Economics of Retiring

pollypenny

Went over to neighbours. Managed to drink 3/4 of bottle of Pinot Grigio. I just want to go bed now.


But at least I can do that. I don't have Y 8 reports to write or Y10 marking.

I love retirement. :j :j :j

Dunroamin

Errata wrote: »

Doing this, that and the other when retired and filling every moment with doing something is not the be all and end all. Nobody will turn into the devil's handmaiden if they spend time and simply stand and stare

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

I so agree. Some people seem to want to be so busy in retirement; if I'd wanted to be busy I'd've stayed at work and been paid for it.:)

Ilona

I have been retired four years, and loving it. I went part time at 55, less hours meant less income, and I found I could manage just fine. It suddenly came to me that if I stopped spending money, then I didn't need to earn it. Now I am busy busy busy, doing what I want to do. Keeping fit is at the top of my agenda, I want to live a long time. I walk a lot, day walks and long distances by myself. Dog walking, volunteer litter picker, help with a cat rescue, write a blog, do arts and crafts, have lots of days out and holidays. It can be done on a pension.
Ilona

Dunroamin

Ilona wrote: »

I have been retired four years, and loving it. I went part time at 55, less hours meant less income, and I found I could manage just fine. It suddenly came to me that if I stopped spending money, then I didn't need to earn it. Now I am busy busy busy, doing what I want to do. Keeping fit is at the top of my agenda, I want to live a long time. I walk a lot, day walks and long distances by myself. Dog walking, volunteer litter picker, help with a cat rescue, write a blog, do arts and crafts, have lots of days out and holidays. It can be done on a pension.
Ilona

I'm going to have a lie down, you've exhausted me!:D

pmlindyloo

I think the best thing we did when I retired was to downsize.

That gave us money to put in the bank, a smaller house to clean (absolute bliss) a smaller garden to manage and time and money to do what we wanted.

I absolutely love being retired. I do volunteer which I love (probably because I could leave at any time if I wanted to and do not have to take bullsh*t from anyone!)

I am incredible at doing nothing very much when I want - can get up when I want, go to bed when I want, read when I want and come on here when I want.

I am never bored. If you want you can fill your life with so may free things - plenty of clubs etc to join or you can do absolutely nothing if the fancy takes you. The freedom is amazing.

We often think about 'what do we want to do before............' and make a list - visit here, visit there do this, do that and then do very little! We love our little house and never regret for one moment moving to it.

Spent too many years being hassled at work, feeling drained at the end of every day and spending the weekend recovering to feel guilty about not using every minute of my time now to do something positive and 'worthwhile' and, dare I say it, healthy! Everyone to their own!

Dilly

Well I had a retirement opportunity, which didn't unfortunately come off. But during the 'in between time' I kept a diary of the things I might do each day, to see how I might fill the time. I set myself a target, 2 trips a month to the cinema, walking days, cooking home made meals, sewing, photography etc etc. I would never have had any spare time. No wonder people say they don't know how they found the time to work, once retired

nlj1520

I am semi-retired and now wonder how the heck I found time to work! The garden is gradually coming back under control, the house ditto, I don't have to pre-plan trips away. I can spend more time with my (disabled) son and my father (who seems like he may be developing dementia and is going blind). I have started weight training at the gym, I can do the arty-farty things I enjoy so much, I can read more of the many wonderful books around and I get enough sleep....probably for the first time in my adult life!
Now admittedly I am lucky and can fund most of what I would like to do and not everyone is in the luxurious position, but I still find retirement a real blessing.

tanith

I hadn't really planned for retirement apart from my NHS pension as it was thrust upon me by ill-health at 57 and for about a month I panicked and had no clue how I would manage time or money. It turned out to be a complete breeze , I do what I want when I want, spend more time doing 'stuff' I like and money hasn't been a problem at all I manage fine with my savings intact so far , even managing to enjoy holidays and breaks without using savings so far which is great as its always available should a big 'spend' raise its ugly head.

Its wonderful not having to 'manage' my time retirement is great.

seven-day-weekend

We both went part-time at about 50 due to my husband's health reasons. I did Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, my husband did Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This meant he had Monday off on his own, I had Thursday off on my own, we had Friday off together and both had a long weekend

When he was 55 and I was 54 we took early retirement and lived in Spain full-time for five years. This was partly due to wanting to live in a traditional Spanish village in the sun, but it was also economic, we only had my husband's Teachers' pension to live on, and this was reduced due to him taking it five years early. We did however have a lump sum from both his pension and from the sale of a small property that he had inherited, so we were able to buy a small house outright in Spain. Our son lived in our UK house with a couple of lodgers so that paid for itself while we were away.

After six years we decided to spend a bit more time in the Uk and I got my State Pension so we had more income. Then we returned permanently to the UK at the end of 2011, sold the Spanish house, ejected son and lodgers from our UK house and moved back.

We are now 63 and 64 and are enjoying life, we have enough income and also have savings from the sale of the Spanish house. We also have taken up house-sitting (you live in peoples' houses while they are away and look after their house, pets and garden). As well as generating an income, this saves on our own gas and electricity . I estimate we spend a third of our time living in other peoples' houses.

Next year (2014) we will each get another Pension - his State Pension and my Local Government Pension. We intend to save this so that we can have more choice when we eventually move to a flat or bunglaow.

We are also both active in our church.

Hope this helps, it seems to have turned into an essay!

Goldiegirl

I've been reading this thread with much interest, as early retirement is very much on my mind.

I'm 53 and my husband is 61.

I was made redundant when I was 50, and was able to take a pension as part of my settlement. I'm now working part time, 2 days a week and my husband also has a pension and is working 4 days a week.

We've set ourself a target April 2016 to stop work completely.

This will be 6 months before my husband is 65' so it won't be much of an early retirement for him, but I'll be 56.

We want to stop work in the April, so we can enjoy the summer. We'll just have our current pension income for those 6 months, but it should be sufficient, then when my husbands other pensions kick in, we should certainly have enough to live as we do now.

At present we are saving money every month, and we just want to get bit more in the bank before we stop work, as we have travel plans for retirement.

However, I think for day to day living we will need less money in retirement. For example, we'll only need the one car, and we won't have to spend nearly as much on petrol.

I've noticed that I spend less by working part time. For example, myself and a couple of colleagues used to go out for a coffee at lunchtime everyday. At £2 a time, that was £40 a month! Now I'm part time, I only have 30 mins break at lunch time, so I don't have time to go anywhere!

We have a contingency that we could downsize our house if we needed too, and when I'm 66 I will get my state pension, so there'd be the prospect of a pay rise in the distant future.

But overall, and after a lot of thought, I think our situation will be manageable.

As one gets older, I think one spends less. So we want to enjoy the younger active part of our retirement by seeing some of the places we've always dreamed off. After about 10 to 15 years, it'd be very likely that we wouldn't be as fit and healthy, so we wouldn't be wanting to travel, and would need less money day to day.

Neither of us work on a Wednesday, so we sometimes take the opportunity to have a day out, and we see lots of retired people out and about enjoying themselves, and think, 'that'll be our life soon'!

I increasingly feel that my two days a week at work are an unwelcome interruption to my otherwise pleasant life, but at the moment I 'm willing to carry on, as it will make retired life more comfortable.

But roll on April 2016' that's all I can say!