Time or Money or Happiness - What is your choice

Nebulous2

warrenb said:

I was just sitting here looking at the spreadsheet I have created about my pension, and the thought crossed my mind.

What target do you set to retire.

Is it a time, so a certain age or year.
Is it a target value of the pension.
Is it happiness levels and work.

I've never been driven by money. That's strange for someone who has taken a big interest in it all my life, whose colleagues have always referred to me about pensions etc. 

It was a combination of things, with none of the above featuring very highly - a gut feeling the time had come. I've worked in care all my life, in widely varying circumstances. When I've exhausted the enjoyment of the post I was in, I've changed direction and started again somewhere else. This time I didn't feel I wanted to start again, and realised financially I didn't have to, so I just made my excuses and exited. 

That might be strange in a forum full of analytical planners, and I do undertake my research, but I've come to trust my instinct over the years, and once I'd made up my mind I didn't regret it.

I did conclude I wasn't ready to retire, but that's a different story...... 

Bostonerimus1

I try to keep my happiness independent of time and money and so my retirement planning came down to leaving work when I had enough to be financially independent and I could start retirement benefits ie soon after 50.

Beddie

How about Time, Love and Tenderness instead? According to Michael Bolton anyway.

Phossy

warrenb said:

I was just sitting here looking at the spreadsheet I have created about my pension, and the thought crossed my mind.

What target do you set to retire.

Is it a time, so a certain age or year.
Is it a target value of the pension.
Is it happiness levels and work.

This one made me think.

It's not a target value. The more I look at numbers the more it changes, though the bottom line is I could retire right now (which I don't plan to do)
Is it happiness - not something I think is really attainable. That is more a pursuit. You might reach Nirvana occasionally, but it won't last long and you are off in pursuit again.
Is it a time - I think that's the one for me.  In my head I'm retiring when my daughter finishes University (local Uni - lives at home) and moves out and frees us up to move back to my roots, even though it won't alter my job as I work from home.

DoublePolaroid

I understand why people say it’s a combination of all three because that’s the reality. 

However, to answer OP’s question, the target I set is based on time and I have set the age of 55, which is 12 years away. The point of that is not because money doesn’t come into the equation, but because my target has, since I started thinking about retirement planning, helped me to focus my resources towards making my goal happen. Had I not made it my goal, I feel it’s likely I would end up drifting along and continuing to work aimlessly beyond the point that it would otherwise be possible for me (and the missus) to switch to a life of leisure. I only wish I’d started thinking about it sooner, my target might’ve realistically been lower!

I will say that I enjoy my work, it certainly gives me purpose and a sense of worth. However, if we had been plopped onto the planet with a blank slate and told we could do whatever we wanted, most of us wouldn’t choose to be obliged to work most days for 40 years on penalty of destitution. It’s that psycho-spiritual freedom I crave more than the simple release from the bonds of paid endeavour. 

CloesUnc

michaels said:

I have a 'If I retired today what constant real terms income for the rest of my life would I have' number I update frequently.  So I can always know the answer to the second part of the question but it is how this trades off against time and happiness that is harder to judge. 

As I asked a few weeks ago, is it worth doing one more year of work and thus giving up a year of retirement to increase my spend every year by 5%?  Would the extra 'utility' resulting from the increased spending power more than offset the lost utility of spending another year working?

This! I had developed some Microsoft Excel skills during my career, and I enjoyed very much applying those skills to my early retirement planning!

My plan was to go at the latest at 55, but the more my job got to me the more I wanted to see if I could go even earlier. I certainly began to "wind down" at 52'ish, due to stress (basically not knowing whether I was coming or going in the job), the loneliness of working from home, the associated interminable Zoom/Teams video meetings, several toxic work colleagues and a bout of illness. 

In the end I kind of drifted into early retirement over the last couple of years, applied for a very part-time job doing something completely different in order to keep some structure and sanity in the early stages of retirement, got a payout from work, and started drawing from my SIPP when I hit 55 last July. Planning to draw one of my DB pensions (actuarially reduced) soon. My spreadsheet tells me I'm going to be OK. 

Time wise - I'm glad I was able to pull the trigger this young.

Money wise - It worked out better than I had originally planned.

Work wise - I'm happy that I managed to stick two fingers up to my old job and I couldn't be happier in what I'm doing now, which is minimum wage, and some would consider menial. But I get to see good people every shift, it's fun and I know I can walk away at any time. I think part time work or a voluntary role is a must, at least for the early period of retirement, as one gets used to the idea of not working and having to organise one's own time.

 

Sarahspangles

There’s a similar thread from last year ‘What made you pull the trigger’.

There are definitely some people who plan for a date or age far in advance, and then simply follow through with that plan. For others, workplace restructuring, an illness or caring responsibilities determines the timescale for them.

A few years ago I was sitting alongside a colleague who took a call from his wife, clearly upset. He listened for a couple of minutes and then simply told her ‘You’re leaving, today.’ So she did. Ever since it’s been my aim to maintain a ‘walk away’ buffer that would allow me to do that

Since OH retired my target has been to have enough that I can walk away, and not return. I’ve reached that target, so when my current contract ends in a year I think that’s me retired. But I also want the option to work if something interesting offers.

I value the freedom to call the shots!

westv

I would have retired by now if WFH hadn't become more of a thing.

michaels

westv said:

I would have retired by now if WFH hadn't become more of a thing.

Being pulled back to the office more and more (only because the govt wants to reduce the subsidy paid to the rail companies) is certainly increasing the odds of my retiring imminently - paying extra to spend more of my spare time commuting in order to do Teams calls form a different desk is not winning hearts and minds...

Sarahspangles

michaels said:

westv said:

I would have retired by now if WFH hadn't become more of a thing.

Being pulled back to the office more and more (only because the govt wants to reduce the subsidy paid to the rail companies) is certainly increasing the odds of my retiring imminently - paying extra to spend more of my spare time commuting in order to do Teams calls form a different desk is not winning hearts and minds...

So far I’ve only ‘been in’ for a couple of workshops. There were snacks. But I’m increasingly having Teams calls with people wearing ties, looking tense, and whispering. With worse broadband. It’s all a bit weird.