Regrets after early retirement?

I have had enough.
Bolster my resolve to walk with your tales of unending joy. Or on the flip side temper my enthusiasm with your tales of regret.
Go.
Thanks
DM

bin dun….

…and…

and also….

i finished a year ago, on a very small pension. but i would rather live on beans on toast that have carried on working.
spend my days looking after 2 toddler grandkids and riding my bike.
you only need a big pension if you have big plans. my plans are small, cheap and easily attainable.

so no regrets whatsoever from me.

enjoy.

Absolutely none! Retired at 53, lucky enough to be financially secure and had a great time ever since. Luv getting up in the morning and saying “what shall I do today?”, the options are endless.

No regrets at all…. Never even thought about work since I left ..

It’s my first week,can I get back to you on this?
Cheers.

I’m 32 so early retirement for my generation will probably consist of having a week off before your funeral

Jokes aside, my grandad retired early, early in his 50s I think, and hanging out with him as a kid are some of the best memories I have. He basically instilled my passion, and now career, for engineering in me back then and a tonne of other stuff my parents failed in

I’m sure he is glad he retired early so go for it, I think Ton gets it, better to have freedom and easy goals than work till you can’t just so you can afford a bigger house to retire in

Good luck!

17 months in and I have no regrets. It is worth you having a browse of the three threads liked by @sadexpunk (I started the first one when I was trying to decide if it was time for me to retire), a lot of the potential issues are discussed there.

I’m lucky in that I earned and saved enough that the money isn’t anything I need to worry about. TJ and Ton have shown that you don’t need loads, but you do have to be realistic about how you want to spend your time. A friend of mine retired last year and got her calculations wrong and now needs to do various bits of soul destroying gig-economy work to finance the lunches and cocktail lifestyle that she’d like.

I’m 32 so early retirement for my generation will probably consist of having a week off before your funeral

A whole week off! The youth of today – absolutely no work ethic.

My plan’s to see how long it takes payroll to notice.

The financials are important but for some (me) there is a psychological impact. After working 40+ years its quite a bit change…

My dad retired after 30+ years in the police in his early fifties. Since then he has help build a steel blue water yacht, been a school groundskeeper, handyman and mini bus driver, lifeguard at the local pool and now in his 70s actually stopped paid employment. He still can’t sit still but don’t think he has any regrets.

I’m targeting a late 50s retirement and pretty sure I will not be bored.

My Dad died 6 months after retiring and 3 months before his ‘big retirement adventure’ began.

Not sure if he had any regrets but Mum was a bit pissed off as she was also part of that big adventure but it lost its appeal and a fresh widow on her own.

I’m not retired but got this week off to do stuff with my kid…..im bored to tears already…I don’t plan to retire….I will work till I drop…or win the lottery

I have 1 midweek day a week with my young grandson, just us 2. I love it.

I have two colleagues that retired slightly early, only in their early 60’s but haven’t regretted it. Main issues were both their partners had cancer, so life expectancy was shortened, so they’ve taken advantage. Both loving life though.

I’ll probably plan 60ish – see how things pan out/what get’s offered at work. We’ve had rounds of VS, but at 52 I’m too young and they said I’d not get it. I year’s salary would have been nice. I’ve two private pensions that could be accessed from 55, on top of two final salary schemes (that I’ll continue to pay into) so will have to do the numbers.

I could easily fill my time with gardening, DIY and cycling.

Plan to go in 9 years aged 62 (wife’s 60th birthday). Finances should be in place by then to see us through by then. Can’t see me having any regrets!

I have 2 kids at school, have not worked since the eldest was born 11 years ago when I was 33, luckily the wife went back to work, does that count as retired?

I’m not retired but got this week off to do stuff with my kid…..im bored to tears already

How old is the kid?

I’m planning to retire eight years this week. I’ll be 56. We had kids late so not a great deal of point retiring whilst the youngest is still at school and funding the two older ones through Uni. I was originally going to go once the youngest has finished uni but the above threads convinced me otherwise. Plus I’ve watched all the our parents and friend decline so quickly in their 70s that I want to maximise the time I’m actively retired rather than just waiting to die and watching homes under the hammer.

I’m lucky barring anything random happening in the next five years or so we will retire comfortably but convincing the Mrs S we won’t be on the breadline in our 80s is difficult, but I’m working on her

I’m now 50 and planning on going at 55. My partner will be going at 59. She’s a few years older than me and will retire the year before i do.

My biggest issue is trying not to focus on the finish line and wishing the next 4 years of my life away.

My biggest issue is trying not to focus on the finish line and wishing the next 4 years of my life away.

Target fixation…

I’m definitely suffering from target fixation, will probably change roles to address it.

Bored with the kids get new kids, this what we are doing this week and have been doing since they were toddlers.

I love the idea of retiring early but sadly not even being a homeowner in my forties means that’s highly unlikely!

If I could, I think I’d spend my time riding, walking the dog and finding something enriching that helps others – possibly even riding related. Think I’d go crazy sitting still for too long!

A friend retired at 40ish, after <=5 years he’s got a job again. I think the jist is when none of your friends are retired it’s kind of boring/ lonely. Obviously most of us won’t have that problem to deal with.

Target fixation…

100%. I need to find a way of stopping my mind focusing on this. A lot can happen in the next 5 years.

Any tips?

Just coming up to 12 months for me and not missing it a bit although I do miss my old colleagues/friends who I see quite often and they all tell me I got out at the right time. 5 of us went at the same time and are all keeping busy in some shape or form. One guy volunteers at the RAF museum in Hendon a couple of times a week, another helps out with tree planting and maintenance around Rivi. A third plays a lot of golf and a fourth is loaded so spends most of his time snowboarding and windsurfing. Riding and fishing are keeping me busy in between trips to the hospital for chemo, but the latest scan results are very good so I will hopefully be putting a large dent in the kids inheritance.

Retired at 52 (was lucky enough to get redundancy) and never been happier. Countless things to do and haven’t regretted it for a millisecond. Go for it.

Any tips?

Sorry no. I had exactly that but I stopped work unexpectedly early so I didn’t have too much time for it to fester. I am seeing it in some of my mates though and my slightly earlier than planned retirement has seen a real change in them. One of them has really backed himself into a corner with his lifestyle and I think my retirement has really brought this into focus. Interesting to see his reaction to this…..

A friend retired at 40ish, after <=5 years he’s got a job again. I think the jist is when none of your friends are retired it’s kind of boring/ lonely. Obviously most of us won’t have that problem to deal with.

At 40????

They must have been absolutely **** minting it up to that point, which suggests a high-powered/fast paced work life. I can imagine the transition to gardening and Werthers Originals would be quite the contrast in that case.

They must have been absolutely **** minting it up to that point,

Or inheritance?

One of the “things to do” is to learn to appreciate idleness* and to recognise those thoughts that you need to do something productive every day for the imposters that they are.

*Obviously you need to stay healthy.

Or inheritance?

That makes more sense. I’m 42 and if I inherited a million quid now I’d retire before lunch. People who earn millions, OTOH, often tend to quite like their jobs.

Or an elite athlete?

One of the “things to do” is to learn to appreciate idleness*

He said, to a bunch of people posting on a message board at 11am on a weekday ;)

My biggest issue is trying not to focus on the finish line and wishing the next 4 years of my life away.

Be very aware of this. A colleague was counting down to retiring at 55 literally knew how much the price of a Starbucks a day made to his pension, and ended up having a breakdown at 52, just so fixated on his retirement he lost touch with the present.

I’m 53 this month. 7 more years if we fund youngest through uni, and I can claim a couple of my early private pensions at that point, but my main civil service pension is no use till I hit state pension age.

We’ve both worked part time around kids and now elderly parents, so funds not huge

but my main civil service pension is no use till I hit state pension age.

No early option? Always assumed civil servants could go early….

No early option? Always assumed civil servants could go early….

Yep, up to 10 years, which about cuts your forecast in half.

my main civil service pension is no use till I hit state pension age.

[EDIT – wrote this before the above] I plan to take my CS pension as early as possible i.e. 10 years before state pension age. Which for me – as a relative youngster – will be at least 58 (probably 60-61 by the time I get there).

It’ll cut it in half from what it would be 10 years later, but I figure that is going to be worth it, as I’d rather have freedom in my 60s than be wealthier in my 70s.

i finished a year ago, on a very small pension. but i would rather live on beans on toast that have carried on working.
spend my days looking after 2 toddler grandkids and riding my bike.
you only need a big pension if you have big plans. my plans are small, cheap and easily attainable.

so no regrets whatsoever from me.

enjoy.

Everything is relative. What a small pension means to one person means something very different to another. I wonder how many people took that approach a few years ago and worked out what they could just about get away with but cut the margins so tight that they are about to get dry bummed by the increase in fuel bills we are currently enjoying. That’s just swapping the stress and boredom of work with the stress of not knowing how you are going to pay the bills and the boredom of not having any spare cash to do anything too interesting with your time.

I’m 50 in a few weeks. I feel I’m the inter generation between the milk and honey retirements of my parent’s generation (that they collectively don’t seem to appreciate how lucky they are) and the long years of work that the generations behind me are going to be having to struggle on through. My retirement would be pretty financially comfortable if I could keep going until 67. But I won’t – partly because I think I’d be rubbish at it by then and also because I’ll be bored out of my mind if I do this for another 17 years. So I plan to go another way – do what I do for another 5 years whilst actively working on skilling myself up for a last career. That career (it’ll be a portfolio of jobs I suspect) will earn less but I hope will give me a new lease of life and also enough flexibility to slowly drop a day or two a week.

My two priorities over the next 5 years are to keep on chipping away at preparing for career 3.0 and also enjoying still being alive now- young and active enough to do what I do. Wishing away your one life feels like such a trap. My FiL did it – he was utterly tedious through the last 10 years of his working days with “when I retire I’ll…..” and “I’ll wait to retire before I do that”s. Then he retired (a few years young) and has done precisely zero of the things he waxed on about. He is alive, functioning and seemingly happy; just leading a very small life.

My Dad died 6 months after retiring and 3 months before his ‘big retirement adventure’ began.

I used to work for a guy whose mum retired on the day before his wedding. She died on the morning just before he got married. That really sucks.

My parents’ next door neighbour retired at 58 from Fawley power station. He had been an apprentice engineer on Cunard ships and became a senior engineer on the Queen Mary before going into power generation. He absolutely hated his retirement as he felt he had no focus and it caused a real strain on his marriage as she wasn’t used to him being at home and moaning all day long. Then, after about three years he was called out of the blue by the company who runs the Queen Mary in Long Beach who invited him to help set up the replica engine room on the ship. It changed his life, he loved going over there all expenses paid for two months a year and he was so much happier.

Short version: it can be dreadful for the whole family if you don’t have a focus, if you can find one go for it.