pom
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Post by pom on Mar 4, 2017 22:28:35 GMT
If you could retire (very) early, would (have) you? (ie well before 50) Really?
After a day like today where I've spent 9hrs on a conf call being alternately shouted at and ignored by a client, it certainly gets tempting to just hand in my notice and be done with it. But after spending a week on a sun lounger thinking of little else, I've had to conclude that the reason I've been in denial for so long about my circumstances is because for various reasons (I'll spare you the epic rant) I'm really not ready to not work. Even if I have now acknowledged it's time to take advantage, take a few risks and try and find something to engage my brain away from an employer whose actions I'm finding increasingly abhorrent and repugnant. And suddenly I have lots of ideas, some may work, some may crash and burn horribly. But so long as I can keep my nerve after the tan has faded, it's gonna be FUN! And if all else fails I've set myself a deadline to leave that one way or another will give me time enough to plan without being too far off to become complacent. Because if nothing else I fully intend to not go gentle into the good night...
Anyway there must be others here who've either been through a similar dilemma or are headed that way, would love to hear your thinking.
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elliotn
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Post by elliotn on Mar 5, 2017 2:11:22 GMT
Retired Q1 '09 in the aftermath of Lehmans, 38, now living in the tropics, topping up capital with p2p.
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stevio
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Post by stevio on Mar 5, 2017 8:35:04 GMT
Think you have to have a set target of amount of money you need to retire, rather than an age.
Vast majority people wait till state pension age or age they can take their personal pension as their money is linked to that
Also majority of people live to their current earnings, so as earnings generally increase with age, so does spending. So target income needed to retire becomes an ever increasing target.
Unless you live below your means, in which case you reach your target retirement income faster. But their is the dilemma of whether your enjoying your earnings whilst still young enough to do so (or get hit by bus and be the richest corpse in the graveyard!)
You will also get the do a job you love brigade then you won't want to retire. Trouble is, most jobs you love pay a pittance, so you won't be able to retire!
Semi retirement is possible with some jobs, but then have you actually retired? It really means I haven't made enough to fully retire in the fashion I would like and I subsidize that with some work or I my job has turned me into a workaholic and I can't/won't kick the habit lol
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JamesFrance
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Post by JamesFrance on Mar 5, 2017 8:53:03 GMT
It's all about having a plan. You need to know what you will be spending your time doing and that it will be more interesting than going to work every day.
I started a business at the age of 25, but 6 years later in 1969 after rapid expansion and Denis Healey offering punitive taxation, we bought an old motor sailer in Malta and ended up in Falmouth 2 years later, then back to the business while the kids were educated, which seemed important then. That was the best 2 years for me.
We retired properly 23 years ago when I was 56. The plan involved a small house, a narrowboat to travel round the UK in the summer and a motorhome to tour southern Europe during the winter.
The house is now in France, the narrowboat became a sailboat in Spain and the motorhomes ended 18 months ago, when I had to stop driving with poor eyesight. That worked for us but would probably not suit everyone.
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Post by moonraker on Mar 5, 2017 11:51:09 GMT
I quit my Civil Service career when I was 49. I liked the work, but not the commuting, and about a quarter of my colleagues (including my boss) didn't pull their weight. Within a year I had to have an ear tumour removed, and took another year to get over the worst side-effects. And I was quite isolated socially.
Then it got better. I became immersed in a local history topic, wrote three books, an ex-girl-friend re-appeared and I joined several voluntary environmental groups, all comprising well-motivated team-players (in contrast to my previous paid work).
Financially I had always been prudent, and before resigning had calculated that I could exist comfortably until claiming my pension (which, I appreciate, is something a lot of people nowadays can't count on doing).
To others, I would suggest moving from full to part-time work (a controversial zero-hours contract might be one idea) before completely retiring. And spending more time with one's family (especially under the same roof) is not for everyone. At least two of my volunteer colleagues are keen to get away from their wives.
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Post by mrclondon on Mar 5, 2017 12:56:34 GMT
I retired a couple of years ago just before 49. It had always been my plan to retire in my early 50's but given I was not enjoying the job (Consultancy / Project Management in Manufacturing Operations Management, MOM) nor was I in agreement with the company's strategic direction, leaving when I did was a no-brainer. My perception is far too many people delay retirement, not through a love of the job, but through a fear that they won't have the money to survive 40 plus years of retirement. And yet the actual expenditure on life's necessities (housing, health, energy, food, clothes, communication, transport, local tax) is much lower than people imagine, especially if the mortgage has been paid off. It has taken me quite some time to reach the stage that a day spent pottering and achieving nothing is not a cause for anguish, but a cause for celebration of my new life ! That said, if retiring (very) early it is important to have activities in mind. In my case, I still do bits of consultancy, but now for the mental stimulation rather than the money, and the administration of this forum is at times a challenge. Travel is also a major part of my DNA. pom - reading between the lines I'm guessing you are pondering the wisdom of launching your own business ventures. My advice is to attempt to rationalise the number of hours per day/week you would need to devote to such ventures. If its more than a certain number you aren't really talking about retirement but a swap from employment to self-employment. From a personal perspective, when presented with a choice of employment vs self-employment during my career, I've always opted for employment as it seemed to me the more reliable route to accumulating the savings needed to retire in my early 50's. Put another way, I accepted the drudgery of a life as a wage slave to have copious amounts of time to do what I want when I want in the second half of my life.
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:03:39 GMT
Wow lots of replies thanks, and more came in while I was writing/pondering This has got too long so I'll split it up a bit !! @new2p2p I probably should elaborate that yesterday was not really typical at all (plus was still unwinding with copious amounts of wine when I posted!). Overall I actually have a very cushy number, in fact apart from restrictions on amount of time available to travel ...(not actually a major issue, after a series of "holidays of a lifetime" in the last couple of years I actually need to calm down a bit, as I already need to rewrite my bucket list. And whilst I am going to be planning to take off alone -which has now been accepted I think (!) - with my backpack once my deadline expires, I've already been on some longer trips and know what works for me)....I'm almost living a semi-retired lifestyle already, whilst still being paid full time. I was warned when I took my current role that the biggest challenge would be managing boredom between the adrenalin highs - well luckily I work from home and it's amazing what else I can fit into my "working" day as a result such that I am healthier than I've ever been. And except when the sticky stuff REALLY hits the fan I can generally predict which days will be free anyway, so whilst I am considering cutting my hours to have more clearly defined free time, there's also a "why bother when I can easily make more hay?" consideration. I think it's given me a pretty clear view of what I'll need longer term tho, with my biggest priority being access to interesting people Challenging problems are one way to keep the grey matter active, but challenging people are far less predictable and therefore far more fun (ie intelligent, interesting ones who make you rethink your world view rather than awkward people to avoid) but there aren't so many of them out here in the sticks. So yeah hence the conclusion of no sudden moves, take advantage of my current circumstances, with deadline set (complete with countdown timer in a browser tab!!) to give me time to plan and explore options, meanwhile accepting I don't need them financially removes a lot of the stress from petty bureaucracy (it also helps that the 2 people most likely to hasten my quitting are on a different continent, so we have very little overlap anyway). At least while my migraine count remains normal anyway(every other year), if the frequency rises again I'll be straight out of there (before I started this role it was every 2 months...stopped instantly when I switched). Maybe I'll strike lucky, but geographical limits will constrain me and are non-negotiable - I may have a city brain but my soul is rural (thank god for the internet!), so a permanent move back to the smoke is a non-starter. So we shall see - maybe when the deadline comes I will end up sliding into more traditional retirement anyway. But regrets don't come from the stuff we try, do they?
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:04:02 GMT
elliotn - don't you miss the seasons?
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:04:48 GMT
stevio great points...had already been living below my earnings for about 10yrs before the windfall hit hence haven't managed to make a dent in it even tho I have tried! And IFA confirmed Friday that whilst a couple of extra years would be sensible given current global uncertainties they shouldn't be necessary. Most people don't have a choice, but of those that do I think some people are happy to "retire" and potter around, others not. My 2 favourite people in the village, women who I definitely have to switch my brain on for, both in their 70s, have gone for complete opposite approaches. My ideal I think sits somewhere in the middle, but being female naturally I reserve the right to change my mind
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:05:56 GMT
JamesFrance Well lucky you! Sounds like you've lived most people's dream - and lots of parallels to my grandparents life, tho they were rather more constrained by his physical and my aunt's mental health. They had a very long happy retired life, which he certainly preferred to working, but there were a few regrets about missed opportunities. If he'd lived in a slightly different time with different opportunities and had better health (he "survived" TB in his 20s and amazingly it took 70yrs for the after effects to finally finish him, as it was he only gave up the boat at 83, and only stopped gardening at 90) I don't think he'd have settled into retirement quite so quickly. Which is another source of my suspicion that it might not work for me, at least not quite yet
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:06:46 GMT
moonraker hmmm yeah you've hit one of the nails on the head....I do like a bit of independence/space, which does make working from home a bit harder, and do sometimes miss biz trips - until I remind myself that actually long haul biz trips crammed into cattle class and having to work at the other end was no fun (specially as I'm tall), and neither were motorway tailbacks.
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pom
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Post by pom on Mar 5, 2017 14:07:42 GMT
mrclondon I'm looking for stuff to excite me not enslave me! Having said that they're not always different things, I've always had a tendency to really throw myself into an interesting project at least until I've fixed/mastered it. So whilst I might get sucked into something, and if it were intellectually fun wouldn't begrudge it at all, the ideal is to wean myself off gradually until I feel old enough (allowed?)* to sit back and do nothing, maybe in about a decade at more normal early retirement age (am 44 now) *probably a pretty key thing actually and perhaps more understandable to the female minority on this forum. I imbibed the need to earn my independence in my mother's milk, working is a fundamental part of my identity and "do you work?" is the question that most raises my hackles. Suddenly being unable to shut them down with "I work for such-a-big-name-that-if-you-don't-recognise-them-I'll-know-never-to-bother-talking-to-you-again" will be quite an adjustment to say the least. Deciding between having to let slip about my "wealth" or letting them assume I'm a kept woman would be the ultimate unpleasant dilemma for me. Phew.....next!! Seriously, thank you guys, much appreciated
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hector
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Post by hector on Mar 5, 2017 14:12:50 GMT
Retired Q1 '09 in the aftermath of Lehmans, 38, now living in the tropics, topping up capital with p2p. So elliottm, you are where all my money up until 2009 went, Hugh! 👹
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Mar 5, 2017 14:34:14 GMT
/mod hat off
Late to the party reply, but ...
I've been running a financial plan / spreadsheet since I was about 25, with the intention of stopping work when I could afford to (original goal 50-ish), with fairly conservative assumptions on life expectancy, inflation, future income yields etc. As it happened my company downsized their UK operation when I was only 45-ish, so with a good redundancy package, and a move to a cheaper/nicer part of the UK, I was able to retire early, and 'muddle through' until early pension draw down. Got no children so forward planning is rather easier than for some .. money needs to run out when I do (+/- the odd charity). I'd already figured out that I'm way better off with a lower pension for longer, and keep the tax bill down (BES, PEP, ISA, EIS, SIPP etc all deployed to assist).
You need to have hobbies (even if P2P is one of them!), or a project, or bucket list or something. If you're gonna sit around and mope, just don't go there. You need to have a financial plan ('relying on the state' is just plain dumb, also antisocial) - 'something will turn up' don't cut it either. My plan was probably too conservative (I assumed my parents would live to be 100, and not leave any money .. I was, unsurprisingly, wrong). I miss some of the work people / interactions (especially since I moved way-way away), but I don't miss the 'hassle / excitement / buzz / whatever-you-want-to-call-it' .. I call it stress, personally. I frequently wonder how the heck I had time to go to work 10-12 hours a day. 8>.
If you really really love work then dropping dead in the back of a company limo at 58, as the richest corpse on the main board, may be your preferred option. Not mine.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 5, 2017 16:25:02 GMT
Think you have your own answers now and suspect you were just having a good vent in the first place, Pom but I still can't resist answering your original post. Yes, I 'retired' from Generic Corporate Office Job (TM) 2 years ago, now aged 34. The inverted commas signify that I can't call myself financially independent, so I still need to earn money wherever and however I can, but it's a lot less painful than those conference calls ever were. On another note, have you seen a blog called 'S** Health money death'? It's quite good, and is basically one chap's experience with wrestling with the transition to early retirement (albeit forced upon him in that instance). Might be some more food for thought there. I think you've probably tapped into a rich general chat seam replacement (or supplement) for the 'do you have/want/regret children' thread here, some really interesting perspectives. I think a poll might be more difficult to construct for this one though, or would at least have to be very carefully defined..
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