Counting the days to retirement

[Tiredmiddleagewoman]

I feel so fed up and demotivated with work, constant deadlines and politics; I keep calculating my pension to see when I can retire. I know I need to find a new job but dreading having to job hunt and prove myself again, meet new people, etc.

I am 52. Maybe I need a new job. Do other people feel similar? what do I do, what do I take? I take vitamins, exercise, meditate, eat healthy. Need to work for at least 5 more years. Lost my mojo.

Can you take up some new hobbies, join some groups so you start to meet new people and have new interests in your life? Can you afford to go down to four days a week? I changed jobs at your age and it was the best thing I ever did.

I'm 45 and feel the same way about retirement, this is despite really enjoying my job and the people I work with.

I don't have an answer, so I guess I'll just keep putting one foot in front of the other until the time comes.

Same here....just about 7300 to go!

I’m sadly never going to be in this position and a double whammy of cancer and covid wrecked our plans for the future. I’m 49yrs old and having to start again. My hourly rate is now less than my teenage children’s. It’s humiliating and mortifying and soul destroying all at once.

My mojo has also well and truly gone.

I'm 55 and retraining in September. I've done what I do now for 30 years and given the age of my kids I need to work at least to 65 – having a change is proving reinvigorating (so far!)

Sorry to hear about your situation, @ChocoChocoLatte

Cancer got me too just after covid. I'm a decade younger than you but it'll take me to years to get the self confidence and self esteem back to further my career that I had before. I've taken on a couple of voluntary roles alongside my paid work and that helps shift my mood from feeling useless. Cancer is definitely the thing that just keeps on giving. Hope you find some of your moho in time, hugs.

I'm 53 and am on course to retire at 63. That's 2275 work days or hybrid 850 days in the office.

There's no getting away from it, approaching nearly 40 years of full time work is enough to get you down.

Fortunately I do enjoy the work I currently do and am quite active outside work but it doesn't stop me dreaming about the day I finish.

Thank you. I think I need to change jobs. Current job is all go, go, go. Keeping utilisation high, politics, etc. I can’t keep up. All my colleagues are at least 20 years younger.

I do have hobbies, friends and interest outside work but getting so fed up with current job.

@Chocolateorange22thank you. Sadly metastatic de novo right before Covid hit so our hospitality business took everything we had to keep it afloat and look after the staff leaving us forced to sell it at a huge loss.

either way - am still here so that’s what matters!

Hope you are well now

54 and was made redundant last year with decent package. Now thinking I need to find something else for about 4 years until youngest is through uni. Hope to retire by 58/9. Mum died at 55 so conscious of mortality. Very lucky that we have reasonable savings /pensions. My time out has been fun but it has taught me that I’ll need a focus and enough money to travel and do fun things.

Sorry to hear that I can't imagine how it felt having that go out for underneath you whilst dealing with the cancer.

I think some people thrive in their 50s and some struggle. I'm a struggling one!
I downshifted to a part time wfh role, and even that feels like a bind. I do have the thought in my head that I should be doing more hours but I just can't face it. I definitely can't retire till 65 at least (I'm 55 now), and the thought of taking on any more stress for the next 10 years just fills me with dread!

I understand all the reasons for the retirement age rising, but personally I resent it! I'm feeling like I have to pace myself to keep going as long as possible. What I have noticed among some colleagues, relatives etc. Is that they retire and spend a while just enjoying it, but then end up working a day or two a week because they want to. Maybe when you don't "have" to work, it becomes easier. I see that as being an option for me if I want/need it. Which I guess is how I justify just working part time now.

If I won enough on the lottery, I would definitely quit tomorrow!

I feel similar. I am grateful for my job and my income; but feel I don’t have the energy my current job requires. I didn’t realise I was going to feel this way in my 50s; which I would have saved a bit more, so I could quit my job and find something less demanding.

Feeling the same, and I am also 52. Most of my colleagues in a similar age bracket (and we are the majority in our team, there's not much young blood) are also feeling it. Constant stress, pressure, politics, and an increasing focus on not just showing up for work and doing a good job, but being judged and measured on how outwardly positive and supportive of our employer and brand we are, and how enthusiastically we take on new challenges and additional tasks. I just want to sit here quietly, unnoticed, and do my core role well and get paid and finish at my scheduled finish time. Sadly not an option.

No kids but a significant mortgage which will run for some years yet. We could downsize but to make any significant impact financially it'd mean a much smaller house in a much less nice and convenient area, and we both need to be close to trains/motorways for travel.

I do the lottery Very Regularly.

OMG I am exactly the same, although I'm 51. Cannot feign the interest any more, sick of meetings, targets, boring weeks merging into one another, every year the same. I've worked for 30 years, is that not enough??? Apparently not. I am planning to take my pension at 57 (as they're changing the rules in 2028 when I'm 55) and then get a part time job, hopefully something less stressful and more interesting, just for holiday money! Good luck xxx

It’s worth looking into your pension scheme as some will keep the protected age of 55.

I could have written this. I'm so so annoyed that my private pension has been snatched from me taking it at 55, just months before I can access it, the age changed to 57... I'm so annoyed.

It's so difficult to feign interest in the daily doldrums crap... I cba!

My 54 year old friend felt like this, she was able to give up Mondays and says she feel like a different person now.

Thank you, I'll do that! Although knowing my luck...

It seems a bit hit and miss. I have a few pension pots scattered around and one says I will have a protected age of 55, one says I won’t and another didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. I think it depends on specific wording in the pension documents when you took it out, whether it refers to 55 or “normal pension age”.

I'm 34 and counting down the days to retirement honestly. I just don't find work enjoyable. It's something to be done because I need the money. Luckily I like my colleagues at least!

I'm 46 and if I don't change anything I am on target to retire at 60 or just after. My plan is to move to a cheaper area within the next 5 years and release some equity that way to invest (hopefully wisely). That way I could possibly retire at 55. I'd be happy with that.