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Dealing with retirement
howardl
Posts: 5,120 Forum Member
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I'm 54, still a while yet, but I keep wondering what I'll do in retirement
What will some of you do who are near to it?
What will some of you do who are near to it?
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My official retirement day is this coming Tuesday so I may need even more hours to get things done.
Oh yeah, just remember to do what the Spanish do....have a kip for a couple of hours in the afternoon and it will help you keep awake during the small hours whilst on DS.
I like walking, I often just take off and go somewhere for a day out by car or by train.
I plan to have a dog again soon. I love reading, I like using the pc, I visit friends and go to the cinema or theatre if something decent is on..... I could go on. Life is full of so many things to do.
If I had a partner also retired I'd buy a motorhome but I don't. So I like taking breaks in cottages to get a change of scene. Also hoping to go to a greek island in the near future.
It sounds like a very fulfilling life.
I hope that you find a likeminded person to share it with at some point, if that's what you want, because it sounds absolutely lovely and as though you have an awful lot to share.
Same age here .... I doubt I'll get a retirement ....
Sounds fantastic
I've probably got many decades till retirement!
Not enough days in the week nowadays!
Spend quite a bit of time on laptop with DS, plus researching and booking 4-5 holidays home and abroad per year and a few hotel and spa breaks. The wife and I like to go for canal walks with pub stops on the way, plus regular trips to the cinema and meals out.
I am building a model railway in the garden shed, I have 4 grandchildren to entertain and a 5th on the way!
Lie-ins in the morning, do as you please each day, yes life is great!
Those of you wondering whether it is worth starting or continuing a pension, then believe you me it really is, when that time comes you are so glad how much you contributed and how it changes your life, and for the better!
I hear this now from all ex colleagues who have retired. They all say that numerous things soon arrived to completely fill the feared void.
Retirement is only good if you can afford to enjoy it and have good health.
Any time left over is allocated to talking over the garden fence, writing complaining letters to the BBC, and being a miserable bugger.
On the plus side, people are now living longer, with more people living past 100.
The best way to make sure you can afford to retire is to start saving for retirement either with a pension or ISA.
26 sounds the perfect age to start putting a bit of money away. Both Pensions and ISA's are tax efficient, with a littler bit extra being contributed to a Pension, but of course it's not acesable until you reach (at the moment) 55.
If you can afford it, go speak to a bank and discuss it with them
The retirement age might be getting later and later, but in reality people aren't working any longer. A man retiring on Monday at the age of 65 probably started work at 15 in 1961 and worked and paid NI for 50 years. Very few people start work at 16 these days, and with over 40% going to university, the average person probably starts work at about 19, so if you were to work the same number of years as today's retirees, you would be working until 69!
I'm finding time to do all the things I wanted to do before, gardening (we have 80 peach trees!), baking, photography and especially taking up painting again.
We have also just started to manage a holiday home in our local village for some friends and that's keeping us busy.
I agree with all the advice about pensions - my OH was self employed and, luckily, took out 2 private pensions which have just kicked in (he was 60 last week) and it will make our lives much more comfortable. We were so daft in our 20's and 30's - spending money like water and doing loads of travelling - I'm just glad that we did one sensible thing in our lives
I know - but believe me, those 40 years go faster than you can possibly imagine and then you really appreciate a bit extra
I live in a country area and have a hobby (amateur radio).
Basically I get up about 8.30am get some brekkie, get on the computer for an hour or so, checking out Digital Spy, new CD releases on various websites, Facebook etc. Then weather permitting I walk up to the village with my wife to fetch the newspapers and anything else we need, stopping to chat to anyone we meet. We come back have a cuppa read the papers, have a go at the crossword and Su Doku, then I check out the amateur radio bands and perhaps have a chat there, then perhaps do a bit of gardening or general pottering before lunch, perhaps listening to something interesting on the radio while I do so. Then a bit more radio hamming or downloading music and transferring to CD, sawing logs, hedge trimming etc etc then Countdown on TV. It's a great life.
We have at least one day out per week, either a shopping trip to Shrewsbury, Oswestry etc, visiting relatives, a day at the coast in the summer, a bike ride, a walk.
I've been retired for 4 years now and haven't been bored for a moment.
She seems far happier being retired than she was working.
Crikey ~ I always had you down as about 25, JELLISOE !!!
Pleased to hear you're enjoying life, anyway
When I was an apprentice I worked in a big factory site that had about 10,000-15,000 working there. Every week at least one person died of a heart attack, I put it down to stress of piece work.
In one building they use to make big castings and general fabrications, if you made it to 60 you were lucky. In the 12 years I was there only one man saw retirement in that building and he was a foreman who had his own office so didn't have to breathe in all the fumes but he only lasted 6 months.
Perhaps I should have kept quiet about my age then
Thanks blueblade. I'm 60 at the end of the month and although I hated my job I still agonised for months and months as to whether to take advantage of an early release scheme or to hang on until I reached 60 in order to gain a higher pension.
Things worked out even better than imagined. I certainly made the right decision.