It's been 6 months

Albermarle

• 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. 

A third option
 
You like some parts of your job, but not all of it.
You have been working for 30 or 40 years, so maybe time to call it a day.
You can afford to retire, but reluctant to give up monthly salary and other perks.
You have some outside interests but not that many. 
So you just sit there - not moaning/whining but just indecisive......

That was me to some extent, but Covid intervened and after a few months away from the usual routine, I did not relish going back to it, so that decided it for me in the end.

katejo

Albermarle said:

• 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. 

A third option
 
You like some parts of your job, but not all of it.
You have been working for 30 or 40 years, so maybe time to call it a day.
You can afford to retire, but reluctant to give up monthly salary and other perks.
You have some outside interests but not that many. 
So you just sit there - not moaning/whining but just indecisive......

That was me to some extent, but Covid intervened and after a few months away from the usual routine, I did not relish going back to it, so that decided it for me in the end.

That's me to a degree but I still needed to stay to 60 at least. If we had had to return to full time on site, I probably would have stopped by now but 2 days WFH is easier. 

cfw1994

Great post!
So…you made no plans, which is cool: I’m assuming you had a bunch of “house” things to get done, but what else have you done that has delighted you most?

Of course that might be simple things like ‘getting up whenever you want’, but have you dug into old hobbies or sports you used to enjoy, or perhaps taken up new ones, or maybe you’ve enjoy a special holiday or two?

I gave up about 3 years ago, and I guess the biggest thing I love is the flexibility & freedom…but we have had some great holidays, festivals and gigs/events.  Done and seen so much more of family & friends.  Taken up pickleball!  All good!

tealady

I was made redundant a few years ago. Now my life is filled with visiting retired friends, voluntary work, shopping (I dont drive), hobbies, getting work done on my house, days out, reading, and the occasional bit of housework.
I have enough to live on and wouldn't consider taking a job as I feel there would be someone who needs the money.
Some weeks I get to the end of the week and ask myself "where that did that week go?"
Seeing some people unable to do stuff because of health reasons makes me more determined to cram as much as I can into my twilight years.
And I havent even started on my "bucket " list yet!

RedRose61

What a fabulous thread! I bit the bullet 2 years ago now when I was 60. I was working in Healthcare in a very stressful and demanding job which during COVID was really tough. I was burnt out and my husband, who had already retired, and I decided that we would move away from the City to Wales and I would retire too. 

It was a big adjustment at first. If you’ve been used to a decent, regular salary coming in, it takes a while to get your head around living off pension pots and savings. We had worked out that we could manage with some holidays included as part of our budget until I receive my state pension. I have found that I’m actually better off than I thought that I would be because I’ve rediscovered cooking from scratch, shopping for bargains and baking. 

As far as having more time goes, we have joined some local groups to become part of the local community and we have been warmly welcomed. We also go to our local leisure centre to join in with exercise classes to keep ourselves fit and active.We have time to see family and friends and are much busier than I expected. 
I can’t believe the difference that it’s made to our health, happiness and wellbeing. This forum has been great for money saving ideas and stretching your budget. I’m really grateful for the people who post such great ideas. 

You will not regret it. 

Vespaboy

Great thread.

I am due to retire the end of this month and I’m finding the whole process somewhat strange. Months of dreaming about Retirement, and now it is here is somewhat bizarre. 

I will be 60 this year so the time feels right , the numbers I think are ok and the world beckons. Just going to decompress a bit take it as it comes and perhaps find a very part time “job” to keep the grey cells
active. 

Not rushing into anything and anything I do is for me, for interest and enjoyment not for the money

Need to get my head around the not working and saving and embrace the spending - I suspect that is a common issue for people on this forum, the accumulation seems the easy bit the spending seems harder

anyway will follow this with interest

chubsta

I was extremely good at my job - the person everyone came to in a crisis, genuinely knew more about an extremely technical and specialist role than anyone else in our very large organisation, in the end I got fed up with being the one person who always had to identify and sort problems out. I was asked to stay on over and over by higher management but I had just had enough and didn't actually enjoy working and all it brought with it, the travel, stress etc. And you know what, the place is still running without me.

I think a lot of people stay on not because they want to, but because they feel they are really valued and important to the job, but generally you aren't - the day after you go you will probably be forgotten and there is a whole world out there of new experiences, or just relaxing if that is your thing. Fortunately, I don't give my old job a second thought, don't miss it at all, am still in touch with the people who were my friends but even then our friendships were based on shared interests not work so we don't talk about that.

I did all the calculations for years beforehand so am financially secure, and I absolutely love the complete freedom I have these days, sleeping at normal times (I was a shift worker for 40 years), eating well, being available to do anything whenever there is an event etc. I love it more than I can possibly express. I actually bumped into a former senior colleague a couple of days ago - I had gone for a random walk as the sun was finally shining - he was having a quick walk to destress before a big meeting and asked if I would ever go back, my honest reply was that there was no amount of money that could tempt me back, thousands a day wouldn't do it as I have no real need for the money.

During my pre-retirement deliberations, like others have mentioned in this thread, I thought 'Ill get myself a little part time job or volunteer just to keep busy' but now I really don't think that will ever happen - why would I put myself in the position of having to be somewhere and possibly deal with people I don't like, with responsibility etc when I don't actually have to.

I spent all my life being effectively controlled by other people - you are a toddler, then go to school, college, then straight into work - this is the very first time in my life I feel FREE, now it is just about me and I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. Having said that, I appear to have become my other half's builder/handyman/tech advisor/dog walker/personal shopper etc etc, but I love doing all those things because I have the time, I'm not trying to fit in painting the house into 2 days off before going back to work for 6 days again.

Not sure what my point is but it felt good to write all that out!

Enjoy your retirement, Im sure you will feel it is the best thing you ever did despite the butterflies at such a big change, most of us fell into our careers without much thought but for some reason leaving that safety net is a massive decision which has to be stressed over for years!

Secret2ndAccount

chubsta said:

I was extremely good at my job - the person everyone came to in a crisis, genuinely knew more about an extremely technical and specialist role than anyone else in our very large organisation, in the end I got fed up with being the one person who always had to identify and sort problems out.

Lovely story chubsta. Your first paragraph reminded me of a situation that happened to me years ago. It didn't lead to retirement, but it did lead to a job change.
We had two computers; one was a black box, the other a PC. They were exchanging data over a serial link. We had hooked up a monitor to enable us to see the binary data as the transfer was not working. The guy working on it asked me to take a look. I looked at the monitor for about two seconds then said "Here's your problem: the black box is specifying that it is transmitting type A data, but I can see from the binary stream that this is type B data. Either you can fix the black box so that it sends the right identifier before transmitting the data, or we can improve the software on the PC so that it ignores the type flag and figures out the type of data by looking at the stream".
I went home that evening and said to myself "I've just looked at a binary data stream and understood it better than either of the computers connected to it. I've got to get out of this place." I was gone within two weeks. I reckon I narrowly escaped becoming part of the Matrix.

MallyGirl

£1 for the washer - £9,999 for knowing where to put it!

michaels

I need to stop reading this thread, I have about 10-12 months to go and it is dragging and hearing just how much greener the grass is on the other side is not making it go any quicker....