Retirerment at 43 - Man logic....
Discussion
I really wanted to retire early, still do but not as much as I did compared to a few years ago.
Once I had taken a year off just chilling....spent the time on:
holidays
sport
gym
reading
TV
movies
gaming
relaxing
spending time with my young family
I don't regret it at all, however I did note one thing that did bother me, my brain turned to mush! It just wasn't as sharp compared to when I was working, solving difficult situations at work, or memorizing new information or analyzing and assimilating masses of new information which I needed to do to resolve problems...this remedied itself when I went back to work. (however this also had drawbacks......stress!!!)
So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
Once I had taken a year off just chilling....spent the time on:
holidays
sport
gym
reading
TV
movies
gaming
relaxing
spending time with my young family
I don't regret it at all, however I did note one thing that did bother me, my brain turned to mush! It just wasn't as sharp compared to when I was working, solving difficult situations at work, or memorizing new information or analyzing and assimilating masses of new information which I needed to do to resolve problems...this remedied itself when I went back to work. (however this also had drawbacks......stress!!!)
So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
wantacar said:
I really wanted to retire early, still do but not as much as I did compared to a few years ago.
Once I had taken a year off just chilling....spent the time on:
holidays
sport
gym
reading
TV
movies
gaming
relaxing
spending time with my young family
I don't regret it at all, however I did note one thing that did bother me, my brain turned to mush! It just wasn't as sharp compared to when I was working, solving difficult situations at work, or memorizing new information or analyzing and assimilating masses of new information which I needed to do to resolve problems...this remedied itself when I went back to work. (however this also had drawbacks......stress!!!)
So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
I think you can see the impact on much shorter time framesOnce I had taken a year off just chilling....spent the time on:
holidays
sport
gym
reading
TV
movies
gaming
relaxing
spending time with my young family
I don't regret it at all, however I did note one thing that did bother me, my brain turned to mush! It just wasn't as sharp compared to when I was working, solving difficult situations at work, or memorizing new information or analyzing and assimilating masses of new information which I needed to do to resolve problems...this remedied itself when I went back to work. (however this also had drawbacks......stress!!!)
So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
Ie a two week holiday then back to work be it you or another employee you notice a big difference.
Sadly I think if I had very little really to do day in day out I might find myself getting a tad bored and glass of wine here and there and before you know it bottle of white over lunch with the wife 7 days a week etc etc.
wantacar said:
I really wanted to retire early, still do but not as much as I did compared to a few years ago.
So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
This I can totally relate to. In my twenties I thought it would be good to retire in my 40s & kind of had a plan to do it, but various things got in the way of that. So now, I am no longer as bothered about retiring early...I use to want to retire by 45....now I think I will work full time til 50 (take lots of holidays every year) and then go part time til 70 if I can.
I have also noticed my mother and father who were very intelligent people, their mental capacity and memory has declined dramatically once they stopped work.
The older I've got the less important it seems to be to retire, the more important it is to find the right job/position that means I don't have to be bothered about work, so it just feels like something I do & don't mind doing. When you realize that climbing the greasy career pole is actually not worth it the opportunities can real open up. I've been working a job change for the last year which is very much a sideways, even backwards move, but it enables me to achieve a kind of semi retirement (providing loads of time to do what I want) while still earning the money to fund it & anything else I want to do. I don't really aspire to a retirement in the traditional sense but to a god balance of working & living.
I'm to a certain extent looking to follow the example of my father. He's 80 next year & still sharp as a pin, zero loss of mental capacity. He's not stopped working, but works on his own terms so 3 mornings a week, except for the winter when he goes to Oz.
swerni said:
I think retiring takes many forms.
I'm 49 and am reading this thread with huge interest.
It's something I've contemplated, but I know I'll get bored.
May plan is do another 3 to 5 tops in what Im doing then switch to something with a significantly lower stress level and income.
I actually want to sell up, move to the country and become a postman.
I love the outdoors, i'm a morning person and have never had a job with a defined structure - start at "x" time, do a certain function and when you've finished, you're done for the day.
We all have dreams
I originally sold at 37 - we already lived on a smallholding etc but I found I actually started enjoying work as I could pick and choose and tried to operate on a very strict "no I'm 49 and am reading this thread with huge interest.
It's something I've contemplated, but I know I'll get bored.
May plan is do another 3 to 5 tops in what Im doing then switch to something with a significantly lower stress level and income.
I actually want to sell up, move to the country and become a postman.
I love the outdoors, i'm a morning person and have never had a job with a defined structure - start at "x" time, do a certain function and when you've finished, you're done for the day.
We all have dreams
s" rule. Work became a pleasure, almost like a hobby in many ways.A few years later I then set up properly again with an ex employee and I have to admit I sometimes feel a bit trapped now as it needs to be a success, as much to make sure he gets his moment as for return for time and capital. There is light at the end of that tunnel and I won't got back properly again when this one is done.
In the interim had some great interesting work that found me, but I couldn't be a postman as I hate mornings. (that doesn't seem to bother our current postman though.
If you do retire and get bored you can always do it all again so I don't see that as a major risk.
In summary work is actually pretty enjoyable when you know you can tell anyone and everyone to f
k themselves whenever you fancy but if you are prepared to be a postie or live the simple life then you don't need as much dough as you think you do.OP: You have more than enough money in my opinion.
Once you are not working, you can do things very differently.
Love skiing?
Before retirement you might squeeze in 2-3 weeks in a posh resort. For a couple maybe that's going to cost 5 grand, more if you are a bit spendy.
Not working? Rent your house out, go to Alps / Canada for 6 months, rent a house there, get season passes and do a whole season for less than the price of 3 weeks in Meribel. Can easily be done if you accommodation cost is covered.
You can search out the better value stuff and not have the time constraints.
That's our plan anyway.
The MMM site is worth a look, fits in with my way of thinking.
The MMM plan is not exactly rocket science.
In a nutshell it is: Earn money, live on a lot less than you earn, then retire when you have 20 years worth of spending banked. In the UK I think you could have a lot less as we have NHS and state pensions. Also if your sums are a bit out you can always pick up a bit of work later.
A couple earning 100k between them could easily retire in 15 years in the UK, but it means living like people on normal incomes. A bit different in the SE I suppose if you missed the property boom.
Once you are not working, you can do things very differently.
Love skiing?
Before retirement you might squeeze in 2-3 weeks in a posh resort. For a couple maybe that's going to cost 5 grand, more if you are a bit spendy.
Not working? Rent your house out, go to Alps / Canada for 6 months, rent a house there, get season passes and do a whole season for less than the price of 3 weeks in Meribel. Can easily be done if you accommodation cost is covered.
You can search out the better value stuff and not have the time constraints.
That's our plan anyway.
The MMM site is worth a look, fits in with my way of thinking.
The MMM plan is not exactly rocket science.
In a nutshell it is: Earn money, live on a lot less than you earn, then retire when you have 20 years worth of spending banked. In the UK I think you could have a lot less as we have NHS and state pensions. Also if your sums are a bit out you can always pick up a bit of work later.
A couple earning 100k between them could easily retire in 15 years in the UK, but it means living like people on normal incomes. A bit different in the SE I suppose if you missed the property boom.
kurt535 said:
crofty1984 said:
I wasn't in a good mood before reading this thread. Now I think I should just jump off a bridge. Where the hell did I go so wrong?
I found marriage, kids, bd illness for 7 years then a thumping divorce mashed finances up quite well for me 
I spend probably >50% of my time thinking about retiring early. I'm just 40, saddled with a shedload of debt from having bought 5 properties, but do OK in terms of income working in IT for an Investment Bank. I don't, however, own a family home as all of them are rented (currently rent ourselves in Hong Kong)
Reading this post with a lot of interest and what's refreshing is how simple some of the messages are vs. sometimes how I get it all in my head. Save more and spend a bit less. It's been time well spent over Sunday lunch. Thanks to those who posted links to MMM, another source for me to while away ferry journeys on. Good luck to the OP - whatever happens, it's another chapter. I'm coming around to the conclusion that perhaps you can't plan all this stuff to the nth degree/5th decimal point and at some point as long as you're there/thereabouts on the numbers, a punt must be taken.
Reading this post with a lot of interest and what's refreshing is how simple some of the messages are vs. sometimes how I get it all in my head. Save more and spend a bit less. It's been time well spent over Sunday lunch. Thanks to those who posted links to MMM, another source for me to while away ferry journeys on. Good luck to the OP - whatever happens, it's another chapter. I'm coming around to the conclusion that perhaps you can't plan all this stuff to the nth degree/5th decimal point and at some point as long as you're there/thereabouts on the numbers, a punt must be taken.
MMM has helped me a lot, I always planned to retire at 55 with a small possibility of 50 best case. After 12-18 months of reading how others hit FIRE and looking at my own situation in more detail and tracking my progress I am now working on 50 with a small possibility of 45. I have changed my spending habits quite a bit and whilst I still spend money I spend it on things I get value and enjoyment out of. The money I used to fritter away now goes into savings. So far its working, but you have to be cautious along the way.
Jockman said:
kurt535 said:
crofty1984 said:
I wasn't in a good mood before reading this thread. Now I think I should just jump off a bridge. Where the hell did I go so wrong?
I found marriage, kids, bd illness for 7 years then a thumping divorce mashed finances up quite well for me red_slr said:
I always planned to retire at 55 with a small possibility of 50 best case. After 12-18 months of reading how others hit FIRE and looking at my own situation in more detail and tracking my progress I am now working on 50 with a small possibility of 45.
That's some turnaround, nice work. As a reference point, how many years away from 45 were you after the new MO kicked in? I'm curious about lead time.Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff