Bold leap into retirement

pterri

Sarahspangles said:

katejo said:

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

katejo said:

I have taken the next step this week. It was my 62nd birthday on Tuesday and, on the same day, I got approval from the boss to drop down to 3 days a week from September. I have been on 4 days a week for 18 months. I will see how that goes and may stop completely about a year from now. My SAUL pension doesn't have a flexi option at  all. I can't take my pension until I hand my notice in on my current job. I can, after a month go back and do casual hours if I want to.

That’s a good way to do it IMO. I went down to four days and found that I really enjoyed the long weekends. It reinforced my feeling that early retirement was the way to go.

I will be working Wed to Friday from September so will be trying this out. 

Having Tuesdays off is a good call, I haven’t worked Mondays this year and it’s surprising how many places are closed. Even then, some major galleries in Manchester are Wednesday to Sunday.

Work have floated the idea of two days a week, still to be finalised if they can do it (need to agree as it’s a different budget etc…). Right now, if I can afford it, which I can, even that seems like a bind. I’ll have nearly two months off paid after my last day in the office so will see if I still fancy it. Should be a decent sum, I fancy building up a cash buffer with the current excitement in the markets. I don’t fancy cashing out a lump of my SIPP/ISA was it’s dropped recently so a few £k in a high interest account or money market in my SIPP may be a good place to park it.

MetaPhysical

pterri said:

Sarahspangles said:

katejo said:

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

katejo said:

I have taken the next step this week. It was my 62nd birthday on Tuesday and, on the same day, I got approval from the boss to drop down to 3 days a week from September. I have been on 4 days a week for 18 months. I will see how that goes and may stop completely about a year from now. My SAUL pension doesn't have a flexi option at  all. I can't take my pension until I hand my notice in on my current job. I can, after a month go back and do casual hours if I want to.

That’s a good way to do it IMO. I went down to four days and found that I really enjoyed the long weekends. It reinforced my feeling that early retirement was the way to go.

I will be working Wed to Friday from September so will be trying this out. 

Having Tuesdays off is a good call, I haven’t worked Mondays this year and it’s surprising how many places are closed. Even then, some major galleries in Manchester are Wednesday to Sunday.

Work have floated the idea of two days a week, still to be finalised if they can do it (need to agree as it’s a different budget etc…). Right now, if I can afford it, which I can, even that seems like a bind. I’ll have nearly two months off paid after my last day in the office so will see if I still fancy it. Should be a decent sum, I fancy building up a cash buffer with the current excitement in the markets. I don’t fancy cashing out a lump of my SIPP/ISA was it’s dropped recently so a few £k in a high interest account or money market in my SIPP may be a good place to park it.

Exactly what I did and I did it just before the current market wobble.  I moved £100k - three years of withdrawals - into a MM fund.

MetaPhysical

Exactly one year to go 😃 today! I can go now if I really had to but going to be doing bathroom, ensuite and a few other rooms up and would rather do so out of salary than my pension/savings.

cloud_dog

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

MetaPhysical

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

Congratulations!  From your username it sounds like you are involved in cloud IT?  I find IT becoming extremely stressful these days.
Enjoy your trips and family time.  If I were you I'd make is a clean break and when you have finished then you have finished.  Too easy otherwise for employers to exploit goodwill and keep getting you back and asking questions.  Seen that happen with colleagues.

pterri

MetaPhysical said:

Exactly one year to go 😃 today! I can go now if I really had to but going to be doing bathroom, ensuite and a few other rooms up and would rather do so out of salary than my pension/savings.

I was considering last year but I had a small fire in my kitchen, the insurance paid out for a repair but the whole kitchen was old and tired so I spent a bit getting it replaced. All done now. I will need a new boiler in the future and bathroom. The bathroom is fine and quite small so will be manageable cost wise. New windows, roof and electrics all done so no other big house spends that I need to think about. 

pterri

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

Yeah, I’m not depending on any work but will see. Budgets are constrained next year but they are recruiting 15 of my function next year so there is a shortage.

Sarahspangles

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

I’m still getting invites for meetings that fall after I retire. I’m holding back on responding ‘Woohoo I don’t have to be at this meeting’

I don’t have anything whatsoever fixed in my diary, other than a meal with family. I want to wake up and feel like it’s the beginning of the school summer holidays, with all the summer before me. That probably won’t kick in from the first day, I know. Then I can see what my natural rhythm for the day and week is when I don’t have a timetable imposed on me, and when I feel settled we’ll book a break.

cloud_dog

Sarahspangles said:

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

I’m still getting invites for meetings that fall after I retire. I’m holding back on responding ‘Woohoo I don’t have to be at this meeting’

I don’t have anything whatsoever fixed in my diary, other than a meal with family. I want to wake up and feel like it’s the beginning of the school summer holidays, with all the summer before me. That probably won’t kick in from the first day, I know. Then I can see what my natural rhythm for the day and week is when I don’t have a timetable imposed on me, and when I feel settled we’ll book a break.

I'm looking forward on Sunday to not having that.... 'Oh, Monday tomorrow'.

I'm interested in how long it may take before that completely disappears, or where my week is not defined by weekends

cloud_dog

MetaPhysical said:

cloud_dog said:

3 more days.  Way too busy at work to consider thinking about what happens after Friday.

The business unit has got a new director (about bleeding time) and my boss is keen to arrange a meeting before I go; how about Friday they say 🤔

Despite me saying to my partner that a) I wanted 3 months of nothing once I finished, and b) that I didn't want to get into what happens next until I had actually finished, we already have 4 trips lined up (Indonesia, Tenerife for a family get together, Germany, and UAE).  I did say I wanted to be hands off, but...

Congratulations!  From your username it sounds like you are involved in cloud IT?  I find IT becoming extremely stressful these days.
Enjoy your trips and family time.  If I were you I'd make is a clean break and when you have finished then you have finished.  Too easy otherwise for employers to exploit goodwill and keep getting you back and asking questions.  Seen that happen with colleagues.

I do work in IT (national solutions) but the name comes from an old South African film where a small child on a journey sees a new animal and attempts to describe it (sheep)   I found it quite lovely.