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Retirement


tenpins said:
Aye I get that.
Just makes work more of a slog and the time to retirement feel longer.
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There are ways around it. I work 4 days a week, the person you replied to works 3 days a week. He’s away from work more than at work, that’s a big psychological shift.
 
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GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
Dropped 1 day at the start of the year and absolutely love the 3 day weekend now.

As I've said 55 and I'm done. I can't be arsed working any longer.
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I've got my annual appraisal meeting with my manager this afternoon where I am supposed to be discussing my goals and career aspirations. Frankly I don't have any other than getting paid for the next 2-3 years and developing a plan for what to do next.

I get on well with my boss on a personal level but she is very ambitious and career focused. Good on her, she will be running the place in the next 5-10 years but she doesn't quite understand than some of us just want to keep our head down and have a quiet life.
 
I have a job, not a career,always been like that. Just worked my way up to a decent wage slowly over the years. Financially I should do maybe another year but who knows what is round the corner for me health wise.

Might be dead before I get to the point I regret not working longer, or might be fine financially anyway, time will tell.
 
tenpins said:
At 43 I never even thought about retirement.
Do you not have any career ambitions?
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Nah it was always just pay off the mortgage and retire as soon as possible which always used to confuse management and still does at work when I have my yearly appraisal and you have to put down crap like "career ambitions". I simply don't have any, not something that has ever entertained me. I see people studying all the time/working away/living out of hotels/working late once at home etc - that just isn't for me and I don't envisage it's a very healthy lifestyle to be honest.

Given the sector I work in, a lot of the time you need to have some sort of "brown nosing" expertise to climb the ladder and very much "face fits" which I'm not either as I always speak my mind and I'll never change. I'm just happy plodding on doing my own things outside of work and when at work I'll just do as I need. I've never been career driven & never will be, job is a job, it pays the bills and I just come home and forget about work when I'm home.
 
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
Nah it was always just pay off the mortgage and retire as soon as possible which always used to confuse management and still does at work when I have my yearly appraisal and you have to put down crap like "career ambitions". I simply don't have any, not something that has ever entertained me. I see people studying all the time/working away/living out of hotels/working late once at home etc - that just isn't for me and I don't envisage it's a very healthy lifestyle to be honest.

Given the sector I work in, a lot of the time you need to have some sort of "brown nosing" expertise to climb the ladder and very much "face fits" which I'm not either as I always speak my mind and I'll never change. I'm just happy plodding on doing my own things outside of work and when at work I'll just do as I need. I've never been career driven & never will be, job is a job, it pays the bills and I just come home and forget about work when I'm home.
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Similar here. Never been interested in playing the office politics games required to climb the ladder, don't want the responsibility of managing (and firing) lots of people and I'm not sure what I would do with the extra money if I had it.
 
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
Nah it was always just pay off the mortgage and retire as soon as possible which always used to confuse management and still does at work when I have my yearly appraisal and you have to put down crap like "career ambitions". I simply don't have any, not something that has ever entertained me. I see people studying all the time/working away/living out of hotels/working late once at home etc - that just isn't for me and I don't envisage it's a very healthy lifestyle to be honest.

Given the sector I work in, a lot of the time you need to have some sort of "brown nosing" expertise to climb the ladder and very much "face fits" which I'm not either as I always speak my mind and I'll never change. I'm just happy plodding on doing my own things outside of work and when at work I'll just do as I need. I've never been career driven & never will be, job is a job, it pays the bills and I just come home and forget about work when I'm home.
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I was the same. From about 40 onwards the managers I had were always trying to encourage me to progress my career, but I was then just focused on putting away as much as possible into my pension (without sacrificing good holidays or anything else I wanted to do). They used to get very confused when I turned down opportunities. Anyway, I retired as planned at 55 and have not regretted it one bit. Go for it!
 
GordonMuchallNo1Fan said:
Dropped 1 day at the start of the year and absolutely love the 3 day weekend now.

As I've said 55 and I'm done. I can't be arsed working any longer.
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How old are you now? I was considering dropping 1 day every 2 weeks in 18 months time when a couple of pay increments have kicked in. I'll be 50 then. And then thinking 2-3 years after that drop to 4 days. I'd like to retire completely at 58. Dropping days will make that harder, but I'd rather do a couple more years with reduced days than slog it 9-5 for 9 more years nd then stop. I have already said my day off will be a cycling and fitness day.
 
Well that annual appraisal was fun. Lots of talk about career progression, personal development and goal setting which I just nodded along to.

There's a great sense of liberation which comes from being on the final lap of your career and with the finishing line in sight.
 
Darlo1973 said:
Well that annual appraisal was fun. Lots of talk about career progression, personal development and goal setting which I just nodded along to.

There's a great sense of liberation which comes from being on the final lap of your career and with the finishing line in sight.
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Nice. I like my job half the time and do get something out of it, but would happily walk away too.

I'm 1 year into a newish job with about 9 years ahead of me. When I took it, I thought 3 years minimum. After being at one place for a long time, I found moving to a new place really refreshing. Nothing in my inbox, no regular meetings collected, empty to do list, and being the new guy for 6 months carries a benefit too. I'll likely split up my career doing 2x3 year jobs and a 4 year or a couple of 5 year posts. I'm thinking make the last one local with hardly any commute and I have my eye on where that might be.

But all that is the height of my ambition now. One move where higher pay would be nice, and another move with less travel then done. Enough work and learning to keep me interested so the days don't drag, and I'll be content. I thrive on incident management so there is always something coming up which gives me a few very busy stimulating weeks, and then back to the daily routine.

What I really want to do next is make some little tables for the living room and have been thinking about designs and how I might make them. I'd be quite content doing things like that.
 
DaveH said:
How old are you now? I was considering dropping 1 day every 2 weeks in 18 months time when a couple of pay increments have kicked in. I'll be 50 then. And then thinking 2-3 years after that drop to 4 days. I'd like to retire completely at 58. Dropping days will make that harder, but I'd rather do a couple more years with reduced days than slog it 9-5 for 9 more years nd then stop. I have already said my day off will be a cycling and fitness day.
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43. My wife already does 4 days (5 days over 4 days) so we now both get a 3 day weekend to annoy each other. Probably knock it down to 3 days if it's approved in the near future. Dropping a day my take home pay hasn't taken much of a hit, paying a lot less tax which is telling.
 
I've worked out for the next 11yrs upto SP ( assuming it's not moved) age we can easily draw 1k a week without paying any tax. Once it kicks in that will change obviously if it's not means tested by then!! I can do that and keep a 2yr cash buffer to cover a market wobble. It's comforting to see the had work in saving now showing it's real value.
 
archiesdad said:
I've worked out for the next 11yrs upto SP ( assuming it's not moved) age we can easily draw 1k a week without paying any tax. Once it kicks in that will change obviously if it's not means tested by then!! I can do that and keep a 2yr cash buffer to cover a market wobble. It's comforting to see the had work in saving now showing it's real value.
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Alright Jimmy Carr :D Good pension you've got there 👍
 
tenpins said:
At 43 I never even thought about retirement.
Do you not have any career ambitions?
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Never had any career ambitions , the stuff outside of work floated my boat
I was a good worker and got on but it was never more than work . I don't think being super career ambitious does much for your character to be honest. At 43 you're bang in the middle of life's debts . Mortgage ,kids etc so I agree retirement isn't really a thought
 
I've moved sideways in my last couple of roles into a slightly different area to what I originally worked in. Partly me hitting mid-30s and thinking where do I want to be, partly the industry maturing.

Early 40s so I've still got a while to go, but I'll sit down with my line manager who doesn't have the same background, he doesn't get the area I work in, he talks about progressing as in moving up and managing people. I can't be arsed with that shit. I tried it about 15 year ago and it's crap. I've no problem with added responsibilities, but I've no desire to be responsible for people.
 
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