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Should I retire?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
I was a graduate in HD in 1992 and a BEng in 1995. I also got an MBA in 2004. I have been working in the engineering industry since 1992 and with 26+ years of experience. Should I retire now or in 5 to 10 years? What do you think?
  • You haven't mentioned the one thing that really matters - how much money you have in your retirement fund.  Whatever you have needs to last you the rest of your life.  Retire too early, and you either have to live on very little money, or it runs out before you die.
  • Depends how much money you have and whether or not you really want to give up your work!


    If you have only been working 26 years you are unlikely to have enough cash to retire now unless you have saved lots of money or have some other source of income. A very rough rule of thumb appears to be that you need more than  £20,000 of savings for each £1,000 of annual income that you will need in retirement - and that assumes that you are in your sixties. The younger you are, the more cash that you need. Don't rely on those numbers. Consult a financial advisor if you are seriously making a decision.
  • Perhaps we should debate what is actually meant by “Retirement”?   This once seemed simple, if you were an employee of an organisation you were paid a wage or salary for your productive contribution until a prescribed age, when you were asked to step down and were paid a retirement pension instead.  

    Charles Handy for example was predicting “portfolio careers” thirty years ago and since that time greater flexibility has emerged. So to give a couple of examples; I meet people of in their thirties who have already taken a couple of sabbaticals (going travelling, gap years etc) are these “temporary retirements”? I met someone last week who aged 70 chairs several companies, writes books, gives talks and plays with a large train set. He made plain his desire to be “carried out in his coffin”.


    If we assume that someone chooses to “retire” when they are still capable of being productive, then it is a lifestyle choice, like any other.  


    In the UK at least, Governments have set out a future strategy to provide citizens with a very basic level of income from the public purse at an age when many of an earlier generation were likely to have been in declining health or have died.  There are incentives intended to ensure that individuals make sufficient provision to support themselves once they are no longer willing or able to support themselves through some form of work.            

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I have been working in the same company for over 5 years and I think it is the time for me to step down, and gives chance to the younger generation. Money is not a matter for me to consider and I just wonder what next for me in the coming years.I am below 50 and I don't know when I am going to die.......
  • Most of us just work until we are asked to retire. The self employed will have to fire themselves to quit. It is very good if you can make a good decision to retire earlier than the normal people. It will be more wonderful if you have some other plans to spend the rest of your life the way you want it to be. Your intention to let the younger people to take over your post is noble indeed.



  • Cheong Tsoi:

    I have been working in the same company for over 5 years and I think it is the time for me to step down, and gives chance to the younger generation. Money is not a matter for me to consider and I just wonder what next for me in the coming years.I am below 50 and I don't know when I am going to die.......



    So you've worked about 26 to 27 years.  if you currently are in good health, you may well live another 30 to 40 years.  Possibly even 50 years.


    As for the younger generation, once you retire, then you are expecting the younger people to look after you for the rest of your life - in the sense that they must grow the food that you want to eat, manufacture the goods you buy and provide all the services you use.  A big problem in the developed World is an ever-growing retired population, and an ever-shrinking number of working people - who keep paying more taxes per head just to keep the system going.
     

  • Hi, I have not retired but have left my employment after 43 years for many reasons but mostly frustration with business directions.

    The biggest issue for me is finding a route to deliver to the younger generations as a lecturer or consultant my engineering/technology expertise in Prognostic health/condition monitoring.

    The technology direction is piezo crystal medium frequency energy transfer MFET an acoustic emission sensor world and the continued problem of digitising frequency signatures in the bandwidth 60 to 700 kHz with a 0.5 Hz fidelity !!!

    The requirements can be over come with other innovative ideas and these are being explored.

    Functionability is the key descriptor of the discipline and focuses on prognostic holistic capture of data to define 'normal' to 'change' events of systems/products operating through their service life.

    If this interests you please contact. Regards
  • Regardless of prior successes or failures.

    Do you enjoy the work that you do?

    Do you enjoy the subject matter that you have trained for and continue to be excited by the future developments ?

    Do you see yourself in the process of helping others into your interests?

    There is a serious shortage of teachers and lecturers in this country, that leads me to ask do you live in the UK or elsewhere?

    Of course, there is always the case of family responsibilities. I suppose something else to consider.


    Legh
  • I retired about three years ago and am really enjoying it.  I am lucky enough to have a fantastic wife I really love and a great circle of friends and family which means I am always doing something and have a very full and interesting life.  However......


    I worked in a large factory for the last twenty years of my working life having had various positions such as Electrical Engineer, Assistant Production Manager, and Site Services Engineer (sort of Facilities Manager), always being responsible for something 24hrs per day.  I used to get phone calls at night and often had to go in. 


    On the day I retired all that responsibility suddenly stopped.  No one was asking me for help anymore.  It was as though all that experience and knowledge suddenly counted for nothing!  On a professional level, no one needed me any more!  That takes some getting used to.


    I also continue to miss the common banter that working people have with each other in a factory, dozens of friends who you speak to on a certain level that doesn't exist anywhere else.


    "Should I retire"  is a question which involves so many different aspects, this is just one to consider!



  • Simon Barker:




    Cheong Tsoi:

    I have been working in the same company for over 5 years and I think it is the time for me to step down, and gives chance to the younger generation. Money is not a matter for me to consider and I just wonder what next for me in the coming years.I am below 50 and I don't know when I am going to die.......



    So you've worked about 26 to 27 years.  if you currently are in good health, you may well live another 30 to 40 years.  Possibly even 50 years.


    As for the younger generation, once you retire, then you are expecting the younger people to look after you for the rest of your life - in the sense that they must grow the food that you want to eat, manufacture the goods you buy and provide all the services you use.  A big problem in the developed World is an ever-growing retired population, and an ever-shrinking number of working people - who keep paying more taxes per head just to keep the system going.
     


     




     

    Hello, Cheong Tsoi. Simon Barker makes a very good point, often overlooked. We are now in the position where the "post-war baby boomers" have reached retirement age and there are more retired people that ever before requiring the support of those still working.


    Retire when you like. But don't feel you need to retire for the sake of letting someone else into employment.


    There is no "rationing" of jobs. Yes, industry sometimes goes through periods of recession, when unemployment is high. But this represents not lack of work to be done but lack of organisation of people to do that work. If you quit your job you will probably replaced by promotion of someone a step below you on the career ladder. It is less likely that this will ripple down to an unemployed person, school leaver or fresh graduate. Such people usually enter new jobs created by constant change.


    I know of people who retired well before official state retirement age. That's fine if they achieve the lifestyle they want. I know of others who wished to carry on after official state retirement age. They continue to contribute to society through income tax, employers' national insurance contributions and of course their own spending power, all of which help to create work for others. That does not seem at all bad.


    I worked full-time till I was 70 and continued part-time for 2½ years after that. I would probably have continued to work even longer but for family responsibilities.  I felt no guilt about "depriving others of work". On the contrary, in a way it compensated me for some periods when I was unemployed.