How to cope with work in run to retirement

JoeEngland · 1 December 2018 at 4:07PM

I've changed from planning to give up FT work when I'm 55, to 54, and now to 53 around next August. Financially it would be better to hold on till 55 but some health issues are getting worse that it doesn't make sense for me to carry on much longer. Ironically, now the point at which I can semi-retire and maybe do a bit of PT work is much nearer I'm feeling more frustrated with going to work. It feels like the next 9 months or so will be like a death march.

Did any of the retirees on this forum have a similar problem and ways of coping with it? The only thing that's keeping me going is that a few financial things fall into place over the next year and it's worth hanging on for that. Even with that I feel p****d off most work mornings.

OldMusicGuy · 1 December 2018 at 4:57PM

I gave notice of retirement 2 years prior to going. So that two years was a bit of a struggle for me.

I set up a countdown calendar on my desktop. I found that helpful because it was always going down and I could tell anyone that would listen "only x days to retirement".

I also plotted out the major activities that I would have to undertake over the two years to retirement. I could then cross these off a list and say "well that's the last time I have to do that" which I found very helpful. I found I was able to stay committed to a project if I knew it was the last time I would do it, or at least the penultimate time.

I also started refusing tasks in the last year of employment. I said to my boss that it would be better to let other people lead and have me just help out so they learned how to take things over when I left. I positioned this as "succession planning" but in reality it allowed me to wind down work in the last year.

JoeEngland · 1 December 2018 at 5:57PM

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

I gave notice of retirement 2 years prior to going. So that two years was a bit of a struggle for me.

I set up a countdown calendar on my desktop. I found that helpful because it was always going down and I could tell anyone that would listen "only x days to retirement".

I also plotted out the major activities that I would have to undertake over the two years to retirement. I could then cross these off a list and say "well that's the last time I have to do that" which I found very helpful. I found I was able to stay committed to a project if I knew it was the last time I would do it, or at least the penultimate time.

I also started refusing tasks in the last year of employment. I said to my boss that it would be better to let other people lead and have me just help out so they learned how to take things over when I left. I positioned this as "succession planning" but in reality it allowed me to wind down work in the last year.

Sounds like you were in a good situation to give such a long notice period. I wouldn't have risked doing that in any of the places I worked, and I started a new job recently before I realised that I'll have to knock FT work on the head sooner than planned. But I could set up a countdown on my PC at home!

Tabby_cat · 1 December 2018 at 8:12PM

OP, is there any way you could go part-time earlier than August?

I reduced my working hours in August 2017 and found working 3 days a week perfect for me. I was able to let the irritating corporate BS wash over me and the drudgery didn't feel so bad when you have more free days than working days.

p00hsticks · 1 December 2018 at 8:23PM

I worked out the hourly rate I was getting paid.

I could then tell myself at the end of each day both how more had been added to the savings/general living pot and also know that I had reduced the number of days that the savings needed to stretch until I could access my pension by one.

It's the only way I could stomach the last few months - you have my sympathies.

ColdIron · 1 December 2018 at 8:33PM

I went down to 4 days a week 6 years before I retired and 3 in my final year. I found it helped the transition and felt like I was in partial retirement for the final year

JoeEngland · 1 December 2018 at 9:42PM

Tabby_cat wrote: »

OP, is there any way you could go part-time earlier than August?

I reduced my working hours in August 2017 and found working 3 days a week perfect for me. I was able to let the irritating corporate BS wash over me and the drudgery didn't feel so bad when you have more free days than working days.

It's not easy to get PT work in my industry (IT) so I'd probably need to look for work doing something else and that may not be easy. Saying that, my new job is actually split between two roles so maybe I could ask if they'd let me do one of them 2-3 days a week. Unfortunately it's best financially if I try to hang on till August doing FT.

tigerspill · 1 December 2018 at 11:18PM

I am in the same situation. Decided in the summer I would only work to next summer. Really struggling with motivation. Not sure it will ge easier, bit the big bright light is retirement.

zagubov · 2 December 2018 at 12:45AM

Finding a way of cutting down may be the best option. Apparently the happiest retirees are those who keep working. And the more similar the work the better. You may find you can work for longer if you work less, which may mitigate the financial penalties.

Watch out for pension penalties if you're on a final salary pension

AnotherJoe · 2 December 2018 at 9:17AM

JoeEngland wrote: »

I'Did any of the retirees on this forum have a similar problem and ways of coping with it? The only thing that's keeping me going is that a few financial things fall into place over the next year and it's worth hanging on for that. Even with that I feel p****d off most work mornings.

Perhaps try considering yourself lucky that you're only experiencing this for a few months witha definite end in sight, because many people probably feel like that for the majority of their working lives in much more unpleasant jobs.
I found when I knew I would be leaving that all the corporate BS no longer irritated me, I just didn't care so I felt less p'd off (indeed not at all) from that point on.
So no I didn't have that problem, I had the problem for the couple of years prior to that when tHe inanities of the job were there and I had to suffer them. Once I had a definite date, (and that wasn't one the employer knew at that point), I could chill out.

Alexland · 2 December 2018 at 9:40AM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Perhaps try considering yourself lucky that you're only experiencing this for a few months witha definite end in sight, because many people probably feel like that for the majority of their working lives in much more unpleasant jobs.

While my job isn't unpleasant having the same employer for 15 years has become tedious. They seem to like me, value my input and allow me to work around childcare needs. Problem is that I still have around 20 years before early retirement. The pay, sal sac pension and bonuses are too good to leave so feel a bit trapped. The only thing that keeps me motivated is trying to use up the most of our pension and ISA allowances each tax year.

Alex

How to cope with work in run to retirement

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