Bold leap into retirement

Sarahspangles

MayDogsandCoffee said:

I have my chuff chart that I have been filling in since my last (toxic) line manager in 2022, have a new manager but the corporate stuff just leaves me demotivated and bored. 

Ooh, what’s a chuff chart and do I need one? Is it for when ‘I’ll do what I chuffing well like”?

MayDogsandCoffee

It is a little table 12 columns and 5 years, I tick it at the end of each month that I manage to stay at work, the last year is coloured gold.  I have a little P/T tag for when I want to reduce hours but that moves every time I tot up my savings.  I have my end date that I will be chuffed to reach.  I am pretty much to the point where I will do what I chuffing like at work, so long as I meet the targets they can sod any 'developmental' or 'learning opportunity' tripe.   Sarahspangles said:

MayDogsandCoffee said:

I have my chuff chart that I have been filling in since my last (toxic) line manager in 2022, have a new manager but the corporate stuff just leaves me demotivated and bored. 

Ooh, what’s a chuff chart and do I need one? Is it for when ‘I’ll do what I chuffing well like”?

katejo

Simon11 said:

katejo said:

The problem with reducing to 4 days means that I feel morally obliged to use that 1 day to fulfil routine appointments rather than going out for the day. I spent this morning finalising my Will and Power of attorney documents. I need to reduce to 3 days before I can think of committing to a regular activity such as voluntary work or a daytime course. I have been on a 4 day week for just over a year. 

I also agree with you.

At the moment, I work five days a week and spend 2-3 days in the office. The reality is that on average, one of the days working from home would be used for errands or spending time with my family. e.g. today I took my son for a hair cut, a nice walk and went swimming during the morning. So prob working 'hard' 75% of the week.

Thus having considered going to 4 days a week to get a better a life-balance with a young family, it doesn't seem worth it apart from knowing that you are not on call. Also, depending on your role, with 4 days, you are likely to still have the same workload but it just takes slightly longer to complete it!

Thus it makes sense for now to stick at 5 days a week, stuff the pension, take advantage of quiet periods at work and retire earlier.

Three days however maybe a game changer if finances permit at a later stage to get proper rest and to ensure that your workload does actually decrease! 

I don't feel I can do my own things on days when I am working from home! My 4 day week includes a 20% drop in pay so I don't work longer hours on those 4 days.

bjorn_toby_wilde

The two most feared words in the workplace - development opportunity.

In my workplace they always meant something that nobody else wanted to do.

SarahB16

Simon11 said:

katejo said:

The problem with reducing to 4 days means that I feel morally obliged to use that 1 day to fulfil routine appointments rather than going out for the day. I spent this morning finalising my Will and Power of attorney documents. I need to reduce to 3 days before I can think of committing to a regular activity such as voluntary work or a daytime course. I have been on a 4 day week for just over a year. 

I also agree with you.

At the moment, I work five days a week and spend 2-3 days in the office. The reality is that on average, one of the days working from home would be used for errands or spending time with my family. e.g. today I took my son for a hair cut, a nice walk and went swimming during the morning. So prob working 'hard' 75% of the week.

Thus having considered going to 4 days a week to get a better a life-balance with a young family, it doesn't seem worth it apart from knowing that you are not on call. Also, depending on your role, with 4 days, you are likely to still have the same workload but it just takes slightly longer to complete it!

Thus it makes sense for now to stick at 5 days a week, stuff the pension, take advantage of quiet periods at work and retire earlier.

Three days however maybe a game changer if finances permit at a later stage to get proper rest and to ensure that your workload does actually decrease! 

There is absolutely no way I could do that on the days I work from home. What would happen if your line manager telephoned you whilst you were swimming? 

Is there some sort of unwritten rule at your workplace that you can do this on the days you work from home?  

SouthCoastBoy

Smudgeismydog said:

It is a huge change in mindset moving from accumulation to decumulation, but I keep telling myself that is what I saved for, and I would like to have a go at spending it before the kids get a chance to!!

It certainly is difficult to change mindset which is why I'm still working, but most probably don't need to

Smudgeismydog

@SouthCoastBoy, we are cheering you on from the sidelines, waiting for when you feel ready to join us

CruisingSaver

I’ve been lurking for a while now and it’s interesting to hear different attitudes to retiring. I work for the NHS and had planned on retiring at 60 but the current situation is the worst I’ve ever known it in my whole career and it feels like work is literally draining the life from me. 

So I’ll be pulling the trigger in December 2026 unless redundancy or MARS is offered and we’ve booked our retirement holiday - 5 weeks in the Caribbean!

MarkCarnage

I hadn't read this thread for a long time, but really interesting speed browsing it just now for a bit. 

My perspective is a bit different from most on here, having been down that road, though arguably still travelling on it. I think that for many people the phrase 'bold leap into retirement' is maybe the wrong way to think about it. In my case it was a slow descent to the runway, which started about 8 years ago when I was made redundant (along with most of my team) due to centralisation to London of many key specialist roles. I had known about 9 months in advance, and had been offered a flexible consultancy contract when the time came....
Anyway, I set up my own ltd company to do that, and it was great being able to do the work I wanted to do (and they wanted me to do!) without all the people management stuff (or most of it), and the politics. I did some external stuff too and eventually decided to take my main DB pension about 18 months early at 58 which was partly an LTA management exercise....
I had been building up various other existing interests; sports coaching, an allotment, part time ground work at local cricket club, all unpaid but enjoyable, particularly when COVID came along and the allotment and ground were great escapes! Got fitter than I had been for years. 
I  then decided to apply for a couple of pension fund Trustee roles building on my day job skills, and got them both. Both paid. About 5 days a month of work on average some online meetings some in person. So the plane was beginning to take off again, and that continued when I had to step in and do some 'firefighting' for a couple of bodies I chaired. At that point (Age 62) I decided that the plane needed to start descending again.....work in progress still but in the right direction. 
Financials....were always in reality going to be comfortable, but as others have said the temptation for 'one more year' can be there, and the move from accumulation to decumulation can be tricky psychologically too. 
My main DB pension was about £38k when I started taking it. I had two much smaller DB pensions totalling about £7k but took attractive CETVs for them about 6 years ago into my SIPP. It now totals about £440k and I've only taken the tax free cash from it. Some of which has been moved into ISA or my wife's SIPP. She has always been the homemaker so has minimal  work pension. ISAs and GIAs of c£850k between us. About £70k in cash and Premium Bonds plus £50k in short dated low coupon gilt (which was tax effective) and will become cash in a year.
We both have full State Pension accrual which is a couple of years away for me and 6 years for her. 
Trustee roles pay about £25-30k total. 
Makes no sense to draw from my SIPP right now as I don't need it for routine living expenses and it would only put me into yet another Scottish tax bracket. I've used dividend income from ISA and cash to fund capital spending items. Will only use SIPP once pension trustee roles cease. 
Anyway, it took a while in my own mindset to convince myself that I had enough....bizarre really but it is that shift to decumulation that is the issue I think. It took a bit of spreadsheeting to show that my portfolio would last me over 50 years with £30k real income and no real investment growth (given that I am about 70% in equities that's unlikely long term).....I doubt very much I'll need to take near that level of income, so time to spend some or give it away....which has started. 
I've seen colleagues and former colleagues die in their 50s and even 40s, also those who have suffered serious illness not long after retiring. Remember, you're a long time dead, and shrouds have no pockets. 
If you can afford it, do it now....and I would definitely recommend a gradual process or certainly ensuring that you have enough other things to keep you fit and active. I still don't really think I'm retired....just busy in lots of good ways (mainly!). 64 now and will be reducing commitments to a couple of things but still doing some. 
Good luck in your journeys whether they are bold leaps or slow walks! 

mrs_slapshot

I don’t think I’ve posted on this thread before but I’m a long time lurker! 

I’ve been checking my numbers for a couple of years and I know I will have enough to cover my day to day costs, but I’ll need to do a bit of work to cover any travel costs (I like going on cruises!). My job is well paid but very stressful, and we have holiday embargoes twice a year plus the requirement to work evenings and weekends during those times.  Quite frankly I’ve had enough and I’m ready to leave my job now. I’d like a few months off (I feel exhausted) and then look to pick up part time or contract work over the winter period. 

The problem I have is I just feel scared to take the leap. I’m worried about whether I’ll find work if I need to (I’m the ripe old age of 59!). This is such a different ‘me’ to the single parent of a young teen 15 years ago that took voluntary redundancy to change career, without a job to go to!! 

I’m not worried at all how I’ll spend my time as I have lots of hobbies and a side hustle, and I’ll have lots of social contact. Like others have said, I’ve known too many people recently that didn’t get the chance to use their retirement savings and I want to enjoy my money and my life before it’s too late. 

So for me the thread title is exactly right - a bold leap!!