What was the reason that made you retire?

[BeeCucumber]

I work part time and I will soon reach state pension age and I can retire - but I’m not sure if I want to. As there is no requirement to officially retire at 66, I wonder how did you know when it was the time to leave?

I think that the decision may actually be made for me... 😢

I'm fed up with working, don't need the money, and have other things I'd rather do.

If some or all of these don't apply to you, why not carry on? You'll get a bigger state pension if you delay taking it.

I'm 63, still enjoy my job but will retire next year - DH wants to do lots of travel while we're still healthy enough.

The realisation my manager was a complete two faced cow
Didn't need the money
Fed up covering for other lazy colleagues
Working long shifts, short staffed and being expected to work for free
Fed up getting home late pretty much every shift

When I reached the point where I truly hated going to work, was lucky in that I could retire, if I’d still enjoyed the job I’d have stayed but it reached a point where I just wanted it to be the end of the week as soon as it started

My DH announced out of the blue that he was going to buy a property in London. He gave me some cock and bull story with lots to f crap about how he found the property.. It was a new build in Canary Wharf. On the way he home he said, so nonchalantly, ‘of course I can’t afford to run two homes’.

He was quite a selfish person, so I handed in my notice at work. That was 20 years ago. We are still together but secretly I have never forgiven him.

I stopped being a very part time nurse at 48 after I’d had a year off having both of my shoulders repaired . I’d have likely gone back if I had liked the ward I was on but I didn’t I hated it . I did intend to do the odd bank shift but everyone at home persuaded me not to bother . My husband was 65 last month and still wfh full time and has no intention of retiring .

There's more to life than the daily grind. Retired at 52

I got fed up with work politics, working conditions are worsening all the time and I'm not able to do the job to the standard I wanted. most of all I was just tired and as I could go at 60 I did. There is so much negativity about maternity care in the press and it's really hurtful when you know you and your colleagues are working so hard.

I work in IT. Jobs disappear with amazing regularity so I'll just not look for another job, when the next one disappears.

I'm counting down the paychecks now. 23 to go. 😅

mission creep at school - SLT always wanting more clubs, more duties, more reports, more intervention. At 60 there is nothing left in the tank though happy to tutor instead

I'm 55. Not felt the same since my cancer diagnosis in 2021.
Gone down to 4 days teaching now but my patience is waning.
Entitled children, pushy, demanding & unrealistic parents are all making me feel that teaching is losing its appeal.

Not to mention constant demands from SLT with Ofsted looming (& I work in a decent school).

We've recently downsized in order to be mortgage free with a view to me retiring in the next 2 years or so.

I may get another stress free job doing something.

I have worked with some legendary colleagues working into their 70s. I also saw how my parents found adjusting to retirement quite hard. I think it can give you purpose and keep you connected. Don’t feel like you have to retire!

They closed down our office and I transferred to another one but it didn't work out. So I resigned and claimed my pension. I was 60 at the time. Life's a lot less stressful now.

I worked in the public sector and our workloads kept increasing, we were expected to do more with less. My health deteriorated and I wasn't as energetic as I had been. At a certain point we were restructured, my new manager was a bit crap and I just thought, I have had enough.

Left NHS management at 61. I simply couldn't stand all the back covering which kept staff safe from prosecution but meant practically no patients were ever seen.

My DH (older) wanted to retire and wanted us to retire together so we could travel etc. I agreed but kept the option open of working if I felt bored (teacher so supply/exam marking etc). I never have but I think having the option of return made me more confident about retiring.

I was made redundant when my college closed down and due to my age was basically forced into retirement. Took a while to get used to it and my brain could not get used to the thought of being retired. I'm still more than three years off the official retirement age and have now settled down, doing childcare for various GCs and have a small job working 6 hours per week. DH is officially retired and loving it - spends his time helping out with GCs, doing odd jobs around the house, gardening and exercises his brain playing complicated strategic games online!!

Not my choice. I was seriously ill and took too long to recover apparently. My ex employers gave me the choice of applying for ill health retirement or they'd sack me anyway. Not really what I'd term a "choice", but that's life. Traumatic at the time but I wouldn't go back now for all the tea in China.

Financially I had to stay until state pension age but I was desperate to leave. I was utterly exhausted, very stressed and disliked the job. I was in the NHS and used to enjoy the job but excessive workload and nasty management made me hate it. They would not let me go part-time.
My health improved greatly once retired and never regretted it.

I had to retire at 58 due to ill health. It was a hell of a shock tbh, it's taken me a good couple of years to come to terms with the changes we had to make. I felt I had lost my identity and purpose, I missed my colleagues, we also moved house and I missed my old home dreadfully. I still miss my home, not the house, it was too big and I wasn't ever in love with it, but I loved the area.

I have a couple of autoimmune diseases which make me tired but I was coming in from teaching, sleeping til seven. Then making something to eat and going to bed. Weekends were spent marking. I was done. In addition, I had a shitty boss who was lazy and got everyone to do his job. Finally I realised I couldn't engage with teenagers in the same way. So I retired early at 60. Best decision I ever made.

Mostly when I realised that the physical element of my job (with severely learning disabled children) was risking my retirement plan to travel. I was getting frequent back injuries and no longer bouncing back from them quickly.

But also because, as a teacher, I simply couldn't face yet another round of changes. I didn't realise that was a factor until there was a staff meeting (after I'd handed in my notice) about said changes. In the meeting I realised that if I wasn't going, I'd have had to leave the room and cry in the toilets.

I feel the middle of the story is missing. Why did you give up work because he was buying a house?

COVID & WFH showed me just how much I hated going into the office.

From the age of sixteen I had always worked but at fifty-seven I realised that there was not a huge amount of joy in the commute and sitting in an office so I brought my retirement forward (always intended going at sixty anyway) and am now as happy as can be with even more time to do the things I love.
Of course it helps to be able to afford to retire but prudent financial planning means this is not an issue.