To think I retired too early

[hrenfe]

I always wanted an early retirement. I didn’t have a particularly stressful job but I didn’t enjoy it after covid as I was fully remote and my job was always at risk of being axed. It paid OK (£50k) and I had 35 days annual leave a year. No mortgage

Got offered redundancy at 58. Took it. Been retired a few years now. Whilst it’s super not to have to work, I can’t help but feel I took retirement a bit too early. Money is fine and DP (younger) still works.

However, we can’t really afford to do anything “big” that we thought we’d too in retirement. Had always imagined taking a big trip like a month in New Zealand but can’t really afford it.

Almost all of DDs friends have had big parental contributions to their weddings or big chunks of flat deposits given to them. We can’t do this. AIBU to think I should have just milked my job and worked another two years or so?

50k is almost double what I earn. 35 days holiday is 10 more than me.
You voluntarily ditched that and now poor diddums “can’t afford” expensive holidays.
I have zero sympathy.

I retired from teaching for 30yrs age 55, for health reasons. I'd been paying AVCs for years so took a lump sum and started on my bucket list, inc a month in NZ, a trip to the USA for the fall (colours) and a trip to the Christmas markets in Germany.

My point being that you need to plan ahead for retirement and what you want to do. Think about the implications of reduced income and what you need to do to facilitate fulfilling your dreams

My sister was offered redundancy at 61. She turned it down at retired at pension age.

I kind of agree with this, though it’s not always because people are crap, or that they are not someone you didn’t want to keep. When voluntary redundancy came into my office, there were six of us that applied, only two of us were offered it, even though my manager put in an objection about me getting it. The reality was, that the two of us that got it were product managers for end of life products we were wrapping up, we were also the oldest, on the maximum incomes, with better legacy annual leave and pension T&Cs and conditions than the rest of the team.

Of course it made business sense for us to be those included in the headcount reduction. I was very happy indeed. Didn’t look back and didn’t take it personally, I had also made it known two years previously that if a package came up I would be interested in taking it.

my parents retired at 60 and have REALLY regretted it. They went from running a business and working 60 hours a week to nothing! I told them it would be a mistake but they kept saying they can't wait to just do nothinflg....

Their life and social circle have really shrunk, they just bicker and complain all day long.

Why are you being so rude and agrressive. I never suggested some redundancies were not voluntary. However having also managed this I’m fully aware of uk law and how this is managed.

a company can offer voluntary, employees can accept or decline, if there are still positions to be cut then they go into a pool and compulsory redundancy occurs, following a set process. There are also other types of redundancy, inc single person. There is nothing to suggest the op was mandatory and sugar coated.

accusing the op of not knowing what she was offered then aggressively attacking me, doesn’t give you any credibility.. at all.

I think the OP was asking for opinions not sympathy.
I do have some sympathy with anyone on minimum wage.

YABU not to have worked this out before you retired. Surely it would have been obvious with some basic cash flow forecasting that you wouldn’t be able to help your kids or make big trips? A no. Stressful job with 35 days holiday that you could WFH sounds difficult to replace but how would re-entering the work force look for you?

I’ve retired from one occupation and am working in another similar one. So I’m working in retirement. And claiming the state pension. So working in retirement. Get over yourself.

surely the key part of this statement is “WE never offered redundancy to a good employee”. None of us know how the offer of redundancy was structured at the OP’s place of work so until she comes back and tells us, it’s speculation whether she would have been made redundant or not. However, the fact she is looking back and ruminating about having made a different choice implies she must feel it was a choice, which is perfectly possible (albeit not how it worked at your workplace).

What did you do with the lump sum for got for the redundancy ?

and I expect your private pension kicked in when you turned 60 ?
what did you do with that lump sum ?

How many years have you been retired now - has your state pension started yet ?

Retired from the NHS at 55…I’m in my 60’s now, never had a boring day in my life since! I love retirement, it’s never lost its shine for me!

If she retired at 58 some time after Covid she is still a few years from state pension. She may or may not take taken any company pension at this stage

i am curious how much her husband earns because mortgage free you would have thought that a decent salary like the op had would be more than enough for fun retirement

People either live to work or work to live

the later love retirement if they can make the sums add up

tge others hate it as they have nothing to do

and there are people who ca manage finances and make 40k a year go a long way and people who can’t manage on 80k

Agree and offering it to individuals is unusual, as it can be seen as intent. Normally it’s a pool and everyone offered it. Then it’s compulsory if not enough accept. The make u0 of the pool is key. You can exclude certain roles but you certainly can’t just exclude someone as they are good, they’d retain their job anyway in the selection process.

Thanks Changename. Good point! What I really meant was; given my lack of sympathy I cba to offer an opinion or solution.
Id be existing on very little if I retire at 58 (less than 10 years away for me, am hoping to be nearer 30/33 by then) Surely having been on 50k that’s a sizeable pension? Which brings me back to zero sympathy……

What’s stopping you from finding another job?

Well presumably you had a big lump at 58 so it wasn't like you just quit and walked away.

Get another job?

Is OP going to come back and make a contribution to her thread or are just going to keep having post after post saying go back to work to an empty void?

I got offered early retirement at 60, and took it. It meant I had to downsize from the family home that was supposed to be my "forever" home. I've only had two holidays in the last 10yrs, I won't be able to offer my DC chunks of money for weddings. They will have to do what we did - pay for their own.

Having less money but more time is the right balance for me. I had three friends who died young from fast acting, detected late, cancers - they never got to retirement, though they were all on very decent salaries when they died. One of them spent the 2-3 months before she died buying all the things she wanted for her house, things like an expensive set of pans and a new dining room table. She was grabbing at anything that would give her a little bit of joy because her life was shit and she had spent most of it focussed on work. I'd been very like this too - but her death really made me reflect on what I did want from life.

If travelling to NZ is a priority for you then you will have to go back to work to fund it. If the positives of being retired are not enough to outweigh the negatives then you need to do something about it.

I think its hard if you have a younger partner who is still working.

A women I work with took early retirement as he partner was retirement age. They have enjoyed some trips and both have active social life with lady actually starting a hobby passion into a side business

Why would you assume that? Even voluntary redundancy these days may only pay statutory minimum.

Most people would be over the moon on 40k surely.

I retired two years ago at 60. My husband retired the year before at the same age. I love it. I now have time for my family, friends, hobbies (one of which is lying all day on the sofa and reading a whole book). As a pp said some people live to work and some work to live. I’m the latter. I am still friends with ex colleagues though so get all the gossip.

When my husband was thinking of retiring he was going to retire on his 60th birthday and I wanted him to wait until the following April.

Then an ex colleague of mine who had retired passed away and his retirement had consisted of one year - in lock down and he lived alone.

So I realised that the extra money he would have got waiting for 7 months wasn’t worth it.

OP, if you want to do the things you posted about, try to get a part time job, but they’re not that important in the scheme of things.

How can you work out how much less pension you get dropping a day from 5 to 4 days