Early retirement, did people question your choices?

[Floofydawg]

I'm planning on retiring at the end of this year, by which time I'll be 57. Professional, well paid job. I'm just tired of it all. I'll have a fairly comfortable retirement but I won't be rich. My thinking is that you can't get the time back, but I could always earn a bit more money at some point if I felt I needed to.

When I've told friends and family, some of them are questioning my choices quite hard. Family are very money driven and they can't understand why I would give up a well paid job this young.

If you retired early, did you have people questioning you? Did you regret your choice?

I didn't have any negative comments when l retired on my 55th birthday . Everyone wished they could do it too tbh.
I have never regretted it, you cannot buy back time or health.

Sounds great! Do you have plans to change your life much (move or go travelling) or will you just enjoy having more free time?

I retired at 57 and everyone just says "well done, wish I could" etc.
It seems to be only on MN where people say that they "could not bear to retire so early, would be bored, would feel they have no purpose without work" etc.
If you are financially secure, have hobbies and/or activities to keep you busy then I can see no reason whatsoever to remain at work. Who knows what the future will bring, the only certainty is that you have a finite amount of time left end I would rather enjoy that time away from work.

Realistically it isn’t good on a wider level as a fair few won’t have enough

Ourselves and 6 close friends all retired early at under 60, this has been since covid. Four others also worked in higher education and that sector is not as it was.,When you have worked for years and seen the deterioration of your sector why wouldn’t you if you can afford it. I wouldn’t have cared if anyone had questioned me or made a comment.

I retired at 60 and did get a bit of negativity ‘you’ll be bored’ etc. And yes, sometimes I am bored but never as bored as I was at work in another endless meeting discussing ‘strategy’, ‘new initiatives’, ‘outreach’ or one of the other made up endless new ideas that had done the rounds twenty years before.

I do think you need to keep mentally and physically active to avoid aging prematurely but as long as you’re mindful of that, the sense of freedom is great.

We planned the finances for ten years with lots of different scenarios to reduce the risk. As do most people and I’ve never known anyone having to go back to work because the money ran out. In fact if you retire early, the bonus of the state pension coming in at 67 really makes a difference. And far too many of our friends never lived to see the state pension or only claimed for a couple of years.

@lazybone1 Well my point was a wider one. We know people have to get equity release and can slip into financial problems without realising that, a few years more of working, would have improved the situation a lot,

Of course some people can retire and I don’t expect them to be bored but I’ve seen a few who cannot make it work as they don’t have enough friends and no hobbies.

We like spending too much and definitely want more, and have more, than most posting here. I suspect my DH could have retired at 50, but he got a buzz out of running his company and we had DDs school fees. We all want different things from life and we like our long haul holidays and new cars. It depends what you are used to. We aren’t used to frugal.

There is a general point about younger people too. Many of whom will have gone to university and, apart from a handful of entrepreneurs and hospital consultants, cannot go retire 55. They don’t have enough in their pension plans. Plus self employed people whose companies are not overly profitable do struggle to retire at all. Young people certainly look at those retiring before 60 with some annoyance and few of them will ever get near such great pensions and wealth in property.

We plan to move abroad once husband retires (Irish passports enable this). I will bridge the gap between me retiring and him retiring by researching and planning for the move, as well as continuing to learn the language, gym, days out with the dog, lots of reading. I have lots of plans.

Sorry but it kind of blows my mind some of the comments around young people being annoyed by those retiring early. Why would I care about some randomer? So the younger generation might not be able to retire as young and that's really crap for them. But would the likes of me working for another 10 years make that any better for them? Of course it wouldn't.

I'm 61 and have been retired 8 years in May. I don't regret it one bit. I absolutely live my life and don't miss the Sunday night anxiety.

Fab - I think it’s good to keep busy. Sounds like you’ll had plenty to be getting on with. Enjoy your retirement!

well If someone needs work to stay active and independent they are perhaps lacking in the imagination department

Not necessarily. Some people like their jobs, their colleagues and the structure work brings. Doesn't mean we don't have interests or imagination. Let's face it, most retirees don't play tennis 3-4 times a week like you do.

I accept that I plough a lonely furrow on this board though!

That all sounds fab.

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@OhDear111 I was agreeing with you

I retired at 60 last year and love it although it did take me 6 months to adjust. I'm doing lots of exercise and I don't feel tired anymore. I'm spending less than I planned too.

Too many people measure a person by their job and can't imagine them outside that role.
When I retired a year ago my boss said I would be back in 6 months. He couldn't see me in any other role. Just goes to show that he didn't know me at all. I haven't missed work at all. I love the time I have gained and the choices I now have on what I do and when.
I think you do have to plan financially for it to work though. I was lucky that I could take my full works pension at 60 without penalty ( last of the boomers generous pensions) and I have managed fine on that with the state pension due in 5 years time. That said, I do pay a lot of income tax, which I resent a bit because it's like being punished for prudent savings and investments from a very average salary.

Retired from my teaching job 8 years ago at 59. I did get "But Cyclist, why?" from my boss but not a single regret.

DH and I retired in our 50s after nearly 40 years of manual work. We were both tradespeople. We haven't worked for over 10 years now. I can honestly say retirement has been the best years of my life. We both loved our jobs but had so many other things we wanted to do. A major driver was that we both lost close friends very young and were acutely aware life is so very short.

People questioned if we'd be bored or manage financially.

Money wise we've never been materialistic people and live well within our means on what most people would think is a very small amount. We live on savings, pensions and have downsized. We manage well - there's nothing we want that we can't have.

We've never been bored. The house we bought when we downsized was a ruin, we completely renovated it doing most of the work ourselves. We have a hobby that makes us a little money but we both enjoy so much it doesn't feel like work. We volunteer for several organisations, have an allotment, garden, we adopted a dog and have walked most of the coast path with her. We've both learned new languages, learned to play instruments and are in a band. We travel a lot (Two Together Rail Card makes it affordable). Importantly we have time to eat well and exercise. Cycling, sea swimming, walking, weights, yoga and active hobbies.

I’m mid-30s and planning to retire in my 40s if I can! Sadly no free degrees or defined benefit pensions for us 😂

OP, your plans sound great!

@ChurchWindows your retirement sounds wonderful.

Oddly the longer working one have more medical conditions than the others. All ex office based roles (at least for the last 30 years anyway). The ones who retired early all seemed to settle into very small lives sadly.

That's exactly what we did. DH was 56 and I was 57. We're now in Europe and couldn't be happier. No small lives here, there are far more interesting things to do than work every day.

My Dad died young (didn't get chance to retire), same with DH's sister and both of my best friends. I feel so fortunate to have this chance. Plus the joy of waking every morning and knowing that no-one else owns my time is frankly wonderful.

I retired at 57 and DH at 60. Neither of us has excellent health. We wanted to retire to be able to do more together whilst we still could. As long as you are financially comfortable It's really no one else's business. I had teaching colleagues who told me they wished they could retire early too but a few thought I should at least stay until 60. I'm happy with the decision I made. I probably should have retired 2 years earlier still at 55.

I'm going to retire around 60. Maybe a bit before. My husband's older than me so why not? I'm a teacher and am not going to be able to do it physically any longer than that (I've already had 4 varicose vein procedures and need another one...).

I was a little bit older than you when I retired two years ago. I had a couple of comments around ‘wish I could afford to go’ which I guess were genuine and fair - people my age or older who didn’t have the wider security that I did so will be working til state retirement. Mainly people were happy for me, and those where there was a slight sense of jealousy were, I guess happy for me but just sad they wouldn’t be able to do the same themselves. Nobody asked me what I would do with myself all day. I was the one who was concerned that even though I had made plans, that without a bit of a push I have a tendency to laziness.

I think the transition to retirement was quite easy for me as I had previously worked from home part time and also there were changes being made at work which I was unhappy with. No regrets, even though I do sometimes get cross at myself for the amount of time I spend on MN when I have other things to do.

A lot of people retiring late 50s/early 60s have worked for 40 years or more and did not get a degree, free or not. Not nearly so many people went to university in the early 80s.