pom
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Post by pom on Mar 10, 2017 9:01:29 GMT
I've been lurking on the sidelines, observing this thread with interest. Some interesting points to contemplate, thank you all. I reckon that I could now just about survive in tolerable comfort from today's level of interest from P2P, but I can't help feeling that it's unsustainable in the long run. So, at 57 won't give up the day job just yet, even though it's often unbearably frustrating working for a big bloated corporation that utterly fails to appreciate my technical skills... Mercifully, I'm now able to pump more than half my salary into a pension AVC, so understandably grateful that Phillip Hammond didn't nobble that avenue of tax minimisation joy as widely predicted. It's good practice for existing off a smaller monthly income. Even though I could retire and exist today, I also enjoy (for example) travel, and while I'm content enough to do self-catering, I do rather prefer my Caipirinha in the Canary sunshine to be delivered by a smart waiter with a tray of olives and hot almonds. Perhaps I'll grit my teeth for another year or three. Careful fasty these are dangerous waters to be dipping your toe in....you sound like me...about a couple of weeks ago Except unlike me you don't have to worry that money invested in pensions will be inaccessible for another decade...! Are you sure you really need to grit your teeth?! Sorry, there is no-one more evangelical than a recent convert (and that's always been my problem, once I commit to an idea it becomes totally black/white for me) Tho I am rather losing sympathy with you over your choice of location. Call me a travel snob but I spent 20yrs resisting going anywhere near, and am now so traumatised by my recent week away I'll probably resist returning for another 20. Then again finding myself at a hotel where the average guest age was considerably north of retirement age certainly focused my mind on "the rest of my life" so maybe I should be grateful
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 10, 2017 10:19:43 GMT
<SNIP> And...whilst I'm positively profligate compared to our treehugging friend, I'll take that as a compliment (I think...). Profligate is just such a good word I still really like obfuscate too......... Another point to ponder is that you are considering your options and will, in your own good time, make choices ........ If there's one thing I realised very early into my down-in-the-dirt vacations we should all be eternally grateful to have both of those things. Even when we would like a bit more. Or the green-eyed monster whispers in our ear. I've spent a great deal of time with people who have neither; who's strength, ingenuity and generosity has never ceased to amaze me. And who are, more often than not, unceasingly cheerful despite it all. We are so incredibly fortunate ....... (here endeth the lesson) Amen to that! Hey at least I stopped short of the temptingly alliterative parsimonious....except now I told you anyway - oops! It's probably obvious I have a bit of a thing about words - have always loved language, something that's been well and truly stifled by over 25yrs being surrounded by those of a technical persuasion - otherwise highly intelligent folk who in the main sadly clearly barely scraped thru the English side of "must have GCSEs in Maths & English." Whenever I've had to review docs for colleagues I always seem to have spent more time fixing the English than the technical content. And it's stunted my own language, until recently I genuinely thought I'd lost the ability to use more than a fraction of my vocabulary, but this last month or so it's all just been bursting out, even if I have found myself googling a couple of times to double-check whats been popping into my head So maybe I need to revisit one of the few dreams I've actually had, to write. When I put my mind to it I'm a great storyteller and I love it (get it from both sides of the family...and an artistic streak too...in fact it's a good thing there's plenty else to confirm my parentage cos I'm not entirely sure where the maths and sciences came from!), the challenge has always been inspiration - my creativity has always been very solutions based rather than imaginative if that makes sense - creatively responding to assignments is one thing but sparks of originality have been hard to find. There have been a few times when I've woken up from a vivid dream to think "that would make a great idea for a book" but if I've managed to actually remember it longer than a minute or so I've soon realised ummm nope! The advice always seems to be write what you know, but it's funny how there's a whole bunch of professions that protagonists never practise (ok maybe I should calm down on the alliteration ). So dunno - guess I'll add it to the list as a background task, and see if a change of environment sparks something. I'm starting to feel dangerously optimistic....must surely mean somethings about to go wrong!
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Post by tybalt on Mar 10, 2017 18:01:32 GMT
Not very early but did have a house in the South of France with about 3 hectares of woodland to use for firewood. Savings on fuel versus costs of coppicing and chain sawing meant the week I worked each year preparing wood for two years hence was amongst the lowest 'paid' inflation adjusted I ever earned.
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GeorgeT
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Post by GeorgeT on Mar 10, 2017 23:36:14 GMT
I know we all have very different personality types and some people need the routine and order of regular work in their lives in order to survive and keep fit and healthy in mind and body.
However I have found that being a slave to somebody else in terms of being employed can be very damaging to your mental and physical well-being and to an extent you have handed control of your life (and you only have 1) to somebody else who does not have your best interests at heart and is only interested in their best interests.
My very first boss in paid employment was a very wise man. So much so that he appeared on Mastermind. One afternoon at about 5:30 p.m. he found me still working at my desk trying to finish something as he was leaving the office to go home. I still remember the words he said to me as he told me to put my coat on and leave it. He said and I quote "nobody ever laid on their deathbed and said I wish I'd spent more time at work".
We are all very small cogs in the wheel of life and if any of us has the opportunity to retire early and wants to do that then I think that is an opportunity that should be grabbed and embraced.
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treeman
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Post by treeman on Mar 11, 2017 11:01:48 GMT
Not very early but did have a house in the South of France with about 3 hectares of woodland to use for firewood. Savings on fuel versus costs of coppicing and chain sawing meant the week I worked each year preparing wood for two years hence was amongst the lowest 'paid' inflation adjusted I ever earned. Assuming I understand correctly - I get what you're saying ..... quite a few 'manual' tasks I do for myself would look pretty poor on a £ ph basis. Personally, I don't view any of it as 'work'. I like the self-reliance aspect and I get a sense of satisfaction from doing them. Exercise, fresh air and all. Oh, and a boy's toys/tools fix I tend to do them in bursts when the mood takes me and get distracted very easily. OTOH A lot of the other maintenance, repair and upkeep type stuff I've learnt over the years can be damn expensive to sub-out once you realise what's actually involved ..... Fortified with strong Tea, I did the twice yearly drains/pipes etc flow checks on an early start this morning (no rodding needed - yay!). The downside of no mains services is you can't blame anyone else for anything ....... ...... This was off the back of the poo-pumper coming to empty our little treatment plant yesterday -now That's one of the afore-mentioned few things I'm quite happy to hand over to the pros !!! Have a good weekend y'all !!!
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 11, 2017 12:10:11 GMT
I know we all have very different personality types and some people need the routine and order of regular work in their lives in order to survive and keep fit and healthy in mind and body. However I have found that being a slave to somebody else in terms of being employed can be very damaging to your mental and physical well-being and to an extent you have handed control of your life (and you only have 1) to somebody else who does not have your best interests at heart and is only interested in their best interests. My very first boss in paid employment was a very wise man. So much so that he appeared on Mastermind. One afternoon at about 5:30 p.m. he found me still working at my desk trying to finish something as he was leaving the office to go home. I still remember the words he said to me as he told me to put my coat on and leave it. He said and I quote "nobody ever laid on their deathbed and said I wish I'd spent more time at work". We are all very small cogs in the wheel of life and if any of us has the opportunity to retire early and wants to do that then I think that is an opportunity that should be grabbed and embraced. Yeah you're right and so much of it is about control of your own destiny - after all why else would any of the self-made/ready-made wealthy work? My current headcount boss (shame I don't actually work for him) who it turns out is independently wealthy told me his philosophy is that you need 3 things for happiness - something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to (I wonder what the super rich look forward to when they can afford anything right now....working maybe?!). And he is also right because there is a big difference from doing and being (an ill fitting cog). So whatever I do decide to do, I'm not going to be a square peg in a round corporate hole for much longer.
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 11, 2017 12:19:25 GMT
Fortified with strong Tea, I did the twice yearly drains/pipes etc flow checks on an early start this morning (no rodding needed - yay!). The downside of no mains services is you can't blame anyone else for anything ....... ...... This was off the back of the poo-pumper coming to empty our little treatment plant yesterday -now That's one of the afore-mentioned few things I'm quite happy to hand over to the pros !!! Have a good weekend y'all !!! Euwww - so glad this place is on the mains. Whilst I can deal with septic tanks if I'd have to I'd far rather not need to. Looked at quite a nice house near here that had one, but even worse, it was in the neighbouring farmers field ! Nope, nope, nope! Clearly I am a wuss tho, as my grandfather apparently dug his out a couple of times to add to the garden....
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jw01
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Post by jw01 on Mar 11, 2017 15:19:51 GMT
Only just seen this. First time in Chat. I took a very advantageous early retirement package when I was 53 and decided to be retired at least as long as I had been at work; 3 years to go. I was lucky in that, just before the offer was made, I had started a personal project in my spare time, so I was then able to devote full time to it. The result was an 1100 page book on W.G.Grace which was published in 1998 on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Having something engrossing to do over a long period meant that I was not properly in retirement mode for several years. I have never done a day of paid work since I retired. However, investment in 5 year fixed bonds (when that was worth doing) followed by P2P, plus living well within our means, has resulted in a huge increase in net worth. I always thought in the early years that it was important to have an obsession. If another one comes along later so much the better.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2017 16:41:58 GMT
Pam, one of the fun things you get to do when you retire early is to work out what to answer to "what do you do?", I like "independantly wealthy" which seems to stop most conversations, but I've also tried "Financial self advisor" or "bobo" and of course "smarter than the average bear". Filling in forms gets a lot harder but I see that as a bonus as I have fewer forms that need filling in.
My Engineering Institution lets me be "retired" but then wants to know if I'm "active" or not, active seems to mean I have to keep myself up-to-date. Since the Institution has never done anything for me, and never seems to know anything about my subject of interest/skill I am resolutely "inactive". Yet more paperwork gone. I was a Fellow of another Institution but since, again, they add nothing to human life on this or any other planet I took great pleasure in resigning.
My poor old BILaw owns his own business and admits he only keeps running it as his title (in Germany) always gets him a table in a packed restaurant. In the UK you need a "Sir" or above to have the same affect and I have considered getting a jazz title (Count/Earl) added to my name.
Also this freedom could soon be yours.
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elliotn
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Post by elliotn on Mar 11, 2017 17:09:18 GMT
Oh, very tricky for some financial applications as I retired in my 30s - unless it says 'living by independent means' l'm forced to choose 'unemployed' and then I get rejected - it's financial discrimination of the young of today at its very worst.
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 11, 2017 17:25:35 GMT
Oh, very tricky for some financial applications as I retired in my 30s - unless it says 'living by independent means' l'm forced to choose 'unemployed' and then I get rejected - it's financial discrimination of the young of today at its very worst. I'm sure someone here will be sympathetic.....
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 11, 2017 18:24:48 GMT
Oh, very tricky for some financial applications as I retired in my 30s - unless it says 'living by independent means' l'm forced to choose 'unemployed' and then I get rejected - it's financial discrimination of the young of today at its very worst. Maybe I'm missing something, but can't you just say "retired"...?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2017 18:39:30 GMT
retired often gets you more expensive insurance
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Mar 11, 2017 18:44:06 GMT
retired often gets you more expensive insurance Not nearly as expensive as when your claim's rejected because you lied on the proposal, though...
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 11, 2017 19:04:08 GMT
retired often gets you more expensive insurance Don't tell me things like that... CEng from a BA huh? Well aren't you a clever boy* (given there's only a couple of places that give BAs for Eng). BEng's are much better tho in my totally biased opinion (particularly as I refused point blank to apply to those places offering a BA) even if I did wimp and go for an easier option on my C *referring to "Count Bobo BA MBA CEng IMechE, FISMM (retired)"
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