I carried on full time up to the day I retired, but what I did do about 6 years before I left was to save £1k a month. This meant I got used to less coming in and had an additional pot for when I retired. It’s been 4 years now and I couldn’t imagine returning to work. I sleep better, I laugh more and no two days are the same.
My request to work reduced hours from full time to 2 or 3 days a week was rejected. I'm struggling to work full time now and had no success finding a part time job despite dozens of applications and interviews. If I don't find something by next summer I'm going to retire anyway, earlier than I really want to at 63.
I work in local government which is really flexible on working hours for most roles. I remarried and had two children in my late 40s so went to 4 days in my 50s and 2.5 days after I was 60.
I plan to do this until I’m 65,and they are nearly grown up, in 18 months time.
I carried on full time up to the day I retired, but what I did do about 6 years before I left was to save £1k a month. This meant I got used to less coming in and had an additional pot for when I retired. It’s been 4 years now and I couldn’t imagine returning to work. I sleep better, I laugh more and no two days are the same.
My request to work reduced hours from full time to 2 or 3 days a week was rejected. I'm struggling to work full time now and had no success finding a part time job despite dozens of applications and interviews. If I don't find something by next summer I'm going to retire anyway, earlier than I really want to at 63.
I work in local government which is really flexible on working hours for most roles. I remarried and had two children in my late 40s so went to 4 days in my 50s and 2.5 days after I was 60.
I plan to do this until I’m 65,and they are nearly grown up, in 18 months time.