54, had enough of the daily slog so I'm not going to do it anymore....

[erikbloodaxe]

Well I have plan at least.

1. Sell this house
2. Buy little house
3. Give notice at current job.
4. Find remote PT job
5. Earn enough to cover outgoings (no mortgage thankfully)
6. Spend my time doing what makes me happy.

I'm not spending what time I have left bloody working full time. The time between now and retirement will just be wasted years.

Wish me luck! Adventures here I come

Well if we are correcting mistakes, it's "The Lotus Eater" - and it's a short story.

Now I loved Tennyson as indeed is mandatory for all hippy dippy pre Raphaelite fans), but didn't know that was one of his subjects.

If people want to bash classic literature (or to me more precise the subjects some tackle), then why has "St Agnes Eve*" been overlooked ? Although I do recall we did discuss "Was Tennyson gay ?????" about "In Memoriam" ("bleak day breaks on blank ---" as I recall).

"Black'd moss on flower pots" - Mariana ?

No, I dont' know why I failed either 😀

I totally get this. I love my job, work 5 days a week but only 30 weeks a year - so a fantastic work /life balance. But in 9 years time plan B kicks in - the mortgage (on the first house we ever bought - small but perfect for our needs) will be paid, the child will be an adult, the work will be done. And then we’ll leave. Bye bye UK, hello extended retirement elsewhere. Life’s too short for the hamster wheel.

I do. 'The first picture of you'. I think I still have the single.

Best song ever !

I started feeling like this when I hit 45 . Promised myself I would live the way I wanted to and not the way I had to . A lot of people around me especially family got quite shitty and opinionated about it . I found that the women in my close family were quite intimidated by my choice. I love the freedom my life has now, my health is great and my mind is at peace. I wish I had lived my whole life like this and not wasted time working for and worrying about things that didn't matter.

I could never leave my son alone in this country even as an adu lt. He is 18 but they need so much advice support and guidance and have so much to learn. Especially an only child. Living abroad brings other problems an yway. Nowhere is perfect. I lived abroad in my thirties for a year and found it too traumatic to be honest. It was a developing country though.

As expensive as it is living over here in the UK is as good as anywhere else to my mind. There is no such thing as living the dream short of downsizing reducing our overheads and our hours.

@TheMousePipes snap! We're on the same track, 2032, house paid off, DCs finished education. We're going traveling for an extended period and then spending 8 months of each year somewhere cheap beautiful hot and tropical! (Dual passport)

Thank you for giving me real clarity for my future plans. Best of luck, go for it.

@Zippedydoo123

I could never leave my son alone in this country even as an adu lt. He is 18 but they need so much advice support and guidance and have so much to learn. Especially an only child. Living abroad brings other problems an yway. Nowhere is perfect. I lived abroad in my thirties for a year and found it too traumatic to be honest. It was a developing country though.*

What if he wants to leave the country?

@Wiccan
"
I started feeling like this when I hit 45 . Promised myself I would live the way I wanted to and not the way I had to . A lot of people around me especially family got quite shitty and opinionated about it . I found that the women in my close family were quite intimidated by my choice. I love the freedom my life has now, my health is great and my mind is at peace. I wish I had lived my whole life like this and not wasted time working for and worrying about things that didn't matter. "

I love this!

I love the sound of that book!

@SerendipityJane i can’t face scrolling back! What’s your view on the OP?

Best part of a decade away! What’s life like for you atm?

I can’t imagine wishing away a decade

Those posters on here who claim to literally love their work - what is it that you do?? Genuinely curious!

I'm an academic. I teach lovely, bright, enthusiastic young people in a beautiful environment with inspiring colleagues and with far more amazing cultural/intellectual events going on around me than I have enough time to participate in.

@LuckySantangelo35

i answered your question!

Life is pretty bloody good! I love my job, my home, my friends - my life really. But in ten years time it’ll be time for a new chapter, one with a great deal less work in it and a shit tonne more sunshine.
I’m not wishing a decade of my life away - far from it. I just know that I don’t intend to live this type of life for the rest of mine.

Oh, and I also educate wonderful, bright sparky students just like mast0650. I genuinely love my job, but I don’t intend to continue doing it until I’m 70.

See you at the airport @Amboseli

I don't think planning an early retirement/ big change in life implies you hate your life now. I love having a primary aged child for example and my work is very fulfilling. Life is pretty good! For me though it's a trade off - if I won the lottery now I would give up work, there are loads of frivolous things I'd rather be doing and I'd be able to use my profession still but in a less stressful way as a volunteer.

However if I did that now we'd be in the shit financially so I have a ten year ish time frame after which I should feel financially stable enough to go for it and DS will have finished school so living near a good one won't be a consideration.

Excellent plan Good for you. What's point in struggling, life is too short. Best of luck to you.

He doesn't want to leave but he would love to go on holidays.

Would you ever consider reducing from 5 days?

I also love my job but having days off during the week - absolute game changer to overall quality of life.

He’s 18. He couldn’t move abroad even if he wanted to!

28 though… exciting job off or let the girls of his dreams and she’s from another country? Brace yourself @Zippedydoo123 !

Has he never been on holiday abroad?

Go for it, OP. Have fun!

@SerendipityJane I'm interested in what you said... why will early retirees be the next focus of the nudge unit? I tend to think that any group who are less easy to manipulate may get slammed - is this what you mean? Because getting out of wage slavery often means more time to genuinely think??

I understand just fine @DozyDelia . There's no requirement to ensure you can pay for your care in old age. Why would a person need more than the state pension to live on if they've never had more than that to live on throughout their life anyway. It's only the well off that will feel it if they have to downgrade their life in old age. Someone talking about downgrading their life before old age retirement because time is more important to them than money isn't going to be bothered about continuing in that way. In my area the council care homes are excellent, the private ones not so much because they're too focused on profit over care. I believe that other poster was having a dig at poorer people (even if they've made themselves poorer by choosing to downgrade their lives) choosing to be happy now versus continuing the hard slog until they die. Not everyone is bothered about the material trappings of wealth or plagued with fears about the future or potential poverty. There's a lot of jealousy on this thread from people whose needs or beliefs keep them trapped in the rat race, towards those who have different beliefs and priorities which allows them to exit the rat race early.