Quasi-retirement and how I intend to spend

27 Oct, 2025

This article is about two things: quasi retirement and how I intend to deploy money if I return to stable employment in London. The latter is a public commitment.

I have the option of living a quasi retirement. And unless I have children, I will likely always have this option.

What is quasi retirement? To work 3 days a week in a job that isn't too stretching, with no intention of growth or promotion. Which gives 4 days to do whatever I like.

Isn't this just working part time? What makes it a retirement? A lot of people keep working after retirement and I could see myself being one of those people. I'd just be doing it 30 years early. With the right job I may well be happier doing this than not working at all. Or at least it's not obvious that I wouldn't be.

I spent 6 months doing this in 2022 and I have very fond memories of that time.

What would be a good job for this:

• Nice people
• Interesting and engaging work, without being excessively stretching. And not so interesting it hooks into my tendency to obsess So, many of the things that make any other job good, without any overt growth or progress.

Of course many people wouldn't want to live like this. Reasons you might not:

• You have an expensive lifestyle
• You have family to provide for
• You want to live somewhere expensive
• You want to work more
• You want to achieve more immediately

I exclude wanting to progress in one's career, purely because I accidentally developed a tonne of career capital during first the 6 months I spent in quasi retirement. That doesn't mean one should expect quasi retirement to be good for one's career, however a temporary season might have unexpected benefits.

Reasons one might live like this:

• More time and energy for friends
• For fun - reading great fiction, writing things, etc
• For hobbies, sports, projects, etc

Related options:

• Alternate between working for 1-2 years and having extended time off. Same level of income. Opportunity to travel properly. Less stable.
• Live quasi-retirement for a phase (6 - 24 months) then shift back to full time employment. I've done this twice and both times my employer has been very willing to have me back to full time.

How well paid must one be to live in quasi retirement?

Assume you'll work slightly longer days, say 8.5 hours rather than 7.5. That gives you (8.5 * 3) / 37 = 66% of a full time salary. So if you earn £40k PA that's £27k, if £50k it's £33k, etc.

Then, using a tool like Salary Calculator get post-tax salary. Because tax over £50k is very high (around 50% with National Insurance thrown in), you miss out on less when you shave income above that threshold.

After adjusting working hours and taking tax you get:

• £40k (full time) -> £27k (part time) -> £1800 per month
• £60k (full time) -> £40k (part time) -> £2500 per month
• £80k (full time) -> £54k (part time) -> £3300 per month

Assumes you're putting 7% into pension

Is this enough to live on monthly for you?

How much for me personally to live well in London?

The below is £2800 per month - much more than the £1500 I was living on in London in reality earlier in 2025. It allows for a more lavish lifestyle than I had so could be toned down.

1. Travel and holiday (inc things at weekends and big holidays and retreats). £500
2. Accommodation £1200
3. Food, dates, drinks, the arts, going out £600
4. Learning e.g.: circling, improv £100
5. AI subscriptions and tech services £100
6. Misc other inc spontaneous gifts for people £100
7. £200 for slack 

I make this explicit as an acceptable amount, so that I can comfortably agree with myself to give everything I make above this to effective charities, without feeling like I'm sacrificing anything. This includes capital-gains increases my to net worth after adjusting for inflation.

So if I make £80k full time (£54k part time), and get post-inflation capital gains income of £8,000PA, that's around £3300 + (8,000 * 0.6 / 12) = £3700(ish) post-tax. So I'd give £900 to charity each month, plus all the tax relief on that. As about £600 of the £900 would have been already subject to the higher tax rate, total to charity monthly would be (1.66 * 600) + (1.25 * 300) = £1400(ish).

I'll also give away 50% of spending which comes under the £2,800 budget. I'll save the other 50%. I'll calculate this annually, every April, in case some months go over budget (e.g.: big holiday).

Why give so much to charities? (1) they will do loooaaads of wonderful things with the money, (2) this is me living in line with my values. A part of me wants to give even more, to make life better for as many people as I can, however for now I'm reining it in. This seems a good balance of living out my values, the joy of giving and prudent conservatism.

If I buy property, I'll make some variation on the above. The numbers by each line might be different, but the intention remains the same.

I'll adjust the £2,800 for inflation every April, or at least review it.