John Lewis boss: Over-50s quitting the workforce fuels inflation

[Mick P]

I'm in my late 50s and fortunate enought to work in IT for an NHS quango so have a generous final salary pension to look forward to which I'm planning to take at 60 even though it will obviously be substantially reduced vs 67. This is informed by the fact my father died at 73 - the idea of only getting 6 years retirement plays on my mind a bit (fortunately he retired at 52, so had a decent stretch).

Just keep your fingers crossed that they offer you a voluntary early retirement package when they go on a staff reduction purge. That way you get your pension paid early with the added years.

[bambam]

I left the "workforce" yesterday, albeit I still get paid for another month due to accumulated leave. Mid 50's.

That's 35 years of graft (at times thousands of miles from home and regularly 7 days a week) and as commented above now entering a new phase. 19 years as kid/student, 35 working and what next? If I'm lucky maybe 25 years or so - hopefully a lot more. Seems a reasonable ratio.

A few considerations drove this decision:

- I have friends who have been retired for a number years and two in particular said with hindsight they didn't need to have done the last 5 years of work i.e. that's 5 years longer in the workforce and 5 years less enjoying retirement when younger. These two guys both have more money than they need and splash it on stuff to use it. Seems such a waste with hindsight. They could have been comfortable with less and enjoyed retirement choices for longer.

- Some neighbours are retired and now in 70s. Their reaction to me telling them I had made the call was "Brilliant, the younger you do it the better. Once you get into your 70s everything becomes so much harder to do." This coupe are still very active, but that's sage advice.

- We spend our working lives providing for a later life (if you think, plan and act ahead...) and you can either sleepwalk into conventional timings or things being forced on you, or you can calculate what position allows you to change direction and start to live what you have planned for.

- Working at the rate I have been could well put me in an early grave - and there are many examples of people not making it. My 25 years or so forecast above could be well out and I might have a lot less. In which case let's crack on with life now and not wait "just another year". I've heard an example of someone who was going to give it just one more year who died at their desk, as well as examples of those who make it to retirement and last just 2 or 3 years. I don't want to be that guy.

I thought I needed to have paid off my mortgage before I could retire, but the approach I've taken is that we can afford to live with current outgoings for a couple of years before making any material changes. As that 24 months progresses we'll make decisions. Do we relocate, do we downsize, do we rejig stuff and try to clear mortgage, do we go back to work? These are all options/considerations and we'll get to them once we have had a chance to reset.

I've already had two unsolicited offers of work but am counseling myself to say "Thanks but no thanks" for at least the next 6 months and quite possibly longer and then maybe forever subject to how things go. If I was just going to start another job then it would have been silly to give up the amazing (but demanding) job I've just left. I should just give it another year...

Do I know what the future now holds? Nope.
Am I excited about what it could be? Yes.

To help with this I've sold almost all my watches, consolidated cars (released cash and now cheaper to run) and will be having a major declutter and eBay fest when I have time on my hands.

PS we don't have children, just cats. That helps with plans to retire earlier.

Congratulations on your new phase.

Also appreciate you sharing your thinking and circumstances as each new perspective or experience really helps others that are in a similar situation.

PS - having no kids but only cats probably does help!

[Passenger]

Congratulations on your new phase.

Also appreciate you sharing your thinking and circumstances as each new perspective or experience really helps others that are in a similar situation.

PS - having no kids but only cats probably does help!

No kids definitely would help.

[mikeveal]

You took a chance, jumped early and succeeded, so good luck to you.

Eh? I still "work" for them and will do for the forseeable future. Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn't like UK bankruptcy. The board are still in control (all be it they need the approval of the court to do almost anything), the debt is being wiped out and the company is being sold as an (almost) going concern.

I can't afford to go yet. Maybe in five years.

[Mick P]

Eh? I still "work" for them and will do for the forseeable future. Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn't like UK bankruptcy. The board are still in control (all be it they need the approval of the court to do almost anything), the debt is being wiped out and the company is being sold as an (almost) going concern.

I can't afford to go yet. Maybe in five years.

Sorry, my screw up, I thought I was writing to someone else. Apologies.

[mikeveal]

Sorry, my screw up, I thought I was writing to someone else. Apologies.

Phew, I was starting to wonder if you knew something I didn't!
:D

[TheTigerUK]

Good choice, retirement feels strange at first but it's all pluses and no minuses. Enjoy it and enjoy a drink in the sun in your garden. You couldn't have done that last week.

Never felt strange to me, I loved it from day 1 and still do !! :)

Could I do with more money ? yes, but money can't buy time, love retirement, drop the hood on the MR2 and off to Bowls soon, love retirement :)

[Scepticalist]

Just keep your fingers crossed that they offer you a voluntary early retirement package when they go on a staff reduction purge. That way you get your pension paid early with the added years.

I'm in Scotland - much as it would be nice, I can't see the SNP offering any redundancy options even though in my view the NHS in Scotland is WAY overdue to get rid of admin/management roles.

It's just not in their makeup - they won't pick a fight with the union and don't want the optics of letting NHS staff go especially as they're the ones who've allowed the public sector to bloat so much - even if they happen to be non-clinical roles. Not to mention that any redundancy programme would mean finding short term cash.

[Longblackcoat]

Good to see so many different views.

The thought of stopping work horrifies me - I'm 57 next week but still love my job and can't see why I'd give it up. It helps that I'm one of the people who run the organisation so I have a lot of flexibility over where/when/how hard I work, plus for me it's a form of validation; I'm still good enough to not just get by but to improve. My wife's a legal bod, hoping to make judge soon, so she'll not be retiring for another decade. I suspect I'll be about the same.

About 5 years ago I realised that, financially, I didn't need to work any more. Would have taken a lot of changes and I'd have had to consolidate things, but I could have stopped. Knowing that I'm only carrying on because I want to gives a good deal of motivation.

Plus I take Dylan Thomas' words to heart:

Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

[Ruggertech]

You seem intent on an argument but let's replace the word "knew" with the word "expected". Will that keep you happy.

Ecstatic thanks.

[mjc1216]

I retired at 48 and did the travelling and hobbies things to death including spending months in the winters in Oz and Spain.

After 5 years i was bored beyond belief and although i don't need to work found a nice little job 4 hours a day with no stress.

The extra money gives me more choice for holidays cars and of course watches.

If it ever gets too much i will just retire again but i intend to work for a lot longer yet.

[Ruggertech]

Salutary lesson. My sister and her husband were both dentists with their own practice. Owned a million pound home outside Newport, and a £600k cottage in Padstow, plus relatively exotic cars.
My sister retired at 55, my bil could have easily (in fact they both could have retired well before that) but stayed on part time. He was set to retire at 60 just as covid hit but the NHS wouldn't let him. He had to provide emergency dental cover and in between work in a pharmacy. Caught covid, died three months after his 60th birthday. Get out when you can.

[Passenger]

Salutary lesson. My sister and her husband were both dentists with their own practice. Owned a million pound home outside Newport, and a £600k cottage in Padstow, plus relatively exotic cars.
My sister retired at 55, my bil could have easily (in fact they both could have retired well before that) but stayed on part time. He was set to retire at 60 just as covid hit but the NHS wouldn't let him. He had to provide emergency dental cover and in between work in a pharmacy. Caught covid, died three months after his 60th birthday. Get out when you can.

From the sounds of it they didn´t lack the financial wherewithall...but rather the lack of agency, the inability of your Bil to tell his employer to stuff it...that´s a sad tale overall, sorry for your and your sister´s loss.

[Passenger]

Good to see so many different views.

The thought of stopping work horrifies me - I'm 57 next week but still love my job and can't see why I'd give it up. It helps that I'm one of the people who run the organisation so I have a lot of flexibility over where/when/how hard I work, plus for me it's a form of validation; I'm still good enough to not just get by but to improve. My wife's a legal bod, hoping to make judge soon, so she'll not be retiring for another decade. I suspect I'll be about the same.

About 5 years ago I realised that, financially, I didn't need to work any more. Would have taken a lot of changes and I'd have had to consolidate things, but I could have stopped. Knowing that I'm only carrying on because I want to gives a good deal of motivation.

Plus I take Dylan Thomas' words to heart:

Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

In fairness though isn´t usually more of a slipper shod shuffle and bit of a dribble towards the dying of the light, for all that we´d like to imagine it elsewise.

[Passenger]

Never felt strange to me, I loved it from day 1 and still do !! :)

Could I do with more money ? yes, but money can't buy time, love retirement, drop the hood on the MR2 and off to Bowls soon, love retirement :)

Agree, not selling my time and labour seems right and natural...Going to work though on the other hand, particularly so when money, fiat, is just conjured into existence and we´re constantly up against inflation, whether we notice it short term or not., and those with the ability, who´re licensed to create money can thus make money for doing naught...then if you can get into the City, close to the money taps...it´s mega money for old rope...ain´t fair, healthy.

[Ruggertech]

From the sounds of it they didn´t lack the financial wherewithall...but rather the lack of agency, the inability of your Bil to tell his employer to stuff it...that´s a sad tale overall, sorry for your and your sister´s loss.

Indeed, they definitely didn't lack the necessary. They could have had a £500k house and £300k holiday pad instead, £60k cars not £120k, ski holidays in Europe instead of Colarado etc etc and they could have finished years ago, easily and without 'slumming it' remotely.
It wasn't easy for him to tell the NHS to stuff it, I'm not party to the full particulars but it was pension related. Basically they wouldn't let him retire and have his pension at that point due to covid emergency cover requirements. Of course, if he and my sister had known covid was going to be over in two years like our resident magi on this thread did, he could have told them to stuff it and started his pension later. Or worst case scenario even not taken it all rather than die. But hindsight is a magical thing.
Thank you for your kind thoughts too, its over two years now and I still can't believe he's gone, he'd been one of the main figures in my life for the previous 38 years, we had so much planned with them. Far worse again for my sister of course.

[100thmonkey]

I retired technically at 45 with no mortgages and a pension to live on but took part time work in the watch trade that quickly became full-time and I began to hate the job and craved relaxation, having walked away from the trade with a view to just dossing and riding a bike everyday I returned to work to assist with Covid and never left. Now I do a job I love, its effortless waking up and doing it. I would never want to retire or do a job I didn’t love again and never will.

[ryanb741]

I retired technically at 45 with no mortgages and a pension to live on but took part time work in the watch trade that quickly became full-time and I began to hate the job and craved relaxation, having walked away from the trade with a view to just dossing and riding a bike everyday I returned to work to assist with Covid and never left. Now I do a job I love its effortless waking up and doing it. I would never want to retire or do a job I didn’t love again and never will.

This.

Do a job you love and you never have to 'work' again.

[Scepticalist]

This.

Do a job you love and you never have to 'work' again.

I love my job, just not the organisation I work for - but I'll suck it up for the last few years I have to stay for the pension now.

[Wolfman53]

I am now 62 and still working full time. Office one day a week, site visits usually one or two days. Work from home remainder. Work isn't too bad, but does come with deadlines, which I struggle with increasingly as I get older.
Planned to give serious thought to retirement this year, but private pensions/ SIPPS have taken a hit as share prices have plummeted over the last few months. I have no final salary pension.
Mortgage free now.
Anybody else in the same situation?


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[markrichardsonno9]

Someone wiser than me once said " if you are bored of retirement then you don't have a good enough imagination "

[dougair]

Sounds like some here are ‘quiet quitters’

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...s-gone-global?

[awright101]

I retired technically at 45 with no mortgages and a pension to live on but took part time work in the watch trade that quickly became full-time and I began to hate the job and craved relaxation, having walked away from the trade with a view to just dossing and riding a bike everyday I returned to work to assist with Covid and never left. Now I do a job I love, its effortless waking up and doing it. I would never want to retire or do a job I didn’t love again and never will.

Do you mind me asking what you do

[blackal]

The usual path...............


Started out as: 'The UK has seen one million people, mostly in their 50s, leave work since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak'

and predictably followed the time-honoured route of: "Look what I did (totally unconnected with the pandemic)............ "

Next up: "Are people genuinely not able to pay their mortgage?"

"I paid mine off when I was 35, never looked back!"

[100thmonkey]

Do you mind me asking what you do

I look after veterans patient pathways and veterans welfare now.

[100thmonkey]

The usual path...............


Started out as: 'The UK has seen one million people, mostly in their 50s, leave work since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak'

and predictably followed the time-honoured route of: "Look what I did (totally unconnected with the pandemic)............ "

Next up: "Are people genuinely not able to pay their mortgage?"

"I paid mine off when I was 35, never looked back!"

Covid has definitely made a lot of people reassess I feel. It was a eye opener and point of realisation for so many who had been blinkered and assumed immortality

[blackal]

Covid has definitely made a lot of people reassess I feel. It was a eye opener and point of realisation for so many who had been blinkered and assumed immortality

Absolutely - and I hear now that older GPs are cutting their hours as they have reached their pension thresholds and don't see any significant benefit in working more than 3 days/week.

Can't blame them, really............

Doing what the rest of Joe Public are doing, but Joe Public expect some sort of 'loyalty'

We're humped!

[daveyw]

I love my job, just not the organisation I work for - but I'll suck it up for the last few years I have to stay for the pension now.

Sounds familiar…
Good luck

[NigeG]

Mortgage free, but no income and not drawing any pension. I’m just not buying anything.

I think two things pushed me over the edge:

1. I don’t mind working part of the week at home and this has been my pattern for many years, but the whole week at home didn’t suit me. Commuting helped me separate home and work life, provided time to prepare and wind down from work. Work became centred around interminable, pointless Teams meetings.

2. After many years, I’d just had enough of the arseholes you have to work with, the behaviours of customers, managers, colleagues. Not all, there was the social element to work, lunch banter, a beer after works, that was pretty good.


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Very similar to my experience. Only I’m spending and do still have a mortgage.

Packed it in last year aged 59. Have taken on some consultancy work just to bolster the coffers with the cost of living expenses etc.

I work when I want to now. I’ve done 22 days this year so far.

I was amazed when I said I was interested in getting back out there at how many offers I received.


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[xpatx]

After working crazy hours during Covid I realized I was working the 5th day of the week for the tax man so at 55 have been working a four day week for 18 months.
My inheritance is invested by my financial advisor brother in law and hoping in a few years to go to three days a week.
I've witnessed as many have of people working all their lives then retiring and pass away soon after.
After my wife's three cancers and early retirement you do really appreciate appreciate life so much more.

[Kairos]

Retirement is overrated. I was forcibly 'retired' by a chap driving on his mobile phone, it gave me 13 days in ITU and another 14 in the recovery ward, the nurses weren't bad but not as pretty as I remember from my youth. I then spent the next 3 years getting my mobility back with regular physio interspersed with lying on the sofa, where I also had to sleep, sitting up. My business went because I couldn't get out to do the jobs and as a one man band I couldn't rely on anyone else. We coped, even though we had no income. I looked into things I could do and ramped up my scissor sharpening, which I could do at home in small bursts. Then as I got better I craved for work, it isn't just a source of income, it is a social environment and gives a sense of worth beyond the financial. I tried being a home bird and just keeping occupied with fishing, which I have done from being a very small boy, shooting - I started the bell target club in town, riding my bikes, but there was no reason to ride them, previously I had ridden every day to the jobs up and down the country. I get a few to do now again, but not enough to keep me occupied, so I started a new company and now provide safety cover for construction sites working over deep or moving water, bridge repairs that kind of thing. I couldn't be happier than going to work every day. Once the kit has been transported, I use the motorbike to get myself to and fro. Bliss. Oh, and the days not at work are relished because they are a treat rather than the norm. I appreciate my day fishing now, when I could go whenever I wanted, it became mundane and wasn't valued to the same degree.