To want to retire aged 46?

[imprincesspearl]

I’m not going to before anybody comes at me … but jeez, the thought of another fourteen years working does depress me a bit.

I am a teacher (secondary) and I think I’ve just been doing it for far too long (started in 2002) - I’ve lost motivation and interest. I can’t even really look at different schools as they are all much of a muchness.

I honestly would retire tomorrow if it was possible.

I have the same thing in my sector - lots of talk about personal development and career progression based on the assumption that I'm in my 'acceleration phase' of my career.

I find it very hard to bite my tongue and avoid saying "Fuck that, I'll be off at 48 babes"

State pension will kick in at 68 if we are lucky (officially mine is 67 but I don’t trust them) I’m hoping to quit my normal job about age 55 (2 .5 years) but plan to temp work here and there to avoid drawing long term savings, I do have my house paid off, zero debt, kids left home in careers, the things that cost us big time! I think we can all hope to retire early but the key I realised was zero debt and whilst not planned that way, having dc quite young helps

I hear you OP, I'm slightly younger (early 40s) however I'll be dammed if I'm working until 68 (15 ish years to go here). I've elected to put any payrises into my pension (I work full time), rather than receiving the cash now, downsizing as soon as my youngest moves out (2 years ish) and taking semi retirement at 57 ish. I've run the numbers through chatgbt and my pensions advisor and it all works out.

When you want something, make a plan :)

I'm 32 and there is absolutely no way I will work to retirement. Im doing all I can to make sure I can retire as early as possible. Both my parents experienced very ill health and retirement related to that in their 50s which I think plays on my mind.

I'm your age OP and about to leave my job to better support my DC. I don't think it'll be forever but there is a possibility

I dread the day I’ll have to work more when both children are in school 😩

OP, I'm sure you're aware that your teacher pension can't be accessed til 55 (if you're in the old, final salary scheme) and that it will be reduced by about 4% for each year you take it early. You'll have some pension in the scheme that you can take at 60, but the rest will be in the scheme that you can't take (at full value) until 67. There are online checkers for working out what you'll get depending on what age you take it.

But if you want to get out of teaching, you'll have to find something to bridge the gap between now and when you can take your pension.

My plan at the moment is sixty. I would leave tomorrow if I could but I can’t and I do recognise this.

Be careful you are not jumping from the frying pan into the fire! Social work is a highly stressful profession.

@imprincesspearlSocial work? Are you serious?!!! Less money and more stress and 5 weeks holiday!

I think it’s possible, but you may have to consider a drastic life change. To expect to continue with the modern lifestyle society expects everyone to participate in now might not be realistic, but people live very differently and much more simply and manage. Depends what you want from life! Otherwise I’d consider transferring to something that you can use teaching skills for, but isn’t strictly teaching, for a change of pace?

I’m similar. 47 - started teaching in 2000 (retirement age 68, wrong side of ‘78!).

Worked since I was 14 - and when I say worked, I worked to pay bills as I grew up in a chaotic household. I’m exhausted but I don’t know what to do.

i have an ASD child, a child doing GCSEs and a teacher DH. I want to quit but we couldn’t afford for me to retrain and tbh, I don’t think I have the mental capacity to.

It is but it’s the change I’m wanting rather than a rest as such. I don’t actually find teaching all that stressful, it’s just not enjoyable or interesting to me at all. I’ve been doing the same thing for over twenty years and it’s lost its appeal.

I doubt it’s realistic anyway.

You don’t have to retire, you could do something different. I worked in the city and retrained to something completely different at 47. I’m nearly 60, I earn less but I love
my job and have no plans to retire.

I quit teaching and now tutor 25ish hours a week, term time only, working for myself. I make £60k-ish a year and I get all the fun bits of teaching and none of what I considered the bad bits (i.e. marking hundreds of books a week, dealing with poor management, etc). Of course I also don't have an employer paying into my pension! And have had to set up a SIPP as you can't pay into the teachers pension if you're self employed. But it's lovely. I love being in charge of my own timetable, and choosing who I really want to work with. It's not retirement, but it's a hell of a lot better than the classroom!

I think you either have to throw yourself into enoying it, or find a way to do something else.

You'll be a shadow of yourself if you try to operate like that for 14 years.

Maybe try a different kind of teaching. SEN, PRU, prisons, or an LA/Academy development or specialist teacher role.

Look at other w hooks.

look at other schools. They’re really not all the same

Check your iron / HRT to help with life mojo.

I know, I’ve worked in other schools. But the thing is, what’s better in another school will be counterbalanced by something that is worse. So my last school had fairly human SLT (only fairly mind) and warm, friendly colleagues with a nice camaraderie. But we had to stay until 530 every second Tuesday and had a lot of extra stuff I just wouldn’t be able to do now I have young children. Current school has robotic monosyllabic SLT who respond with ‘have you logged it’ to EVERYTHING but no one cares if you leave on time at the end of the day and they are pretty good about my part time (I need specific days which not every school offer.)

Problem with doing something different is it requires training, which isn’t straightforward or cheap, especially with under 5s.

I just about hacked five years of teaching. It would have broken me if I'd stayed much longer and I was done by thirty! I think it was easier to change careers at that age than 48, but I'm sure it's possible. 14 years is a LONG time.

I started my own business with my then-husband. Yes we were/are not nearly as well off as we would have been by staying in teaching, however as you say, clock watching through the term until the holidays was no way to live. Retirement really did take a hit though so think hard about the pension.

I can totally relate. I’ve been nursing since 1990, when I was 18, now in my mid 50s & I’ve just had enough.

OMG don’t do it!
I retired at 52 and within 3 months I was almost comatose with boredom.

Reasons for not retiring,

1. None of my friends were in the same place so I ended up lady that does lunch. Lunch for 1 is just not the same.
2. Only so many times you can clean your house and tidy the garden.
3. It did nothing for me mentally. No one to talk to during the day unless I went shopping. And daytime TV melts the brain.

When I finally admitted defeat and got a job my hubby cheered. He works away and said by month 2 I was talking broken biscuits to him in our evening phone call.

I advent worked for nine yers due to poor mental health and it is devastign to me. I have to probably accept that is it for me. im 53. im pretty much sucidial most days and I miss my old life s much.

In your shoes OP I would look into online schools and tutoring. I suspect both are big growth areas at the moment. Would be a change of lifestyle and more flexible, albeit not quite a career change. It would also be possible to taper it down gradually and perhaps continue longer but increasingly p/t - rather than this all or nothing model which doesn’t really suit most people.

Realistically I won’t be retiring until I’m at least 60, and possibly as late as 64 (my DD will be leaving university then.) However, I hope I won’t be full time and I might find it a bit easier when I don’t have little children at home in the day. I’m just really not enjoying it at all and that’s hard.