Hopefully 15 years to go for me.......

[accountingsucks]

I am 30 and a designated accountant up here in Canada. My goal is to retire at 45. Essentially I do not like the profession I am in or most of the people in it. 60 hour work weeks are considered "normal" and the people I work with really don't seem to have any lives outside of work and I have worked at 4 different places so I have decided that this profession attracts the kind of people I do not want to be around. I guess I just do not get the concept of working at all.....work 5 days a week(if I am lucky and don't have to work on the weekend) and get 2 off for the rest of my life...plus the occasional vacation....sorry this is no way to live.......

Financially I make about 75K a year Canadian. My home was just paid off due to diligently putting most of my savings against my mortgage and I have about 15,000 in retirement savings. Now that my home is paid off (worth about 250,000) I will pour every penny I can of after tax money into savings. I should be able to save 30,000 a year. Essentially I want to get to about 600 or 700,000 in retirement savings at 45 and then call it quits.

I actually will work part time when I get to that age but it will be about 40 hours a month and this should be fairly easy in my profession as I could do consulting work or simply open up a bookkeeping/accounting practice out of my home. My goal would be that this part time income would cover my monthly expenses and a yearly vacation as I would not want to touch the money I have allocated as my pension until into mid 50's (hopefully it would reach a million by then). My monthly expenses now are $1500ish per month.

[Helen]

It sounds like you have a good plan in place ! Now you have to figure out how you can make the short term more fun. When you figure it out, please let me know !!!

-helen

[retire@40]

Originally Posted by accountingsucks

...I guess I just do not get the concept of working at all.....work 5 days a week(if I am lucky and don't have to work on the weekend) and get 2 off for the rest of my life...plus the occasional vacation....sorry this is no way to live.......

You are in the right forum, because most of us here think that way too.

[accountingsucks]

Originally Posted by retire@40

You are in the right forum, because most of us here think that way too.

At least in Europe they have a somewhat more balanced approach. Normally you get 6 weeks vacation right off the bat, more civic holidays, no OT, etc- at least this is what my relatives in Europe tell me. I get 3 weeks vacation, 200 to 300 hours of OT every year and I literally do not take any breaks during my workday except for maybe a 15 minute lunch at my desk. This is how it has been at all the jobs I've held.

I have considered doing something else like a trade - electrician, welder,etc - as I would make just as much money and I would be paid for every hour I work and double for any OT which is a major concept for me. I think not paying people simply because they are "professionals" and are university educated is a form of slavery. I guess I am here to vent...LOL

[uncledrz]

15 years is too long a time to spend in a profession you don't like with people you don't want to be with.
why not try to use your accounting experience as a way into something a bit different (finance, banking, ...)?