I’m interested to know about people’s thoughts/experiences regarding early retirement.
My MS diagnosis is recent, so I’m not currently disabled. However, the prognosis is obviously not great. I’m self-employed. And wondering how this should affect my work/retirement plans.
On the one hand, I know disability is expensive. And I may not be able to work up to retirement age. So part of me thinks I should earn as much as I can now, to prepare - setting aside extra holidays, free time etc.
On the other hand, I have hobbies, like hiking, that I would have hoped to do when retired - that now seems less likely. So I’m tempted to take more time off now, to go walking and so on. And (being frank here) I would probably opt for Dignitas beyond a certain level of disability, I am not determined to live out every possible minute of life just for the sake of it. That means I am unlikely to need as much pension.
Have you faced this dilemma? If you are retired, do you wish you had retired earlier?
It’s not either/or, and (as your post implies) getting the right balance is a very personal matter, and one that we have to think about in the face of great uncertainty. Not easy.
Personally, I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about it very deliberately. At work I soldiered on until I couldn’t do it anymore, then I stopped. Looking back, I probably should have thrown in the towel sooner. But if you’re going on ill-health retirement, as I did, by definition you need to wait until you’re sufficiently useless for them to pay you to go away! I do not know what kind of disability/ill-health insurance you have in place, but that might be relevant.
Also, I would be careful about assuming how you feel about being disabled in the future. If I had known pre-MS how hampered I would be now, I wouldn’t have been at all pleased about the prospect. As it is I’m perfectly happy and enjoying my life very much. It’s surprising what you can get used to.
Hi,
I don’t have any insurance etc. When I’m no longer able to do the job I just won’t get offered any more contracts.
On the issue of not knowing how I will feel in the future - I accept that. But I do think that on balance, my life expectancy is going to be somewhat shorter. And this is no great tragedy either: more important to live life to the full in the meantime.
I suppose the thing is that pre-diagnosis, I regarded myself as “very healthy” and was anticipating a normal life expectancy with a normal - or perhaps slightly early - retirement. Now the picture has changed and it’s hard to plan for the uncertainty.
I’m a bit wary of working my socks off until I can’t work, and then finding I can’t do the other things I wanted to do either!
Hi, I’m 70,retired on ill health at 47. My MS progressed very quickly.
But sounds almost like you are wishing your life away.
There are many people who live into their 70s and 80s, who stay upright and enjoy a good life.
Don’t write yourself off just yet!
boudsx
In my experience, this is not something you need to think about: your body will decide for you.
Being assumptive, and sorry if I’ve got it wrong, but if you can still list hiking as a hobby you enjoy, you are probably nowhere near disabled enough for MS to be interfering with your life as yet. Apologies if your issues are with vision, cognition or other.
Just keep going for now. Maybe take the odd opportunity to pace yourself but nothing more. As age encroaches, we have to pace ourselves anyway. I’m 60 and MS really took hold when I was about 53 (though not diagnosed for another 5 years…). My wife is now 53 and I have to tell her to pace herself and she’s perfectly healthy!
I’m now retired / unemployed / unemployable (on ESA Support Group), need a wheelchair for many trips though can still drive and lift chair in & out of the car. A stick suffices for shorter distances. Also have bladder issues. Many of the things I/we had planned are off the table as my body renders them irrelevant. As for fancy holidays, I went on a couple of cruises with my Dad (91) and my wife is just back from taking the kids on an all-inclusive holiday to Turkey (too hot, water slides etc.). Most of the time I “save money” because the nicest place I can be is sitting in the comfortable predictability at home.
One simply stops doing things when those things are no longer enjoyable. Until you stop enjoying work or your pursuits, keep doing them! 
Graeme
I’ve been thinking about your interesting question. If I had jacked in work early and gone on more walking holidays with Mr Alison100, while I still could, I’m not sure that I would have enjoyed them very much. It would have felt a bit artificial and desperate. Also, I would have worried about money and that is not a comfortable state. On reflection I am glad I just kept doing my thing for as long as I could. I wouldn’t want to have let MS bounce me into a big life change prematurely and without resistance. Why give it that power?
Hi Leonora. Good question. As soon as I was diagnosed I put as much money as possible into retirement funds and I was very lucky that some years later my employer offered a voluntary severance package. I took the package and retired early/ stopped working for similar reasons that you highlight - I didn’t want to continue working until normal retirement age only to find MS might mean I couldn’t fully enjoy retirement. Not knowing if and when the MS might get too bad did make it a slightly difficult decision ( working in the dark!) but I’m glad I stopped work when I did and managed to enjoy some 8 years or so before MS started to limit my abilities. I used to enjoy hill walking but that’s now beyond. I’ve yet to use it to any extent but I’ve bought an electric mountain trike in the hope that I will at least be able to get up and down some gentle hill tracks
Hi Leonard. I’ve been thinking further about your post. It is very hard to make such decisions : your age, type of MS , how much you already have in savings and pension pot and the type of lifestyle you are hoping for are things to take into account. I am thinking that if you are recently diagnosed you might be fearing the worst about the speed and severity of development of MS and it’s impact on life expectancy ( which might be reduced by only a few years). My only advice is to take a few months to reflect and consider all options
Thanks to everyone for your responses!
I am so un-disabled at the moment that the MS diagnosis itself feels surreal.
I have MS - diagnosed by more than one neuro - and yet I hike, run… part of me feels like an MS-fraud.
This is obviously a good thing, for the time being. But I find it so hard to get my head around the unpredictability of the prognosis, and how to deal with that. Not that I’d like to “know” if I am going to go downhill fast. I do get the impression that quite a few people have a kind of “grace” period before it really kicks off, at a certain age.
It does strike me that the concept of “old” is generally very askew for MS. I’m 45, and pre-MS diagnosis I would never have considered myself “old”… But the whole “>40” cut off for MS probability already seems to push me up a bit. And then there are the clinical trial cut offs- so often 50 or 55, just round the corner.
Nowadays there are plenty of non-MS people aged >65 who are out and about, running parkrun at great speeds, hiking long distances, as I once planned to. I sometimes feel that in the MS world, we almost don’t have a “right” any more to expect such things. Perhaps this is in denial on my part, but I really think this should be the aim, ultimately - for researchers, doctors, us. That we do not say “oh yeah well, as of age 55/60/65/70 you can only expect to slow down, need a cane, take early retirement”…I suppose I feel that sometimes researchers and clinicians, so pleased about research progress over the last 40 years, tend to think that if they can keep fit young things more or less going up to about 50 then the job is done.
And while I feel very fortunate to have had many MS free years, I don’t compare myself to “what would have happened in the 80s”. I compare my future to my previous expectations from MS-free life.
I know we can adjust to loss. That process more or less defines life from childhood on, MS or not. But the serial losses of MS are such a big ask!
Oh crumbs, you put your finger on things so accurately. I was nodding in recognition as I read. It’s all true and you’re quite right. It’s tough.
Hi Leonara. Sorry for coming back. I recognise and understand that you might be fearing the worst but MS isnt necessarily the end of enjoyable life. Diagnosed some 16-17 years ago and feeling quite devastated at the time, Im 70 years old next year I can certainly no longer go hill walking (used to hill walk in the Lakes and Scottish Munros - including in winter snows and frosts) and now struggle to walk more than 15-20 minutes or so. However, and for example, today I have a sore back and aching muscles from trying to re-lay some 2 by 3 foot concrete slabs and trim a 12 foot hedge - have to take extra, extra care with my balance! When first diagnosed did feel devastated but I did sort of adjust and now enjoy the things I can do. Perhaps a little unlike you I do find myself thinking ‘well at 70 i would be feeling normal decline in physical abilities’. I know that this might sound trite but - for now, enjoy the things you can do and adjust to new and different things as time goes on ?