Would you keep working after 45 if you didn't need to?

[elsamayy]

Disclaimer: This is not me yet, I am just thinking ahead and evaluating options.

My ambition is to accumulate and invest enough money within the next 10 years to put me in a position of financial independence. I am mid-30s now, so that will take me to mid-40s. I am also planning to have a child in the next couple of years. So by that point, I might have a primary school-aged DC.

At the moment, I work full-time in a regular corporate job with decent flexibility and good perks, nothing awful, but it’s still a lot. I’m someone who experiences financial anxiety, so feeling financially secure is really fundamental for me. My partner earns a good wage as well, but I prefer not to rely on anyone else but me for my financial stability. The agreement with my partner is that he will go part-time for a few years if a DC arrives.

I love the idea of scaling back or stepping away from work to spend more time at home and just enjoy life and family a bit more, but I am conscious that 45 is very young to stop working, and it might be a silly plan.

So, I’m wondering: if you reached a point where you could afford not to work through financial independence, would you actually stop? Or would you keep working for structure, social contact, or “just in case”?

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s thought about or done something similar.

I find that so bizarre. That people identify with their position/work. We are all going to die: so sad that some need work to find an identity. I'm a sahm and I feel that I have a value as an individual, just as a person working a high status job or as my disabled neighbour who is on benefits. We are all human beings.

I'm in my 50s. I'd love to step off the treadmill, but I can't afford to retire just yet. Another few years to go. I like my job and I have fantastic colleagues. But work isn't the be all and end all. I can think of lots of nice ways to spend my time.

I'd do something. Maybe volunteering as you can be more choosy than with a job. But I'd not sniff at being paid to do something.

Ha same family experience here @AnneElliott

personally, if you enjoy working and your colleagues enough to want to keep doing it at least part time, I’d say that was a life well lived and good planning, not sad.

Not a chance in hell! I’m 54 and I’m so over working.. I’d exercise, see friends and volunteer… and go on many holidays if I could afford it!!

I'm 45 and currently between jobs and enjoying the time to breath. However I'm not sure I could do it longer term, I'd need some bit of routine and I think work provides a base. I'd also like to continue earning my own money.

What I have decided is to step away from the corporate bulls**t. I am at a fairly high level professionally but if I do go back, it will be less hours and I'm happy to fall down the ladder a bit.

I'm so over, moving the needle, circling back, game playing, jumping to the tune of whatever sh**e is the new strategy. I'm done. I just want to sit back and watch mostly males do the above and say good luck to them!

I haven't read answers or updates so I'm answering the original post.

There are different issues with your post. 1. whether I would keep working after 45 if I was financially secure, and 2, you suffer from financial anxiety, plan to have a child and are in your mid 30s and rely on your partner keeping the financial commitment in your partnership to allow you to retire in 10 years.

Financial independence in your 40s means coming from a wealthy background, large inheritance or winning the Lotto. I would never work in a paid job if I had the financial independence to do what I wanted without money being ever being a problem, present or future.

The other issue is if you are in the position to this, you're not. You are working in corporate with a great salary but still need the income to support yourself and save money for the future. You can lose your job, your partner can leave, making bringing up a child as a single mum much more difficult financially and almost impossible to retire early.

If you really value your financial independence, keep working and make good decisions about your future retirement. You may not be able to leave paid work in 10 years, but maybe in 20 would be feasible.

There's also a HUGE value in not taking from the planet or society, but giving.

Let's face it, most jobs are pure bullshit. My friend makes a mint helping companies market their pointless services or even more pointless products. She actually broke up with an ex because they had fundamentally different values, because he thought that creating insecurity and false needs in people to sell products wasn't moral (he's a research scientist whose work saves lives).

She might get lots of lovely status and identity from what she does, but her value-added to the world is definitely in the negative, and the same is true for the vast majority of us. My job is semi-pointless (should be entirely pointless, but I do have to work to uphold individual rights because others abuse them).

I think there's a LOT to be said for not massaging your ego with status bullshit when your work is fundamentally pointless, and instead just focus on not taking from the planet, which is fucking dying because humans like their baubles!

Well my taxes pay for the nhs drugs to keep people alive, so I’m not sure that my job, unexciting as it is, is bad for the people on the planet.

I think that you are probably underestimating how much a child costs and also how demanding they are. You might find that you'd rather be at work part time. However, it's great that you are thinking ahead and planning financially. That will give you some flexibility when it comes to making choices. Just don't have fixed ideas too far ahead as parenthood changes a lot and is constantly evolving.

I also find it incredibly sad and bizarre that people need waged labour as a way to gain structure and social interaction in life.

There are so many other ways to find these things in life rather than through an employer who ultimately gives zero fucks about you.

That is a good point! Many things could change between now and then. Thinking ahead gives me a sense of security though, even if the plan might very well change as life goes on

You are right that parenthood might change my plans and my financial circumstances. In the meantime, I am saving as much as possible and trying to build that nest egg that I might need down the line, should life throw me some curveballs

Yes I would but carry on part time. Or volunteer. It’s not just about money for me, it’s the feeling of being connected to the outside world for me and routine.

I'm late 30s and technically don't need to work as DH is a high earner but I do. I work part time, 3 days a week. DDs are both in primary school.

It is the absolute best all-round compromise. I enjoy the routine and social connections of work and my salary enables us to do more financially in terms of adding to my pension, saving to help DDs with a house deposit, paying for nicer holidays etc.

My plan was originally to increase my hours when DD2 started school but because we don't need to financially I've chosen to enjoy the time off instead. I have two days a week when they're at school where I can do what I want and it is brilliant but any more than that and I'd be twiddling my thumbs and feeling bored I reckon.

A family friend is in their 50s and has stopped the stressful, full time job and is instead working 2 or 3 shifts a week at a supermarket. She loves it. It doesn't need to be a choice between working full time in a high paying role or not working at all.

Well, that's only because the way our system is set up. There's also probably a greater impact of work on people's health creating health issues for the NHS to fix, then there is benefit of work creating taxes to pay (not enough) for the work related health issues many suffer.

You may not like the idea of your work being bullshit, but if your best argument is "well, I pay tax" then you might want to get acquainted with the idea that the current work, tax and benefit system is kind of... Shit.

I think it is nice to not be working for the 10 years where you have young children at home / in primary school. I certainly feel that it is where I need to be right now although I still work part time.

Taking time away for a number of years doesn’t mean retiring. It just means pausing to focus on something else and then potentially starting to work again perhaps doing something else.

We may have to agree to disagree on that one @TheNinkyNonkyIsATardis - the only reason the system is broken is because people want more out than they pay in.

it is not the point of this thread though, I’ve said why I would at least carry on PT and you’ve said that you don’t believe in work at all. i’ll leave it there.

I would love to and would have no problem filling my days and staying intellectually stimulated!

I’m throwing everything at the earliest possible age I can retire, which is probably 60. It’s so upsetting to think that used to be standard in my profession and now it will be early!

I think you've missed part of my point.

The system is broken in two ways.

1. It's bureaucratic, unwieldy, wastes money and resources etc
2. It's predicated on people paying in using taxed income, rather than a cashless society where people contribute what they can and receive what they need.

I know this is pie in the sky, but whilst we live in a world with plentiful resources for all, it is flat insane that most of us are working bullshit jobs that are predicated on different income, to supply billionaires with the latest yacht. All the while refusing to acknowledge that yes, someone doing a job purely to provide tax to pay for something that we could have just agreed to share, is flat bonkers.

If I genuinely had enough money for a good old age income then yes I’d stop working.

But also being aware of cost of living, potential for stock market crash which may affect income, kids are expensive and could I support them through childhood, pay for expensive school trips, etc and support through university.

So you want us to return to a bartering system? Ok…this is definitely besides the point of the thread though.

But if I was tempted to work a few hours a week, I’d love to do the picking for online supermarket orders!

There is a correlation between early retirement/ not working at all and getting dementia. I wouldn’t want to take the risk and I would continue working.

Heck no!!!!