Bold leap into retirement

Veloflyer

To all the recent comments - thank you. I still maintain that the increasingly unbearable nature of today's workplace is a major factor in folk deciding to retire. I realize pension freedoms, FIRE etc have had an effect, but personally speaking, were my job as interesting, fulfilling and politics free as my earlier career, I am pretty certain myself and others would have stayed on a wee while longer - regardless of whether we could afford to retire early.

I guess as my earlier employment had been more career than job, I perhaps attached more significance to it. Fair to say that at that stage and indeed until @10 years ago, retirement was not even contemplated - though admittedly planning for it was. Since then, things went downhill. Career turned into job, job turned into drudge, and drudge turned into thoughts of retiring earlier than previously imagined.

Smudgeismydog

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954359#Comment_81954359

many congrats @YellowCarBlueCar

bjorn_toby_wilde

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954584#Comment_81954584

I was the exact opposite. My job was field based and I was out 90% of the time. After lockdown the discussions turned increasingly to a hybrid role which was more home based and that tipped the balance towards retirement for me.

I enjoyed getting out and interacting with people and the idea of lots more Teams meetings really turned me off. I get why some would prefer it though. We’re all different.

MarlowMallard

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954359#Comment_81954359

Agree many of my parents' generation seemed to retire at 55-60 in the 1990s. I think what happened was the stock market was booming, company pension funds were in apparent surplus, so companies would give someone a generous early-retire deal, replace them with a lower-paid 35 y.o. and improve the profit line. The pension fund took the hit but "so what". This turned out to be a bad idea after the dotcom crash and the 2008 crash, but too late to change it.

katejo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81955151#Comment_81955151

Initially WFH was good but the novelty has since worn off quite a bit

MallyGirl

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954626#Comment_81954626

my story is very very similar to yours - apart from me only tackling French right now, not Spanish as well!

HUSKYPAL

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953094#Comment_81953094

I suspect there's a strong element of just not giving a !!!!!! any more. When I was younger I got a real buzz from doing the deal and making stuff happen, now I truly just can't be bothered. I'm cruising to the finish line rather than sprinting. on the point of retirement age, my dad was a skilled manual worker, well paid sub contractor and decided he had had enough in his early 50's (almost 40 years ago). Didn't have a pension, but somehow saved enough cash over the years to see them through to state pension. I've got about another year, i'll be 57 and very glad to see the back of a corporate world that I used to love being part of.

Cobbler_tone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81956122#Comment_81956122

I could have written that.

It is probably me (getting long in the tooth and cynical with experience and age) but I have a low tolerance for any politics and BS. The wave of Directors and Associate Directors are all 20 something, on their respective paths to their next role/company without actually delivering anything tangible.

It has taken me a while as it's not in my nature but I have really powered down now and keep an extremely low profile. The easiest pay cheques of my career but I have earnt an easy exit path. I'm never far away from the three month notice but next summer is my cut off. Positioning for redundo is the current project but not hanging around for that.

Veloflyer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81956122#Comment_81956122

I suspect you may be right - but why do we not give a !!!! anymore? For me, it was the increasingly sterile work atmosphere, the lack of genuine banter and discussion, the lack of deeper thought, the reluctance, or perhaps just the inability, of most folk to consider any improvements or change in procedure, a deeply unimaginative and overly cautious - to the point of being fearful of any positive change - management, and despite all messaging/HR guff to the contrary, a fundamental failure to show or instil any degree of basic human understanding.

LHW99

And the idea that you had to move jobs / companies every couple of years raher than stay and become skilled in your own niche and contribute to progress by an increasingly deeper knowledge of the company requirements in your area.