Have you retired while most people you know are still working.

[Overcover]

I'm 55 next year.

I'm single and have worked really hard all my life in jobs I've mostly enjoyed, been good at, have paid well and given me a certain level of status.

I have a good standard of living but a simple "core" lifestyle. I.e. I do have holidays and meals etc out but my necessary costs are low.

DC are adults and I have some money put by to help them with house deposits if that's what I decide to do.

I have some good pensions and savings. Financially I could retire next year, and I'm finding I don't enjoy work these days. I changed my job and now work PT, but that hasn't helped, if anything I feel even less engaged. I also have some hobbies/projects I'd like to develop while I'm still young and fit.

So I'm thinking about retirement, but no friends my age will be thinking about that for at least 5 years. I'm not worried about company, I'll be absolutely fine filling my time while friends are at work, but I wonder if it will change relationships - "it's OK for those who don't need to work" bitterness. A bit like a lottery win might?

No

It’s curious you think people will be envious and bitter. I’ve a friend who genuinely thinks like you and cannot comprehend why none of us want to retire. She has, she went at 53.

the simple truth is yes some folks would like to retire at 55, others, would not, even though they easily could. I am one of these, as I enjoy work, I make good money, why would I wish to give it up right now. My job keeps me challenged, socially engaged, active, and gives me recognition and status. I like my colleagues and I worked hard to get to where I am today.

I find it odd when people can only see their own view. To be so utterly self focused you can’t see anyone else might differ. My friend didnt enjoy her work. She stopped as soon as she was able to . She cannot get her head round why anyone would wish to do differ and often looks at me aghast and says but you could easily retire. Yeah, so. I don’t wish to, no more now than I did at 20.

Maybe the difference is that I know my friends would also retire if they could.

The way my life is going now I'll be retiring at 52-55.
50 in a few weeks.
I have worked and saved all my life so I have a very handsome balance.
And a good pension.

Oh I absolutely would retire if I could! And it's great you've been in a well paid career etc. And of course I'd have a pang of jealousy (or whatever the word is for wanting soemthing someone else has but not wishing them any ill will)

BUT above all I'd be pleased for you and why on earth would it stop you retiring. Of course I'd love to go on exotic holidays or meals out like friends do but thay doesn't stop me being happy for them that they do. It makes no sense not to enjoy the money if you've had the good fortune to be able to earn well and worked hard etc.

And you think they are the sort to be bitter and jealous. Why are you asking on here. They sound horrible people.

I'm in this situation though not by choice, I had to retire early due to ill health. You will probably find out who your real friends are - I certainly have! Unfortunately, yes, some people who I thought were true friends have disappeared from my life because I'm no longer interesting/useful to them and others I have stopped seeing because they have indeed proved to be bitter and jealous and I have enough to deal with without their toxicity. I'm not really sure what bit of the multiple operations and constant pain they're jealous of, but apparently that's insignificant compared to the luxury of early retirement. 🙄
But I've made new friends anyway. There's a whole world that you don't see when you're working full time and I've met plenty of new people since I stopped work, and some of my old friends have proved to be genuine.
I think you probably do need to prepare yourself for the possibility of losing some friends, but I've concluded that if people are that shallow it's really not a loss after all.

Yes I have done this.

In my case it is due to very visible ill health. So nobody resents me (no-one would want my illness) but I do have new friends as my old ones have slipped.

Unless you are reliant on friends/colleagues to fill your time, I'd go for it the first day I could!

In fact I'm speaking from experience here as I worked hard and saved (without too much frugality either, life's for living), and while I intended to go at 55 I stayed until 56 as a package of redundancy/early retirement was being put in place and I waited until I qualified. Then I went out that door without looking back and have never regretted it for a single minute.

I think happiness without formal work really depends on your personality. I don't need people around me or too much social interraction and quite like my own company 😊so I've been absolutely fine, and I am now 67 and still sometimes can't believe that my time's my own now every day.

I can't recall any family or friends being envious, but they all said they wished they could go at that age too and it was great that I could. That was about it.

Yes I did this at age 45. I got lucky with some investments which gave me enough money to retire. I have young dc though and DH still works and is a high earner, so a lot of people assume I'm a sahm funded by him. So lots of bitterness and I get all the sneering aimed at sahms on top! My friends have always been an odd bunch though, most of them aren't in ft 9-5 jobs so they often have free time too, and I keep myself busy through the school day with all kinds of things as we're in London.

It’s not something I’d factor in

I wanted to retire at 50 but that seems unlikely now. However, my best friend’s parents retired at 55 and they were surprised at how much criticism and/or comments they got.

That was more than 20 years ago. It’s probably going to be worse now. It depends what your friends are like of course. Like a pp, I’m a bit baffled by people who can’t compute that everyone’s different and our lives pan out differently.

My mum retired due to ill health in her late 40s. She found that she made friends who were already retired in addition to her still working friends.

Later those older friends died and then her same age friends started to retire.

The extra days you get should let you do a wider range of things, so go for it.

I assume you, and other posters here , know You can’t take your pension potvtill 55 - it’s going up to 57 I think soon ?

so retirement before 55 is misleading term, you’re stopping work and (I assume) drawing down on saving capital - can’t touch pension exemptions in a few limited jobs or health issue

i retired at 55. Ill health, stupid travel schedule, company restructuring and a bloody awful menopause.

I was planning to retire at 58 anyway, and knew there was a tone of things I wanted to do and what would keep me stimulated in retirement - couldn’t wait. But it came earlier than expected .

others weren’t retiring, but many were getting redundancy around that time, so nope, didn’t experience a lot of negative vibes. But I think people knew my travel schedule with work was burning me out and not sustainable. If they were negative they didn’t dare show it 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣. But then I was never one for deep friendships and socialising through work

I then ended up, within 3 years divorcing exh. Not what I was expecting. Not great and very disrupting on what I had anticipated rest of my life to be. Also ended up substantially worse off, as everyone is, after divorce. And then off course, I had to move house. All that took a toll.

but here I am 6 years post retirement. In charge of my own life and decisions. With a great circle of new friends , and closer relationship with my family who I can see more of .

I had to work hard at forging new friendships . I joined th local U3A and some other groups. Yep, most of my friends are older, but we have common interests and motivation and resulted in the best friendships I’ve developed since univeristy! I’m beginning to see people at my groups turning up newly retired at my age now, and I guess thatll increase over next couple of years. Few people at U3A comment on my age , as long as we have fun that’s it.

Go for it! I work full time - 56 - I have no savings sadly a small pension due to low level salary being in admin - I hope I get to 68 for my state pension!

MMHQ's daft deletion policy has made this thread weird to read - we don't know what OP is replying to.

OP - I'm 61 and will probably work til I'm 67, hopefully beyond and I wouldn't envy a friend who retired much earlier. I'd think they (with luck) will have many decades to fill and wonder how they will fill that time.

The thought of retiring in your 50s makes me shudder but best of luck to you.

I'm always curious when people express this viewpoint and I wonder how much the desire to continue working is actually based on continuing to earn a salary. What I mean is that, if you suddenly came into a life-changing amount of money, say, a £20million lottery win (or £50m, or £100m), would you still continue to work as you do now? If the answer is no, then the current decision to remain working must, on some level, be for financial reasons?

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm in the "give up work as soon as you can afford to" camp - I'd rather be challenged, active, and socially engaged, by things other than work, and I have no desire for recognition or status.

I'm 55 and have some slightly older friends who are retiring now. For sure I'm envious, but in a cheerful way I hope. I love to hear about things they are doing now that they don't have to work. I love that it's easier to meet up with them - well, the ones that aren't incredibly busy with all their new activities!

Never apologise, never explain. If you want to retire and you can, then do it. If you find people are chippy about it, it's their loss. I have a faint hope that I might be able to retire at 60 but it's unlikely. Do it for all of us!

I know what you mean, but for me it would be more about having that sort of money and knowing that I had to do something with it and that would become my work IYSWIM

I am the same age as you OP and I am having MSK problems which are making it likely that I will need to retire earlier than I want to. I absolutely love my job and it makes me sad. My best friend has probably only worked around four or five years out of the 35 years that I’ve known her as she is independently financially comfortable.

We have completely different life experiences and that is one of the things that we appreciate in each other.

I think you may need better friends

if you suddenly came into a life-changing amount of money, say, a £20million lottery win (or £50m, or £100m), would you still continue to work as you do now?

I genuinely think I would.

For me, it's not about status or recognition (ha!). I enjoy my job, like my colleagues, appreciate the structure and routine work gives me.

If I were to come into millions, I'd still toddle off to work in my brand new Mercedes and really enjoy my weekends and holidays!

Yes i know all that.

I know what you mean, but for me it would be more about having that sort of money and knowing that I had to do something with it and that would become my work IYSWIM

For me, that amount of money would mean freedom to do the things I really want to do, but don't have time to because of work. It then becomes a question of "how much" of a lottery win (or pension/savings/investments) would it take to allow you to retire and do those things... £10m? £5m? £1m? £500k? That's why I always smile when I read the type of response that goes something like "I love my job and therefore don't want to retire because I can't imagine getting the same fulfilment from retirement even though I can afford to retire". But everyone has a price at which they would retire, so the decision is always, fundamentally, financial.