Anyone here had a “F*** IT” moment that led to retirement?

Yes driving home from a meeting and decided. Bye bye work. I retired. I was bored so started working in another direction then five years later retired again. More boring times. I returned again to yet another type of work. I still work if I feel like it.
I’m pleased I have the option!
Hurrah that I’m fit and healthy and not being on cruises where others make the decisions for me.
I work if and when I have the notion
Xx

I wanted to retire at 60 because my husband is older and I wanted to spend time with him. I was also tired of the long commute.

The nature of my work has changed so much due to cost cutting exercise. People who were retired were not being replaced and younger staff who were promoted did not have the same level of experience.

So, the work that used to be simple became so complicated, so chaotic and stressful.

During covid, I had to work from home. During this time, I was focussed on clearing my credit card debt (which was quite a bit). With no debt and eventually no mortgage to pay, I did the sums and hand in my retirement letter.

Definitely. Was coming up to what should have been retirement age, hating the way ny job bad changed. Had been working part time as also an unpaid carer so not a huge salary. Id deckdednto hold out until my ds left school. Then the heavens were on my side and there was a voluntary redundancy situation which I grabbed with both hands. Not a huge settlement but being paid to leave was great! That plus my small work pension and carers allowance helped the coffers until state pension age.

“The Irish system is good. Fecking is apparently perfectly respectable.” FluttERBY123

We Welsh speakers use Mwnci Nel (Nell’s Monkey 🐵) also deemed respectable…😇

Yes .I had been having a bad time at work and was quite stressed . I had a chat with the doctor and he asked me if I needed to go back financially. I hadn't looked at it in this way and decided I could afford to leave.

I had a F###it moment, wound down to three days and retired at 60. It was definitely a good choice.
Feck is Mr P's go to sweary word as in fecking genius shouted at drivers who annoy him.

I retired because I was tired of being micromanaged. It was great to retire. Health and seeing loved ones in ill health was a major factor. Sounds crazy but money isn’t everything. Many religions believe the Lord provides. That is very true and not a substitute for laziness. It just takes time find the right job or vocation. Incompetent people being promoted was also a concern and finding out one was right was also disappointing. But hey very happy in retirement.

When I was 10 going on 11 I had no idea what f***ed off meant. I picked it up from a friend and assumed it meant "ran off" or something similar. I had just learned that the spies Burgess and McLean had defected and remarked that they had f***ed off to Russia. My mother was shocked and told me never to say that word again or my father would give me a whalloping. Despite his background on the Liverpool docks I never heard my father use worse than "bl***y" or "bu**ar."

I had cancer and was off work for about 6 months. When I was better I returned determined not to get so stressed but nothing had changed. I was still stressing out about running a small department and I had a member of my staff who was very difficult. One day I just thought, life is too short! I gave three months notice then left, I was 58 and not able to action my pension yet. My mother was aged so I cared for her and lived off savings for two years. At 60 I could access my pensions and I have never regretting having those 2 years where financially I struggled. I may have been money-poor then but in terms of happiness I was a winner! I am now 75 and have never regretted retiring early.

biglouis

When I was 10 going on 11 I had no idea what f***ed off meant. I picked it up from a friend and assumed it meant "ran off" or something similar. I had just learned that the spies Burgess and McLean had defected and remarked that they had f***ed off to Russia. My mother was shocked and told me never to say that word again or my father would give me a whalloping. Despite his background on the Liverpool docks I never heard my father use worse than "bl***y" or "bu**ar."

My father never swore in front of us but one day he couldn't stop laughing at a front page headlines in the morning paper.
When we asked what was so funny he said he would explain it to us when we were a bit older. The headlines appeared below:-

SIR VIVIAN
FUCHS OFF
TO ANTARCTICA

Perhaps I should explain to younger GNs that Sir Vivian Fuchs was a famous explorer back in the 1950s. My father never did explain it to us and we puzzled over it for years.

😂😂

Indigo8

Perhaps I should explain to younger GNs that Sir Vivian Fuchs was a famous explorer back in the 1950s. My father never did explain it to us and we puzzled over it for years.

I'm old, I do remember him 😀

As a footnote, the plant known as fuchsia is named after a botanist named Leonhart Fuchs.

It wasn't really a Fuck It moment, but I was 60 and only working 16 hours a week and planning to retire at 65. Then DD started looking at nurseries for her 6 month old son. As the quotes for the nursery fees got higher and higher I just thought "This is stupid, why don't I have him?" So I left at 60 and my manager fell about laughing, saying "I knew that was going to happen!"

Yes, perhaps in some of my early jobs there were instances where I wondered “what the hell is this sh!+” You always blame it on management, right? Never yourself. 🙃

Sometimes you persevere and sometimes you move along. I was fortunate to have my very last job of 20 years in healthcare that I loved so much I worked full time till I retired at 73 (four yrs ago).
Not everyone is that lucky.
Have a g’day!

Haha. Yes. Got fed up of doing all that needed doing while others sat back. Tried allsorts to get them to step up to the mark. I too waited one cold wet winter morning for the bus and thought nah can't do this anymore. Spoke to retirement team and left after 6 weeks. Best decision ever. Decided my lump sum would supplement my small work pension. Financially worse off but do you know what? There is no money in the world that can give me what I have gained during retirement. Time with family and friends. Time to just 'be.. ' I too am a WASPI woman and when I hit 66 and got my DWP pension it was a welcome addition but I have to budget carefully and the lump sum has long gone but have enjoyed life, made some new friends, and ticked some things off my simple bucket list. All in all I'm a happy and very content.

That’s so lovely to hear hilz. I think people tend to worry (quite naturally) whether they will be able to afford to retire, having only relatively small pensions and possibly some savings, but if you do the research beforehand, and perhaps try living on the amount the pension would be + a little extra for associated getting to work costs, and put aside the rest of your wages for 6 -12 months, it might be a surprise to see how well you manage.

There are also the costs associated with going to work - travel costs, work wear costs, food and drink costs (especially if you don’t pack up your own lunch), wear and tear on the car if you use it to go to work, contributing to colleagues gifts, eating out, Christmas meals etc. A lot of these costs disappear or reduce considerably once you retire, although heating costs might go up if you stay in a lot, and of course there are still all the utility bills to pay, and I realise some may still have a mortgage or have to pay rent.

As you say, there are some things that money can’t buy such as time - time to just be, time to relax, time to visit places at quieter times of the year, time to be with loved ones. There are many simple pleasures to be had that need not cost vast amounts of money.

I know I worried about how we’d manage if I retired early, but we have done, my health is so much better and I’m sure I’m a better person to be around as I’m no longer getting het up about work issues and generally being a misery 😅.

I had reached the point where I spent most days at work thinking "Why am I still doing this?" by the time I was 56. I had worked full-time all my adult life and I had just had enough.
When I researched it, I found that in order to receive a works pension I had to work until I was 58 and the state pension kicked in when I turned 60. I don't know how I managed to stick the last couple of years at work. The two years before the state pension kicked in were tough too. Was it worth it YES!!!