Retiring

sir baconface said:
Depending on size/value of your property, would selling and downsizing be an option? Or equity release, although, by all accounts, it’s a mine field and you need your wits about you.
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Yes it's all a gamble really as to what to do for the best.
 
r.soleofsalford said:
Retired 4 years ago at the age of 64 but had only worked 4 mornings a week from the age of 32.

Do as little as you can for as much money as you can and enjoy your freedom and your life.

If you are lucky enough to do it, it`s great.
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This is my philosophy, I see people going out their way sometimes to help the company they work for etc and get no better thought of, I do my job anything else they can do one, I get paid the same regardless, I’ve been taken advantage of before, the people around you appreciate it and I’ll help them always but the upper echelons can do one, I’ve always hated the expression “playing the game” never done it and never will, maybe thats why I’ve never advanced but I’m happy with that. Often used to tell my wife this and she used go out her way working at Monarch then landed at midnight one night 4 hours later woke me up in tears as she’d been made redundant with the rest of them due to the arseholes above not managing things right on their 6 figure salaries, I bet they didn’t suffer like she did.
Rant over.
 
Blue Maverick said:
This is my philosophy, I see people going out their way sometimes to help the company they work for etc and get no better thought of, I do my job anything else they can do one, I get paid the same regardless, I’ve been taken advantage of before, the people around you appreciate it and I’ll help them always but the upper echelons can do one, I’ve always hated the expression “playing the game” never done it and never will, maybe thats why I’ve never advanced but I’m happy with that. Often used to tell my wife this and she used go out her way working at Monarch then landed at midnight one night 4 hours later woke me up in tears as she’d been made redundant with the rest of them due to the arseholes above not managing things right on their 6 figure salaries, I bet they didn’t suffer like she did.
Rant over.
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Agree with this. I kick back at work, had the dummy out the pram a few times of late and dig my heels in, learned my lesson after being fucked too many times by companies. Directors wanting you to run yourself ragged all over the country, doing over your hours all the time just so they can save face with the client. No job is worth your personal life or mental health, even on the bigger salaries.

I worked with a bloke in his 50s who mentored me for a bit. He lost his brother-in-law to what he says was definitely work stress. He was at partner level at a consultancy, worked every hour God sent, forever on the phone in his downtime. Went to Greece with his Mrs, cycled up a hill and dropped dead at the top of a heart attack, aged 50 and fit as a fiddle. This bloke told me he's always treated work differently since this, as he had to sort out all the repatriation and heartache of losing his best mate. He refused to leave to sites any earlier than 8am and had the approach of "I'm good at what I do, pay me X amount for doing X amount, anything outside of that remit then I'm off somewhere else". Bullish fucker and the bosses didn't like it but they respected him. That's always resonated with me, he was a good mentor.
 
Quick question for someone who may know..

I am currently in receipt of a widowers pension for life from the dept of education.
Is it possible to sell this pension or do I have to keep taking it? It is currently 8k per year and , God willing, I would expect to live another 25-30 years.
I understand if I did this I would lose out in the long run but I fancy paying off my mortgage early and living a less stressful existence (mortgage is by far my biggest expense).
Is it possible to “sell it” ??
(I doubt it is but thought I’d ask)
 
Kazzydeyna said:
Quick question for someone who may know..

I am currently in receipt of a widowers pension for life from the dept of education.
Is it possible to sell this pension or do I have to keep taking it? It is currently 8k per year and , God willing, I would expect to live another 25-30 years.
I understand if I did this I would lose out in the long run but I fancy paying off my mortgage early and living a less stressful existence (mortgage is by far my biggest expense).
Is it possible to “sell it” ??
(I doubt it is but thought I’d ask)
Click to expand...
@squirtyflower is probably the one who will know this.
 
Kazzydeyna said:
Quick question for someone who may know..

I am currently in receipt of a widowers pension for life from the dept of education.
Is it possible to sell this pension or do I have to keep taking it? It is currently 8k per year and , God willing, I would expect to live another 25-30 years.
I understand if I did this I would lose out in the long run but I fancy paying off my mortgage early and living a less stressful existence (mortgage is by far my biggest expense).
Is it possible to “sell it” ??
(I doubt it is but thought I’d ask)
Click to expand...
If it’s a teachers pension you’re stuck with it.
It doesn’t exist as a fund, it is an unfounded pension.
Most people would give their right arm to be stuck with such a pension!
 
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r.soleofsalford said:
Retired 4 years ago at the age of 64 but had only worked 4 mornings a week from the age of 32.

Do as little as you can for as much money as you can and enjoy your freedom and your life.

If you are lucky enough to do it, it`s great.
Click to expand...
Let me know where you worked mate, I fancy some of that :-)
 
During a reorganisation, I had to reapply for my job. There were three jobs between four people. I was the most experienced by about ten years, was better at the job than the other candidates, frequently helped them with their work, and it was acknowledged that the three of them were going for the two remaining jobs. Except I was unsuccessful.

I asked for a meeting with HR. They told me I had scored 96% on the externally set intelligence tests, but had performed badly on the other criteria. (This was not true).

Unluckily for the recruiting manager, I was able to produce a spreadsheet which was her own target operating model, prepared at great expense by KPMG. I asked why there was an entry against my name (and fifty other unsuccessful applicants in the reorganisation) which said "Headcount reduction", and was it a coincidence that the three successful candidates weren't designated under this category. They had no answer. I asked for a second meeting with my Trade Union rep present.

They absolutely wet themselves at this point, and came back to me with the offer of my perfect job, pretty much self-managed. I did this for two years, was then offered redundancy with 12 months salary as compensation.

After 40 years working for that company, I retired two years ago, aged 58, enjoying every minute of it.

But the moral of the story is, no matter how long you have worked for a company, things can change in an instant. Work hard, work your contacted hours, don't give them anything for free. Your loyalty to them will count for nothing when a new manager comes in with new ideas, and instructions to cut the staff budgets.
 
Kazzydeyna said:
Quick question for someone who may know..

I am currently in receipt of a widowers pension for life from the dept of education.
Is it possible to sell this pension or do I have to keep taking it? It is currently 8k per year and , God willing, I would expect to live another 25-30 years.
I understand if I did this I would lose out in the long run but I fancy paying off my mortgage early and living a less stressful existence (mortgage is by far my biggest expense).
Is it possible to “sell it” ??
(I doubt it is but thought I’d ask)
Click to expand...
Does the £8k not cover the mortgage payments?
 
Paladin said:
During a reorganisation, I had to reapply for my job. There were three jobs between four people. I was the most experienced by about ten years, was better at the job than the other candidates, frequently helped them with their work, and it was acknowledged that the three of them were going for the two remaining jobs. Except I was unsuccessful.

I asked for a meeting with HR. They told me I had scored 96% on the externally set intelligence tests, but had performed badly on the other criteria. (This was not true).

Unluckily for the recruiting manager, I was able to produce a spreadsheet which was her own target operating model, prepared at great expense by KPMG. I asked why there was an entry against my name (and fifty other unsuccessful applicants in the reorganisation) which said "Headcount reduction", and was it a coincidence that the three successful candidates weren't designated under this category. They had no answer. I asked for a second meeting with my Trade Union rep present.

They absolutely wet themselves at this point, and came back to me with the offer of my perfect job, pretty much self-managed. I did this for two years, was then offered redundancy with 12 months salary as compensation.

After 40 years working for that company, I retired two years ago, aged 58, enjoying every minute of it.

But the moral of the story is, no matter how long you have worked for a company, things can change in an instant. Work hard, work your contacted hours, don't give them anything for free. Your loyalty to them will count for nothing when a new manager comes in with new ideas, and instructions to cut the staff budgets.
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Quite.
If you want to know how much you mean to a company get a bucket of water and swirl it around with your hands then pull your hands out.
The hole they leave behind is how much they will miss you…
 
Paladin said:
During a reorganisation, I had to reapply for my job. There were three jobs between four people. I was the most experienced by about ten years, was better at the job than the other candidates, frequently helped them with their work, and it was acknowledged that the three of them were going for the two remaining jobs. Except I was unsuccessful.

I asked for a meeting with HR. They told me I had scored 96% on the externally set intelligence tests, but had performed badly on the other criteria. (This was not true).

Unluckily for the recruiting manager, I was able to produce a spreadsheet which was her own target operating model, prepared at great expense by KPMG. I asked why there was an entry against my name (and fifty other unsuccessful applicants in the reorganisation) which said "Headcount reduction", and was it a coincidence that the three successful candidates weren't designated under this category. They had no answer. I asked for a second meeting with my Trade Union rep present.

They absolutely wet themselves at this point, and came back to me with the offer of my perfect job, pretty much self-managed. I did this for two years, was then offered redundancy with 12 months salary as compensation.

After 40 years working for that company, I retired two years ago, aged 58, enjoying every minute of it.

But the moral of the story is, no matter how long you have worked for a company, things can change in an instant. Work hard, work your contacted hours, don't give them anything for free. Your loyalty to them will count for nothing when a new manager comes in with new ideas, and instructions to cut the staff budgets.
Click to expand...

Nice one well done you on catching them out and doing well out of it as a result.

You're absolutely right we're all just a number at the end of the day. I like the old saying, "Put your hand into a bucket of water/sand and then pull it out. The gap that's left is how much you'll be missed when you're gone."

There are a number of reasons why I took early retirement. One big one was seeing about ten fellow shipmates I knew die around the fleet before the age of sixty in a short space of time. Some of those flogged themselves to death and put the company first. Some I had tried to tell to ease off or quit, a few could have done so but didn't. When I was going one said, "If you stayed another four years you'd earn X amount of thousands extra, going now you'll be spending it " I replied " Yes but I'd have to sacrifice another four years of my valuable time doing so."

A couple of months ago one ex shipmate had decided to take voluntary redundancy that was being being offered due to covid. He had met a lovely younger lady on a golfing holiday in Portugal and was going to relocate over there and draw his navy pension. The travel restrictions were delaying the move much to his frustration. One morning he went to play golf and in the clubhouse later he felt unwell, ending up in hospital. Nobody thought it was serious, he posted a picture of himself on the hospital trolley saying they were transferring him to the heart unit. Everyone was ripping the piss out of him. I was on holiday in Tenerife and the next morning got a text to say he'd died. He was 56, no history of heart trouble or any illness.

Never wait or delay, do what makes you happy, you'll always get by. Too many flog themselves to death for a retirement utopia they never get to see.
 
dickie davies said:
Does the £8k not cover the mortgage payments?
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Pretty much yes. I just had the idea to sell the pension and pay the mortgage off now and maybe even have a little left over.
Financially it would be a bad idea in the long term of course as I could hopefully live for another 25-30 years and I wouldn’t get anywhere near 200-230k (8k x 25 or 30 years) but I like the idea of being mortgage free.

It’s a daft idea the more I think of it.
 
metalblue said:
Maybe we should be a little less ready to chuck our relatives in the nearest care homes and perhaps look after them at our homes ourselves. It made by blood boil seeing all this moaning twats on the news complaining about not being able to see their mum except through glass or whatever where their mum quite frankly looked fully intact of all faculties. I found myself thinking if you gave that much of a shit she’d be at home with you. But no it’s always the states problem to look after them, fuck the fact they wiped your arse as a kid eh? Other countries and cultures seem to manage this better without anything like the social care cost this country has. What the fuck is wrong with us?

I appreciate that some of our parents do need proper care and that necessitates them being cared for in homes. And I appreciate not everyone has the space. But plenty do, and the state can incentives it by paying £100 a week or whatever, it’s still a fraction of what it costs from these care homes. Our system thrives on a notion that those that can do and those that can’t are supported, well if you can take your mum or dad in then bloody well do so.
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Great post, some people do jettison their parents far too quickly into care homes. It's not straightforward but if you can look after your parent/s, from experience I do, very difficult but I'll do so until it's not practical.
 
Kompany Car said:
I've ear marked 59, but from 54 dropping down to 4 days a week, at 56, 3 days then 58, 2 days.
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I did, was aiming for 60, bad decisions and market crash around 2010 changed all that, 62 now, still working about 30 hours per week (self employed) golf twice a week and part time unpaid carer for 88 year old Dad, life has never been tougher but still here and City are kin brilliant:-)
 
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