Bold leap into retirement

gallygirl

My tuppence worth on 'insanely young'. I had a diary on MSE for years which kept me very focused. I retired at 53, partner (now hubby) at 54. That was almost 10 years ago. We now live in Spain and have a good circle of friends who've all also retired early. Some went even younger than us due to having older, financially secure, partners.

We've been fortunate to have good health, apart from a few scares, but have seen friends beginning to suffer with serious ailments. We're both very active but have definitely noticed a slow down in our 'recovery times'. Fortunately siestas are a done thing here .

The two things you can't buy are health and time. Please don't fall foul of 'One More Year' syndrome. If the numbers work then get out as soon as you can and make the most of your early retired years. This is what your hard work and discipline has been for. Remember the saying:
Today I will do what others won't

So tomorrow I can do what others can't.

SouthCoastBoy

gallygirl said:

My tuppence worth on 'insanely young'. I had a diary on MSE for years which kept me very focused. I retired at 53, partner (now hubby) at 54. That was almost 10 years ago. We now live in Spain and have a good circle of friends who've all also retired early. Some went even younger than us due to having older, financially secure, partners.

We've been fortunate to have good health, apart from a few scares, but have seen friends beginning to suffer with serious ailments. We're both very active but have definitely noticed a slow down in our 'recovery times'. Fortunately siestas are a done thing here .

The two things you can't buy are health and time. Please don't fall foul of 'One More Year' syndrome. If the numbers work then get out as soon as you can and make the most of your early retired years. This is what your hard work and discipline has been for. Remember the saying:
Today I will do what others won't

So tomorrow I can do what others can't.

IMO, wise words, although I've not followed them, however I am planning to retire next summer june/July, when I will be 60. 

Smudgeismydog

We are looking forward to hearing about it @SouthCoastBoy

SouthCoastBoy

Smudgeismydog said:

We are looking forward to hearing about it @SouthCoastBoy

I think most people are fed up hearing about my woes when it comes to retiring.

barnstar2077

SouthCoastBoy said:

gallygirl said:

My tuppence worth on 'insanely young'. I had a diary on MSE for years which kept me very focused. I retired at 53, partner (now hubby) at 54. That was almost 10 years ago. We now live in Spain and have a good circle of friends who've all also retired early. Some went even younger than us due to having older, financially secure, partners.

We've been fortunate to have good health, apart from a few scares, but have seen friends beginning to suffer with serious ailments. We're both very active but have definitely noticed a slow down in our 'recovery times'. Fortunately siestas are a done thing here .

The two things you can't buy are health and time. Please don't fall foul of 'One More Year' syndrome. If the numbers work then get out as soon as you can and make the most of your early retired years. This is what your hard work and discipline has been for. Remember the saying:
Today I will do what others won't

So tomorrow I can do what others can't.

IMO, wise words, although I've not followed them, however I am planning to retire next summer june/July, when I will be 60. 

Once a few months have passed you will wonder why you ever put it off for so long! 

MEL1981

IamWood said:

Smudgeismydog said:

Hello everyone,

Hope you are well and enjoying the run up to Christmas. As it’s nearly 6 months since I retired, I thought I’d provide an update on how it’s all panning out.

This time last year (when I started this post), my figures were;

Cash £40,000
ISA £137,000
SIPP £715,000
Total £892,000

In the last 6 months of work, I heavily salary sacrificed into my pension, to utilise the tax efficiency, but also to practise living off my planned budget.

Position when I left work at the end of June;
Cash £42,128
SS ISA £146,380
SIPP £813,056

Total £1,001,564


Since I left work I’ve spent @£60,000 on moving and renovations in the new house, and I pay £1,250 per month into the joint account to cover household bills, (additional £7,500), so a total spend of just under £70,000.

Over the last 6 months, we have completed a lot of work on the new house (new roof, new boiler etc). We have also participated in local volunteering, where we have learnt new skills such as dry stone walling, hedge planting and bog clearing, and made new friends locally. 

My son is thriving in his degree apprenticeship, and hugely benefitting from living independently (with us on hand), in the cottage at the end of the drive. Whilst we have spent a lot of time helping my daughter learn to drive (her test is at 1:15 today 🤞🏻), tour universities for her next step in September, and support her through the trials and tribulations of year 13.

I have also had the time to rekindle friendships, regular coffee shop catch ups, and walks in the woods with the dog. I’ve loved having days out with my partner and my mum, without feeling rushed, or anxious about what I’ll need to catch up on after being out. I also now go to the weekly Zumba and Yoga classes in the village hall.
Honestly, I have found plenty of interesting things to do.

Even withstanding the high level of expenditure, my pots are holding up.

Currently figures;
Cash £48,396
ISA £77,805
SIPP £875,915
Total £1,002,116

I do appreciate markets have been strong, and that I have guaranteed income from my dependents pension, but I’m pretty pleased with that.

Hope everyone who also took their bold leap is enjoying it so far, and for anyone yet to take their leap, I can only recommend it
x

Thank you for the update.

We are the similar age and in a similar financial situation, although I don’t have a guaranteed pension but with a similar rental income from my first family house.

I recently reviewed my numbers:

• Cash: £50K
• ISA: £215K
• Pension: £950K
• Total: £1,215K

Additionally, I have rental income of £1.6K per month.

My plan has been to work for 3 more years until my children graduate. I’m expecting a substantial bonus in Feb. and I’m wondering if I can step away after that.

Thanks for yours too.

We are similar, albeit a few years younger. Almost mid 40s and our combined pots are:

Pension: £1MM
Savings: £630K split across cash, S&S's and of that some ISAs.

Rental income is around £1.5k/month with no mortgages. I am putting the max of 60k/yr into pension so should get another 7 years of that before 50. 

I would love to bow out at 50 and my partner do the same (both on similar salaries) but with children still young in primary school I think this might not be feasible (potential 15 years to go until graduation if youngest does goes to university, yikes!). In an ideal world  I'd love to go from 50 to 58 living on ISAs and savings then collect SIPP when turning 58. 

We can always dream. Hearing all these stories of exiting the work place while fully mobile sounds great, even though our overall ideal age of 50 is still very "young" for retirement. 

Thanks again for all the stories.

Mel

michaels

I am really struggling with continuing to work until my planned date next May (7th).  Knowing the end is near is making a job I don't enjoy even harder to find motivation and then counterintuitively the resulting poor performance is stressful.  If I don't care enough to do the job properly, why do I care that I am not doing the job properly....

gallygirl

michaels said:

I am really struggling with continuing to work until my planned date next May (7th).  Knowing the end is near is making a job I don't enjoy even harder to find motivation and then counterintuitively the resulting poor performance is stressful.  If I don't care enough to do the job properly, why do I care that I am not doing the job properly....

I had the same lack of motivation but managed to delegate a lot of my tasks to my direct reports using the excuse of succession planning 😉. 

Is there any way you can do similar? Does your boss know your plans - in which case they may be able to help by giving you different tasks, small projects etc?

What I did enjoy was giving myself the freedom to speak my mind about the direction the company was taking - or, rather, not taking! Ok, they didn’t listen and subsequently I was proved right but at least I got it off my chest! That was liberating.

bjorn_toby_wilde

Whilst I wasn’t enjoying some aspects of my job towards the end, for the most part it was quite enjoyable. I also had a good relationship with my manager and the rest of the team.

My contract specified a 1 month notice period but I let them know 6 months ahead, partly so they could recruit for my role and partly so I could wind down and do a smooth handover to my successor.

It was quite cathartic handing in that resignation letter and it helped me to quickly realise I’d definitely made the right decision. Telling them early, if that works for you, might help ease the next few months.

Sarahspangles

michaels said:

I am really struggling with continuing to work until my planned date next May (7th).  Knowing the end is near is making a job I don't enjoy even harder to find motivation and then counterintuitively the resulting poor performance is stressful.  If I don't care enough to do the job properly, why do I care that I am not doing the job properly....

I worked out I have twelve weeks after taking off Christmas and leave. I’m going to block out time at the end of some working days to keep adding to the transition pack for my replacements. I hope that will be motivating. Part of it is a retrospective of stuff I’ve fixed and part is the stuff they need to fix next year. One of my replacements has asked me to capture ‘A week in the life of’ which I’m tempted to call ‘Meetings I’ll never have to sit through again’

Do you have some leave to take?