Early Retirement at 57

Forsa looking for a 4 day trial in civil service, would bloody love that till I retire at 60!

I think it’s same hours which is hard to swallow for managers I’d say

Ah lovely- continued enjoyment and health to you - I think for Spain/Portugal etc the thing to do would be to buy in your 30s or 40s assuming you have family and use that for 20 + years as your family grow up - then decide towards retirement does it stay in the family , sell off to support retirement funds or go live there fulltime?
Buying abroad as you retire and be risky as:

1. It takes time to get to know an area- what might seem like a good idea on a short break in summer could end up being a nightmare or at least not so pleasant at other times
2. Really need to decide what you’re going to do - I know of people displaying advanced signs of serious alcohol abuse after living abroad for years - golf and drink is their life and probably a lot more drink than golf - not pretty - days abroad are long and you need to have that discipline to do something other than drink all day
3. Additional taxes , water shortages and other challenges are becoming the norm in high demand tourist areas - your “bargain” property might become quite a monetary noose around your neck
4. Remain healthy - quality and cost if medical treatment abroad may not be what you’d expect here

Golf bores me so no fear of falling into that lifestyle.

We kind of already done the sun lifestyle with a few years in Oz so we know that novelty does wear off. We did learn a lot from how people retire in Australia however. Because it's mostly warm all year round many Ozzies sell the old house upon retirement, bank the sale and buy a massive mobile home and then spend years driving all around the continent until they're bored with that, then sell the bus, and buy a smaller retirement unit in a zone semi independent development.

Their property taxes make it hard for retirees to justify wasting their pension staying in big houses as they age so there's lots of movement by developers to meet that downsizing market.

Ideally I can imagine we buying a LHD campervan (mobile home is probably too much) and then we could spend a few months each year wondering around France and Iberia, perhaps even driving to Greece if we feel up to it. I love archeaology and history so for me it was be an odyssey.

And totally unfair to people who already work part time for reduced pay - which is something many departments allow.

So I don't think this will fly.

That's interesting. I do think that the work in the US is a sh1t-show though. Their labour rules are so slack compared to what we have in europe. Employees tend to have so little protection. And the lower you go down the salary chain the worse it gets. They have a lot of catching up to do and with a right wing government in place for the next 2-4 years it wont be getting better anytime soon unfortunately.

I am not sure if he is joking but their new head of government efficiency Elon Musk is looking for a-list candidates to work 80 hours a week for him - unpaid. Change starts at the top!