Turning off the tap

gibbo9 · 23 September 2017 at 9:24AM

We made jump in March at 59 & 55 living off savings pot to end of august till pension kicked in. Not going to be a life of cruises all the time but then that's not our lifestyle anyway. Well I'm posting this from my hospital bed recovering from lymphnode removal because my melanoma has decided to revisit me. Waiting to see what the prospects are. Certainly didn't see that coming. So OMY . If you've got enough then go, don't be greedy, live life, you don't know what's round the corner. All that thinking about paying shortfall in SP, might not even see it now. On that cheery thought I'd better go I can hear the ward round heading my way

crv1963 · 23 September 2017 at 9:26AM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

P.s. FWIW to all those who say they wouldnt know how to fill the time , my experience (admittedly only 4 months in) and that of friends in the same position, is that I can't believe how busy I've been, I've been busier since I retired than before !

I have to agree, I've had an imposed time off this year and when told my recovery would be at least 4 and likely 6 months I thought what will I do? I can now say when I retire I will definitely be able to join former colleagues in saying "I don't know how I found the time to go to work!"

As for daytime TV sitting idle is okay on a day off from work but the appeal soon dims when it becomes the norm and natural motivation kicks in to actually do something useful.

There is a theory that women live longer than men simply because they remain more active in retirement, housework, shopping (which also provides social interaction) and so keep a worthwhile if undervalued role, whereas men tend to take an attitude of well I've cut the lawn and I am on my longest holiday so I'll sit down and put my feet up with a cuppa now. A degree of stereotyping I agree but it does have an element of truth- just look at parents, their friends, your friends that have retired.

Keep active mentally if not able physically seems to be an important element to longevity.

crv1963 · 23 September 2017 at 9:34AM

gibbo9 wrote: »

We made jump in March at 59 & 55 living off savings pot to end of august till pension. Well I'm posting this from my hospital bed recovering from lymphnode removal because my melanoma has decided to revisit me. Waiting to see what the prospects are. Certainly didn't see that coming. So OMY . If you've got enough then go, don't be greedy, live life, you don't know what's round the corner. All that thinking about paying shortfall in SP, might not even see it now. On that cheery thought I'd better go I can hear the ward round heading my way

I had heart surgery April, totally out of the blue- no inkling it was a problem and made us really focus on what is important, wasn't imagining retirement until mid 60s until then. Ill health especially with full recovery does help focus on what is important to you.

Good luck with your health, I'm returning to work in two weeks, we'll be focusing on retiring and aiming for us to go at 60 and 57 respectively.

fatbeetle · 23 September 2017 at 9:47AM

My best mate's younger brother 2 years younger (56 at the time,) than me, and my Mrs's ex who is the same age, both had heart attacks, and, fortunately, both survived.

I've no desire to wait and see if I will be the odd one out.

Luckily I'm presently fit, and both me and SWMBO are looking after ourselves, as a point of principle, for retirement.

ETA: thanks choccielover

brewerdave · 23 September 2017 at 10:56AM

In my case ,the decision was relatively simple. Due to several redundancies , I ended up at 59 working in a job which was physically and mentally draining -I just couldn't keep going anymore and the chances of further employment were diminishingly small (it was 2009 and the recession was in full force!)
Never had any regrets...but if the job I'd had 10 years before ,had continued, then I'd probably be still working now ...I so loved that job!:) (here's a clue -see my user name!)

Wentthedaywell? · 23 September 2017 at 11:52AM

It was a no-braner for me as my old final salary pension is paid at a higher grade than I am currently on, and available from 60. Deferring wouldn't give any more, so waiting for state pension age retirement would have lost me over a 100 grand.

I've gone down the flexible retirement route, so I'm getting half pay as well as my pension. As I'm no longer paying into a big AVC I am taking home twice the money for half the hours. I'll see how half time work goes, as flexible retirement is a good "toe in the water". I'm fed up of the work itself and the constant reorganisations and budget cuts, but the people and environment are great.

It's knowing I can just walk out, and manage on the pension alone should it all get too much, that is so liberating and makes me see work in a new light.

ams25 · 23 September 2017 at 2:25PM

For me once I realized I had the funds to make it work it became harder to stay in a job I had previously enjoyed but was doing so less and less. In the end I did OMY but the lure of a redundancy package was the final trigger. My DW having just gone back to work (albeit on a time bound contract of 4 yrs) made it a little easier. Not regretted the decision for a second, and at 52 enjoying lower stress and some free time (though have 2 primary school age kids, so not so much). The phrase 'how did I have time to work' resonates strongly.

Terron · 23 September 2017 at 3:24PM

Thrugelmir wrote: »

More to life than money. For some, work is more about the social aspects. Not everyone has a large extended family or lots of good friends. Using one's grey matter and keeping active doesn't require money either. Yet these will help one potentially live longer.

The social aspect of work was why I kept going into the office, but eventually everyone else in my group had either retired or was working full time from home and the desks around me were mostly empty despite reorganisations bring more groups into the building. My manager was on another continent.

That was just one way in which a job I had really enjoyed was becoming worse and worse. I was was especting it to end eventually, but the end came earlier than I expected. It was unpleasant when it happened but now I am glad it did. I had been saving quite a lot so I could cope. Still if I had planned for leaving and done so at a time of my choosing it would have been better.

Snakey · 23 September 2017 at 3:26PM

bigadaj wrote:

I know it's difficult to isolate this issue from wider life but it does make me wonder if many people just choose the wrong job to so desperately want to retire at a very early age.

Oh, definitely a whole bundle of issues over here. Family stuff meant I didn't get what my peers all seemed to have in their teens, including the bit where you map out your future and decide on your career. This restricted the options available to me in my early twenties, and it all took a while to extract myself from. I'm not bitter as such, but I would like to have the free time, the freedom of choice, and perhaps as importantly the safety net, that I missed out on the first time around.

I like my job, and it's more fun now that I'm in the upper levels of management, but it's not a career I chose. I struggle with social interactions and, while I can fake it, a day in the office leaves me mentally tired and this impacts what I feel up to doing outside work.

I reckon if I could swap the low-level stress of being at work, for an extra 50 hours being able to do "whatever", my quality of life would improve. I have no concerns about being able to fill the time.

If it turns out that once I hit my target, work suddenly feels a whole lot easier to deal with and I'm happy to stick with it for a while longer after all, I reckon that's not a failure of my plan but an added benefit. I don't understand enough about psychology to do more than roll with the effects.

That said, I can definitely imagine needing a trigger. Looking back through my life a common theme has been staying in unsatisfactory situations (jobs, relationships) for way too long. A well-timed round of redundancies may turn out to be my saving grace to stop OMY from turning into OMD.

Triumph13 · 23 September 2017 at 4:15PM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Once you are financially In a position to retire you can relax with regards to such processes, and maybe even regard them as an opportunity for them to make you redundant and take a chunk of cash from them. I certainly found that once I'd made my mind up, with about 6 months to go, that the stress went, because my employer had no hold over me.

Would that it were an opportunity for a nice redundancy package. Instead it will just be a huge pile of platitude-filled online forms from which I will derive absolutely zero benefit and loads of hassle. One of the benefits of FU money is that I will be telling my manager I have no intention of 'engaging' with it whatsoever so what's the absolute minimum content I can put in without causing a riot from HR. I do think that there is a fundamental problem with all these performance processes in that the people in a position to design them all have a certain, highly ambitious personality type and it never even occurs to them that there might be people out there who aren't like them and have no desire to be like them. [/Rant]

Turning off the tap

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