Retirement - put it off or take it early?.

[Derek Dangleberries]

4 hours ago, KhunDon said:

Having a child educated in Thailand or in the UK was the main reason we decided to come back to the UK. 
My wife was happy to leave her family behind in order that our child had a good education here and we’ve been extremely lucky to get him into the top schools in the area, the final one of which is probably the best secondary school in the County which he started in September.
Despite us being well outside the catchment area, we managed to squeeze him in. 

There are some damned good schools in Dorset.. but perhaps I am biased... I went to Wimborne Secondary Modern which became Comprehensive when they closed Wimborne Grammar School .

We played rugby against Canford, Byanstone, Clayesmore and always giving them a damned good game. Cross Country County level was always run at Lychett Matravers over your way..

Regarding expat International schools. You and @Krapow made the right decision. I think @Horizondave mentioned it too. When I went contracting a very good friend stayed on as a permie Senior Manager with the entitlement to send his kids to the best International schools wherever he worked. We would meet up occasionally for a beer and he purposely brought along his kids so that I could tell him what I thought.....and I didn't hold back.. They were the most arrogant little shits I had ever met. No social awareness. No ability to communicate to a country boy like me..The worst thing though was that the arrogance wasn't supported by knowledge or life experience .. they just "knew" that they were better than everybody else.

He agreed and sent them back to UK to attend a "proper school"!!

[tko]

Like several others here mentioned, I had children late.  My oldest was born when I was 50, my youngest the year I retired at 55.  Fortunately I had a very lucrative career, senior research and engineering management.  So I am able to afford very good private schools in Thailand. 

I convinced TW to get US citizenship in case our daughter wants to come back to the US for university, but seeing the way schools have gone woke back there we'll probably look for something overseas.

I worked with some excellent Thai engineers back in the day.  So I have a good opinion of Chulalongorn, Mahidol, and Thammasat universities in Thailand also.

  

[Glasseye]

On 10/8/2023 at 7:45 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

BINGO, i could'nt quite believe my luck when my National Sales Director asked me if i was interested in retiring early at 50 yo. The company was restructuring and they needed to lose some senior managers and at 49yo and after doing 25 years with the company he thought i might be interested, if i accepted he wanted me to help with restructuring in my last year.

They offered me a deal which was like winning the lottery, full pension as if i'd worked to the normal retirement age of 60.

The job was becoming more and more stressful as i was aging so early retirement was a no brainer for me and then i went on to work for a mate of mines company looking after problem kids (autism, ADHD etc) i could choose what days i worked and i found it very satisfying to be doing something totally different benefiting young kids as opposed to sales.   

 

Your head must have been spinning when they made you that offer. 

 

What an unexpected surprise that must have been.

 

I'm sure though you acted coy initially. But, at the first opportunity went into the toilet and had a big wank !

 

 

55555 !

[Horizondave]

4 hours ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

There are some damned good schools in Dorset.. but perhaps I am biased... I went to Wimborne Secondary Modern which became Comprehensive when they closed Wimborne Grammar School .

We played rugby against Canford, Byanstone, Clayesmore and always giving them a damned good game. Cross Country County level was always run at Lychett Matravers over your way..

Regarding expat International schools. You and @Krapow made the right decision. I think @Horizondave mentioned it too. When I went contracting a very good friend stayed on as a permie Senior Manager with the entitlement to send his kids to the best International schools wherever he worked. We would meet up occasionally for a beer and he purposely brought along his kids so that I could tell him what I thought.....and I didn't hold back.. They were the most arrogant little shits I had ever met. No social awareness. No ability to communicate to a country boy like me..The worst thing though was that the arrogance wasn't supported by knowledge or life experience .. they just "knew" that they were better than everybody else.

He agreed and sent them back to UK to attend a "proper school"!!

A good point about the arrogance associated with the Thai International School education.

A mate had his kid go to International school and at the age of 9 he was one arrogant, smarmy, condescending little bugger. He would ask the most stupid questions that a boy with a broader worldly knowledge wouldn't ask, he just thought he was smart. What the hell do they teach them in Thailand.

 

[Glasseye]

3 minutes ago, Horizondave said:

A good point about the arrogance associated with the Thai International School education.

A mate had his kid go to International school and at the age of 9 he was one arrogant, smarmy, condescending little bugger. He would ask the most stupid questions that a boy with a broader worldly knowledge wouldn't ask, he just thought he was smart. What the hell do they teach them in Thailand.

 

 

Stuff like that is usually more the parents influence. 

[Horizondave]

3 minutes ago, Glasseye said:

 

Stuff like that is usually more the parents influence. 

I might go 50/50 on that one.

 

[Glasseye]

5 minutes ago, Horizondave said:

I might go 50/50 on that one.

 

Reasonable

[Smiler]

I had a practice 16 month run at retirement once I managed to get back to Udon during covid. Was seriously thinking about cashing in a pension and going for it. Even though I was very busy - we demolished both houses in our compound and rebuilt them, established a Eucalyptus plantation, sorted out neglected farm land and I was spending a couple of days a week working online, the experience proved to me that I wasn't quite ready to retire.

John Lennon said that "Life happens when you are making plans to do something else" (or along those lines). Events last year meant that I needed to get back to the UK and I actually enjoyed going back to work.

As it happens the place where I have been working in Southampton for the last 4 months employs around 40 zero hour tempory workers and most of them are people who retired early. There are ex-coppers, council employees, RAF, Army, Navy etc etc. Sure some of them need the extra cash but ALL of them say they missed the banter, workplace camerarderie and most importantly something to keep them occupied, both physicaly and mentally. 

I have 36 more days then its back to the jungle for 3 months - just about the right split between working and being a beer for breakfast sexpat. 👀

[Pumpuynarak]

13 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

Your head must have been spinning when they made you that offer. 

 

What an unexpected surprise that must have been.

 

I'm sure though you acted coy initially. But, at the first opportunity went into the toilet and had a big wank !

 

 

55555 !

🤣🤣🤣

In fact i did somewhat over react to the offer minus the wank lol, here they were (National Sales Director and Head of Human Resources) sitting together and when the NSD made me the offer i jumped off my seat with my fist in the air shouting Yessssssssssss, they could'nt quite believe my response but we all had a good laugh.

I felt i only did what any substantial lottery winner would do when confronted with the fantastic news ?

[Yessongs]

Good thread, some great reads here to see how everyone that is currently retired are doing, how they got there and their decision to pull the trigger when they decided to do it.

In my case, I did 38 years in “Tech” in Silicon Valley. Worked in Marketing, got to do quite a few trips to Asian countries over my time. Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia. Philipines and Thailand was where I visited the most. 13 years at “Intel” and that is where I met wifey back in 1999 as we opened a “Sales/Marketing Support” office here in Bangkok. 

Worked for some good companies and some bad ones over the years. Like alot of you have said, I kind of miss the “camaraderie” amongst friends you have met and I met quite a few nice people over my time. But…when a few of us reached 55 years old, my best friends and I, at a boys night out one evening for dinner/drinks, we all reached the conclusion that the long hours, the long phone calls to Asia, not getting out of the office until 7:00pm at times, getting to the gym at 8:00pm for a 1 hour workout was taking a toll on all of us, and this kind of pace at that age was not sustainable. 

I decided that i was going to give it 5 more years, and at age 60, 7 years ago, called it a career. Certainly, having an opportunity to give marriage a second try was a big factor and thankfully has worked out quite nicely. Moving here to Thailand, has been fun, some challenges, but I am happy here and wifey has made it easy for me to be successful and the transition has gone smoothly. 

After spending 4 years with her back in Calif recently, I look back on the time that I had to “commute” from my home, seeing Hwy 101 and Hwy 85 and I just don’t know how I did it. Complete gridlock in the city now…

I will never be bored, I am just not that type and always have things that I do and like to do. Yes there are some “slow days” in retirement, but not many, as neither of us are the “sit at home types” with our phones in our faces all day or laptop you know. 

Got out at a good time, sure I probably could have done it sooner, but am loving this lifestyle…. both my kids both got their degrees, are successful and I don’t have to worry about them at all and they don’t need my help at all…financially or otherwise…

Looking forward to continue to work on my health and staying financially strong are big priorities for us these days. 

[Jambo]

I retired to Thailand back in June 2006 some three years after my wife died.

For the previous 8 years I had been a self employed accountant working from home building up a client bank of some 50 customers including in the end six large pubs from the same brewery chain. They were a major income source as I did everything for them including running their payrolls and negotiating fines with the Inland Revenue when they got caught hiding income from, say,  live music nights or gaming machines. 😉

So in 2006, I sold my client bank to another accountant, took my private pension and retired to Pattaya.

I had the time of my life getting pissed every night and having the pick of all Secrets new girls. I even had a business card printed with my title of "Honorary Pussy Tester." That lasted for about 3 months when I realized that as enjoyable as this was my health was suffering and I reverted to "Retirement Mode" and basically socializing at weekends only.

Ben was a mate then. In fact he was more like the younger brother I never had.

I did an initial set of " Management Accounts" for Secrets because he did not trust Alan his own Manager. There was a lot of "black holes" in the initial recording of expenditure and cash introduced by shareholders but as far as I could tell Alan had done an excellent job in recording day to day income/expenditure once Secrets opened.

As much as I was enjoying retirement, Thailand style, I was happy to help out in the office as Alan's main role was head chef and he was a really good Chef.

Then one day we all received a message on our phones from Alan telling us he was at Bangkok Airport on his way to Papua New Guinea to run the catering for a Gold Mine. The next day I became Secrets General Manager so full time employed again. 

There then followed several of the happiest years of my life. It was not like work because all Secrets customers were visiting  with the aim of having a great time and most did just that .............in spades! We were a great team as well all getting on with one another.

Then Ben f***d it all up with his lifestyle and Poker addictions all funded through Secrets Bank account. I still had the responsibility to somehow pay all the bills and I found myself waking up in the night wondering how I was going to pay the staff.

Eventually, I walked away because enough was enough.

What a shame.

[KWA]

5 years into retirement now and not regretting a minute of it.

Stopped work at 55 when my financial advisor said I could and spent about 50% of my time in Thailand for the first year or so, then March 2020 got "stuck" here by Covid for a long stretch of about 18 months.  Since then it's been 90% here with visits back to the UK where I've kept my house, car etc.  Nice to have the place to go back to even if money-wise it's probably a bad move.

Wouldn't change what I've done given the choice again.

 

[Glasseye]

6 hours ago, Jambo said:

I retired to Thailand back in June 2006 some three years after my wife died.

For the previous 8 years I had been a self employed accountant working from home building up a client bank of some 50 customers including in the end six large pubs from the same brewery chain. They were a major income source as I did everything for them including running their payrolls and negotiating fines with the Inland Revenue when they got caught hiding income from, say,  live music nights or gaming machines. 😉

So in 2006, I sold my client bank to another accountant, took my private pension and retired to Pattaya.

I had the time of my life getting pissed every night and having the pick of all Secrets new girls. I even had a business card printed with my title of "Honorary Pussy Tester." That lasted for about 3 months when I realized that as enjoyable as this was my health was suffering and I reverted to "Retirement Mode" and basically socializing at weekends only.

Ben was a mate then. In fact he was more like the younger brother I never had.

I did an initial set of " Management Accounts" for Secrets because he did not trust Alan his own Manager. There was a lot of "black holes" in the initial recording of expenditure and cash introduced by shareholders but as far as I could tell Alan had done an excellent job in recording day to day income/expenditure once Secrets opened.

As much as I was enjoying retirement, Thailand style, I was happy to help out in the office as Alan's main role was head chef and he was a really good Chef.

Then one day we all received a message on our phones from Alan telling us he was at Bangkok Airport on his way to Papua New Guinea to run the catering for a Gold Mine. The next day I became Secrets General Manager so full time employed again. 

There then followed several of the happiest years of my life. It was not like work because all Secrets customers were visiting  with the aim of having a great time and most did just that .............in spades! We were a great team as well all getting on with one another.

Then Ben f***d it all up with his lifestyle and Poker addictions all funded through Secrets Bank account. I still had the responsibility to somehow pay all the bills and I found myself waking up in the night wondering how I was going to pay the staff.

Eventually, I walked away because enough was enough.

What a shame.

 

Good post Jambo. Indeed life is a roller coaster, especially when responsible for other people.

 

The thing that wore me down the most near the end was supervising people. Many of the employees were constantly throwing curve balls, either intentionally or unitentionally. Along with that some of the others at my level or above were shucking off their responsibilities. So a heavier burden fell on me. Stress and resentment began to add up.

I refused to join the club of half assed effort and laziness. In my eyes and soul it was just not acceptable. I knew that holding on longer would only be to my detrement. 

The day the magic number hit I turned my stuff in, walked out ther door and have never returned. No bitterness whatsoever, it's just how I chose to manage it. The experience and memories will be with me every day. But sometimes it is best to just cut and go. Not one regret.