Anyone else slightly obsessed with retirement?

[LittleBoost]

I've got about 10 years left until I take early retirement.

I can scale down in those 10 years moving to doing the absolute bare minimum for the last few years (still full-time though).

I'm conscious to not wish my life away but I'm also ever so slightly obsessed with retirement, and very very much looking forward to it.

I track finances each month and model different scenarios. I have plans for my retirement including just doing absolutely nothing.

DP's also excited about retirement but not quite as obsessed as I am, so I try not to wang on about it too much to him 😂

Anyone else slightly obsessed with retirement? Please help me feel less alone in this!

Yes yes yes I have found my tribe!!! Yes I am
obsessed with retirement. I am 47. I am
hoping to retire at 55. I keep doing my employer pension estimate on line and dreaming. Currently in a very stressful job. I may want to draw my pension and work part time ina different indistry. Or do some charity work.

YESSSSSssssss and im not old enough yet sadly!!! X

My people!

I'm 42 and obsessed with retiring.
I have 450k Pot and am maxing out ISAs so I can draw them down pre 60.
I'd like to retire around 50 but I think it'll be more like 53.

I check my ISAs and pension every month.

I cannot fathom working until 65/70

Oh yes, I am definitely obsessed with retirement. Thankfully DH feels the same but we must try hard not to wish our lives away. We have a retirement spreadsheet and are planning on retiring in 8 years time at 57 and 61.

I'm under 45 so I probably won't get to retire before I die. Next time I see a waspi woman I'm going to tell them to fuck right off.

Depends on your idea about retiring. I work in a school and in the holidays I miss the banter, the day to day fun and trials with teenagers and the realisation that I can make a difference to their school experience. The school holidays seem very quiet and dull in comparison.

This! Can't relate to all of those aiming to retire in early 50s. Got a mortgage that will take me to mid 60s.

I had 2 years out of work due to illness and I was, illness aside, so so happy. Gardening, pottering, choir, swimming, volunteering. I loved it all.

9 and a half years to go... but don't want to wish my life away in the meantime.

Have one pension I can take at 60 if I partially retire but that might bugger up the other (final salary) pension. Need to work out how to do this.

I'm 45 and obsessed with FIRE.

I don't really get the FIRE thing. Seems to involve a lot of sacrificing of lifestyle comforts, to give you more free time just at the point when you're physically declining and less able to get out and enjoy it. I'd rather use money on travel while I'm still fit enough to benefit from it, and have some luxuries while still working. I am not planning an early retirement as such as I like my job and get a fair amount of autonomy in it, but scaling down to part time in my 60s is attractive.

I have recently only cuz my parents have recently retired and they now go to the gym, meet friends for coffee/lunch, holiday, day trips to london and volunteer and I’m a bit jealous 😆 I’ve still got at least 30 years of work though!

Im not quite at the spreadsheet level you’re at but I’m sure when I’m ten years off I will be!

No im not wishing my life away

29 weeks to my state pension - I can’t wait!!

See that would become boring after a while. I think I’d need more.

God yes, I'm hoping to go in 4-5 years, at 60-61. I can take most if my NHS pension with no penalty at 60 and I can't fucking wait!

I have found my people too. Ive been in a mega stressful job, its been a slog for over 30 years. Even more stressful since menapuse. Ive made sacrifices and investments and been pretty obsessed with pensions since my early 40's.

Im 52 and my forecast is that I am able to retire in 2 years 9 months and 2 weeks when the first pension comes out and I have meaty ISA pots that I can start dipping in to suppliment any deficits until my other pensions come to fruition.

I cannot wait....

Made redundant last October, at 62, only government statutory / notice, but have now waved goodbye to work, as it no longer valued experience or expertise and frankly had become an increasingly toxic and ageist environment. I will be starting an RHS course in October. I am now volunteering for a heritage specialist charity aligned with my interests and gardening for fun. I have learnt to MIG weld, helped out on a community oral history project and am really enjoying not playing the work game anymore. DH retired early in April too, so I have a partner in crime. We have enough to get by and love being gainfully out of employment and not a slave to the alarm clock!

I'm 57 and counting down. Every day is an effort to get motivated to get through the day. I have an NHS pension I can take at 60 but may not be enough to live on especially if interest rates are dropping and I can't earn much interest on the lump sum I will get. About half of my friends are already retired or part time. I don't think there's any point in retiring early if I won't have the money to do things. I would say I think about it every day though.

I love my job and I’m lucky in that I can scale it down gradually as I’m fully freelance. I can’t imagine ever retiring, I’d be bored and I’d miss my work.

I had a couple of decent enough careers and I did retrain in my late twenties. But even at 21 I knew I wanted time for me and to work in the charity sector so that’s what my ambition was. I worked with people that had the potential to have a great life as they attended RG Universities. It doesn’t work out for all of them obviously but they had opportunities. I now do what I always wanted to do working with underprivileged groups. I considered paid charity work but the pay was just too bad. I also get to do lots of walking in the countryside and travel as we just bought a Motorhome. I retired at 55, I did spend 18 months in the U3A trying lot of different classes plus volunteering for a charity, I now volunteer for 3. I took out my pension at 21 which was more unusual back then.

We were careful with money but none of this deprive yourself FIRE stuff.

@OldBoilerOhYeswe did still have a really nice life, but things like a £4 on coffee on a working day for 20 years saves about £16800, plus the compound interest which I can’t be bothered to calculate right now.
£16800 is what we spend a year on things like council tax and gas/electric. So that is one year less to work, or a way of working only four days a week for a few years.
Save on takeaway meals, and a daily Amazon habit, and you have saved another couple of years of bills and are down to three days a week. I prefer my own cooking and have a thermos flask for my coffee which I take from home.
FIRE lite is a brilliant compromise
At 40 I wasn’t sure I would want to retire. Approaching 60 I am worn out and need a rest. I have the choice, due to my FIRE lite approach. I would urge other people to put themselves in a position to choose between full time work and part time working. Or even stopping altogether eight years before state pension

This is pretty much what happened to me! I’m now happier & healthier than I’ve been for decades - although I loved my job & career.

I don't subscribe to FIRE in the extreme as very much want to enjoy all of my life. Conscious of friends who have died or got unexpected health issues at a youngish age.

I do however not spend money on stuff. I have a cheap car, eat carefully (well but affordable), most clothes second hand. I only put the heating on when really cold, and save money on the small stuff.
I do however spend a lot of money doing things: good but low cost holidays, going to concerts, festivals and parties.

I do save into my pension and ISAs but not so much that I have no life now.

Looking forward old age and all that comes with that and getting nearer to death? Nope. Looking at the retired older members of my family I'm dreading it. I don't plan on stopping working, just working less. I do love what I do though which helps and I'm self employed so I have control of how/when I work.

Oh wow, this thread took off a bit after I stepped away from MN.

I'm glad there are other retirement and pensions obsessive weirdos out there too 😂

I'm on-board with FIRE in the sense of maximising income, not wasting money and aiming to retire ASAP (or at least having the freedom to). But I don't to extreme FIRE. I'm not aiming for a lean FIRE life post-retirement and not doing lean FIRE lifestyle now.

I'm loking at coast FIRE I guess - comfortable but not super luxury. To me, the luxury will come from having 100% free time. Aiming for an average post-retirement income of £45k a year which will come from investment draw-down for starters until I can start taking pensions (though I don't want to immediately start taking pensions as soon as I'm able so I can maximise the income from those).

Someone upthread mentioned compound interest - I bloody love compound interest. Getting your head around, and taking advantage of, compound interest is a super power 🦸‍♀️