Financially comfortable, health improving, still working – am I solving the wrong problem?

Rdwill

I would be interested in some independent views on my situation, particularly from those who have already retired or moved to part-time work in their late 50s.

I am 56, married, and currently work full-time as a Senior Bid Manager. My wife is 53 and works part-time for the NHS. We have one son at university who should become financially independent over the next 12–18 months.

Financially, our position is approximately:

• £132k cash and cash equivalents
• £30k non-pension investments
• £890k defined contribution pensions
• £8.5k p.a. inflation-linked defined benefit pensions from age 65/67
• Future combined State Pension of around £23k p.a.
• Mortgage-free home worth around £460k
• No debt

I continue to contribute heavily to my pension through salary sacrifice.

Health-wise, I have a pacemaker following complete heart block in 2025 and was diagnosed with Axial Spondyloarthritis. I have recently started Methotrexate and Adalimumab and, assuming treatment works as expected, I hope to continue leading a largely normal life and remain in work for some years yet.

My current thinking is:

• Continue full-time until around age 60 if health and enjoyment allow.
• Potentially reduce to 2–3 days per week thereafter.
• Fully retire sometime between 60 and 65.

I have built my own retirement cashflow models and recently met with a financial adviser. The adviser did not identify any major issues with the plan, although equally did not identify any compelling reason for me to change course.

One important point is that I am comfortable with a predominantly 100% global equity allocation. My risk management strategy is to maintain a substantial cash buffer rather than reduce equity exposure. I appreciate many will disagree with that approach, but it is not something I am currently looking to change.

I am not really looking for investment advice. I am comfortable with my current investment approach. What I am interested in is whether people see any blind spots in the broader plan or would make different life choices if they were in my position.

The question I am really wrestling with is this:

Have I reached the point where further wealth accumulation is becoming less important than flexibility, health and quality of life?

Or put another way:

If you were in my position, what would you do next?

I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have made the transition from full-time work into part-time work or retirement, and whether they wish they had done it sooner, later, or differently.

NoMore

What's your desired income in retirement ? TBH if its less than 50k I would probably just retire now.

daveyjp

Unless you have or want a particularly extravagant lifestyle, £1m is probably more than enough to have an excellent standard of living.

Whether to continue working may depend on how much you enjoy the job, rather than the income you will earn.

QrizB

^ This is my thought too. You've accumulated a large enough pile of treasure to retire tomorrow on a larger income than most folk manage while employed.

If you enjoy your job (as opposed to tolerating it) you could look at dropping to part-time now rather than at 60, with a view to giving it up when you stop enjoying it (or when you find yourself with things you'd rather do instead).

(Full disclosure: I'm a little older than you, moved to ~3/4 time at 56 and am now on ~1/4 time with a plan to pack it all in next year.)

infj

Personally I'd consider reducing your working hours now. I reduced to 4 days when I was 53, then 3 days when I was 55. Best thing I've ever done 😊. If you are lucky enough to have a job that lets you do that and won't expect you to do 5 days work in 3 instead!

I intend to be out of the working world door entirely next year at 60. Would I have more money if I didn't do that? Yes, of course. But I want time to enjoy stuff while I'm still healthy enough to do so. And I don't want to be the richest person in the graveyard.

ali_bear

I went down to four days per week a few years before retiring at 59. At retirement I had a similar amount to you, but I am not married. I don't miss work at all even though I enjoyed it at least some of the time.

As others have said it depends on how much you enjoy working, also how you would feel not working while your wife continues with it?

You are in a position to give your son a financial boost at a time when it would really benefit him. Perhaps that's a good reason to keep at it for a while. Only thing I would suggest is backing off the pension investment now.

tigerspill

I think the first question is how much you will need to live the lifestyle you wish?

Once you understand that, you can work out where that money will come from for each year for the rest of your expected life.

That way you will know if you have enough or not at the most basic level.

Then you could factor in unusually high inflation or other risks and see how you might handle these.

BikingBud

Health and time to enjoy it is my prime focus.

As mentioned above what do you think you need to live on?

Using that as your required funding level, I would work backwards from combined SPA and see what you shortfall will be by year and then assess if drawing your funds from other sources will cover that period, eg I know once the mortgage is cleared I will need 20k less per year and will therefore have excess income and do not need to work. I might wish to work but know that I could stop at any time.

You might wish to consider life events yet to happen eg big birthdays and celebratory trips, supporting childrens' weddings etc put these in your forecast and stress test with lower growth or even shrinkage of asset pool.

Should also consider level of survivor benefits.

All that said it seems you are well set we could offer our perspective but only you can decide. Only you can assess the risk and decide, if it means you might have to drink fewer bottles of Nyetimber and more Aldi prosecco you might consider that's ok but having to do without a vehicle might be too much.

My tipping point is when I have too much in a DC pot to get out at 20%tax (15% effective) by SPA when I will have no choice but to pay HRT.

Albermarle

I was not in a job where I could go part time, as even when I was full time, I used to be regularly answering e mails etc on my days off. So I can not answer that part of your question.

I could probably have retired mid/late 50's but I was not that sure we had quite enough, and I just did not feel old enough to retire. Also following a darker period in my career ( after a takeover) things had improved a lot ( following another takeover.) So I carried on another 4 or 5 years and retired at 62. In that time I contributed maximum allowed to my pension to get the max 40 % tax relief. In combination with good markets in that period, this changed my finances from 'have I got enough' to ' I will never spend it all' .

One advantage of this is that despite being the cautious saver type all my life, I now do not worry about money at all, and have even loosened the purse strings a bit ( but not a lot !)

kempiejon

I've always found it easier to get healthier the more non-contracted time one has for themselves. Someone defined by their role will struggle to give it up regardless of how big the pot is. My objective was to retire early, that being more important than being comfortable when retired. One more year syndrome is well recognised

Each individual should know current expenditure, I graded mine as vital, useful and indulgent and have an opinion on expected spends in retirement. Then we just need a way to supply that income.

BridgetTheCat

Question:

“Have I reached the point where further wealth accumulation is becoming less important than flexibility, health and quality of life?

Or put another way:

If you were in my position, what would you do next?

I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have made the transition from full-time work into part-time work or retirement, and whether they wish they had done it sooner, later, or differently.”

Reply:

I’m the same age as you and I dropped from F/T to 3 days a week a couple of months ago. I haven’t regretted it for a single minute. For me it’s the right balance. I’m more engaged when I’m at work, because I now have time to pursue other interests.

I think once you’ve determined that you have enough money, the question becomes, “Now that I don’t need to work to survive, how would I choose to spend my time?” If your current job is still engaging and satisfying, and there’s nothing else you would rather do, then by all means keep working. But if there’s something else you want to explore, continuing to work is just wasting time.

PS Edit: Retirement doesn’t have to be all about gardening and holidays. In my case it’s academic study. I even considered going back to University.