Can’t be bothered with work any more

barnstar2077

I dropped Wednesdays at your age, it was a real game changer for me, I was so burnt out I didn't know what to do with myself.  Having that mid week break has improved my health no end.

Changing career is a difficult one, because the grass is always greener, but starting at the bottom and working your way up isn't always fun either.  It maybe better the devil you know, but only you can decide that.  Could you put the skills that you have to good use by going into business for yourself in some way?

Or maybe you just need to find a new passion in life, like a new hobby, something to break you out of the rut.

MEL1981

This struck a chord with me mistermearner.

Similar situation to yourself where I am 43 and partner 42. Both well paid jobs (each over £100k) and have similar to you (approx combined £1MM pension, £220k ISAs, £200k savings off the top of my head). We don't have a mortgage but our kids are still primary school so a big unknown there. I would love to retire from the corporate rat race now!

I am seriously targeting 50 and having a big enough war chest to go from 50 to 58 using investments, ISAs etc before the DC pension kicks in. I've found playing about with some online spreadsheets really helpful to gauge how realistic plans are and do some sensitivity stress tests to plans.

Trying to maximise the war chest now (pension contributions and ISAs for the next 7 years) is how I hope to get to the big 50 and be free to make the decision.

Good luck with your forward plans. I feel your pain!

Mel

Alexland

When I first learned about the FIRE movement the target was accumulating a million USD then being done but as some of us are finding even a million GBP in S&S investment isn't enough especially when most of it is locked away and there is still a mortgage and kids costs to pay.

hugheskevi has done a noble job of trying to make the numbers work for you but beware of large mortgages as the debt takes a lot of money to service while waiting for the pension lump sum. It's not much fun and am doing something similar myself (nowhere near 80% LTV but still a lot of debt) on a house that had money removed from a divorce.

Bluebell1000

Other than a career change, it sounds like there's a couple of potential options - you could stay full time for as long as you need to save enough to leave. If you work out how long that might be, then having a savings target to work towards can be good motivation for putting up with work for a bit longer. Alternatively, it sounds like you could drop to part time at your current job and still have enough to live on, though you'd not be building savings so quickly so you'd need to keep going part time for longer.
Personally, I'd target clearing the mortgage alongside building accessible savings, so that you are also reducing outgoings as well.

HedgehogRulez

Similar situation here. We stand in solidarity!

Would retire straight away if I could access my pension, but think that’s locked away for 12 more years. My plan is to hit 50 and then take stock. Aiming for 53 leaving the corporate world and find a nice part time shelf stacking job somewhere with no stress.

- 45 yo with £730k dc pot and £120k s&s isa
- 45 yo wife (deputy head teacher) in the TPS and a separate £40k sipp and £120k s&s isa.
- Two teenagers to fund (though with £35k junior isas each)
- £60k mortgage to clear (at 1.14% for another 2 years)

SouthCoastBoy

I was in a position of not enjoying my job so took a pay cut of around a third from 120k to around 80k. In some ways it has worked as have less responsibility but in others it hasn't. I still miss my previous salary. What it has confirmed is I need to carry on working as if I retired and had a zero salary it would be even worse.

Ibrahim5

HedgehogRulez said:

Similar situation here. We stand in solidarity!

Would retire straight away if I could access my pension, but think that’s locked away for 12 more years. My plan is to hit 50 and then take stock. Aiming for 53 leaving the corporate world and find a nice part time shelf stacking job somewhere with no stress.

- 45 yo with £730k dc pot and £120k s&s isa
- 45 yo wife (deputy head teacher) in the TPS and a separate £40k sipp and £120k s&s isa.
- Two teenagers to fund (though with £35k junior isas each)
- £60k mortgage to clear (at 1.14% for another 2 years)

You end up in a good position by earning lots of money in the 'corporate world'. Minimum wage is now £12 an hour. £100 a day. Before retirement I was earning way over £100 an hour. Doing minimum wage jobs afterwards just seemed crazy to me. I had to decide either that I didn't have enough money to retire and go back to earning properly or accept that I really did have enough and give up minimum wage work. Earning pathetic amounts when you have the capability to earn serious money didn't cut it for me. Have you ever done shelf stacking? They don't even let you have a chair! Stood up for 8 hours manual labour for £100. Really?

BrilliantButScary

Ibrahim5 said:

HedgehogRulez said:

Similar situation here. We stand in solidarity!

Would retire straight away if I could access my pension, but think that’s locked away for 12 more years. My plan is to hit 50 and then take stock. Aiming for 53 leaving the corporate world and find a nice part time shelf stacking job somewhere with no stress.

- 45 yo with £730k dc pot and £120k s&s isa
- 45 yo wife (deputy head teacher) in the TPS and a separate £40k sipp and £120k s&s isa.
- Two teenagers to fund (though with £35k junior isas each)
- £60k mortgage to clear (at 1.14% for another 2 years)

You end up in a good position by earning lots of money in the 'corporate world'. Minimum wage is now £12 an hour. £100 a day. Before retirement I was earning way over £100 an hour. Doing minimum wage jobs afterwards just seemed crazy to me. I had to decide either that I didn't have enough money to retire and go back to earning properly or accept that I really did have enough and give up minimum wage work. Earning pathetic amounts when you have the capability to earn serious money didn't cut it for me. Have you ever done shelf stacking? They don't even let you have a chair! Stood up for 8 hours manual labour for £100. Really?

The voice of reason. Let's not forget that shelf stacking in a pandemic, along with a good many minimum wage jobs, were vital. Many people can only dream of being paid £60,000 per annum, let alone putting that amount in a SIPP annually, to reduce their taxes. The OP needs to give their head a wobble.

SVaz

Take a year off and retrain to go self employed?
That’s what I did at 54, now in my 3rd year,  I set my own rates,  take only the jobs I want to do and work maybe 25 hours a week, less in the winter.   

dunnm1

Last January job 90k absolutely hated it, was literally making me ill.
Now, job 24k, living the dream, love Monday mornings.