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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.......
You deserve to take things easy and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise- do what floats your boat to fill your leisure time matey !!
My mate was sixty in January
He’d worked as a butcher for 44 years
The company he worked for wanted him to stay on but his wife insisted he deserved to stay at home to do what he pleased 😀
After six months of completing any chores by twelve then going down the pub until eight 🍺🍺🍺🍺she soon changed her mind lol
He’s back working full time 🤣
I finished a day before my 60th birthday in May. I'd had enough of work and wanted a change. I might look for some part time work in a few months but at the moment I am enjoying doing what I want, when I want. However, I have had all of the feelings you list. It's taken me a long time to stop waking up at 6:30 every morning (I still do it some days) and sitting in bed with a mug of tea doing the crossword makes me feel guilty. I should be up doing something.
I'm really enjoying the spontaneity being retired allows though. My wife and I have just got back from a bike ride, entirely unplanned, we just said "the weather's nice, lets go for a ride", similarly we have been out for meals on the spur of the moment and taken the caravan away for short breaks. In many ways it is like the days before we had children.
Congratulations on your retirement.
I've scaled things down at 54 and only work part time now. I got sick of chasing the Yankee dollar realising that being comfortable with a moderate income that just about covers the monthly outgoings is better for the head.
The dog is thrilled having 2 hour walks most days and I fill in the rest of the time doing a bit of voluntary work with a local environmental group and the woodland trust.
Can highly recommend a bit of voluntary work 👍
I would think the mere fct you felt the need to create a timetable to fill your day si a worrying fact of itself?Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie
Does your caravan enjoy short breaks? Sorry
Why so? I have a lot of things I want to do every week - and I don't want my mind or body to go to seed. Or in the case my body, I aim to get fitter than I am now and, in general, I don't just want to loaf around frittering away time aimlessly.
Will you now have retirement colleagues?
No, just non-work colleagues
I was going to learn how to get tickets off the tinternet from Cardiff City.
Then I discovered afternoon tele
Have you considered the G word? (Golf)No, just non-work colleagues
Firstly, congratulations on your retirement.
Secondly, what a shitter that someone who loves traveling is retiring into this situation, but it looks to be improving and I hope we hear more of your stories from your travels
As for doing a timetable, I think that is an excellent idea. I have often thought that retiring would be like breaking up from school for the summer months, only to return in September thinking "Oh, I didn't do any of that". I hope you stay in good health, but remember you will never be as young as you are today.
I have been saving extensively for my own retirement, and the plan is that I will pack in work in 10 years time when I hit 55. By that stage I will have paid for my house. I have no other debts. I will sell my house, move to a smaller one, and use that money to have a few years of fun and travel. If I have to return to work, it will not be in the stress riddled environment of my current expertise. The job pays well, and I have been chucking 20% of my wages into my pension, and the company have been putting in 10%. It will be a good pension.
"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)"
Point 1. So what? You've doubtless helped and shown plenty of people the ropes. I often think about advice I've received from a myriad of mentors who have long since departed the working life. That advice I have passed onto younger colleagues. Your expertise will carry on in various forms.
2. Guilt is the last thing you need to feel. Retirement is earnt. One way to alleviate this would be/ could be to do some volunteering work. Maybe on a once a week basis, whatever suits you. But, you don't owe anyone anything mate. Maybe you've got lucky in life, but luck is the reward of hard graft (except bad luck in health). I've had bad luck with a redundancy or two, that was out of my control. Getting a better job after each was because of skills I worked hard to get, and experiences I worked hard to find. I doubt it's much different for any of us.
3. Thanks to modern science and medicine, and modern work practices, people are no longer going from 6 weeks of retirement to a grave because of coal dust, chronic illnesses from working with asbestos, or just sheer exhaustion. These are all things that you made possible by working for 48.5 years and paying taxes to help educate these people.
Best of luck with your retirement. Please don't follow the example of some on here who will happily spunk their hard earned leisure talking shit. That would give you every reason to feel guilty. We live once. There is no after life. There is no reincarnation. We are a long time dead. Get out there and live the life you have earnt and well done.
I was made redundant (2nd time) 9 years ago. So I couldn't face not doing anything and went self employed on a consultancy basis. I am supposed to work about 3 days per week, but generally do about 1.5. At 66 years old I have been working since September 1972, so I hope to make it 50 years next year. I;d be bored without something to do, or not have enough money to do what i want. The last 18 months have not been good , same as all of us, not allowed to work for most of it. But less stressed than when working full time.
But it's getting busier now as...... the football season starts and we can go. I've been to the two home friendlies, and we have four homes games in August - I'll be knackered!!
Oh God. A few years of Homes Under the Hammer and Loose Women and you'll wake up one day wondering if you could have done something, well, ANYthing worthwhile.I was going to learn how to get tickets off the tinternet from Cardiff City.
Then I discovered afternoon tele
Who turned it on for you?I was going to learn how to get tickets off the tinternet from Cardiff City.
Then I discovered afternoon tele
Oh God. A few years of Homes Under the Hammer and Loose Women and you'll wake up one day wondering if you could have done something, well, ANYthing worthwhile.
Na, not that rubbish.
Dickinson's Real Deal., then Alibi for the antique shows
Some people will buy any old sh!t
No need. I have more than enough interests to fill my time, thanks.
It is an effort, sometimes it's got a mind of it's ownWho turned it on for you?
I'm more into the G spot (how do you find it
I remember watching the Olympics on TV before remote controls existed. I used to use a long stick with a rubber end to push the channel buttons from the sofa.
My old man used to think he was some kind of television engineer. When the old box went on the blink, a firm bang on the top of the set with his fist always seemed to do the trick.
As you eluded to, the impact of retirement upon each of us can be significantly different depending on the working environment we've just left. As one who hardly spent any time in an office for the past 30yrs, retirement seemed no different except I had a lot more time on my hands. The funny thing is, I seem to have all sorts of little, trivial things to keep me busy which I really don't know how I did them before. I go to the gym 3 times a week, just an hour, and then the missus & I go out for a coffee. This f****ng covid thing hasn't helped, but I'd recommend taking a few short breaks - out of school hols time- and search out a few local walks. There are loads around here. Don't 'take up a hobby' just for the sake of it, though.
I retired in 2012,Went straight to working 3 days a week in a community centre/food bank.I hung my boots up aged 69 a weeks ago.
Getting itchy feet already.It's the winter is the worse.
Great thread .
TBG - good luck with your retirement, looks like you have it sussed.
Long way to go for me, but it’s still a massive worry. I do long hours and it’s intense, I wonder how I will cope with it just stopping.
I can’t sit still or shut off now !
Nice to read other people’s views on it too and I know so many ( some very close to me) who didn’t get the chance to have that time to themselves. Seems a good idea to plan your time .
Nice thread, and good luck TBG. Am hoping to jack it in myself fairly soon. I imagine I'll have plenty to keep me busy, but I will only find out when I get there!
Am going back to college part-time to study psychotherapy. It'll be 4 years to a qualification (if I stick it that long) and then I'd need to build up hours to become accredited, but whether or not I go the distance, it will give me a focus for the next while. I have a few other projects that I'm keen to kick off too.
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