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Retirement

archiesdad said:
Settlement agreement all ratified at solicitors today. I'm a year ahead of plan but the settlement gives me over a Yr take home pay so I 'retire' in 13 working days a bit out of the blue!! Kind of a mixture of scared and excited. Worst case I can always find another job I guess but let's give it a bash 😊👍 56 yrs old seems very early!
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56 sounds like the perfect age for a career break.
 

JAZZMANB said:
When I got it in my head to go it was Christmas 2024 . Then I thought about it and decided to go start of April for the tax year and 3 months more salary . Those 3 months were really tough . My head had already left the building
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Easy to underestimate just how much effect that mental switch has. Every day feels like a month afterwards
 
archiesdad said:
Settlement agreement all ratified at solicitors today. I'm a year ahead of plan but the settlement gives me over a Yr take home pay so I 'retire' in 13 working days a bit out of the blue!! Kind of a mixture of scared and excited. Worst case I can always find another job I guess but let's give it a bash 😊👍 56 yrs old seems very early!
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Good luck mate 56-58 is ideal age I would say , while still have plenty of active years in you , if find not ready could always get a stress free part time job to top up money . Having hobbies and things to fill your time wil be the deal breaker . If you can afford it go for it . Must be fair few keep hanging on working past 60 then have regrets years later
 
JAZZMANB said:
When I got it in my head to go it was Christmas 2024 . Then I thought about it and decided to go start of April for the tax year and 3 months more salary . Those 3 months were really tough . My head had already left the building
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I decided about 6 months ago to retire in March 2026 at the end of the tax year. I haven't done any work since December but have agreed to do 2 days next week to help out. They want to speak to me about future work even though I've told them I'm not interested after March. I've a feeling they are going to offer more money if I will do work for them when they are very busy.
I've also noticed I spend a lot less not working than when I am at work. No diesel, no replacing tools, no takeaways because I'm too knackered to cook and batch cooking because I now have the time. I could get used to this retirement lark.
 
Tuono said:
I decided about 6 months ago to retire in March 2026 at the end of the tax year. I haven't done any work since December but have agreed to do 2 days next week to help out. They want to speak to me about future work even though I've told them I'm not interested after March. I've a feeling they are going to offer more money if I will do work for them when they are very busy.
I've also noticed I spend a lot less not working than when I am at work. No diesel, no replacing tools, no takeaways because I'm too knackered to cook and batch cooking because I now have the time. I could get used to this retirement lark.
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Its not full on bucket list living
Maybe with an endless lump it maybe but it's just a life doing as you please when . I dont eat as much now . At work I was starving hy 11am ,tea ,biscuits . Bait vans . People sharing kets .
This weather and short days limit your options but im going fine
Coffee with the lads this morning ,usually a roker to Whitburn walk but it's lashing down
 
i need to see a financial advisor so i can lock in a date to pull the pin. probably need to work for a couple of more years if i can do that without committing multiple, violent homicides. I have long service leave up my sleeve, which I can take at half pay (which isn't half pay as i'd drop down a tax bracket). If I tack on some annual leave as well then I can take around 9 months off and then retire.
I also dodged redundancy last year but i could get a tap on the shoulder again. this year may be a little too early but anytime 2027 onwards would be sensational (over a year's gross salary payout)
 
Tuono said:
I decided about 6 months ago to retire in March 2026 at the end of the tax year. I haven't done any work since December but have agreed to do 2 days next week to help out. They want to speak to me about future work even though I've told them I'm not interested after March. I've a feeling they are going to offer more money if I will do work for them when they are very busy.
I've also noticed I spend a lot less not working than when I am at work. No diesel, no replacing tools, no takeaways because I'm too knackered to cook and batch cooking because I now have the time. I could get used to this retirement lark.
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My father in law retired recently but after a while the company he was working for asked him to come back. Originally he was on the edge of retiring, mostly managing third parties abroad, but was told the company was going to a mandatory 3 days in the office. He resigned on the spot.

Eventually they struggled without him, offered him a part time fixed-term position working from home, but took almost 6 months for that to materialise. He did it for the fixed-term (6 or 12 months, I can't remember), but found he had no desire to keep going having previously enjoyed his retirement.

Now he is doing a lot of work for a charity organisation he got involved with. He saw stuff that needed doing and said he would do it. But he does it at his own pace, his own hours. Things like writing data retention policies. He enjoys having something to do an contributing while having zero pressure.
 
DaveH said:
My father in law retired recently but after a while the company he was working for asked him to come back. Originally he was on the edge of retiring, mostly managing third parties abroad, but was told the company was going to a mandatory 3 days in the office. He resigned on the spot.

Eventually they struggled without him, offered him a part time fixed-term position working from home, but took almost 6 months for that to materialise. He did it for the fixed-term (6 or 12 months, I can't remember), but found he had no desire to keep going having previously enjoyed his retirement.

Now he is doing a lot of work for a charity organisation he got involved with. He saw stuff that needed doing and said he would do it. But he does it at his own pace, his own hours. Things like writing data retention policies. He enjoys having something to do an contributing while having zero pressure.
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I've been self employed since I was 20 years old and I'm used to having months off when ever I wanted. Now I've got permanent retirement in my head it's hard to get motivated to do even the smallest job. Your dad sounds like he has it sorted.
 
Tuono said:
I've been self employed since I was 20 years old and I'm used to having months off when ever I wanted. Now I've got permanent retirement in my head it's hard to get motivated to do even the smallest job. Your dad sounds like he has it sorted.
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Nice.

There has been a few times I have thought about self employment. My wife is self employed. She started a career after graduating, had the 9x5, the commute, meetings. And then we had children and she found she could not drop out for a couple of hours to see the school play. Take a half day for all these, she runs out of holiday. One of them sick really made life difficult, and she did not like the nature of the job anyway. So she took the maternity leave from our second (who was a great sleeper), reskilled herself, built up a portfolio of free/low paid work and could then launch fully as freelance.

Now not only does she do the hours she pleases, she does what work she finds interesting. She is busy applying for a small research grant which would pay her to do some stuff she is currently doing as a hobby.

There are times I feel quite jealous of that lifestyle. But on the other hand I have a good pension, guaranteed income, and my line of work is managing aspects of large IT infrastructure. I like both the short term and the long term planning and improvements. You can't do that freelance. So my plan has to be, work, keep the money rolling in, plan for retirement, get out.
 
Tuono said:
That's the down side of being self employed, providing for your old age.
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Tell me about it!

I’ve been self employed for 35+ years, am in my sixties, and only recently got my act together to provide for the future. Luckily, I have always been saving into an ISA and have left myself enough time before my retirement date to be able to transfer enough of these savings into an adequate pension pot. The sums add up and there is just enough time left, but I DO wish I’d had my moment of financial clarity to make a start on this pension payment regime about 10 years ago. It would have made my life much less stressful and I would urge anyone else to plan earlier than me! Start early, kiddo.

But hey-ho, here we are with a viable plan and the finishing line in sight.
 
Treeboy said:
Tell me about it!

I’ve been self employed for 35+ years, am in my sixties, and only recently got my act together to provide for the future. Luckily, I have always been saving into an ISA and have left myself enough time before my retirement date to be able to transfer enough of these savings into an adequate pension pot. The sums add up and there is just enough time left, but I DO wish I’d had my moment of financial clarity to make a start on this pension payment regime about 10 years ago. It would have made my life much less stressful and I would urge anyone else to plan earlier than me! Start early, kiddo.

But hey-ho, here we are with a viable plan and the finishing line in sight.
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Some wise words in the above post,
If you don't look after yourself today there will be very few that will tommorow.
 
Treeboy said:
Tell me about it!

I’ve been self employed for 35+ years, am in my sixties, and only recently got my act together to provide for the future. Luckily, I have always been saving into an ISA and have left myself enough time before my retirement date to be able to transfer enough of these savings into an adequate pension pot. The sums add up and there is just enough time left, but I DO wish I’d had my moment of financial clarity to make a start on this pension payment regime about 10 years ago. It would have made my life much less stressful and I would urge anyone else to plan earlier than me! Start early, kiddo.

But hey-ho, here we are with a viable plan and the finishing line in sight.
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I'm similar, my first house was on an endowment mortgage which turned out to be a bad decision. Then when I divorced my first wife she got half the house and a big chunk of the endowment. So it was like starting over again pension wise. Spending a lot of time abroad messed up my government pension due to having only 29 full years NI contributions and 17 years part contributions which count for nothing even though some years I'd paid over 40 weeks NI contributions out of 52.
I do have a small private pension and maxed out my ISA's the last few years so I'll survive.
Tuono said:
I decided about 6 months ago to retire in March 2026 at the end of the tax year. I haven't done any work since December but have agreed to do 2 days next week to help out. They want to speak to me about future work even though I've told them I'm not interested after March. I've a feeling they are going to offer more money if I will do work for them when they are very busy.
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A new development. I got an email at 11pm last night from the company I do work for to tell me the company is to cease trading from this Sunday. The 3 directors have set up their own companies and I'm wanted by the only one who knows what he is doing. Of the other two, one is just interested in making money for himself and tells lies to workers and customers alike. He'll promise the earth and let you down at the last minute. The other is a chancer and couldn't run a tap, he's been living off the other two's competence for years.
Next week should be interesting.
 
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