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Early retirement… who did it?

JTC

JTC

PFM Villager...
I’m 48 in December. I’m thinking of retiring by 55. Not in crazy luxury, but modest, frugal and with hopefully meaningful purpose. Living within our means, as it were.

I know it’s not possible for everyone, but for those that managed to retire early (say, 55 or earlier) how did that work out for you? Was it too early? Would you do it again? Pros? Cons? Tips?

Over to you guys….
 
Retired once at 52, had a very active self directed active 3 years then started working again (following separation and needng to buy my ex's half of what is now my home). Retired again at 63. If you have an active mind and lots of interests I would suggest retiring as soon as it works financially for you, unless of course you derive a strong sense of identity and satisfaction from work.
 
Do it. I retired later than that, at 60, as my health isn’t 100% (although not that bad). I didn’t want to retire later and find my health had worsened so that I was unable to enjoy my retirement, although thankfully even now, five years later, it’s no worse so I very much enjoy life.
You don’t know what’s around the corner - my advice would always be to retire as soon as possible, unless, as Robn says, you derive great satisfaction from work. An ex-colleague of mine used to say “work to live, don’t live to work”.

Mick
 
Retired from my job after 38 yrs aged 54.
Certainly not mega wealthy, but lucky in that I followed advice & ploughed a fair bit into my pension, which has worked out well for me.
What I would say is that you need something to fill your day. I guess if you’re a golfer etc it’s easy to do.
I’m not, so I took a part time job doing something I enjoy. If not, I’d be volunteering somewhere. But as much as the idea of retiring early sounds great, you can’t just sit down & drink coffee all day every day.
I guess the best way to do it would be to step down in stages, going part time first & then reducing your working hours gradually.
However, sometimes a situation comes along such as redundancy or ill health that forces your hand.
 
Forced to retire on health grounds at 51. I think I had only 22 years service. Now skint, especially with the record buying habit ;)
 
Wolfmancatsup said:
You don’t know what’s around the corner - my advice would always be to retire as soon as possible, unless, as Robn says, you derive great satisfaction from work. An ex-colleague of mine used to say “work to live, don’t live to work”.

Mick
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This informed my decision to stop just before my 59th birthday. Both my brothers never made it to that age, I survived cancer but two colleagues didn’t and died within months of retiring, one at 51, the other 61 ( they didn’t know they had cancer at retiral) I had friends who died much younger too, at 26, 39, 42 and 54. Maybe it’s selective abstraction to focus on these but it did make me ask- would I still want to be in a suit with 50 emails to reply to and performance targets to reach when I was at the clinic being handed a prognosis with months to live?
 
I think you'll find many people on here who wish they had retired early, but there are so many unknowns in this crazy world. If we all knew when our end-date was, it would make life a hell of a lot easier to plan!
 
Robn said:
Retired once at 52, had a very active self directed active 3 years then started working again (following separation and needng to buy my ex's half of what is now my home).
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Did the split have anything to do with the early retirement? IME, a big event like retirement can have real knock-ons - for me, it was when the kids left home, and I found I hated spending time with my (then) wife :)
 
Semi retired at 49. My wife stopped working then as well.

I can't see me ever stopping working 100% so this is the ideal for me.

Still have three children nearing higher education age. I'll help them a bit but you have to learn to stand on your own feet eventually....

If you really assess your lives you often don't need alot of the consumerism 'crap' in it.
 
I view myself as pretty much retired as I make the money I need running this place. IIRC I last had a conventional IT job in 2002 or maybe early 2003 (a two month contract in an investment bank with the sadly missed Cliff Patterson), so that would have been age 39. It took several years before pfm was viable and arguably it only is now because I’ve no mortgage, rent, or any of that crap. It’s been a proper paying business for the past 15-16 years or so. I intend to run it as long as I am physically or mentally able, i.e. it will hopefully be a retirement-age income assuming the market still exists, though I suspect the record shop won’t survive that much longer (it’s getting far too hard to find stock now - unless I’m offered good collections its not viable). This kind of fits with my long-term plan though as I’d like to move somewhere rather smaller, nicer, and further out of the way of things and at present I’m using half the house for the record business.
 
I sort of 'semi-retired' i.e. at age 50 I gave up my highly paid but high pressure consultancy job and took a job as tec support at a university.
Salary drop was more than 50% but well worth it to have time to do other things.
 
Nero said:
Did the split have anything to do with the early retirement? IME, a big event like retirement can have real knock-ons - for me, it was when the kids left home, and I found I hated spending time with my (then) wife :)
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I think there were deeper issues such as the children approaching adulthood, but my retirement from a demanding role that i had enjoyed and within my field derived recognition from probably was a factor. I wanted to reorientate myself to find time & energy for a social life and numerous interests whereas my ex has a very strong work ethic & had become very ambitious to advance her career at the very time when I was ready to end mine.
 
I'm the opposite, still working at 74, more or less 100%, in my own little business. I like it - it keeps the two remaining brain cells working and I can come and go any time I please, and I can take time off when I want to.

From talking to other folk, it seems that it very much depends on the person you are and whether you have other interests. I know of people who have essentially shrivelled up and died within a year of stopping work - without it, their life had no meaning. On the other hand, people with lots of friends and interests wonder how on earth they ever found the time to go to work.

My late father-in-law Downunder always passionately hated work, and, having been left in a good position financially by his company-owning father, retired at 55, and, every winter (or what passes in Melbourne for winter), would hitch up the caravan and head north, and, so far as I can tell, lie on a Queensland beach until spring. It's not the sort of thing that would suit me (I have the typical Irish Celtic skin, the one that gets sunburn at candlelight dinners), but it suited him. So, very much an individual thing, from both personal and financial viewpoints.
 
I worked for a major company from leaving school and used to say that if I could save enough to tide me over from 55 to 62 when the company pension kicked in then I would pack it in, rather than carry on contributing to the pension for little extra, max service having been achieved

I was made redundant at 46 and started my own business. During a visit from my older brother (who retired at 57) he asked if I still planned to retire at 55 - I didn't have to think about it and said not if I was still having as much fun when 55 came round.

I was, and I didn't:D

Jim
 
Nero said:
Did the split have anything to do with the early retirement? IME, a big event like retirement can have real knock-ons - for me, it was when the kids left home, and I found I hated spending time with my (then) wife :)
Click to expand...
Our neighbour came round one day with a box of figs she had grown, sat down in the kitchen and burst into tears. Her husband had retired and he was at home all day. It was that disturbing for her.
 
I retired at 61 (not very early) for 14 months and then started a new job at 62, I'm due to retire again now that I'm 65. The main reason I went back to work was my wife - in a good way! She was still working a few a hours a week doing something very rewarding (not financially). This meant we couldn't easily plan trips away or even days trips. We're more coordinated this time.

Synchronicity with your partner is important as are interests to keep you sane.
 
Retired at 52 on health grounds.
Worried how we’d make ends meet but my pension lump sum paid off the mortgage and not needing to commute, not needing buy work clothes and kids going off to uni in the next few years meant it wasn’t as hard as we expected.
We did a lot of travelling, in Europe and around the UK. Before covid arrived we were abroad for long weekends on average once a month. I did a brief stint of casual part time work but thought why bother. I didn’t need work to affirm me as a person, I didn’t need the money and there were, and still are too many art galleries, concert halls and operas I haven’t seen. I play golf once a week. As the years have progressed and my state pension has kicked in as well as my wife’s works pension and this month state pension have arrived I often think we have more money available than we ever had when I worked.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me because it meant we had some great times with no health issues. I had to have a new hip when I reached 60, the couple of years leading up to that we’re limiting for me and as I hit 70 this year I am noticing I am much slower than five years ago and things like DIY which I did with relish, I now shy away from.I have been able enjoy amateur daubing that I laughingly call painting and have written a few articles for travel magazines.
 
Retired at 56 with a half salary pension and a good lump sum in compensation and love it. My wife was still working but has now herself retired at 61 under similar terms.
 
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