Early-retirement wannabe
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Well. After years of laughing at Marine Life's continued failure to retire, I've come down with a very mild dose of the same! Rather than retire as planned in October, I have signed up to stay on for a while. Only 1 day a week, term time only, from home and basically as a consultant. Financially it doesn't even move the dial on my spreadsheets, but in terms of releasing stress it looks like being wonderful as the next 3 months become a gentle wind down rather than a frantic struggle to get everything documented and handed over.
Question is, how upset will the Internet Retirement Police get if I still call myself 'retired' from October?:rotfl:0 -
Well. After years of laughing at Marine Life's continued failure to retire, I've come down with a very mild dose of the same! Rather than retire as planned in October, I have signed up to stay on for a while. Only 1 day a week, term time only, from home and basically as a consultant. Financially it doesn't even move the dial on my spreadsheets, but in terms of releasing stress it looks like being wonderful as the next 3 months become a gentle wind down rather than a frantic struggle to get everything documented and handed over.
Question is, how upset will the Internet Retirement Police get if I still call myself 'retired' from October?:rotfl:
I knew it; I knew it :shocked:
In contrast I've been wavering the other way. There has been a hold-up in agreeing my consulting contract which means I've been on an enforced two-week break. Annoying since it was during the worldcup but I've used the opportunity to take a short break and reflect on how little I really matter (to the organization I've just left) and how much I really don't want to be messed around anymore.
Maybe the best thing would actually be if someone made my early retirement decision for me ;-)Money won't buy you happiness....but I have never been in a situation where more money made things worse!0 -
Marine_life wrote: »
Maybe the best thing would actually be if someone made my early retirement decision for me ;-)
Heads or tails??"For every complicated problem, there is always a simple, wrong answer"0 -
Marine_life wrote: »I knew it; I knew it :shocked:
In contrast I've been wavering the other way. There has been a hold-up in agreeing my consulting contract which means I've been on an enforced two-week break. Annoying since it was during the worldcup but I've used the opportunity to take a short break and reflect on how little I really matter (to the organization I've just left) and how much I really don't want to be messed around anymore.
Maybe the best thing would actually be if someone made my early retirement decision for me ;-)
I'll make the decision for you: retire! :j0 -
Cheater! Get off this thread now!!!Question is, how upset will the Internet Retirement Police get if I still call myself 'retired' from October?:rotfl:
You are a "part time wannabee"......:rotfl:
Just kidding of course but I think there is a difference between going part time and keeping your hand in and making a complete break with the world of work and what you have been doping for the past however many years. It certainly seems to have helped reduce our car insurance premiums!0 -
I think that can vary a lot depending on your relationship to the part time work.OldMusicGuy wrote: »Cheater! Get off this thread now!!! You are a "part time wannabee"......:rotfl:
Just kidding of course but I think there is a difference between going part time and keeping your hand in and making a complete break with the world of work and what you have been doping for the past however many years. It certainly seems to have helped reduce our car insurance premiums!- If you need the money to make your plans work then you are definitely still a wage slave.
- If you are using it to cling on to your status and/or identity then clearly you haven't made the transition.
- If you are using it to keep your options open in case you want / need to return to full time work then mentally you're probably not what I would call retired.
The other key factor for me is that I still have kids in school, so I am already locked into a routine and can't just take off on holiday at a moment's notice. If that wasn't the case, then I definitely wouldn't have taken the deal as the commitment would have made me feel 'not retired'. Does that mean you can't really be 'retired' whilst you have kids at home I wonder? Maybe we are just both going to be stay at home parents?0 -
I think that can vary a lot depending on your relationship to the part time work.
- If you need the money to make your plans work then you are definitely still a wage slave.
- If you are using it to cling on to your status and/or identity then clearly you haven't made the transition.
- If you are using it to keep your options open in case you want / need to return to full time work then mentally you're probably not what I would call retired.
The other key factor for me is that I still have kids in school, so I am already locked into a routine and can't just take off on holiday at a moment's notice. If that wasn't the case, then I definitely wouldn't have taken the deal as the commitment would have made me feel 'not retired'. Does that mean you can't really be 'retired' whilst you have kids at home I wonder? Maybe we are just both going to be stay at home parents?
I'd say kids at School perhaps? Until they leave school and are able to look after themselves (living with you or otherwise) then you're both stay at home parents to me.
Similarly if you're a carer then that's your main responsibility. Personally I'd class retired as not having to work - whether that's in a job or otherwise.0 -
Could be some interesting conversations:
Random Person: "So what do you do for a living?"
Me: "I'm a stay at home dad."
RP: "Oh, so what does your wife do for a living?"
M3: "She's a stay at home mum."
RP: "?????"0 -
It is quite difficult to define what "retired" actually is these days, with so many opportunities to do a bit of work from home. In the pre-internet, pre-smartphone days you were either at work or you weren't. Now, with the boundaries blurring for so many people, and so many freelance or "gig" opportunities available, it's much harder to define when your status switches from one to the other.
My wife, who has been a stay at home mum and done a bit of sole trader curtain making, said the other day "when do I retire"? We agreed it was a state of mind shift and we are both calling ourselves "retired" from now on. She also decided to wind up her curtain making business (which is very small, never generates any taxable profit).0
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