Early-retirement wannabe
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I was chatting with an acquaintance last November about my upcoming retirement. He was early sixties and still working pretty much full time in his plumbing business, said he couldn't see the point of retiring. I got news of his sudden and unexpected death two months ago.0
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while i am only 34 and probably the youngest to comment on a thread like this, these posts on here do interest me somewhat.
Its fascinating to see what people do and how they think of what is the best way to live. If they are able to retire, do they work or retire?
there are some who just get bored after retiring, their brain doesn't get used which makes things worse and they have a need to go back to work. Then there are others who never look back after retiring. Death is what brings everything into perspective. If you are working purely to live off the income then that is quite sad no matter how long you expect to live (shorter the life the worse it is obviously).
There was a study done a few years ago about old people on their deathbeds - the number 1 regret was working too hard. But i don't think its as simple as that. My feeling is this finding is more to do with people doing jobs they don't like but because they just have to - and are not able to try out different things they might like.
Life is all about sacrifice. You either spend more time with family/friends or more time at work to support your family. You get to choose your sacrifice at least....well sometimes anyway.....0 -
How depressing for you.
Any smokers in there?
Sad they were cheated out of retirement, sad that all the men left widows in their 50s, still in employment, some left teenage children.
I'm 61, they were mostly my age group. This is over the last 15 years, relatives, friends and colleagues. In my extended family we lost the 'old' people long ago. Lately we are losing them younger.
One smoked a pipe, two others were regular smokers, one heavy. Possibly some smoked when younger, I don't know.
The youngest woman had cancer, and most of the men. Two had strokes. Nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow.
A widowed relative worked beyond State Pension Age as her younger husband was still approaching his. He never got there. Debt free and with considerable savings, they'd have retired in their 50s if they'd had any clue what lay ahead, they point is that they COULD easily have afforded to retire early.0 -
Sad they were cheated out of retirement, sad that all the men left widows in their 50s, still in employment, some left teenage children.
I'm 61, they were mostly my age group. This is over the last 15 years, relatives, friends and colleagues. In my extended family we lost the 'old' people long ago. Lately we are losing them younger.
One smoked a pipe, two others were regular smokers, one heavy. Possibly some smoked when younger, I don't know.
The youngest woman had cancer, and most of the men. Two had strokes. Nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow.
A widowed relative worked beyond State Pension Age as her younger husband was still approaching his. He never got there. Debt free and with considerable savings, they'd have retired in their 50s if they'd had any clue what lay ahead, they point is that they COULD easily have afforded to retire early.
And this is the nub of the issue. If you knew you would die young, or relatively young, you would, of course, retire and live your dream. The problem is that when consulting an IFA they point out the average life expectancy and ask you to be cautious.0 -
I can't remember what I've said on this thread as I read more than I comment! We are 42 and 47 years old at the moment and hoping to be retired when I'm 50 and he is 55.
We are going to be taking a big step towards early retirement after the Easter weekend as I'm going to call up and clear the rest of our mortgage with some of our savings.
It will be such a relief to know that the house is ours finally and the banks can't ever take it away.:)0 -
There is, though, a human tendency to compare the reality of the road you took with the idealised version of the roads you didn't.There was a study done a few years ago about old people on their deathbeds - the number 1 regret was working too hard.
It may well have been that, had they spent less time at the office, they would have not earned as much/done as well in their careers, and as a result had a less comfortable lifestyle while working followed by a shorter and less comfortable retirement. But they don't see that - they assume an identical life, with just the one change (more time for themselves in the evenings and weekends) in isolation.
The fact is, this death-bed wisdom by definition comes from the people who didn't do it. It's such a trite cliche that they must have heard it when they were young enough to have made that choice. And yet they didn't. And here they are, encouraging you to take a risk that they themselves weren't comfortable taking. Right!0 -
I very much doubt that, on my death bed, I'll mention anything about working too hard!
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I very much doubt that, on my death bed, I'll mention anything about working too hard!
Dear God, I wish that was true for me. I'm that idiot that'll find himself taking phone calls at 4am and working weekends that he hadn't planned to. I do like the work but it's getting silly now.
This is still my favourite thread on MSE. It inspires me every time I read through it. It's great to see folks working to and hitting the same goals we are.
Right now, we're both 44. All being well we will be mortgage free by 49 and retired by 55.0 -
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