Retirement: an unsettling experience

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

I cant remember whether youd visited every European country or not, but I quite enjoy your travellers tales.
Which continent is next?

I'll keep schtum for now but thanks for your kind words :-)

[Jimmy the Jock]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Great thread , something I can definitely relate to .

I am 61 in a few days time have been running my own business since I was 30 years old .
The business has done ok and a few months ago I decided that if I didnt sell the business, I would carry on working
till they put me in the box . So I was going to sell...

After making this decision , getting the company valued and working out my options ... I decided ...NOT to sell.
The sale of the company would have given me more money than I would need for my future plans .
I am lucky that I have staff who deal with most things in the day to day running of the business . I am only needed for the financial
decisions and sorting some of the major problems out ( we dont have that many)
And I realised I like going to work , I am lucky that I can go in generally when I want to . As TBG mentioned , I want to still sort the problems out , make the deal , buy and sell , its fun now . Would I feel different if I didnt have that responsibility, I think so . Yes.
Plus of course I have built my vegan burger van which allows me to work weekends as well now. (This is temporary for me )

I should be getting on a plane to Mont Blanc tomorrow for a walking holiday , because it wanders into France it would have meant isolating for 10 days on return. The itinerary was quite intense and I havent been doing as much walking as I would like recently so last week I got up at 5 and headed up to pen y fan at 6 before getting back and going to work late morning . Repeated it on the Saturday up and down in a tad over 2 hours after sitting drinking till the early hours in the Storie Arms car park with my lad , staying in our camper vans . I have had to do a bit of Pilates to stretch my legs out this week :hehe: .

So at 61 I still feel fit as ever , my mind is still active . I have a new larger camper van being built which will allow longer journeys away , start with a month and build it up . This country has so much to offer , Europe fascinates me .
I do think , ah, but wouldn't it be nice not to have the worry about anything ?
For me , no , I would vegetate .
TBG if you ever fancy a pint before or after a game :thumbup:

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Great thread , something I can definitely relate to .

I am 61 in a few days time have been running my own business since I was 30 years old .
The business has done ok and a few months ago I decided that if I didnt sell the business, I would carry on working
till they put me in the box . So I was going to sell...

After making this decision , getting the company valued and working out my options ... I decided ...NOT to sell.
The sale of the company would have given me more money than I would need for my future plans .
I am lucky that I have staff who deal with most things in the day to day running of the business . I am only needed for the financial
decisions and sorting some of the major problems out ( we dont have that many)
And I realised I like going to work , I am lucky that I can go in generally when I want to . As TBG mentioned , I want to still sort the problems out , make the deal , buy and sell , its fun now . Would I feel different if I didnt have that responsibility, I think so . Yes.
Plus of course I have built my vegan burger van which allows me to work weekends as well now. (This is temporary for me )

I should be getting on a plane to Mont Blanc tomorrow for a walking holiday , because it wanders into France it would have meant isolating for 10 days on return. The itinerary was quite intense and I havent been doing as much walking as I would like recently so last week I got up at 5 and headed up to pen y fan at 6 before getting back and going to work late morning . Repeated it on the Saturday up and down in a tad over 2 hours after sitting drinking till the early hours in the Storie Arms car park with my lad , staying in our camper vans . I have had to do a bit of Pilates to stretch my legs out this week :hehe: .

So at 61 I still feel fit as ever , my mind is still active . I have a new larger camper van being built which will allow longer journeys away , start with a month and build it up . This country has so much to offer , Europe fascinates me .
I do think , ah, but wouldn't it be nice not to have the worry about anything ?
For me , no , I would vegetate .
TBG if you ever fancy a pint before or after a game :thumbup:

As my usual travelling companion to City games isn't around for the Millwall and Bristol City games it would be good to have a pint before or after a game. Even better if you fancy a decent walk in the hills the following day - as I could stay over in Cardiff in the modest campervan I am experimenting with.:thumbup:

[UNDERHILL1927]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Well, after 48.5 years of solid work and 6 months from State Retirement Age I'm hanging up my pen and cursor this week. I feel far from 'shot/knackered/spent' and I've been looking forward to escape my partly-mundane, sedentary and often frustrating work and replacing it with a myriad of things I enjoy but which I have vowed to shut my trap about on here.
I went part-time four years ago and haven't been into the office since March 2020 so it's not the same as the sudden jolt of going from full-time to fully-retired overnight. Most of my peers have already retired (and stepped up their physical exercise with the extra hours of leisure and as I intend to) so the former 'craic' at work wouldn't be the same if I returned.
The next few months are chocker with trips planned around the UK (seeing friends, attending gigs and City games and engaging more in one of my pastimes) and next year, if it is safe to do so my net will be casting even further afield and for longer periods.
Retirement for me and for many others means getting involved in more activities (and pleasurable ones) than ever before. No inept management to answer to any more, no frustrating and laborious work processes to endure any longer and no confines of any description (although they were minimal compared to many people's work environments).
So what's the problem I hear you not asking.....
It just feels weird thinking that:
1. One's expertise at work won't ever exercised or sought after again
2. Not working seems like a guilty luxury to this person of working class stock when many people around the world are scratching about for a living
3. I don't feel old and decrepit enough to cease work. (A strange notion for some people but it was a concept that which was familiar to many of our parents)

I have already created a timetable for me to indulge in physical and intellectual tasks every day but am I going to end up typing on here every hour of the day dressed just in a string vest with fried egg stains on it and with my goolies hanging out?
Answers on a post card, please.......

Congratulations and good luck mate. Any large-scale change is daunting but you deserve a rest for all those years served.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

This thread shows we're all different. Working was always just a means to getting the money to do the things I really enjoyed doing for me, so I chose to go into semi retirement the first change I got at the age of fifty three even though I knew that financially it would be tough bridging the gap between when the fairly small redundancy package I received had been spent and when I qualified for the state pension.

I've bridged that gap to some extent by working a few hours a week on doing things I enjoy - writing the blog and the occasional book about City (a big thank you to everyone who contributes to the modest income I make from the blog without which I would have really struggled in the last two or three y6ears).

Retirement, or the thought of it, has never been unsettling to me, but I've spoken to enough people for whom it is to be aware that I'm lucky, and probably in a minority, to be like I am.

I can't offer you much advice TBG because I hardly think of myself as someone who has "cracked" retirement so to speak, but I think you're right to target mental as well as physical well being.

Best of luck with your retirement - based on what you've written and the common sense you've posted on here down the years, I'm sure you'll be fine.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

This thread shows we're all different. Working was always just a means to getting the money to do the things I really enjoyed doing for me, so I chose to go into semi retirement the first change I got at the age of fifty three even though I knew that financially it would be tough bridging the gap between when the fairly small redundancy package I received had been spent and when I qualified for the state pension.

I've bridged that gap to some extent by working a few hours a week on doing things I enjoy - writing the blog and the occasional book about City (a big thank you to everyone who contributes to the modest income I make from the blog without which I would have really struggled in the last two or three y6ears).

Retirement, or the thought of it, has never been unsettling to me, but I've spoken to enough people for whom it is to be aware that I'm lucky, and probably in a minority, to be like I am.

I can't offer you much advice TBG because I hardly think of myself as someone who has "cracked" retirement so to speak, but I think you're right to target mental as well as physical well being.

Best of luck with your retirement - based on what you've written and the common sense you've posted on here down the years, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Thanks, Bob. I don't actually need advice as I have so many things to do each and every week - and the number of events and trips I have planned (domestic and otherwise) are legion. Apart from the throwaway line about being on here about typing in my dunghampers I was wistfully reflecting on the transition rather than a problem I actually have with it. The world is my lobster, as they don't say....

Thanks for your kind words, by the way!

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Congratulations and good luck mate. Any large-scale change is daunting but you deserve a rest for all those years served.

Far from needing a rest I will be putting my energy into activities that are the opposite to sedentary work! Retirement sounds like going out to grass but it's an opportunity to be far more active rather than less.

[sneggyblubird]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Well done, your going in all guns blazing and it sounds as if you're still healthy.I'm 63 and now retired and a big change is coming to me next monday as I'm having my lower right leg amputated.I'll be dammed if its gonna stop me but looking at things from a disabled point of view will be an eye opener for a while.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Well done, your going in all guns blazing and it sounds as if you're still healthy.I'm 63 and now retired and a big change is coming to me next monday as I'm having my lower right leg amputated.I'll be dammed if its gonna stop me but looking at things from a disabled point of view will be an eye opener for a while.

Phew, now that is a major transition in life. Good for you in remaining positive. I remember a study a while back about people who had life-changing events such as amputation of a limb, winning the lottery etc - and it found that after the initial effects of the major event subsided somewhat and the individuals got used to their new 'normal' they generally reverted to type regarding their positive or negative outlook that they had beforehand. No doubt that my hazy synopsis doesn't do the study justice but I certainly admire your outlook regarding a very major change in your life. We all know people who didn't even make it to their 60's, of course.
(I hope that my post came over as light-hearted in comparison as my predicament is far from being a problem. Far from it, in fact!)

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Oops

[Swiss Peter]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Congratulations TBG - and good luck to Sneggy with the op.

I retired at 59 and my very last working day was 31st Dec 2019. That was the exact day that news started emerging of something rather unpleasant developing in China.

The pandemic had a huge impact on my plans (as it did with everyone else of course) and did need some major re-adjustment in attitude and approach to retirement. Big travel plans (including a part time job flying legal docs around Europe) were replaced with growing vegetables and local voluntary work!

Now a year and a half in I do feel the need to re-calibrate as I do find myself lethargic at times. At least now it seems there's the prospect to plan forward a bit more.

One thing's for sure - I don't miss the commuting and the endless corporate bullshit!

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Congratulations TBG - and good luck to Sneggy with the op.

I retired at 59 and my very last working day was 31st Dec 2019. That was the exact day that news started emerging of something rather unpleasant developing in China.

The pandemic had a huge impact on my plans (as it did with everyone else of course) and did need some major re-adjustment in attitude and approach to retirement. Big travel plans (including a part time job flying legal docs around Europe) were replaced with growing vegetables and local voluntary work!

Now a year and a half in I do feel the need to re-calibrate as I do find myself lethargic at times. At least now it seems there's the prospect to plan forward a bit more.

One thing's for sure - I don't miss the commuting and the endless corporate bullshit!

Grüezi, Swiss Pete. Your part-time occupation sounds interesting if you have the freedom to stay at your own expense for a few days at the destinations you have to head for. In fact, if you can pm me regarding that matter it may tickle my buds, as it were.

[splott parker]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

I’m 66, still working, would quickly get bored if I wasn’t. Living differently though with far more holidays and weekend breaks, nearly all have been postponed or cancelled but the thought was there.
Had a sad ‘phone call from my missus earlier this morning, the 46 year old son of a friend of our passed away suddenly during the night leaving a wife and kids. Seems retirement age is, perhaps, only a number. I s’pose you’re never too young to start that bucket list.

[Rjk]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

At times this lockdown has given me a glimpse of retirement, and I can't wait.

[sneggyblubird]

Re: Retirement: an unsettling experience

Phew, now that is a major transition in life. Good for you in remaining positive. I remember a study a while back about people who had life-changing events such as amputation of a limb, winning the lottery etc - and it found that after the initial effects of the major event subsided somewhat and the individuals got used to their new 'normal' they generally reverted to type regarding their positive or negative outlook that they had beforehand. No doubt that my hazy synopsis doesn't do the study justice but I certainly admire your outlook regarding a very major change in your life. We all know people who didn't even make it to their 60's, of course.
(I hope that my post came over as light-hearted in comparison as my predicament is far from being a problem. Far from it, in fact!)

Its all been quick.What started as a little injury on my toe at Easter time when on until I had 2 toes amputated but I still feel sick and have the strength of a day old kitten.I was given options but there was more than a slim possibility it would end up like this.My positivity comes from 2 things.1,I have magnificent children who have taken over insomuch a they've retired my wife and 2, that the doctors said my life could be back to some normality once I get a prosthetic leg and if I take to it.Meanwhile I'm about to get a life experience from a wheelchair for a while and must admit,like alot of us always thought it was always gonna be some other unfortunate bugger.