I’m planning to retire at 45 – and I’ve sacrificed having children to do it

Surrounded by friends and family, my 45th birthday will be an evening of laughter, love – and relief.

Not because I’ve put on another one of the breathtaking costumes I’m known for, but because this party will also mark my retirement from working life.

That’s right; my 45th birthday will also serve as my retirement party. Right now I’m only 35, but I don’t plan on working for more than ten years.

After all, the average life expectancy is only 82 years – which means that if I had a normal career, I would only have 15 years left to enjoy my retirement. That’s not what I want for myself. My plan involves retiring before my 56-year-old mother can claim her state pension at age 67.

Naturally, this was accompanied by careful financial planning. But the biggest thing that will make it all possible is sacrificing my prospects of having children in order to enjoy my hard-earned money myself.

I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to work – 14 percent of Generation Z (born between the late 1990s and early 2010s) aim to retire between the ages of 40 and 50 – but what made me take such a drastic decision? measures? ?

My parents separated when I was little, and my mother raised me alone, working low-paying jobs in the military. I saw how hard it was for her to scrape together the money just to pay for the weekly groceries. When she bought me a Barbour jacket for my 21st birthday, I cried; I knew how long she would have saved to pay for it.

So as soon as I was old enough to understand our situation, I vowed to do everything I could to make my life very different – ​​and at first I thought giving it my all at work was the solution.

As a millennial, I grew up in a “girl boss” culture that, as feminists, preached that we should reject domesticity and dedicate ourselves completely to our careers.

But this is at its own expense; Recent research found that 50 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 34 report feeling burned out, compared to 34 percent of workers over 55.

I know this better than anyone. In my early twenties I worked over 60 hours a week as a recruitment consultant on a measly salary of £24,000. I had no hobbies, no relationships, and no life outside of work. When I was only 23, after pushing my body and mind to the limit, I experienced constant pain and debilitating fatigue.

After being diagnosed with ME, better known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the neurologist told me that if I didn’t slow down, I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 35. This was a wake-up call that showed me how quickly life passes you by.

My childhood experiences already convinced me that I didn’t want to spend it the way my mother did, scrambling to put food on the table for my children. But now I realized that I didn’t want to live into my late sixties, so broken by work that I couldn’t enjoy the little life I had left.

Working for myself was the only way to earn enough to quit while I was young enough to make the most of it. So that year I launched my own company, offering training in sales strategy. It was no easy feat, but at least I was working for my own benefit, knowing that one day my business would be my retirement.

However, I knew there wouldn’t be any children to reach my early retirement goal.

There are numerous social and economic reasons for not wanting children, which contribute to Britain’s falling birth rate. I see friends in London struggling to pay for daycare, cutting back on good salaries to make ends meet. Why would I risk early retirement to have a child when I’m more than happy without one?

When I was single, I was honest with potential partners that having children wasn’t in my financial plan. My husband, who I met in 2021, was fortunately on the same page – and plans to retire at the same time as me.

We are happy to be the ‘nice uncle and aunt’ and the loving godparents of two children. It costs a lot less to buy them birthday and Christmas gifts than the estimated £160,000 it costs to raise your own child. Plus, when they’re older and their parents are exhausted in their 50s, they’ll have an active (and wealthy) godmother in me.

You’re probably wondering how we’re going to make it financially. Well, this didn’t happen without some unusual choices – and not just the decision not to have children.

While many couples indulged in champagne dinners and romantic weekend getaways on their honeymoons, I bought my husband and me financial classes that taught us how to manage our savings and investments in specific retirement options.

We then spoke to a financial advisor, who helped us work out that we needed more than £1 million in the bank to live the life we ​​wanted. We want at least two holidays a year and no less than £60,000 a year to live on.

While this is a lot of money – especially when we both only have ten years to build it up – I am confident that with hard work and careful financial planning, it is possible.

While it means a tough job over the next decade, it makes it worth it to know that all the money is going into my pocket, instead of a few faceless CEOs – and that the end date is within reach.

The consultant was shocked by my attitude – or rather my age. Most of her clients are in their late fifties.

But I wish someone had sat me down and talked about money when I was younger. Recently I went to a school to give a talk as part of a showcase for different career paths. I want young people to know that when they make their choices in life, the money they want to make should be a top consideration.

One teacher was baffled and protested to me afterwards, but I want younger people to know that financial freedom means personal freedom.

One of the things I’m most excited about in retirement is the freedom to give back to society. I’ll be volunteering for the Royal British Legion and the Soldiers’ Charity.

I’m also a keen runner and fitness fanatic, so I go to the gym to train for charity marathons and run my local Parkrun.

People challenge me and say I’m getting bored, but my schedule is already overcrowded and retirement is ten tears away!

Mom is generally supportive. She was devastated when I announced in my twenties that I would never have children. Being an only child means she will never have grandchildren.

But the pill was sweetened by me hiring her to manage customer service at my company. She encouraged me to make altruistic decisions, such as hiring single parents. She’s helping me create a different kind of legacy.

Sometimes it can feel like you’re in a race to complete your life, with the years being eaten away by the time spent at the coalface. But I don’t want to live with regrets; Life’s too short for that, right?

As told to Samantha Brick