How much longer do I have to work?

[Maximum71]

I've been working full time since my 16th birthday and I'm now 50 - so basically I've been working full time for 34 years. I like my job and have always liked it- but I feel like I need a bit more 'me' time. I'm always on the ball at work - it's been quite stressful sometimes. I have to 'know' all the processes and handle accordingly (immediately). Recently my job has changed and I have it a lot easier... which has made me greedy and want even more time for me.. plus I had Covid a month ago- and I was exhausted for 3 whole weeks mentally and physically and I basically stayed in bed for 2 weeks and then a week pottering about with lots of naps- and I feel this opened my eyes to the joys of not working too!

I have 2 older kids- and 2 grandkids -who I adore but who live 4.5 hours away - and I also have 4 stepkids who I love and all live with us. I have my own house abroad which will be paid off in 10 years if I keep up the increased repayments. We also have a small house in Spain (where I can also work) which we love spending time at- and we purchased a small flat in another country last year which we still haven't been te see. My younger daughter lives in another country too - so we either meet up in Spain or I try and visit her there (which has not been that successful recently tho 🙈)
I have to drive 4.5 hours to see the grandkids so I always stay for a few days - I used to be able to work there while they napped and also in the evening but they are now at an age where they don't nap and I have to take holidays to spend time with them. Which is lovely but eats into my holiday allowance.
We are also at the latter end of extending our UK house as we were just too cramped with the 7 of us (DSD's partner lives with us too 😂🙈). Extending the house has eaten into both our savings and we have hardly anything left - and DP stopped working in March this year to do the house (it would not have been affordable to get someone in to do the work)
When can I start working less? I calculated that if I work one day a week less I 'lose' 556 euro a month. But working 32 hours a week would seem lovely..

I checked out my pension and if I stop work at 58 I would get 444 euro a month - if I stop at 68 I'll get 1200 plus I will get a state pension of 1200 as well. Stopping earlier will decrease my state pension.

Looking at the family history my DP will most likely not live much past 70 - so I want to make sure we 'live' the time we have together still.
🙈

It might sound like we have lots of money but we don't - the apartment abroad purchase price was only 21k .. and our Spanish house was 60k about 6 years ago. My house (abroad) was valued recently at 300k but my younger daughter lives in it and pays me rent. I see me renting that out when she leaves. I can expect a rent of 1000 pounds a month from it.

I think what I really want / need is justification to stop working (as much) or tips how other people have created more time for themselves. I just feel like I've been working long enough 🙈

Quite a few of my colleagues in their 40s/50s without dependants have chosen to work a 9 day fortnight (Friday or Monday off every 2 weeks).

It's not such a big drop that it massively affects pension, but it gives a better balance and the opportunity to have long weekends every couple of weeks.

Talking to my colleague who was the first one to request it, her reasoning is that as she has noone to please/worry about than herself, she might as well arrange her life to give more time in her fit, healthy years than worry about a larger pension pot in the future (we are in a public sector scheme though which is generous).

Her intention is to eventually go down to 4 days a week in a couple of years, and then 3 days when she's approaching 60.

Management have been supportive and our work is very amenable to part time working. Because a few people opted for it, a younger member of staff who was wanting to increase her hours after her children started school was able to get an extra day.

Impossible to say, you need to give more information

What is your current total income, and what are the total outgoings? Have you worked out what income you need if you were to stop working, and how that compares to what you would get and when?

Without doing the basic groundwork, there's no way to definitively say when you could stop working full time. Once you have the basic information, then it just becomes a matter of matching ins and outs ad working out where the gaps are and then coming up with a plan to plug them

None of my 4 grandparents made it to 65, my parents are in their mid 80s. Unless your family history is of specific heritable medical issues, I wouldn’t make any financial assumptions on a shorter life span!

This is simply down to choice, for you. You’ve got three properties abroad. You’re choosing to extend your home to house stepchildren - but as one of them has a partner and you’re own are old enough to have kids, that sounds to me like you’re choosing to house mainly adults. And it sounds like you’re charging one daughter below market rent. You can afford for your husband not to work, to extend your house.

If you want to work less hours, and/or retire earlier - you can afford it. You just have to make different choices.