Click: a decision is made to ER

[growing_older]

I've been back and forth a number of times with OMY or stay or find a new job. There are so many factors to consider and so many possible advantages and strategies to consider.

Until today, then CLICK. The decision is made.

I've been battling a series of endless frustrations at work, assignments that seem pointless, inability to get others to take seriously my concerns about product bugs or data security, promises to customers not fulfilled, lack of planning for the future features we will need to stay competitive. I'm assigned three bosses who don't coordinate and two of them don't believe in doing anything except work 24x7. Curiously I was okay managing this because the overall mission of the company is worthwhile and I felt like I was helping accomplish good in the world despite these problem.

Then Click. We changed from our pretty poor 401k plan to an even worse one. This of all things is what pushed me over the edge. This company really doesn't care about our employees. I'm getting into the years when the bad effects of high ER are compounding against me. I'm done fighting this with the CFO who should know better, but doesn't.

I probably have six months of preparations to make sure my finances are in order and to insure that I get all the bonus payouts and stock awards that I have earned, but that are usually withheld if anyone leaves (or is known to be leaving) before the payout date. But it feels like this is no longer an open question. It is just working through all the details.

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

 

[W2R]

Congratulations! It sounds like the right time for you to retire, from what you are saying. Sometimes it is a relief to have made the decision and I hope it is for you.

I didn't have the same pressures, because I was waiting for retiree medical after I was otherwise ready to retire. So, I knew what day it would be for quite some time.

Have you set a date yet? You could start on your countdown!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

That is close to how DH decided. Good luck with your decision and path forward. It sounds like you reached the crossover point where you'd be happier with more time and lifestyle freedom than the extra income.

 

[Independent]

I did a poll some years ago on "What finally made you walk out the door?"

IIRC, most people said they just got fed up with something at work. The types of things you mentioned, though the specifics vary.

Very few people said "just hit my date" or "work was fine, retirement just seemed better".

 

[donheff]

Yes, lots of us go through something like that. In my case, I was FI but planning two more years when one day I woke up and knew I was going in to announce my retirement that day. No big change or challenge at work just an acknowledgement of how I felt. Tipping points frequently sneak up on us.

 

[MichaelB]

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

This is as good a way as any to decide to ER. Sounds like your BS bucket is full. Good luck now as you navigate your way through the phase out while staying on target to keep the year end bonuses.

 

[marko]

Provided that they've prepared, a lot of people are "one bad day" away from RE.

But maybe that preparedness is what [-]creates[/-] allows the OBD trigger. Others don't have that option.

 

[athena53]

One week elapsed between my calling DH on a Friday afternoon and saying, "I think I'm going to quit my job on Monday" and the day I walked out for the last time (the following Friday). I'd planned to work till age 65 and I was 61, but the politics got ugly and I decided it was time. That was May, 2014 and I haven't looked back. Life is good.


Congratulations on your decision. I can understand your wanting to wait till some bonuses and awards are made; the employer before my last one had a few perks that were distributed in March and April, so we did tend to have a lot of resignations in April! Too bad about the direction your company is taking- it sounds like it's hurting everyone except maybe the people at the top.

 

[brett]

Click did happen to me. I kept my council, got my finances in order. And then I waited them out for a package. It was well worth the 12 month wait.

You know that you are working for a poorly run organization when it becomes very difficult to get highly motivated/talented individual contributors to accept promotions to management roles.

Did not even consider another role, another job, or consulting. Just wanted out with a complete change of lifestyle while we had the health to enjoy it. Turned out to be a wonderful decision for us but everyone is different.

 

[FreeBear]

You know that you are working for a poorly run organization when it becomes very difficult to get highly motivated/talented individual contributors to accept promotions to management roles.

+1

Spot-on!

I turned down management track and promotions in mini-Mega for years. I didn't want my plate even further loaded down with BS nonsense. Even worse, promotion would have brought daily exposure to the corporate snakes I had been trying to avoid. This decision did hasten the end of my career, but I now know this is a great thing.

I shocked many people by turning down promotions. Most folks took the promotions because they "needed" the money. Fair enough, but I could see what it did to them. I wasn't that desperate for the money or the grief that comes with it.

Well, the snakes started to appear even in the rank-and-file technical roles. I then discovered I was financially independent, or at least close enough, then bailed out. Oh happy day!!!

 

[easysurfer]

A common sports analogy is you'll know what the time is right to leave.

For folks not at that point, I think many don't understand. But for the one who sees the CLICK, the move makes all the sense in the world. Congrats!

 

[FreeBear]

Provided that they've prepared, a lot of people are "one bad day" away from RE.

But maybe that preparedness is what [-]creates[/-] allows the OBD trigger. Others don't have that option.

+1 Marko!

At the end, I had a terrible 2 years before I dumped mini-Mega. Actually, I had as many bad years as OK years, but only a few "great" years in two decades. That was an early warning sign, but I could not afford to heed it. Well, FI eventually came and I left within a year.

It was the best day of my life! Still feeling the joy, maybe even more so now, more than half a year later.

 

[MRG]

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

That's how it was for me. I'd planned on another OMY and stupidity hit my VP. Just can't describe it any other way.

I'd seen enough to know another OMY wasn't for me.

 

[FreeBear]

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

I started saving for FI almost at the beginning of my career, but my hoped for FIRE was decades away. I eventually reached FI and the corporate BS bucket was spilling over onto my shoes daily (yuck!), so CLICK, I FIRED.

I left within a year of crossing into FI, because I was "mad as hell and just can't take it anymore"!!! From I financial point of view, I would have been more comfortable and had more money for toys even staying a few more years, but I was beyond done for some time.

Sounds like you are done too! Congratulations!

 

[marko]

That's how it was for me. I'd planned on another OMY and stupidity hit my VP. Just can't describe it any other way.

I'd seen enough to know another OMY wasn't for me.

An acquaintance went to work one day with no intention of RE for at least a few more years. (mega-mega corp)

They were having some sort of voluntary RIF and his buddy came by his office at 3:30 telling him that today was the last day to sign up and if he didn't RE that day, he'd be working the next 5 years for absolutely zero financial benefit.

He literally ran down the hall to HR and signed up with 15 minutes to spare. Called his wife..."guess what honey?"

 

[38Chevy454]

As stated many times on here: "Retire when you have had enough, and when you have enough" seems to be very appropriate to OP. Could also be defined as your BS bucket just overflowed.

Now you really have to put on the game face and stick it out until that last day!

 

[rodi]

I had the OBD "click" thing happen.

I'd been prepping for ER at 55. As things snowballed and the market kept going up I'd hit my targets but was still waiting till 55. I was actually waiting till 55 or a package - and given the multiple corporate changes in the few years prior to my retirement, a package seemed likely... but somehow my group was always missed. I'd even let my management know that they could put my name at the top of a RIF list if a RIF was in the works.

Like you - these changes had resulted in lots of (negative) changes to our benefits as well. Crappier 401k, higher co-insurance amount for lower medical coverage, frozen or eliminated benefits...

So I was biding time waiting for a layoff or age 55... and had over 2 years to go.

Then, in a staff meeting, my boss informed our small team that 4 of us would be rotating through a client site - 1 week at a time. So every 4-5 weeks I'd be away from family, babysitting a customer. (And away from doing my development work - just babysitting the customer.) I thought about my family commitments, how this didn't work with my part time schedule (it would be a full week PLUS travel time)... the burden it would put on my husband to get the boys to/from school, to sports commitments, etc... I gave notice the following Monday.

I did spend that weekend re-running EVERY calculator I could lay my hand on - but the "click" moment was definitely during that staff meeting.

 

[Walt34]

For me there was no "click" moment but a slow buildup of frustrations. I actually enjoyed my job and worked with a great group of people, no slackers, oddballs, or space cadets. But the job I was doing required frequent and expensive updates of equipment, software, and training and it was getting increasingly hard to get that. The other issue was the increasingly bad traffic in the DC area. Where we lived it wasn't uncommon to have to sit through three cycles of a traffic light to get through an intersection and there seemed to be a light on every corner. We rarely went anywhere or did anything because by the time we got there we're all grouchy from the traffic.

So, we looked a the numbers, went to see a FA I'd known for 20+ years (I used to work with him) to make sure we hadn't overlooked anything and I gave my notice. I retired July 1, 2002 and by September 12 we were living in WV. We did a lot of "going back and forth" about whether it was a smart thing to do. Then about six months after the move we went to see my little sister in Virginia. She said "You two look more relaxed than I've seen you in years."

It was that moment when we knew we'd made the right decision. You can't buy that.

 

[Looking4Ward]

I did a poll some years ago on "What finally made you walk out the door?"

IIRC, most people said they just got fed up with something at work. The types of things you mentioned, though the specifics vary.

Very few people said "just hit my date" or "work was fine, retirement just seemed better".

I believe that. It's certainly what caused me to submit my resignation on the very day yet another conflict popped up. I had been planning to ER for several years and was 16 months away from my planned date but something happened that day that just "pushed that button". I went back to my office, composed my two-month notice in Word, printed it out and handed it to my CEO.

That was 18 months ago and I haven't regretted it once.

OP - go for it!

 

[racy]

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

I remember my click moment 3 years ago. I was floating in a lounge chair in our lake with my wife, beer in hand,.. and realized "I don't have to put up with the megacorp BS anymore; I can retire if I choose". I'd been planning for retirement from the day I started work and was prepared. In fact, I could have retired earlier, financial-wise, but was enjoying the job up until "CLICK".

 

[Buckeye]

I've been back and forth a number of times with OMY or stay or find a new job. There are so many factors to consider and so many possible advantages and strategies to consider.

Until today, then CLICK. The decision is made.

I've been battling a series of endless frustrations at work, assignments that seem pointless, inability to get others to take seriously my concerns about product bugs or data security, promises to customers not fulfilled, lack of planning for the future features we will need to stay competitive. I'm assigned three bosses who don't coordinate and two of them don't believe in doing anything except work 24x7. Curiously I was okay managing this because the overall mission of the company is worthwhile and I felt like I was helping accomplish good in the world despite these problem.

Then Click. We changed from our pretty poor 401k plan to an even worse one. This of all things is what pushed me over the edge. This company really doesn't care about our employees. I'm getting into the years when the bad effects of high ER are compounding against me. I'm done fighting this with the CFO who should know better, but doesn't.

I probably have six months of preparations to make sure my finances are in order and to insure that I get all the bonus payouts and stock awards that I have earned, but that are usually withheld if anyone leaves (or is known to be leaving) before the payout date. But it feels like this is no longer an open question. It is just working through all the details.

Is this how people decide to ER? A long series of plans, pros and cons, reasons to decide based on great data and projections. Then CLICK something just pushes the right button and the decision is made.

Yes.

 

[MRG]

I watched a former co-w*rker go the same way FI, click, and gone. I understand why it clicked, terrible manager couldn't figure out how to act like other humans.

 

[Independent]

As stated many times on here: "Retire when you have had enough, and when you have enough" seems to be very appropriate to OP. Could also be defined as your BS bucket just overflowed.

Now you really have to put on the game face and stick it out until that last day!

I like that line, though I'd reverse it. "Retire when you have enough and have had enough". I think that's very common on this board.

 

[athena53]

When I was in my late 20s, some actuaries I worked with were talking about a former coworker at their previous company. They'd told him he was being promoted. He told them he didn't want to be promoted. They told him he had no choice. "Oh, yes, I do", he said. He'd been saving and investing for years, and he surprised them by retiring. I think that story really stuck with me- the idea of having the luxury of exiting on your own terms. Maybe it influenced my own thinking about saving for retirement.

 

[Cobra9777]

No "click" moment for me, more like a crescendo of circumstances. I was mentally "geared up" for 55, at which point lots of good stuff was scheduled to happen relative to pension and unvested stock grants. But around 49, I started to question everything: my compensation, growth potential, work-life balance, life goals.

My responsibilities, workload, travel, and stress were at an all-time high and increasing. Yet my compensation, while still high in absolute terms, had been essentially flat since the financial meltdown. I began to realize this value-shift in favor of Megacorp was unlikely to change. After some brutal layoffs in 2009, followed by resurgent growth, corporate productivity was soaring, and yours truly was ground zero. For the first time, I was no longer enjoying my work and began to resent the lack of time for other pursuits.

I dusted off the spreadsheets... answer was encouraging though inconclusive. DW was supportive, market was recovering, and the lure of ER was irreversibly ignited. I started to actually visualize what it would be like. It took 3 more years of introspection, market growth, spreadsheet refinement, and implicit confirmation of my plight at Megacorp. But at 52, I scheduled an appointment with the boss and let him in on my plan. Seven months later, my replacement was primed, and I was unemployed for the first time since 15.