Early retirement

[a447]

Nirish wrote:

Without wanting to side track this enjoyable thread ( too much) - so that's two members both stating clearly that taking early retirement was basically the best / most important decision of their lives, so just wondering as I'm getting towards that time / age ( perhaps forcibly rather than by choice thanks to Covid of late !?) does anyone have a counter argument to that position i.e "well I thought it would be a good idea but actually I should have carried on working for a while longer due to money / boredom issues etc ?"

* ( I think we all already know the answer to this question perhaps but I thought it worth asking anyway...

[goji]

I retired in my early 50s. So far, I have zero regrets & with hindsight, I should have retired in my late 40s.

Obviously a lot depends on your personal circumstances, but I guess the following are factors to consider:

1 Affordability.
Can you afford to travel as much as you would like to & live the life style you desire ?
In my experience, the living costs for longer trips tend to go down, as there's less pressure to cram as much action as possible into a short trip.
Take account of the fact that exchange rates are moving all over the place.

2 How much you enjoy the job.

3 What's your plan for retirement ?
Free from the constraints of holiday allowances, I started off with my longest ever trip to SE Asia in the winter. I had a couple of short summer breaks in Europe and then another long winter trip. I had decided to travel more & possibly visit Bali, but Covid intervened and stopped that.
However, I still managed to get to Thailand last winter and with 2 weeks lost in quarantine, that kind of trip only makes sense if it can be followed by a long holiday. Feasible when retired, but usually not when employed.

I would recommend anyone who can afford it to retire ASAP. Or, wait until travel is feasible, then retire.

My next big question is where to live.

I'm still in a detached house in the UK. In the winter, I can clear off an leave it, as nothing grows in the garden. In the summer, going away for 3 months would require someone to look after the garden. Whilst it's nice to have a house with a garden in the summer, I also see the appeal of an apartment that requires no maintenance when I'm away.
OK, so many of them have silly little letterboxes which would fill up, however I did visit a masseur in a new build unit recently an noticed all those apartments had proper letterboxes in the apartment doors.

The other option is moving to Thailand. My intention has been to try some longer trips and so far, these are a success and I'm planning to increase the length of trips in future.

[a447]

I imagine it would take a very important event in one's life to make them take the decision to retire early, especially if they were enjoying their job.

In my case a traumatic family event - my parents were killed in a car accident that was not their fault - meant that I was in no mental state to continue working. My company immediately stood me down as by law I was not allowed to carry on my job, but they offered me a different type of work - at the same salary!

When I was finally able to go back to my normal work I first had to requalfy for my license. It has to be renewed every 6 months but because I'd been away from my work for a couple of years, re-taking my license involved lots of re-training and I just couldn't be bothered. Also I had had enough of the very rigorous health checks. So in 2002 I took the plunge. Luckily, I was in a comfortable financial position and did not need to work.

It was definitely a life-changing decision and certainly not one I would have made under normal circumstances. The biggest problem was finding things to occupy my time. I joined a number of clubs, including tennis and mahjong, helped final year students study for their Japanese language exam, did some volunteer work at a hospice, bought a van and fitted it out with nice carpet, comfortable seats and took old people our for drives just to get them out of the house.....I have been busier than I ever was when I was working.

And the bonus is I have made lots is new friends with whom I spend a lot of time going to restaurants, travelling, etc. Apart from the cost of the van and the fit-out, none of these activities has been particularly expensive. Unfortunately, I have had to curtail some of these activities because I spend a lot of time travelling.

And for a little bit of extra excitement I've been dabbling in real estate. That is keeping me quite busy at the moment because the market has gone mad.

If people are planning on early retirement, keeping busy is something they must pay particular attention to, IMHO, or you could end up sad, lonely and bitter, even though you are financially secure.

Not the way to spend the rest of your life.

[Kenny]

This is both a very interesting topic and one that is relevant to me personally.
Like Nirish, I am in the pre-retirement category.

I am fortunate to be in a job I enjoy, and, being in the field of education, it gives me plenty of free time to travel.
However, retirement is raising its head on the horizon and it's a major life decision for sure.
Therefore, I had been thinking about early retirement, so as to spend more time in Thailand and to enjoy the alternative lifestyle.

But covid has changed all that.
Just over a year ago my work went online, completely. I would not have even thought it was possible for me to work entirely online but now, over a year later, it has become the norm.
As the world was shutting down in the first wave of covid I hopped on a plane to Thailand with my laptop in hand. I spent the next five months there living in my apartment and working online.

It worked. I had a fibre-optic broadband connection installed and never looked back. I never missed a meeting or a class.

The only problem I encountered was the distraction of my house-boy laughing hysterically at my animated online conversations.
He was sent on many errands and I bought a headset.

I returned home in July only to find myself back working online as the second and third wave of covid struck. I have been doing so ever since.
It was a grand experiment which has shown me that there is simply no difference between working online from Thailand and working online from home.
This may sound like stating the obvious to some, however it was all new to me and I had to see for myself if it would work.

This has changed my perspective on early retirement.
Covid has forced many of us into working online and it offers us a third way.
The world is never going to go back to twentieth century work practices, at least in areas where working online is an option.
I read recently that Thailand is planning to follow the lead of some of the other Asian countries by introducing a visa for digital nomads.
I don't know what this entails, however, if it allows you to stay longer than on a tourist visa without the financial obligations of a retirement visa, then it would make remote working from Thailand more attractive.

Maybe the next generation of gay expats in Thailand will be digital nomads?

[Dodger]

I agree with everything that goji and a447 have said, with emphasis on a point a447 made about the importance of staying busy after retirement.

I consider myself fortunate because I have hobbies that I simply didn't have time to enjoy when I was working, and I like keeping busy. Conversely, I've seen people retire who seem to struggle findings ways to keep busy, and tend to become a bit lazy and complacent over-time, which is exactly what you don't want to happen. As a447 stated, this is definitely something a person should consider seriously before retiring.

Being sound financially goes without saying, regardless if you're planning to reside in your home country, or live abroad after retirement. Other than that, I'm just fond of saying "follow your inner voice". If you spend your life procrastinating or waiting for someone else to make the decision for you, your life will be gone. Life is intended to be lived by YOU. Just Do It!

"Life is an Adventure - not a Destiny"

[Nirish guy]

Thanks for that honest appraisal there A447. especially re the "time on your hands" end of things as that I think is a very valid point and is something that is niggling at back of my own brain too.

The money side of things for most people is more of a simple "you either can or can't afford to do it and that's that" sort of thing I guess that just depends on the lifestyle you plan / hope to live I guess.

Mind you I have a freind who quit at about 40 who financially speaking NEVER should have retired so early as he had no real funds to speak of and it just made NO sense for him to stop working. But he just woke up on day and said "fuck it" quit and never looked back and he seems to get by ok and every time I call him he's out sailing on his boat, so there's maybe something to be said for that after all too.

Mind you the one thing he does admit is that even though HE is off work none of his friends are of course and so sometimes he gets lonely and the days drag a bit ( hence the sailing trips I'm guessing).

Re the "time" end of things personally I've been working from home for the last year or so now due to the Covid restrictions and whilst it's been nice not having to drive to the office I have still been (half) working and keeping things ticking over and chatting regularly with colleagues still and keeping the Admin end of things going which keeps me as busy as I want to be, but I'm always very aware that if I hadn't of been doing that I think the days would have been harder to put in for sure and that's something I'm very mindful of.

My ( previously held) view of an early retirement would have been me buggering off to Asia / Bali or somewhere for several months of a year ( or longer). However with the world in the state it's in just now and with life here taking it's own twists and turns including things like relationships and stuff too the more I look at life the more I think of the quote by John Lennon where he said something like "life is what happens while we're busy making other plans" and as I get older I think I'm beginning to see that there's more and more truth to that statement !

But i'm also mindful of Dodgers comment there too re "If you spend your life procrastinating or waiting for someone else to make the decision for you, your life will be gone" All very valid points !!

[latintopxxx]

...maybe i got a bit of protestant work ethic in me...if im gonna be busy I need to be making money...and i enjoy being busy...getting up in the morning with a purpose in life..cant see myself in Thailand doing nothing...waste of a llife...would probably end up as an alcoholic..

[cdnmatt]

Not to sound overly modern here, but it's 2021. Retire, and find a way to earn money online to suppliment your savings and lifestyle. I have no idea what your skillset or current business is, but I'm certain it can be translated into online income some how. Whether that's writing, consultancy, mediation, logistical analysis and support, or what have you. Or follow one of your passions, and see what you can do to turn that into an online income stream.

You get the best of all worlds then. Retire early, live wherever in the world you want, live the life you want, and still have a project you're working on and passionate about to keep you busy, plus supplement your income.

[Ruthrieston]

I had planned to retire at the age of 60 but was kicked out of my job at the age of 52 for the appalling crime of being gay. Given that this was against the law in the UK and I had five years of formal annual written appraisals to prove that I was doing an excellent job, it cost the homophobic creeps a year's salary to make me go quietly. What really made my blood boil was that the creatures used the money from the charity of which I was chief executive to pay me off. I still had a big mortgage which I was paying 2,000 pounds a month off, and would have cleared well before my 60th. After six months of trying hard to find a new job I gave up and took my little NHS nurses pension, put my flat on the market, sold it for full price to a cash buyer in less than 24 hours and booked my flight to Thailand for the day the money came into my account (it took three months to complete the sale). This year I will have been living in Thailand for ten years, and though there have been ups and downs I am so grateful for the quality of life I have enjoyed here.

[StevieWonders]

Not to sound overly modern here, but it's 2021. Retire, and find a way to earn money online to suppliment your savings and lifestyle. I have no idea what your skillset or current business is, but I'm certain it can be translated into online income some how. Whether that's writing, consultancy, mediation, logistical analysis and support, or what have you. Or follow one of your passions, and see what you can do to turn that into an online income stream.

You get the best of all worlds then. Retire early, live wherever in the world you want, live the life you want, and still have a project you're working on and passionate about to keep you busy, plus supplement your income.

Plumbers, electricians, mechanics, kitchenhands, carpenters - rejoice, cdnmatt has set you free!