Well the aim is to retire (maybe some charity work PT) in four years when I’ll be 53 and the boy will hopefully off to uni. the aim is for me and MrsG to travel a good amount. Who knows though what will pan out between now and then!

yeah, think that could be a good start. maybe 3 days a week might work to start.
[/quote]That would also help your overtraining/lack of fitness thing Tony. 3 days commuting would give your body some recovery time AND allow for a bit more “decent” cycling.

I been working in adult social services last few months – I visited a very well off couple today; both in late 60`s and wife has alzheimers. Sad to say – but husband will have around 10yrs of hell, then the likelihood of being too old and probably worn out to do anything afterwards.

It has really brought home how worthless the big bank account, big house, big car things are.

Enjoy what good health you got as early as you possibly can is my advice.

Exactly you may ‘hope’ to live till 100 but there’s a sizable risk you’ll have a stroke at 65 and peg it shortly afterwards.

Enjoy yourself its (possibly) later than you think.

alpin – Member
£4k in 1970 is not the same as £4k now…
My mum was saying this the other day….

First house cost £4.5k. With their combined wage she and her husband were earning more than that in a year. If I wanted to buy something in the area I grew up (not that I would want to as it is a shithole) it would cost over 300k…. About 11 times what I earn now.

We’ll you’re obviously underachieving and need to extract a digit pronto 🙂

Interesting one:

My father in law: final salary pension. Retired at 56. Never had a mortgage. He’s now 68, has achieved very little of what he wanted to over the last 12 years and is increasingly like an old man.

My father: has earned and spent a fortune. No meaningful pension to speak of. Still working away from home 5 days a week. He’s 68 and is showing no sign of letting up – work keeps his mind sharp and gives him a more youthful outlook. He’ll no doubt die in harness as his father did.

Me: 40 and descending rapidly into mid life crisis. Well paid and spend far too much money because I can. About to take on an additional 100k borrowing to extend the house. Not enough attention paid to retirement planning.

The idea of flexibility makes sense. I think I better pay more attention to filling up my bank account….

Balanced views as usual on here. Just enjoy what you have when you can, its not all about new shiny things, well it is to some people. A days mountain walking costs next to nothing.

I am q sure the minted people i know who are bored are bored as the challenge has gone in their lives. Also diminishing returns sets in in purchases, if you own 2 cars the second is not as enjoyable as the first.

As many have said above Tony, if you have the opportunity to stop work then I’d jump at it.
An interesting one as OMITN says, although my world has turned out differently.

My FiL, worked hard all his life, highly paid, retired at 65. In hospital for a minor op at 65 1/4, complications meant he was buried at 65 1/2; best laid plans for retirement buried with him.

My Dad also worked hard all his life, reasonably well paid (nowhere near the FiL though), but a good saver. Went to 4 then 3 days when he was about 62, retired completely at 63. Plenty of time to train and rest so he went bike racing, he was still doing 100s and 12 hour TTs into his mid 70s – in fact he was only a minute off a sub hour 25 when he was 74. He’s 86 now and still going strong. Mum died at 75. They had nearly 12 good years together after retiring – campervan trips up to the Lofoten islands amongst other places without having to keep an eye on the calendar. Wonderful. Proud of him? Hell yeah!

Tony, knowing what you and Mrs Ton have gone through in the last few years, i’d say go for it and live life now.

Your health isnt going to vastly improve, and as you say in 17 years when you can retire, you may not be healthy enough to enjoy all of the things on your list.

If you can release £50k from the house by downsizing, that’ll easily give you 2/3 years to travel, before you need to worry about finding some more money.

If you ever want to crunch some numbers, just shout up.

The one thing I would say, is dont just plod along for another year and be sat behind the same desk, wondering the same thing again. You’ll only regret it.

Whats the worst that’ll happen?

My plan is to retire from work at 55 (in just over 5 years), either that or half my hours and work Wednesday/Thursday/Friday morning for a couple of years.

Everything is on track for that to happen at the moment. Paying off our mortgage in a couple of months, currently saving half my salary every month and pension is doing okay.

Halving my hours would be an ideal situation really, I’d get looong weekends, 16.5 days holiday a year, only really need half my salary to live on comfortably so wouldn’t need to touch my pension for a couple of years.

I guess what I’m saying is that yes I think of chucking work in but I have a 5 year plan to enable me to do that 🙂

Worked on the shop floor for 20 yrs machining metal. Never a dull day, a lot of pressure not to scrap stuff but quite rewarding. Now stuck behind a desk with multiple computer screens CAD software, emails estimating jobs for 10 hrs a day. Irate customers on the phone non stop. The problem is work life balance, just can’t seem to find the right balance. It’s either all or nothing.