Quote Originally Posted by KeithD View Post
I'm 50 next month. Luckily I do not have to worry about retirement.... I did that when I was 21
Can't quite beat your record ... but I retired when I was just over a year younger than the age you'll be next month, after losing first, my father [suddenly from a heart attack] then - shortly afterwards - my first wife following a long spell of ill-health. So I was barely 50 ... but never for one second have I ever regretted my decision to go early, since our two children were, by then, grown-up and more than self~sufficient. Plus, my superannuable length of service qualified me for an index-linked occupational pension that, all things considered, guaranteed at least a reasonable [if modest] lifestyle.

Now please don't get me wrong ... it wasn't that I was a lazy sod; on the contrary ... ... if anything, I'd been a workaholic. However, back in the 1990s it was a 'young person's world' ... I'd reached the stage when I had literally worn myself out ... and the two bereavements I'd suffered proved to be the final straw.