Early Retirement - have you, would you ?

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.

My husband retired at 55,his army pension increased dramatically,so I retired from part time at a bank at 52. To enable us to travel the world, we took equity release on the house .Wepaid the interest owing each month so the total never increased.It was the best decision we made,as we travelled the world and made so many happy memories and photo albums !! My husband died at 79 just before Covid and I am so glad we both took early retirement. I saved and paid off the equity release mortgage about four years ago. No regrets.

I retired from teaching at 62. Sixty was the normal retirement age both for teachers and for SRP at that time, so I did a bit extra, which incidentally helped both pensions, as I had gaps from earlier years.
I loved my last few years at work and, although I was ready, I was quite sad to retire. I was looking forward to travelling but my husband had other ideas and carried on working in another field. I enjoyed being able to spend more time with the grandchildren while they were young.

I took early retirement at 59, moved to France and have lived a peaceful life in the country with husband and animals ever since. What's not to love.

I kicked the trend , I went back to full time work at 50 , I had a phone call asking me to cover a pregnant friend on maternity leave, she never came back , I had enjoyed being in the job so I applied and went through the interview process, got the job , and worked till I was 60 when I was glad to retire , so glad I did it all

My eldest daughter is taking an early retirement. Will be next April and she will then be 56 1/2 years old.

She has a very high powered, exhausting and stressful job in NHS Mental Health, and has talked extensively to HR around her pension benefits. She has worked continuously for the NHS since 1991.

She says that her pension forecast will enable her to live reasonably comfortably (her mortgage will be paid off), her house is lovely and will only need normal on-going working on it.

Her only child is well established as a Social Worker and lives with her partner, still has a lot to do with her Mum, and this retirement will give my daughter more time to spend with her. Also with me. She does get concerned that I am getting quite old and although she phones me every week, is not able to get to see me very much.

She has lots of plans of things to do when she has the time, and has the advantage of also knowing that should there really be a need for a big spend on something, she could always get agency work.

I am really looking forward to being able to see her so much more.

nanna8

I am certain your parents really loved and benefited from your help cossy
I was 62 which was normal then but probably early now. It was a lovely feeling of freedom and we set off in the car on a long trip out west ( really long!) I remember sending a message from ‘Denmark’ and our kids thought we had gone to Scandinavia - not that far then ! It would have been nice to leave even earlier whilst our children were younger and we could include them in our travels.

My elder son has just retired. He’ll be 55 in September. I don’t know what his financial arrangements are, but he’s very practical and I’m sure it’s all worked out. He has always intended to retire early.

I was 57 when I retired, although I did some very part-time consultancy work until my SP kicked in at 66. My husband retired at 60, and had already had a year at home before I got sick of getting up in the dark whilst he was still in bed and decided to join him.

We haven't travelled - I'm never sure why that is the Holy Grail for so many - but I took another MA (purely for interest in the subject) and have taken a number of other courses, as that's what I enjoy doing. I have set up interest groups locally, and been involved in campaigning for causes dear to me. I have expanded my social circle a lot, which matters to me, as much of my pre-retirement socialising was connected to my work and I didn't want to find myself isolated if anything happened to my husband. We've also gone through the house and done our best to future proof what we can - more in the sense of making it ready to sell quickly if necessary, and pleasant to spend time in than installing stairlifts or whatever - which we never seemed to have time to do when we were working.

We are lucky in that we both have final salary pensions. Mine is small for various reasons, but my husband's is better, and he's happy to share. I realise that being able to retire early is a luxury (although it was only three years ahead of what I expected to be able to do before the SPA was changed, and when generations of women before me retired). Obviously it meant a financial hit, but I don't regret it at all. Conditions in the HE sector have been declining for years, and since Brexit have nosedived. I very quickly got used to filling my days, and having time to spend on hobbies and interests, but the best thing of all is not having to set the alarm and being able to stay asleep in the morning if I can. I wake a lot through the night, and knowing an alarm will go off soon is brutal.

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.

I had to retire at 58 due to ill health although I did locum shifts in the pharmacy where I worked until Covid.I was considered immunocompromised so not a great place to work.
My health actually improved dramatically when I left work as I wasn’t permanently exhausted I suppose.

I suppose I was early retired - but not through choice. As soon as the first covid lockdown happened, my work abruptly came to an end, and apart from a couple of brief jobs since, I've not worked. I've not been able to find anything else suitable - so I suppose that in a way, I do resent how things happened. It was not how I wanted my lifelong career to end, and I have received no financial support since then - so I'm living off my savings.

DH retired at 55 - through choice. He had a good job and had planned it for years. Unlike many, he had a couple of hobbies that he wanted to pursue more actively and was often away 2 or 3 days a week throughout the year.
In the month he ought to have retired (10 years later) in December 2016, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given a prognosis of 3 months. Luckily, ‘they’ got it wrong and in January 2017 the diagnosis was revised and he lived until 2021, dying during, but not from Covid.
I always thank God or whoever that he’d had those 10 good years of retirement.

I am certain your parents really loved and benefited from your help cossy
I was 62 which was normal then but probably early now. It was a lovely feeling of freedom and we set off in the car on a long trip out west ( really long!) I remember sending a message from ‘Denmark’ and our kids thought we had gone to Scandinavia - not that far then ! It would have been nice to leave even earlier whilst our children were younger and we could include them in our travels.

Goodness, yes, if either of us could have afforded to retire in our late fifties we certainly would have!

However, extensive travel would not have been possible, much as we’d have lived it as we were both primary carers for elderly parents at that time