It's been 6 months

Snot

It’s been 6 months since I jumped ship and I haven’t regretted it for one second.

I’d been seriously thinking about leaving work for the previous 2 or 3 years but did struggle with the whole idea especially as I’m only in my early 50’s.  I’d spend years building a career and didn’t notice how institutionalised I'd become.

I managed to get myself on a voluntary redundancy scheme which was the icing on the cake.

I won’t offer any advice as we are all different, but some thoughts:

• If you like your job, are well paid & healthy – you’ve already won life’s lottery, keep working.
• If you don’t like your job, do something about it, change role, move jobs, retire.  Just don’t sit there like many of us do and whine. Easy to say I know.

• I worked for a typical soulless multinational; but to be fair when I told them I wanted to leave they went to great lengths to find me another position I would be happy in. But by this time I wanted a complete change. Life is short and all that.

• Years ago I sat in an office where the majority were in their 50/60’s all waiting for one of the regular redundancy deals to come along and then complaining if they got turned down. That prompted me to start my financial planning and I aimed to be able to go on my own terms when the time came. The early you start saving the better, just not at the cost of living for today.
• They say talking is good, but most people can’t put themselves in your shoes. Those into FIRE will tell you to go for it without any real thought (these boards being an exception ).  On the other side you’ll get advice like I did that I was mad leaving as I would lose my company death benefit. As generous as it was it’s not much to good to somebody with no dependants.
• Knowing how much you spend in a typical year is essential, whether by recording in Excel, MS Money, your banking App etc the tool doesn’t matter, but knowing the number has been vital to my plans.
• I read many posts saying you had to have a plan for when you go, and that a staged transition is good. Having worked in roles where I had to plan everything to the nth degree, I wasn’t going to do that. Before I left, I did worry about how I would fill my time, but then came to realise that’s corporate thinking. I don’t need to fill my time; the key is to be occupied and keep the mind & body healthy. There’s nothing wrong with sometimes just watching the world go by.

There’s nothing new nor profound in this list but I just wanted to put it out there.
And thankyou to the regular posters, many of the online discussions are more knowledgeable and useful that the face to face ones I had with friends and colleagues.

barnstar2077

Fantastic news, glad you are enjoying it!

My work place can be divided into two camps, those who don't have enough time to do everything they want to outside of work, and those that stay longer and volunteer to do all of the overtime going, who want as little time to themselves as possible.

I used to belong to the latter, now I am firmly in the former and cannot wait untill I have saved enough to buy my freedom!

I feel sorry for youngsters today, that feel the same way but have no financial foundation to build from.  Imagine being twenty five, renting, little savings and only a nest pension with minimal employee payments to work with.

My like minded colleagues and I are very grateful to at least have a light at the end of the tunnel.

Marcon

Snot said:

And thankyou to the regular posters, many of the online discussions are more knowledgeable and useful that the face to face ones I had with friends and colleagues.

They are certainly more likely to be accurate!

Happy retirement. 

gambleruk

Great post, totally agree about having to know your number, that is the number one thing I tell people to do when they ask how I managed to retire so early, if covid had not come along I probably would still be sitting there and whining and no doubt be financially worse off than what I am now. Like you said easier said than done but it still amazes me how much money you save not working.

Enjoy your retirement.

pterri

I’m at that stage, would have gone this year (56) but a small but annoying kitchen fire requires attention so dealing with that. Then new kitchen will see me out! I love cooking so it’s a sensible luxury to get it done properly. Then next year, 57, I’m gone! Agree, the ‘but what will you do?’ thing makes no sense to me. I’m at the stage where my job manages to be boring AND stressful. Even just be a bit bored occasionally will be better than the constant dread of the next work issue. Also, 57 is young enough that I will almost certainly do some voluntary work or a low key job. I know someone similar to me who does a couple of days a week in a posh deli. Just pocket money to top up the pension/saving drawdown and chatting to people as he sells over priced cheese. 

Sarahspangles

a small but annoying kitchen fire

English understatement is alive and kicking!

katejo

gambleruk said:

Great post, totally agree about having to know your number, that is the number one thing I tell people to do when they ask how I managed to retire so early, if covid had not come along I probably would still be sitting there and whining and no doubt be financially worse off than what I am now. Like you said easier said than done but it still amazes me how much money you save not working.

Enjoy your retirement.

Some of the money saved during Covid lockdown was because I wasn't paying travel to work but also because I couldn't go out socially/go on holiday. Now that I am working from home and have over 60's free off peak travel, I still save on work travel but cafes are open and I can go on holiday. I might spend more on this when retired.

shortseller09

katejo said:

Now that I am working from home and have over 60's free off peak travel

I presume you're in London then...?

MallyGirl

I agree on the number thing - there is a sticky on this subject for a good reason. I have always had a general idea of what we spend and what we might need in retirement but started recording month by month spends in the major categories at the start of this year. I am largely right so far but there are still annual costs (vehicle related mostly) that haven't happened yet. We will have enough that I don't need to track the small stuff thankfully.

SouthCoastBoy

To get to our number a couple of years ago I opened a joint account and put £2500 per month into it, everything comes out of that except maybe £100 or £200 per mth for small discretionary spends, we run a surplus so I am fairly confident on what we need. Big capital expenditure items such as cars will need to be funded separately.

katejo

shortseller09 said:

katejo said:

Now that I am working from home and have over 60's free off peak travel

I presume you're in London then...?

Yes. I do of course still pay on days when I have to be on site before 9am..