Early Retirement - have you, would you ?

Retired from lengthy career in education working with 16-19 year olds. Loved it but menopause caused uncertainty so decided to retire after enjoying a 4 day week for a year. Over 20 years retired and love every minute of it. Luckily have no financial worries so I know I am lucky.

I would have loved to. I would happily have finished at 60 but since the retirement age has risen to 67, I can't afford it for another 3 years. I'm very bitter about it as am very tired & got various ailments but just can't afford to do it early

Retired at 60 as was the norm. Had to wait another 5 years for DH as 65 was the norm for men. We certainly could not afford to go travelling even with the amount of state and private pensions we had. We had to save for holidays just as before.

I retired from teaching at 55 . Took a tiny lump sum and then I get £500 a month .
My husband still works. We live on the coast so loads of seasonal work if I want to pick some up .
I have lost two brothers and a sister pre their 50s so I know that leaving things doesn’t always wk out .
We don’t have children but dogs these can be expensive vets bills and insurance both costly as they get older.
We will downsize in three years for my husband to retire and future proof our house .

Chardy

I went on a workplace pre-retirement course in my early fifties. In those olden days, retirement was 60. I was told that if we retired 5yrs early, we'd lose 25% of their workplace pension as we were taking money from the pot 5yrs early and not putting anything in for 5yrs
I'd never thought of it like that.

Because the Headteacher has cocked up the school budget big time, the Authority said there could be redundancies. OH asked about early retirement, they were delighted so two weeks after his 50th birthday he retired with 10 years enhancement, in other words he got his pension as though he was 60! He did however still teach, becoming a popular supply teacher in the area.
By the time I was old enough the rules had changed and actuarily reduced pensions were paid to early retirees With a spread sheet I worked out that taking the reduced pension only became disadvantageous in mid 70s so I retired at 57 and we were able to travel the world, not having lumbered ourselves with a huge mortgage or large car payments.

Good if you have lots to do and enough money for it all.
Not if you will laze about watching tv. That ages you a lot not prioritising health and keeping active.

I retired at 62 - and the only thing I regret is the reason that prompted it! I fell backwards downstairs and smashed my head on a tiled floor (Ouch!). My husband had retired reluctantly 8 months before - but he was 68 and running his own business, but heart issues put paid to him carrying on.
We really enjoy life. We eat lunch out every day, but other than that really aren't big spenders and live comfortably. I only have state pension but find that I easily manage.

I retired at 58 (firstly to look after my mother but she died when I was 60). I love being retired, money was tight at first but I downsized and got the money out of my house and I am now 76 and have travelled and done exactly what I want to do!

I retired fairly young at 61 but have been looking after my mum, my mother in law (both now deceased) and until very recently my young grandaughter whilst she and my son were both living with us after an acrimonious divorce. Now I'm 70 but my husband is experiencing health difficulties so my responsibilities have changed again. I'm not complaining, it's just the way it is but I'm certainly never bored! I quite envy grans who have the time to do what they want and join things. The last time I joined French classes I had to leave because I was needed often at the last minute by my mother.

I went part time at 58 and retired at 63. Dh retired at 54 and neither of us has regretted a moment of it although money was a bit tight at first until my sp kicked in when I was 66.

Loved my job, well paid, good colleagues... I retired early, thought if be making a mistake but no, it was amazing, didn't even go back to my leaving party. No regrets.

I retired from work at 60, as an NHS professional, I was fortunate to have a good NHS pension. I lasted 3 months then I had been asked to go back on the Hospital Bank so I did 2 - 3 days a week. Never been so bored in all my life as in those 3 months.
I finally called it a day last year at 70 after I wound work days down to 1 day a week as I was now WFH running a clinic.
I now do some Childcare for my DD, but I'm still bored a lot of the time. I have joined the WI but haven't found any groups. I Looked at U3A but they had nothing that interested me.
I might look at Volunteering in my old Department work place?

IMHO... Only go if you have something to do.

From our 20's, we had a life-time plan to retire early ( 50's) debt and mortgage free and with the children all launched/ independent/off the nest.

The incentive was that both my parents and DH's dad died in harness, very young, and never reached their pensions or freedom from responsibilities. My mother and his father both died at 53; their cancers are both heritable ( and we did). We inherited nothing else except their mindsets and work ethic.

DH and I inherited no money at all. Everything we have, we worked for, made or earned and invested. We retired at 56 and have been living the life of Riley ever since.

Our very independent children are on the same trajectory; to retire early and spend the rest of their lives having fun doing the things they like most.

I took an unpaid sabbatical from work for a 8 months when I was 60 to live in Françe, I asked for retirement within a month of returning.
We continued to spend about 8 months a year in Françe until I was 64, within 6 months back in the UK I had a p/t job for a parish council, this ended with Covid.
I have a decent private pension and worked casually in Françe, as did MrJ, we had a brilliant time.

No, no , no I hated the thought of retiring and held on till I was 69 then the NHS had had enough of me ( haha) no they found a young person who was much cheaper I hate retirement and after a year found a voluntary job that I’ve had for 12 years (20 hours a week)

My eldest daughter after 40 years in the NHS cannot wait to retire

nanna8

I’ve found there are many more social groups for over 60 s than there are for younger ones . I like that and most weeks we meet with groups of friends for meals, outings etc. It is nice to be able to get to know others in the community whereas before we stuck with a small group of friends. Most of our original group have moved away or just lost touch so we really value our new acquaintances.

That's a good point. I found that there was a gap between my age at retirement (57) and the SPA of 66. Members of most groups I joined were a decade or more older. The evenings were more mixed, but even then, people going to work the next day are less likely to commit to regular meetings than the retired.

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone, and now I have reached SPA so it's come full circle, but anyone considering retiring early might want to think about who else will be around when they are.

At 77 Im just thinking of retirement, I pay my daughter to do the day to day management, I couldn't have imagined retiring at 50 there were far too many challenges to be taken on.
Looking back I could have retired then, instead I changed direction of the business which proved very successful. Still had plenty of time for travel and hobbies.

I’ve found there are many more social groups for over 60 s than there are for younger ones . I like that and most weeks we meet with groups of friends for meals, outings etc. It is nice to be able to get to know others in the community whereas before we stuck with a small group of friends. Most of our original group have moved away or just lost touch so we really value our new acquaintances.

U could have retired at 55 but couldn't afford it so struggled on until I was 60 and received my state pension at 60 also. Living in London, I paid off my mortgage and had no savings left.

I found 3 very part-time jobs, saved some money then broke my ankle, so my working days were over.

No work stress so a different pleasant life. No regrets.

I retired at 62, the retirement then being 60 for women. But had I been able financially I would have retired earlier, so I'd say a big fat YES.
As long as people check everything out I'd say do it while you can still enjoy life.
My daughter is 52 and tells me she is working towards retiring in her mid fifties, but she is financially sound so why not.
Someone once said to me, no one has ever lain on their deathbed and said they wished they'd worked longer.

I retired early - 53 - I did not want to and tried for several years to get back into work at somewhere near the level I had worked at before or doing a job for love rather than (significant) money, but I had no luck

I worked for British Gas, not the current one, the original privatised company. It was split into three in the early 1990s and the result was 75,000 redundancies. The redundancy scheme was very generous, anyone over 50 needed to be very sure of a long term job in one of the new companies to risk staying.

I went, not because I wanted to, but because it was in my best interests. I went back to university for a year, part of my redundancy retraining package and then went job hunting. Gave up a year or so in. I had a pension, and a DH still in good week, so was not desperate, and when I found that no one wanted a woman in their mid-50s who had worked at management level. I went to work for a charity. While there I was in paid employment for six months when I did maternity cover for my manager.

I was fortunate to have an abiding interest that I was delighted to give a lot of time to, it was the subject I studied at university. It also coincided with a need to help elderly infirm members of our families, not our parents but childless relatives with whom we had deep bonds of love and affection. For the first 10 years of my retirement these relations made major demands on my time.

I regret the career I did not get, it was going so well, before the government decision to split the company, but being able to care for so many family members when they needed help is something I will never regret.

Financially, it was absolutely the right decision and I have the comfortable pension to prove it. The redundancy schem was so good I ended up with a pension almost as good as if I had worked until I was 60.

I took early retirement from my job , there was scheme going and I had a process to go through before I could eventually retire?
my package involved a pension straight away as I was over 55 at the time plus a lump sum.
I had a letter from the main boss stating I had done 39 years for one employer .
I did try to do other work such as packing chickens and shelf stacking in supermarket , but in between signed on at local job centre as National Insurance cover , got £4.50p a week from Job Centre
My 39 consisted of 30 years for MoD as a civilian and 9 in the RAF .
Mick

DH retired early. He was happy to take over more housework and the childcare that cropped up.
I really liked my job so “retired” to ensure my final salary, then went straight back to work, same job but fewer hours.
DC’s would like to retire early.

I retired at 59 then downsized and moved area. Within a year my first grandchild was born then later that year covid hit and the cost of living went stratospheric. It was hard for a few years living on a small works pension but became easier when the state pension was added. I could not easily have kept teaching as I don't have good health and I was exhausted every day, so I'm glad I stopped when I did. I look after both grandsons 2 days a week, took up art and learned Spanish and now volunteer in my grandsons school 3 times a week, organising and running their library. In between I meet friends and potter about the house and garden. I am a home bird and travelling isnt my thing.

I retired at 55, DH at 60. Money was short for a while after he retired, but we're okay now. Spending my retirement travelling the world was never in my plans, I spent most of my life travelling one way or another so I'm making the most of having a real home for a change. I'm very happy spending time exploring the UK - not much good if you're in need of the sun but the weather doesn't bother us much.