When Can I Stop Working?

You may have reached a time in your life where you want to stop the stress and long hours of working full time, whether in your own business or in a senior executive role. You may want to share your expertise with others on a more part time or ad hoc basis. You may want to travel the world if that wasn’t part of your working life or you may want to volunteer, giving something back to your local community. Many of the people we meet are beginning to feel like this.   

When we met John and Sarah, John was in a senior executive role. His position involved travelling all over the UK, not being at home with Sarah for most of the working week. Sarah worked in a professional capacity and also felt ready to call it a day, if it was financially viable. John was in his late 50s and Sarah in her late 40s. They were both fit and healthy and ready to see the world. Due to the age difference, it was important to them to enjoy time together exploring and having adventures whilst they were both well enough. Their only commitments at home were their cats, who could be looked after by a cat sitter, as this was a role Sarah took on for others. Their one question was when John could stop working.  

We met initially to find out all about them and see if we were a good fit for one another. We asked a lot of questions. We wanted to understand what was important to them, what their life looks like and what things would come up for them in the future that they might need to spend money on. We discovered what life would be like for them when they no longer worked. We also found out that they had a desire to live in Italy. Exploring this further, it was something they had not really voiced before, and was certainly not something they had researched or costed.   

John and Sarah were happy with the work we planned to undertake. We collected information about their assets, liabilities, income and expenditure. Collaboratively, we created a plan to reflect their future life. We also looked at a potential scenario where they moved to Italy. They researched the cost of living and also the cost of buying property in their preferred region. Through our work together, they could see that it was affordable for them both to stop work and still be able to travel to the extent they wished, potentially also making the move to Italy. 

John handed his notice in, and they began planning trips, including an extended period of time in Italy. We helped them to plan how to use their savings, investments and pensions to provide the income they required to fund their travelling and normal life. John is good at moving bank accounts around to take advantage of new customer bonuses, which can provide a little extra, but they have largely lived the last over 3 years by drawing from savings and a little from pensions to ensure John fully utilises his personal tax allowance.  

Having spent time in Italy, John and Sarah decided that they preferred living in the UK. There were certain aspects of life here that couldn’t be replaced. However, they continue to travel extensively, both in the UK and across the globe. We enjoy them sending us photos of their trips and continue to support them, looking after their finances so that they are able to enjoy their time together.  

If you are wondering if you can make changes in your work life or in your business, whether you are planning for 5 years’ time, or hoping to stop soon, we can help and support. Please get in touch to arrange an initial meeting with one of our Chartered Financial Planners.