Youngsters can probably move on…but I seem to find myself looking at the real possibility of retiring. I’m not quite sure how this has suddenly occurred to me but after years of it being somewhere in the hazy distance, there it is, like approaching the city limits sign after a long drive. Not that it’s inevitable right now – I have a permie job I generally don’t especially enjoy but from a cash flow perspective it’s handy I guess. But post holidays / post-lockdown my thoughts are turning to having more time, absorbing myself in things I want to do, and generally enjoying a bit of literal and mental freedom. But…but…I discover I have a stronger work ethic than I realised, and part of me is struggling with the idea of bailing out when I could be working. I wholeheartedly agree with the old trope about no gravestone ever said “I wish I’d spent more time at work”….but pushing the button is proving harder to do than I thought.
Any thoughts / experiences / stories welcome!
I’m 57 and can quite easily fill my days with bike rides, reading, cooking, music and minor household chores/repairs. I used to think that I’d miss the people I work with but Covid has made me realise that work doesn’t provide me with a social life. It’s good to see my colleagues, some of who I’ve known for 25 years or so but, if I could afford to, I’d sell all the gear and walk away, without a second thought.
I’m back on site this week: leave home 5am, get in 7am, rig, rehearse, doors open 7pm, derig 2am, grab a few hours sleep at a shitty hotel, drive back, unload. After 35 years, I’ve had enough.
Edit: an old friend of mine retired at 55 and hasn’t missed work at all. He’s financially secure, which helps, of course.
I wish I had the choice. I am 59 and would have been retired by now probably if I hadn’t made a dramatic life change 16 years ago. This resulted in hardly working for a total of 5 years so I had a mid career retirement effectively. Was weird how time was wasted then, would get up, have breakfast, go for a walk and grab some coffee, then it was nearly lunchtime, go to the park with my young daughter after a nap and watch some TV and it was already 5pm and I had achieved nothing in the workday. Few beers in the evening and then bed, I was probably clinically depressed, but not really aware of it.
I need to work for a few more years (probably 5 or 7) and main fear would be losing my job now and having to find something else. My retirement funds are complex, basically coming from 3 different countries, none of the total amounts are huge but they should add up at some point to something I can live on.
Dilemma is similar to you, work for longer to have more funds, but then less years to enjoy them. I also find the possibility of retirement a bit painful, if I can’t do the things I enjoy now then one ends up kind of waiting for the “retirement” of the permanent kind. I have also seen people’s health disappear as soon as they stop working, happened to my mother.
Should add that I quite like (not love) my job, but it is very high pressure and stressful at times and a close colleague who is still working at around 68 had a heart attack a couple of months ago
You seem to be saying you don’t like your job very much. How much do you dislike it?
If you dislike it more than you like it and you can live a reasonable life without needing to work in that way, for the money that it brings in, then it’s probably time to bail and do other stuff.
You are a creative person and you don’t strike me as someone who’s going to sit twiddling their thumbs and wondering what to do with your time.
As someone mentioned up above, the later you give up working, the less time you have for your retirement.
People often ask -what do you do all day?
First, it is amazing how little you can do in a day. Sometimes they just fritter away. And that’s ok, you’re retired, you dont have to be busy all the time. Second response – whatever I fucken want.
You are creative as well as industrious so I am sure you will come up with a host of projects to amuse yourself with.
Yes filling my days isn’t a worry at all. I have loads of things I’ll be doing. I don’t even think money is a huge problem – pension arrangements not amazing but not terrible, plus downsizing at some point. I don’t know why I don’t press the button.
Due to a couple of bad financial decisions (around divorce settlement time) my pension is considerably less than I had once imagined.
However, once one realised that one had previously frittered money away on things one didn’t really need and now instead concentrate on things that really matter (different things for different folks, I guess) then it’s surprising/amazing how much fun one can have on a so-called modest income.
By a fluke of timing I am going to work my last day this Thursday. That is if my replacement is considered worthy! I have been extended once already.
I am 58yo and have enough leave to take me to 60yo which is when my pension can kick in. I think the most important thing is to have hobbies that fill in your time in a productive way.
With retirement beckoning I have spent the last few years accumulating a huge pile of things to sell on ebay. An accurate floor plan of my house would have the rooms described as, “toilet, bathroom, storeroom, storeroom, storeroom, storeroom, storeroom, storeroom” An honest description of my house would be, “Shit everywhere.” Even my kitchen is like that.
Some of my records are worth thousands so I am very carefully going to try and see them off the premises at a price I can live with. I don’t need to get top dollar but don’t want to get ripped off either,
I have over 8000 blu-rays and dvds I have acquired cheap over the years. Some of the ones I have change hands for a pretty penny. Most though are worth nothing. I can at least try and sell them. I also have acquired plenty of weird things like sealed Toy Story themed birthday invitations that I hope will be worth selling.
I also have various golf partners lined up to play. I’ll play maybe three or four times a week. Just typing that makes me happy.
I also aligned my finances so that several times a years I will get share dividends that will be enough for me to buy plane tickets to go wherever I want three times a year. Planning holidays is something I really enjoy doing so I will spend a lot of time doing that.
So, I have planned my retirement for years but deep down I am shitting myself, worried that I may be doing the wrong thing. I won’t know until it’s too late. I haven’t burned any bridges at work but I won’t be able to come back.
I will probably in a position to retire in about 4 or 5 years, and I will be younger than you then. At least that’s what the Boss says.
Will I stop working? Maybe. But if I do work it will be because it’s something I want to do and enjoy, and not because I have to. That’s a big difference to me.
She’s big on having a peripatetic lifestyle for a bit before settling down somewhere far away from other people, or large groups of them. Remote work therefore a must for me.
I’m coming up to 55 and am presently effectively retired – and am loving it.
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to take a retrenchment package from a reasonably senior position which effectively gave me two years salary (tax free). I decided then to take a year off rest and enjoy life after 30+ years of working. I took up swimming every day (it helps having year round 30degC weather), lost a load of weight and generally got fit and healthy again. Two years later, I’m still in the same position and have no desire to go back to work. My take now is that I am not actively seeking any roles, but if someone approaches me with an interesting offer, then I will look at – I.e. I will only work now because I want to, not because I need to.
It helps that we are pretty financially secure – my government “pension” (called CPF here) is fully funded to give me a reasonable monthly income after 65 for life and my cash / investments / etc will last at current spending levels until I’m about 90 (and that’s before my pensions). The kids overseas education fund is ringfenced and so whilst we may not enjoy a big big house in the country, we are going to be comfortable. I will trade life’s excesses / luxuries for a comfortable, enjoyable and stress free life any day.
I took early retirement in January after 35 years with the same organisation. By the time I left I had already spent 3 months away from work after hip surgery. I am now 60. My wife, who is younger than me, still works for the same organisation and will be unable to retire any time soon.
I was desperate to leave, and equally desperate to get the balance of my life back towards having the me-time to do the things I wanted. In that desperation I probably didn’t think through the implications of such a far-reaching life change. I’ve gone from fully structured and predictable days that were largely organised for me, to days which meander and where all the decisions about what to do and when to do it are down to me. That hasn’t been an entirely easy transition. I’m good with my own company, but even I get bored with myself after a while, and there are only so many walks to be done, DIY to be completed, neighbours to chat to, music to listen to, films to watch and books to read before the sense of something missing creeps up behind me and taps me on the shoulder.
Financially I can manage. My pension will never be enough to allow me to be extravagant, but it’s enough to get by on, just. But I took the decision after much deliberation, with both eyes open on the implications.
There are a few people from work I keep in touch with, but not many. As much as I have pulled away from that world, my wife has become more involved in it, and that’s been unavoidable, though not entirely planned. We are still working through the change of dynamic in our lives, and that too hasn’t been easy. I’m glad I made the decision to leave, but it has created shifts and changes that I didn’t foresee, and my advice before taking the plunge would be to ensure you think through all the implications and life changes that will result.
I feel your angst, @twang. I think I’m a year younger than you, and work full time hours over 3 1/2 days. I mini-retired 4 years ago, at 60, as I always said I would, and took on a salaried position after 33 years of being a business partner. That, being an employer, manager and carrying the final buck, as well as a hours drive in both directions was doing me in. But I couldn’t then afford to retire, given life, um, choices along the way. Downsizing my work responsibilities bucked up both my enjoyment and enthusiasm for the actual work, which, by and large, has continued. Still a year and a half away from OAP but started drawing my work pension when finances got screwed a decade ago. My mortgage has two and a half years to run, so the plan is to drop another day when the OAP starts dropping, and work a final year to pay off the mortgage and promptly downsize. The only problem is I have started “preparing” by starting all sorts of little projects that tend to eat into any spare time, making the old work resentment raise again its head.
Mind you, only too mindful of the old tell God your plans adage, knowing how fragile anything is in her hands……
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.
If you like working, carry on. If not, pack it in(provided you can afford it obvs.).
Apologies. I know it’s trite.
Still, true enough though. I’m just going to repeat what almost everyone else has said.
8 years ago, at 55, I was able to escape, so did. I could have kept working and earned more money until I dropped and my boys would have had more left too them, but I decided that the house would be enough for them, and that I wanted to live the rest of my life my way, whilst I was fit/young enough. I am certainly not well off, but should more than get by provided there’s no disasters looming.
It’s a big change, but a pleasant change, since the decision was mine. I have enough hobbies to keep me going, and found new ones too(gardening and cooking). It takes time to adjust.
My partner is being made redundant at the end of the year, and though it’s something she’s wanted for a while, she’s a bit worried about it. This is going to be another big change in my life too.
Our kids are all grown and away living their own lives. It’s our time now(babysitting and school pickups being exceptions).
Not for everyone though. I have a pal in exactly the same position as me. He still works. He doesn’t really have any interests other than watching football on tv and going to the pub. He knows he’d just be in the pub all day, so he keeps working. Sad eh?
I’ve never really been a pub/football person. And sometimes I think I might be missing something, as I do enjoy a pub session whenever I have one. But in the end I think it is people like me (insular, curious, creative, hobbyist, happy to sit in silence) who are best placed for a pleasant and quiet retirement.
You are me, it seems.
Then I say take the plunge and retire!
At this stage I feel as if I would LOVE the freedom to decide whether or not to retire now. I hate working, have always hated working, and just never been confident/competent/driven enough to find a job I actually like doing.
But then maybe I’ll feel different when it actually comes to decision time.
At the moment I feel as if there isn’t enough time in the world for all the books I want to read, trips I want to take, films I want to watch, music I want to write. I feel I would have no problem whatsoever filling my time. Then again… whenever I end up on my own I turn into a chronic procrastinator! So who knows.
I’m 48 at the moment, and I’m very guilty of taking a back seat in my pension arrangements and just letting my salary pension contributions take care of it. But as I near my fifties I am starting to realise the urgency of actually getting my ducks in a row and working out when I can retire and how much I can live on. My dad took early retirement at 57 and threw himself into his hobbies (model planes and paragliding… separate hobbies I mean… he didn’t build model planes and fly in them…) but he had a much better job than I will ever have. I’ve never really seriously entertained the notion of stopping work before my mid-sixties.
Hope you find the right solution Twang. I say bail. Go for it, and throw yourself into a creative life of hobbies and travelling. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.
In short, do it. I made sure we would be ok with my various pension incomes by using an IFA to sort all of that out and do the sums, recommend investments etc. and that gave me peace of mind. Everyone I know worried, or worries, about ‘managing’ after work, and everyone I know does. I think there is a rubicon to be crossed – after years of worrying and putting money away you suddenly start to draw on it, so it’s hard to change your mindset into thinking you are actually in that future you always imagined was years away.
I thought I would miss the intellectual challenge of work (I was a Business Analyst), but I don’t. I was tempted to do some part time work for stupid money after about a year of retirement, but I hated it and then thankfully the project got canned anyway. Lesson learned.
The one thing I do miss is interaction with people, particularly younger people, and those little conversations about TV, current events and so on, and I do have a feeling that I am in a bit of a bubble and don’t hear about things I should….a feeling of being a bit cut off. Typically, I have no idea who some so-called ‘famous’ people are, for instance.
I always say you know when your time to go has arrived, and I think you already know it has. As I say, do it – you won’t regret it for a moment.
I think we all miss the interaction/craic with workmates. Becoming insular also. These things come with the territory. We get used to it. There’s really no stopping this.
You retire because you want to, or because you have to, but not everyone gets the choice. I am glad(or feel lucky) I got the choice.
Gotta run now. Washing to hang out, and the tomato soup I made this morning needs tasting.
I thought I’d miss colleagues, too, but Covid/WFH has made me realise I don’t. I’m not retiring yet, but I’ve opted to WFH permanently as a first step towards.
I think being an only child raised in the sticks helps – I’ve always been happy in my own company.
I was contemplating retiring at the end of next year. It seems likely that, in the UK, we’re in for an inflation spike. This puts me off a little.
Or as Steve Hillage said
“Don’t Dither Do it”
I retired at 53, partly because an opportunity arose but mainly because I just wasn’t enjoying the corporate shenanigans, changes of strategy every 5 minutes, any more. While I missed some of my colleagues, I didn’t regret my decision at all. Financially things were/are OK. Not stupid money but adequate. When I was at work we used to go on several expensive foreign holidays a year, mainly to destress, but soon moved down to Cornwall and didn’t really need those kind of holidays any more.
You definitely need a project or two. Mine was an OU course and building my own home recording studio. When you’re at work you think that everything is so important but after you retire you soon realise it isn’t.
As Nigel T says, in short, do it.
I’m TRYING to do an OU course just now (while working full time) and just really hard to find the time. Definitley something I will pursue further in retirement.
I’d be curious if anyone actually likes “corporate shenanigans”. Does anyone in any kind of corporate job ever reach the end of their working life and look back with fondness on meetings, strategising, forward planning, team buzzes, gap analyses, etc etc….?
Short answer is no, from me. I quite enjoyed my job for many years – then I was promoted to management. The “corporate shenanigans” and organisational politics commenced and there were many points where I would happily have taken a pay cut to go back to my old role (which had been filled by then, of course).
I took early retirement at 59 last year, partly to spend more time with my other half who was terminally ill. But I can’t deny that I was very relieved to just stop doing the job. I’ve had a year of grief and mild depression and I suppose I’m only just getting to grips with actually being retired. I’m reading lots, playing lots of unfamiliar music, getting my fingers moving again on guitar and bass, bit of D.I.Y, etc. I’ve been asked if I want to go back part-time, but my answer is likely to be a big “no”.
@Twang – if you can afford it – do it! You’ll have no trouble filling your time: and life’s too short…
Touching words. Sorry to hear about what you have had to cope with, and a lesson for us all to value the time we have!
Thanks RD. Sympathies too…
I think you are right though. I get no pleasure from the job beyond the money plus the stress is awful.
I used to have a really senior job in Paris, own office, view of the Arc de Triomphe (if you craned your neck) and I hated it so I quit and went freelance which was much better and more lucrative. This job fell into my lap during lock down… Maybe it’s time though.
Good to hear you’ve come through your year of grief intact, fitter. Keep those fingers nibble!
Cheers, Tigger…last year I was told that the grief doesn’t go away, as such – you just learn how to live with it (think it was Pencilsqueezer, although my sister said something similar). Turns out they were right.
Regarding the OP: I’ve had lots of advice to return to work “to see people”, “to keep my brain active”, “to take me out of myself”, etc – but I don’t regret retiring, even if the motivations were rather mixed up at the time. I’d like to get back into some kind of band situation, so I’ll keep practicing – I’m certainly more arthritic than I was when I last played in public!
When I press the button, perhaps a jam is in order?
Well, there’s a thought…
The first year is the worst: first Christmas, first birthday, first wedding anniversary, then first anniversary itself. The second ones a bit easier and the third a bit easier again.
Sounds like your brain is plenty active enough, though. 😀
Yes, um…have you checked your facts?
You must be joking! Meetings, and latterly telephone / video conferences were the most soul destroying occasions, full of corporate doublespeak, management messaging and endless bollockings disguised as ‘analytical feedback as part of a no blame culture’. Today’s crisis that required instant attention rapidly became yesterday’s news, as goalposts were moved from on high, and ducks were realigned to create the impression that the new strategy had been the old strategy all along.
Do I miss any of it? 😂😂😂
That sounds so familiar!
Yes, indeed…especially the last sentence about crises, ducks and goalposts…
Don’t forget those wonderful team building sessions though! Nothing beats risking life and limb climbing up ropes and abseiling. I could never cope with that one where you fell backwards into the secure arms of your fellow team members as I couldn’t trust the buggers (er, valued team members) to catch me.
Arf! Ironically, it often united the team…
…in their hatred and cynicism regarding “Team Building Exercises” and all those who organised them…
When I worked in Switzerland we had a team building thing where we went to part of a forest on a mountain side that had been flattened by a big storm and re-planted trees. was actually a very satisfying days work, I was completely knackered at the end of it, but felt that unlike many work days I had really achieved something in the day.
God I hate that team building shit.
What struck me was how short lived any corporate business team lasted. Individuals were always moving on. And businesses always re-arrange themselves over and over and bloody over. Especially right at the top. Time almost without number I’ve read an introductory statement from a Chief Executive who has a passion (Christ I hate that fucking word, too) for their new role and is committed to bringing results and positive change over the long term. Cue 8 months later and they’ve been offered a challenge they cannot refuse from another behemoth. And off they fuck. Passion spent and committed binned. Cheers.
Yeah. Teams. Built or otherwise. Fuck them. Just turn up, do your wack and piss off home.
Yes, I’ve just spent 6 hours of the day in a quarterly multi-site process improvement meeting. I wonder how many of my fellow attendees will be here in three months for the next one.
Being a nerd of particular database-mangling ‘talent’, I am now in an “expert team” consisting of myself. Team-building is a fairly short process involving tea, custard cremes and whichever of Uncut or Mojo is closest to hand.
Now your team I would join.
In other corporate nonsense, I have had to read one of those patronising self-help books entitled “The new one-minute manager”. In summary – guess what? – be polite to people and they will be more helpful.
I’m going to remember that when I next ask myself to do something.
It would be great to manage one minute.
To be fair, Team Building did provide the topic for one of the all-time best Simpsons episodes, “Mountain of Madness”
Mountie: “Don’t worry kids, we’re going to find your father, everything is going to be just fine.” (Turns to colleagues) “OK men! Put on your corpse-handling gloves!”
Bart: “Do you hear that Lisa? Everything’s going to be just fine”.
I work in HR, so you can imagine how well I enhanced my career prospects when I uttered “team building exercises? Ice breaker games? Fuck that, it’s all bollocks”…
I imagine it resulted in stony silence from the higher-ups and wild rounds of applause from the rank and file.
The Muffin Peopl,e in L&D were horrified as they were True Believers in that kind of hokum.
I am in infrequent visitor here but from your posts you are definitely not defined by the job you do and whilst it may be a jump I would crack on. I did retire 4 years ago at 54 and had planned to for a while. I had worked from home largely running my own small business so the day to day in some regards was similar.
I had watched my father in law do a similar thing at 55 and he had a richly fulfilling time on hobbies and generally doing the things he enjoyed. One of my drivers has been watching pals and workmates pass away much too early and only having a working life. This next stage of having space is for me really important.
I’m very lucky to have a fulfilling job I love (most of) and having contributed to the empty nest thread the last thing I’m doing at the moment is giving myself more time by myself…am busy filling up the next few weeks with useful work meetings! but for others I completely get it. We only go through this whole thing once.
Due to being late to the mortgage game I’ve got 10 years at least to go. I’m lucky that I have a job I like, not love, and it brings in enough. There will always be another transport managers job somewhere… One thought that may or may not help. I’m in community transport now. Getting the elderly and infirm out and about on our mini buses. It’s so rewarding to see the difference we make. My point is we are always looking for volunteer drivers. Most of our volunteers are retirees looking to put something back. Some do a regular day each week, others are very ad hoc to suit them. Every area will have a local community transport operator, usually local council subsidised or charity. If you can afford to retire yet still want to be doing something I can really recommend it.
I work part-time in a job with less responsibility than I had for most of my working life, but which involves helping other people and which they seem to appreciate. The money is handy and as my father used to say, you don’t tend to spend money whilst you are at work. The mix works well for me. I have plenty of time to do what I want, whilst also doing something that feels useful.
It’s an enviable position to be in, being able to choose. A combination of circumstances I won’t bore anyone with means I really can’t retire until I’m at least 65 and possibly 67 and be financially comfortable so it’s really off the agenda for now.
I have a decent job that I really like when I’m motivated but find that motivation increasingly hard to find these days and I’d give it up in a heartbeat if I could.
That’s my problem. I can enjoy it but I seem to have completely lost my mojo.
I took redundancy five years ago aged 61, took a very part time job to boost my work pension. Finally gave that up last year and got the state pension a couple of months later. My ongoing medical condition limits me in what I can do, I had hoped when I retired that I could walk the dales etc. I did two miles round the flat landscape of Rainham Marshes last month (it certainly felt more) and I knew about it the next day.
I’ve had three friends die in the last 12 months, two younger than me one just a few months older. At least I’m still upright.
Never make a work or life decision on a Monday.
That is excellent advice.
I’ve been drawing my state pension for 8 years, thanks very much, but didn’t finally retire – involuntarily retire I should say – until last September. I seem to fill my days – why, only today I bought two mops and a bucket (the first one was too big for the bucket, and I was fucked if I was going to buy a bigger bucket, and then I did anyway), because I have a new cleaner starting tomorrow and I want to impress. So important to be a hero to one’s cleaner, don’t you find?
A patchwork of pension bits and pieces, including the late Mrs thep’s life insurance, which was unexpectedly generous, will probably see me ok. The current Mrs thep and I own the Folkestone flat outright, so there’s that. Unfortunately the house in Oz is mortgaged – I’ll be 93 when it’s paid off 😉 – so a decision will have to be made at some point. But some days I think, no point worrying about decisions, I’ll probably cark it before the money runs out anyway. I was shocked when Mandy Rice-Davies (one for older readers there) died of COPD, because up to then I hadn’t clocked that you could actually die of fucked lungs. But here we are…
On the other hand there’s a baked potato in the oven, a tin of tuna awaiting its destiny, and a glass of rather superior Pinot Noir in front of me, so mustn’t grumble.
It’s Back to School day for me as I’ve just had two weeks off and this point in September always feels depressingly like the beginning of a new term, so this isn’t the best time to be thinking about this. I’d jack work in tomorrow, to be honest. My wife and I have worked 70 years non-stop between us and that feels like enough. Unfortunately she likes her job and wants to carry on living the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to, while I’d rather knock it on the head and spend a bit less. We did have a short conversation about maybe I could stop work and she would go on, but it was a very short conversation. It’s three years until I’m 60, maybe I’ll raise the subject again then.
I am in a job and, in the main it is satisfying and rewarding. Slightly unexpectedly when I looked at my retirement position (3 years hence) it looks quite positive. Then ….
17 months of long covid. Still ongoing. And then a few weeks ago the kicker. Cancer. 3 weeks ago a good deal of my face had to be cut out. Now waiting on scans and further investigation where I go from here.
I have no dependents.
My position is in death I can do an awful lot for dear friends who financially not in my fortunate position.
The prospect of a contented retirement now, in my darker moments, seems a pipe dream.
I wonder in the absence of my uncertainties whether I would enjoy 3 years additional retirement forsaking a job I like most of the time.
I am at the older end of my group of friends and fear it would be a lonely retirement until we could do things together.
My current thoughts veer towards the “good” I can do for those I love and care for. Give them the retirement I may not have.
But it is a reminder there isn’t always going to be a tomorrow. I may end up with some certainty.
Jeez Leem that is an awful position to be in. Sympathies fella. A lesson there for sure. Hang in there.
Thank you
So sorry to read this. A virtual arm around your shoulder Leem.
Thank you. To be a little more upbeat I should add I have good medical people working with me. Let’s hope I can contribute here in the years to come on topics many and various.
Hope so!
Very sorry to read this – I hope your medics can do their best for you.
Good luck, Leem. The treatments for most head and neck cancers have come on leaps and bounds in recent years. My brother is still going strong nearly ten years after tonsillar cancer, for example.
I expect you to be regularly posting for many years to come.
👊
Thank you
Bloody hell! And all I have to do is worry if my zinnias need watering. Bloody hell.
all the best for a fast and full recovery.
When I look around at colleagues retiring, I have a mixture of bewilderment and jealously. I do like the idea of more time for myself but I really like my job and, apart from a spell of a couple of years about 30 years ago, always have. Not everyone that decides to call it a day makes the right decision and a few pop up as contractors within the year because they missed work too much. That’s not the norm though.
I guess I’m lucky that my less than perfect pension provisions have meant that if I want to live close to the manner to which I have become accustomed, I’ll need to work for a few more years yet so I really have no choice to make.
One other thing that I didn’t see come up in most of this thread is the importance of friends. The people that seem to embrace retirement most are those that have a network or two outside the office.
I’ll just paint until I expire. No pension worth speaking of so it’s that or making a late play at becoming a rock god.
Rock God!!!! The Welsh Arthur Brown??? Go for it. I’ll hold your fiery helmet. (Not that one.)
Too kind. Now sort these smarties into separate antique porcelain bowls according to colour and don’t forget to festoon the room in white roses.
He is the god of hell gouache.
I quit full-time employment about 20 years ago for a life of poverty. I don’t mind poverty (I don’t much like travel, or going out, I don’t drink, I’ve got all the clothes I need), whereas I really minded spending my time doing a job that didn’t interest me. I have a lot of friends who do just that. They live for their weekends and holidays. What a waste. Wishing time away is an enormous sin to yourself. I adore never knowing what day it is or what I’m going to do with my day (which is mostly not that much really – beach in the summer, gym/pool in the other seasons, plus cooking, reading, watching films, playing guitar or having a nap).
Yeah, Mr Smug- the love of a pool boy is all you got
Don’t even mention Enrico to me. Poured blancmange in my foot spa is what he did.
Can I just ask – where was Enrico supposed to pour the blancmange?
Blancmange doesn’t pour, it just plops.
I’m told.
You can pour it before it sets…so you could mould it into different shapes…
…. I am intrigue!
Shape is one thing but blancmange lacks…er…structural integrity…
Don’t we all, darling.
I find this thread really interesting. For a long time I worked in the pensions industry and gravitated towards group/employer schemes because, frankly, I don’t know which particular investment funds are going to perform best in the future. No-one does.
Some people approaching retirement age can get really messed up and stressed over how their investments are performing and will take their IFA/Adviser to task if their balanced fund is out-performed by Euro-reversible Trouser Bonds. I am pleased to see the odd reference to work pensions.
Most of the time, a good employer scheme will set you up pretty well. My dad was a teacher and then moved into local government – retiring at about 60 after 35 years or so in the education sector. He did OK, but he was never on big money. He died 21 years later and was receiving guaranteed, inflation-adjusted 26K a year from the 2 work pensions. This was 9 years ago. If you’re in your 80s and getting the state pension too on top of this – this is more than adequate. I suspect these schemes are a thing of the past now.
I think that in the future we are going to see more people approaching retirement age with very little in the way of savings. The kind of pension scheme that my father benefited from has been spirited away over time by (yes) Thatcher and the people who followed on from her, who removed the unions, employed like-minded actuaries and argued successfully that such schemes were “unsustainable”. This is easy to do when you can use compelling phrases like “take back control” and giving people a short-term pay rise or a lump sum to shut them up.
@black-celebration Don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but in Oz there are growing numbers of single women in their 60s who are finding themselves homeless because their super isn’t enough to live on (M/F pay gap), or their partners got half their super in the divorce, or other combinations of unfortunate circumstances. Fastest-growing homeless group apparently. This appals me.
@mikethep – it’s a terrible injustice. Half the assets divided tends to be viewed as fair but it isn’t always the case.
My Dad retired, as a teacher, in the August before he turned 60 in the December. He then had 30 years of retirement, though Alzheimer’s gradually diminished his final decade. Thanks to their superannuated teacher’s pension, both he and my Mum, another teacher, ended up with an income several times greater than their final salaries in 1980 and 1981. They continued to live in the house and community they had lived in since 1962 until residential care was needed (Dad) or chosen (Mum).
I have just retired at 61 – though that is too simplistic a sentence. For the last five years I have been paid for only 15 hours a week, doing similar work voluntarily for the rest of the week. Under lockdown, the different volunteer roles mostly disappeared, so I have only been doing the 15+ hours for the last 18 months. Semi- retirement, I suppose.
Mrs G has now joined me, at a mere 57. We don’t have superannuated pensions to look forward to, in fact any pensions don’t kick in for another few years, so we will be living frugally on savings and private pension pots until they gradually kick in. Mrs G and financial people assure me that there is enough to last us out.
The biggest difference to my parents though, is that we have moved in the last few to a new house, and a new place (Devon) where we know nobody, so we have to start this new life completely from scratch. This wasn’t just folly on our part; we have been living in work-related accommodation for the last 19 years so we had to find our own place. The challenge is making new friends and joining groups when many activities are still not meeting or are online. We’ll get there, eventually.
I stopped work at the beginning of April and I don’t miss it, though I do wonder how my ex-colleagues and, particularly, the people we worked with, are doing. I suspect that some similar volunteer role will come but they aren’t happening at the moment.
I think that of you can afford it, go for it.
All the best to Leem with the biopsy and prognosis.
David. Thank you. It sounds as if your experience in volunteering and therefore likely a ”people person” will mean that you will find friends and a fulfilling post work life. I hope so. And all on this thread.
My parents retired, in circumstances a little beyond their control, 2 or 3 years earlier than perhaps as ordinary folks they would have chosen to. They then embarked on a series of (for them) grand adventures to USA and Australia seeing friends and relatives. I fretted and wittered they were burning through their modest savings.
But as it is with these things dad’s health deteriorated and in retrospect I was so pleased they had their “adventures” at a time when they were fit and able so to do.
I always thought that was a lesson learned and the trick was to do what while you can but not at the expense of penury.
My wife died when she was barely fifty one. Life really is too short and it can end in the blink of an eye at any second of any minute of any day.
If you can afford to do the things that your heart yearns for do them and do them now. 🙏
Wise words.
I said above “my dad took early retirement at 57 and threw himself into his hobbies”… which is the truth but not the whole truth as I didn’t want to depress everyone. The truth is that after he retired (and went on a couple of model building conventions and paragliding holidays) he died suddenly of a surprise brain haemorrhage within a matter of months. He had all sorts of trips planned, including a road trip across the USA with my mum.
Very sad, and a big shock to us all at the time. But yes, as you have both said here Leem and Pencil, things like this are a reminder not to put off doing the things you want to do while you can do them.
Blimey this thread is an emotional rollercoaster. My dad worked to 65 having had a career move 15 years earlier from something he didn’t enjoy to something he did. Then died of cancer at 69. Live for the moment is the message here, if at all possible…
My dad worked 40 years in a steel works before dying of cancer at 59.
The trouble with “living for the moment” is you can only truly do that if you know you only have a moment left.
In the wise words of the recently departed Omar (Wire) “tru dat”.
My dad is 92 and has been retired after being made redundant by BT at 55 with a lump sum pay out and his final salary pension from the day he left. BT also gave him 10 months to do as much overtime and nights as he could to boost his last year’s salary on which his pension was based. He’s done absolutely fuck all since. No travel, no nice holidays, no home improvements. Talk about youth being wasted on the young. He’s wasted the chance of a golden retirement.
Cuh! Old people today eh?
Not a mistake I’ll be repeating.
I would definitely recommend taking on a voluntary role of some sort after retirement. I volunteered at the museum in Truro and loved it. In many ways it kept me sane, particularly after my second wife died. I eventually moved to Exeter, remarried my first wife and took on a voluntary role in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. However, that was a completely different experience. There was very little camaraderie and not much job satisfaction, so I left after a few months. I guess the moral is : choose your voluntary role carefully. Plus, places like museums rely heavily on volunteers – the one in Truro had two or three times as many volunteers as permanent staff members.
This has indeed been an emotional rollercoaster. Best wishes to anyone struggling with health issues etc.
Good friend of mine was a career HR Director, Glaswegian gal, tough as old boots, but volunteers at Citizen’s Advice helping people with employment problems etc plus benefits claims etc. I almost feel sorry for the originating source of the problems…
Now that I can see myself doing.
There are some interesting subreddits I belong to that dispense advice like that. Our way of “giving back”!
As a 41 year old with literally zero assets I think retirement is unlikely. Best of luck to you those who have the option though. I’d have retired at 18 if I could!
There is much to mull over above.
With my wife being a bit older than me, she was keen that I retired sooner rather than later, which I did two and a half years ago.
Her view is we’re both healthy at present and we don’t know how much longer we still will be, so if we are going to do things together we should do so while we still can.
I did approach it with a degree of trepidation but have had no regrets since I did take the plunge. Travel plans have obviously been restricted, but for both of us our local University Of The Third Age has been brilliant.
Our local U3A is only a few years old, so is pretty vibrant. I know of friends who have found their local branch to be moribund.
It’s down to what you want to put into it. I’ve become a pétanque (or boules if you prefer) addict in the last couple of years. Other groups I engage with include creative writing, beer appreciation, backgammon, science and Americana. I’d love to be able to join the jazz improvisation group, but my abilities are far too basic.
There is a massive range of activities, plus we have hugely expanded our friendship group, from neighbours plus a few other to the situation that we rarely go out without running into someone we know.
That’s an option that’s open. It may not appeal to you, but suffice to say, since I retired I have yet to find myself watching daytime TV, other than for sporting events that I am specifically interested in.
That’s interesting. I see there’s one local to me. Italian lessons…
My local branch has a group called Talking About Death. It’s full and not accepting new members though.
Give it time …
I ummed and aahd about retiring for years and on impulse did it during lockdown last year. To be fair I was 66. I didn’t hate the job but just felt I wasn’t interested anymore. Haven’t regretted it – maybe occasionally just the routine , stability and purpose that a job can give you. I’m still not feeling I’m using my time well and keep thinking I’ll do something useful and give back to society maybe get involved with a local charity. Then again I quite like just pottering about and scratching me arse.
As an old codger in training I’ve seen a number of colleagues retire. The only thing that seems to be any kind of predictor of how things will go is how much planning they did and how well figured out their finances. A few struggled terribly in the first 6 months having done little thinking in advance, although it’s encouraging to see how happy they are now.
I’ve been lucky to have been employed all my life, had access to some reasonable retirement plans, and always thrown in a bit extra. Indeed, I was taken aback to discover that 35 years of good fortune and diligence would be rewarded by me hitting the lifetime allowance cap for accumulated pension funds, so I’d face additional taxes on what the gov’t deemed the excess. My wife came up with the ingenious solution of becoming my ex wife and taking a sizeable slab of the pensions I’d accumulated before I’d even met her (me bitter ….. yes, sometimes).
Had I not got divorced I’d have about 18 months of corporate bollocks left which interests me very little but pays me very well although it increasingly swallows most of my time and nearly all of my energy. I already have a couple of pensions I could be taking but not enough to live on (without selling houses etc which I’m reluctant to do) and they will improve a little for being deferred. I’ll now hang on in there if I can until 65 (over 3 years away) to give myself the chance to try and replenish my savings and wait for some of my other pensions to become payable. And to plan what to do. I’ve picked up some voluntary work but the day job absorbs so much time that I’m struggling to get anything meaningful going.
One thing I hope to do is reduce my working hours in my last year or so, stepping down across the last year so that 5 days a week becomes 3, and I get the chance to make the transition more gradually. My boss says very little when I raise this, so I’m hoping he’s getting used to the idea.
I think gradually reducing your hours really does help the move to retirement. I did 4 days a week for a couple of years which tbh still felt like full time. But then my final job was 3 days a week which really did feel like partial retirement.
On my 60th birthday I split my role, got a new guy in to work full time, and cut my hours to 3 days a week. I enjoyed that enormously but within 2 years it became apparent that due to Company expansion my role needed a full time person and I didn’t want to be that guy. I announced my retirement but was persuaded to take up a different role, choose a few things to do, work my own hours. I enjoyed that too. However on our 39th wedding anniversary my wife & I decided that we’d spend our 40th in southern Australia, specifically Melbourne where her sister has been a longtime resident. On the basis that we’d need a month long visit to justify going all that way I gave my employer 12 months notice that I would retire in order to take that trip. I was working on the basis that after a month away I’d either be desperate to go back to work, in which case I was pretty sure they would give me some, or I’d have got into the habit of not working. After about 3 weeks in Australia I realised that I hadn’t given work a moment’s thought. And after I got home it took me about 3 weeks to establish that I was now viewing work as a phase in my life that had passed, similar to school, and then University. I have, as they say, moved on. And I very quickly got to the stage where I wonder how I ever found time to work in the first place. I’ll echo the comment from Junior (who I the pleasure of meeting during my Melbourne visit) up near the top of this thread that I can pretty much do whatever I want. There’s a lot to be said for it
All I would advise is bail and spend that energy on pursuing all your interests to the maximum, and perhaps rack up some serious travelling when this current situation is over, which it will be. Go for it with gusto.
This has been a brilliant thread considering I hesitated even starting it, and has given me much to think about. I’ve pretty much reached the conclusion I’m bailing. I had a little off the record chat with HR who advised me, on the QT, that some corporate shenanigans which have been lurking for months may actually happen shortly with the result being a modest sized bung to senior management, so on that basis I will hang on until the position is clear – though if it’s months away I’ll forget it. But it’s now when to bail, not if. Thanks for all the personal stories and insights, every one of which has been valuable.
I am away on holiday at present in Corfu and wanted to reply when you were at 35 posts but was out and waited until back at hotel.
I am 65 in November at which point I will be one year away from retirement. To be honest although I still like my job I like my free time much more than I ever used to.
I have two dilemmas – firstly my wife is 8 years younger than me so if I retire i effectively retire alone. I dont mind my own company and have a couple of mates who can do things with but it is not the retirement my wife and I have planned. The likelihood is that she will work until she is 60 so 3 more years by which time mortgage should be paid and our joint pensions should see us comfortably off. The problem I have with retiring now is that I am earning the most I have ever earned by some distance. An explosion in freight rates and high demand has meant very high profits for my employer and as a consequence bonuses several times the normal level. Whilst this scenario plays out it makes sense to continue. I am fortunate that I can almost certainly work 3 days per week for a year or so in which case I will work one year beyond retirement and my wife will retire one year after that.
I do worry about the increase in aches and pains though.
Great post by the way.
Well the Stressometer has been in the red for weeks so this morning I pressed the button and resigned. My boss didn’t see it coming at all and had a go at negotiating but I politely and firmly said this is goodbye not au revoir. Of course I have 3 months notice but that’s it! They might ask me to stay a bit longer but that will depend on what it is and only if I can do 4 days per week. Feels good so far.
Congratulations. My wife and I say we are semi retired since Covid. Can’t wait until we are free of all work commitments
Congratulations. Enjoy.
Congratulations Twang. I’m equal parts envious and scared to do likewise.
I’m quite scared too. There’s a deep seated work ethic nagging me…
Ignore those voices! Relax, enjoy, travel, read!
Twang, I hear you about the deep-seated work ethic: but I imagine you have loads of projects, musical and otherwise, that you haven’t had time for. Activity won’t stop – you just transfer your available energy into doing things that you might actually enjoy.
Also, when you consider the huge lump of stress that you can drop by the roadside…you know it makes sense.
Congrats, man…
Cheers Fitter, yes the one thing I won’t have is too much time on my hands!
Time to become a human being and not a human doing. After you adjust and more importantly Mrs. Twang adjusts to having you under her feet I’m sure you’ll find it’s one of the best decisions you’ve ever made.
I’ve received an invitation from the DWP to apply for my pension which I have accepted. It will of course be a laughably tiny amount as I have huge gap in my contributions due to my many years as an unpaid carer and my adamant refusal to claim benefits. As I mentioned elsewhere I won’t be retiring I shall just carry on ruining pieces of paper until I run out of paint.
Pob lwc.
Good luck Twang 👍. Retirement just as Spring is beginning.
Congrats, T, you will be amazed how fast your days fill up
I can’t wait! I could have retired last month as I would have been eligible to draw Social Security (state pension) at age 62, but the advantages of waiting until you’re 67 are huge, so I’ll be working for 5 more years.
When I do retire, we’ll move out of California to somewhere much cheaper. It’s getting to the point where it’s the only way many Californians can afford to retire comfortably these days as it’s so expensive here.
I feel your gain! i’m dithering similarly, with, let’s call it, stress having thrown me a recent googly that has caused no small reconsideration, recalculation and recalibration.
G’luck, chum!!
Best of luck, Twang. Get planning (or just sit around and watch old documentaries about the war on Yesterday).