About FreeBefore65
Personal Reflections On My Early Retirement
This is where I write down what early retirement actually looks like from the inside, while it's still happening, before the edges get sanded off in the retelling.
The planning, the numbers, the doubt, and the ordinary strangeness of a free Tuesday morning.
My Story
I'm Tony. I'm 58, I live in East Yorkshire, and on 1 April 2026 I handed in my notice on a job I'd done since 2018. My last day is 26 June.
What you'll find here
I spent my working life working with data, paid to find the real story underneath the official one. I've turned the same habit on my own retirement. So there's the practical side, pensions, ISAs, tax, draw-down, but also the parts that don't fit on a spreadsheet: the 6am wake-ups that didn't stop when the job did, and the question of who you are once the role has gone.
Why I left
It wasn't one moment. The commute and nights away in the same hotel wore me down, and the role itself had gone quiet on me. Then came the push to get everyone back into the office, just as I'd found a way of working that suited my life. Underneath it all, I'd watched my father's retirement cut short by ill health, and I'd lost both my parents. Eventually the numbers said I could stop, and a few months later the rest of me agreed.
I'm not selling anything
Most early retirement content is polished, and most of it comes from someone whose situation looks nothing like yours. Mine is one set of circumstances with a good deal of luck in it, and I try to say so rather than dress it up as a method. I can't tell you what to do with your money, and I'm not a financial adviser. What I can do is show you the real decisions as I make them.
A note on AI assistance
I want to be transparent about how this site's content was produced. I've used AI writing tools to help draft and structure posts across all sections of the site, including the planning guides, the Toolkit and the illustrated examples.
The experiences, spreadsheets, 3am panics, and opinions on this site are 100% mine. However, because I'm a retiree and not a professional writer, I occasionally use AI tools to help untangle my thoughts, fix my grammar, or format my ramblings into readable blog posts.
The human messiness is all me; the AI just helps me tidy the desk.
Share Your Early Retirement Journey
Are you considering early retirement? I would love to hear from you! Your experiences can provide invaluable insights for others who are on a similar path. Whether you’ve already taken the leap or are still contemplating your options, your stories can help shape a community of support and understanding. Please get in touch and share your journey with us. Together, we can explore the joys and challenges of life after work, and learn from one another’s experiences.