work from home, am well paid, was the only employee in the UK and had minimal contact with head office so was a tough decision to cut the rope. I gave my notice about a year ago citing a medical issue as one of the  reasons, and my director refused to accept it. I resigned this time citing lack of interest and enthusiasm as the reason.. They are nice people  and I feel guilty. I'm 61

I was in a very similar position. I was not the only employee in the UK, but I had only minimal contact with UK colleagues on HR, and payroll issues. Otherwise all my close colleagues were from other European countries, which I visited often and the rest of the time I was effectively here on my own dealing with the customers.
I retired at 62 a couple of years ago.
I also found some reluctance to accept my resignation, but they soon accepted my mind was made up.

As the sole UK employee I gave them a few months notice more than necessary ( I had good persoanl relations with them) and then they had to find a replacement, and then a transition period was needed. All in all it was about 15 months from resignation call to leaving. On the positive side I left with good relations with colleagues and customers, and got OMY money in the bank !
One downside of the situation is that I have no ex work colleagues to socialise with. Unless I go to Milan, Paris, Dusseldorf etc 
Although I am still in a Whatsapp group with them.

Albermarle,

I recall reading one of your previous posts and thinking we both have/had very similar and unusual work arrangements....

MallyGirl

Sarahspangles said:

Smudgeismydog said:

Thanks to everyone who posted, it means a lot knowing we are all on this journey together.

How would you feel if you needed to do ‘another year’ @Sarahspangles?

Take care everyone

Like a footballer - ‘Denied!’

My OH retired 18 months ago. I work from home, it’s nice that I get coffees and my lunch made, but I have a constant reminder that he’s free to go off cycling with his posse or potter in the garden. Plus he makes such a palaver about what he calls ‘domestic chores’, most of which I’d happily (and efficiently) be doing as part of a morning routine, or even in the hour after work, like I used to.

I'm also really tired, partly because between us we’ve lost our three remaining parents in the last three years. The ‘sadmin’ side of his parents’ estates fell to me, so I’d be closing my work laptop on spreadsheets on Friday and opening my own for more spreadsheets on Saturday. Then my own father died recently, and while this time my (retired) brother is dealing with the sadmin, I’ve already done the equivalent of three working weeks of house sorting/clearance over weekends since Christmas.

I don’t resent OH having retired as he’d worked past 60 (he’s a few years older). But one thing I've really noticed is how difficult actual holidays are. Firstly he grumbles that I can’t fit in two-week breaks. Then if I’m at home ‘on leave’ I need to catch up on ‘home stuff’ rather than relax, and the office is still right there… whereas if we go away I am able to relax but OH feels we should be doing more stuff!

He went on a pre-retirement course when he was still working, they were encouraged to talk to their wives about the changes in lifestyle. However the only scenario the trainer seemed to have come up with was ‘breadwinner retires and needs to reassure housewife he’s not going to interfere with her routine’.

And that’s before you get onto the job stresses….

Grump over….

Our situation in terms of age is simplified by him being just 2 weeks younger than me so everything is aligned there. What is not yet aligned is the point at which we go. It will be at the same time so we can do our planned travel together. He has bargained me up to seeing daughter through uni (she's in yr 4 of 6) when I would go now. I am going to show him the numbers again this weekend to show that we could afford to go if we wanted to. 

We have just agreed to get solar panels and a battery fitted so that is a big capital expense - definitely one to do while still working with the expectation that it will help to reduce energy costs in retirement. We will need to see how that plays out.
With a full set of parents, plus both my parents second marriage spouses, still thankfully with us there will be sadmin in in my future - OH leaves all that sort of thing to me as he would rather hoover, iron and clean the house.
I am still hoping for redundancy as our little pocket of the business is under appreciated and niche. The 20 years service would make for a decent farewell present.

pensionpawn

MallyGirl said:

Sarahspangles said:

Smudgeismydog said:

Thanks to everyone who posted, it means a lot knowing we are all on this journey together.

How would you feel if you needed to do ‘another year’ @Sarahspangles?

Take care everyone

Like a footballer - ‘Denied!’

My OH retired 18 months ago. I work from home, it’s nice that I get coffees and my lunch made, but I have a constant reminder that he’s free to go off cycling with his posse or potter in the garden. Plus he makes such a palaver about what he calls ‘domestic chores’, most of which I’d happily (and efficiently) be doing as part of a morning routine, or even in the hour after work, like I used to.

I'm also really tired, partly because between us we’ve lost our three remaining parents in the last three years. The ‘sadmin’ side of his parents’ estates fell to me, so I’d be closing my work laptop on spreadsheets on Friday and opening my own for more spreadsheets on Saturday. Then my own father died recently, and while this time my (retired) brother is dealing with the sadmin, I’ve already done the equivalent of three working weeks of house sorting/clearance over weekends since Christmas.

I don’t resent OH having retired as he’d worked past 60 (he’s a few years older). But one thing I've really noticed is how difficult actual holidays are. Firstly he grumbles that I can’t fit in two-week breaks. Then if I’m at home ‘on leave’ I need to catch up on ‘home stuff’ rather than relax, and the office is still right there… whereas if we go away I am able to relax but OH feels we should be doing more stuff!

He went on a pre-retirement course when he was still working, they were encouraged to talk to their wives about the changes in lifestyle. However the only scenario the trainer seemed to have come up with was ‘breadwinner retires and needs to reassure housewife he’s not going to interfere with her routine’.

And that’s before you get onto the job stresses….

Grump over….

Our situation in terms of age is simplified by him being just 2 weeks younger than me so everything is aligned there. What is not yet aligned is the point at which we go. It will be at the same time so we can do our planned travel together. He has bargained me up to seeing daughter through uni (she's in yr 4 of 6) when I would go now. I am going to show him the numbers again this weekend to show that we could afford to go if we wanted to. 

We have just agreed to get solar panels and a battery fitted so that is a big capital expense - definitely one to do while still working with the expectation that it will help to reduce energy costs in retirement. We will need to see how that plays out.
With a full set of parents, plus both my parents second marriage spouses, still thankfully with us there will be sadmin in in my future - OH leaves all that sort of thing to me as he would rather hoover, iron and clean the house.
I am still hoping for redundancy as our little pocket of the business is under appreciated and niche. The 20 years service would make for a decent farewell present.

They certainly will, and get as many as you can. My house faces east-west and we have 7.1 kWs. With the FiT payments (not mega for me, 16.6p from April 1st as I joined at the end of the original scheme) and joining Octopus Flux I am forecasting net £0 energy cost pa from now on.

MallyGirl

pensionpawn said:

MallyGirl said:

Sarahspangles said:

Smudgeismydog said:

Thanks to everyone who posted, it means a lot knowing we are all on this journey together.

How would you feel if you needed to do ‘another year’ @Sarahspangles?

Take care everyone

Like a footballer - ‘Denied!’

My OH retired 18 months ago. I work from home, it’s nice that I get coffees and my lunch made, but I have a constant reminder that he’s free to go off cycling with his posse or potter in the garden. Plus he makes such a palaver about what he calls ‘domestic chores’, most of which I’d happily (and efficiently) be doing as part of a morning routine, or even in the hour after work, like I used to.

I'm also really tired, partly because between us we’ve lost our three remaining parents in the last three years. The ‘sadmin’ side of his parents’ estates fell to me, so I’d be closing my work laptop on spreadsheets on Friday and opening my own for more spreadsheets on Saturday. Then my own father died recently, and while this time my (retired) brother is dealing with the sadmin, I’ve already done the equivalent of three working weeks of house sorting/clearance over weekends since Christmas.

I don’t resent OH having retired as he’d worked past 60 (he’s a few years older). But one thing I've really noticed is how difficult actual holidays are. Firstly he grumbles that I can’t fit in two-week breaks. Then if I’m at home ‘on leave’ I need to catch up on ‘home stuff’ rather than relax, and the office is still right there… whereas if we go away I am able to relax but OH feels we should be doing more stuff!

He went on a pre-retirement course when he was still working, they were encouraged to talk to their wives about the changes in lifestyle. However the only scenario the trainer seemed to have come up with was ‘breadwinner retires and needs to reassure housewife he’s not going to interfere with her routine’.

And that’s before you get onto the job stresses….

Grump over….

Our situation in terms of age is simplified by him being just 2 weeks younger than me so everything is aligned there. What is not yet aligned is the point at which we go. It will be at the same time so we can do our planned travel together. He has bargained me up to seeing daughter through uni (she's in yr 4 of 6) when I would go now. I am going to show him the numbers again this weekend to show that we could afford to go if we wanted to. 

We have just agreed to get solar panels and a battery fitted so that is a big capital expense - definitely one to do while still working with the expectation that it will help to reduce energy costs in retirement. We will need to see how that plays out.
With a full set of parents, plus both my parents second marriage spouses, still thankfully with us there will be sadmin in in my future - OH leaves all that sort of thing to me as he would rather hoover, iron and clean the house.
I am still hoping for redundancy as our little pocket of the business is under appreciated and niche. The 20 years service would make for a decent farewell present.

They certainly will, and get as many as you can. My house faces east-west and we have 7.1 kWs. With the FiT payments (not mega for me, 16.6p from April 1st as I joined at the end of the original scheme) and joining Octopus Flux I am forecasting net £0 energy cost pa from now on.

We can fit 6kW - nice big roof facing WSW but it has 3 veluxes to work around. We will still use gas for central heating but I am sure we will work out ways of denting that with off peak elec. it will be interesting to see what we can feed back in. The battery means we can go for intelligent octopus. My OH is looking forward to it bringing down the temperature in his roof space office as a side benefit 

pensionpawn

MallyGirl said:

pensionpawn said:

MallyGirl said:

Sarahspangles said:

Smudgeismydog said:

Thanks to everyone who posted, it means a lot knowing we are all on this journey together.

How would you feel if you needed to do ‘another year’ @Sarahspangles?

Take care everyone

Like a footballer - ‘Denied!’

My OH retired 18 months ago. I work from home, it’s nice that I get coffees and my lunch made, but I have a constant reminder that he’s free to go off cycling with his posse or potter in the garden. Plus he makes such a palaver about what he calls ‘domestic chores’, most of which I’d happily (and efficiently) be doing as part of a morning routine, or even in the hour after work, like I used to.

I'm also really tired, partly because between us we’ve lost our three remaining parents in the last three years. The ‘sadmin’ side of his parents’ estates fell to me, so I’d be closing my work laptop on spreadsheets on Friday and opening my own for more spreadsheets on Saturday. Then my own father died recently, and while this time my (retired) brother is dealing with the sadmin, I’ve already done the equivalent of three working weeks of house sorting/clearance over weekends since Christmas.

I don’t resent OH having retired as he’d worked past 60 (he’s a few years older). But one thing I've really noticed is how difficult actual holidays are. Firstly he grumbles that I can’t fit in two-week breaks. Then if I’m at home ‘on leave’ I need to catch up on ‘home stuff’ rather than relax, and the office is still right there… whereas if we go away I am able to relax but OH feels we should be doing more stuff!

He went on a pre-retirement course when he was still working, they were encouraged to talk to their wives about the changes in lifestyle. However the only scenario the trainer seemed to have come up with was ‘breadwinner retires and needs to reassure housewife he’s not going to interfere with her routine’.

And that’s before you get onto the job stresses….

Grump over….

Our situation in terms of age is simplified by him being just 2 weeks younger than me so everything is aligned there. What is not yet aligned is the point at which we go. It will be at the same time so we can do our planned travel together. He has bargained me up to seeing daughter through uni (she's in yr 4 of 6) when I would go now. I am going to show him the numbers again this weekend to show that we could afford to go if we wanted to. 

We have just agreed to get solar panels and a battery fitted so that is a big capital expense - definitely one to do while still working with the expectation that it will help to reduce energy costs in retirement. We will need to see how that plays out.
With a full set of parents, plus both my parents second marriage spouses, still thankfully with us there will be sadmin in in my future - OH leaves all that sort of thing to me as he would rather hoover, iron and clean the house.
I am still hoping for redundancy as our little pocket of the business is under appreciated and niche. The 20 years service would make for a decent farewell present.

They certainly will, and get as many as you can. My house faces east-west and we have 7.1 kWs. With the FiT payments (not mega for me, 16.6p from April 1st as I joined at the end of the original scheme) and joining Octopus Flux I am forecasting net £0 energy cost pa from now on.

We can fit 6kW - nice big roof facing WSW but it has 3 veluxes to work around. We will still use gas for central heating but I am sure we will work out ways of denting that with off peak elec. it will be interesting to see what we can feed back in. The battery means we can go for intelligent octopus. My OH is looking forward to it bringing down the temperature in his roof space office as a side benefit 

We still use gas as it's cheaper to import compared to electricity. We also export spare at 17.8p and 29.3p (16:00-19:00) to the tune of £682 since last May. This discussion may appear to have veered off topic to some however there is more to retirement planning than just piling money into your pot(s) to allow that "bold leap into retirement" to occur as soon as (financially) possible. My panels were installed over 8 years ago to help, along with new windows and a new much more efficient boiler, minimise future household costs. The less you have to pay for in retirement, the earlier you can retire / go part time, and the lower the withdrawals can be (tax free even) from your pot(s). We're also having air conditioning installed before the summer, which has the added benefit of also blowing warm air (if that works out cheaper than importing gas, everyone's different...) during the winter from cheap overnight electric stored in a battery!

Smudgeismydog

Hello everyone 

My partner put in a request last month to move to 4 days from the end of June, to tie in with my early retirement. He was asked to complete a business case to do this (?), and after chasing, his manager told him she has ‘pencilled’ in a meeting with him to discuss this at the end of next month. He’s not happy.

The usual shambolic diary management, and lack of care shown to him and fellow employees has now left him thinking he would also like to be able to step away. We have gone over and over the figures and it would be feasible. 

I am a little surprised that he is seriously considering fully retiring, as there are still many aspects of his job he likes. Honestly, I think they have just ground him down, and he is exhausted by it all.

I also suspect that he can see that with my early retirement looming, I have a light at the end of my tunnel, and this has made him reconsider what he really wants to do.

We also have 2 members of our immediate family (aged 25 and 41) with a terminal cancer diagnosis, and it really puts everything into perspective.

I’m sorry if this is a downbeat post, I don’t intend it to be. It’s an overused phrase, but life is too short, we enjoy each others company, but we are also very open to finding new things to explore, adventures to embark on and hobbies to try (individually and jointly), to fill our time and I’m excited about this next phase of our life.

Please keep posting and sharing

MallyGirl

Sorry to hear about your family members with cancer - such sad things really do focus the mind. We went to friend's funeral last month (just 59 but her inoperable brain tumour didn't care) and saw our dear friend (best man at our wedding) who has frontotemporal dementia. So sad to see him at 56 very confused about what was going on and wearing a nappy as he no longer notices the need to go  

Smudgeismydog

Oh MallyGirl, that’s very sad

I really feel that if we don’t take this opportunity, we will regret it. We have not ruled out ever returning to paid work again, but definitely do not need 5am starts, completely unrealistic work demands and toxic office politics.

We have worked and saved conscientiously, which now allows us to decide how want to spend our time.