Economics of Retiring

Goldiegirl

I also meant to say, when we do retire, I want to try and get out of routines and clock watching.

I don't want to one of these retirees who has to sit down for lunch at 12.15 everyday and watch Bargain Hunt.

(Although I do like Bargain Hunt, but I can record it and watch it when I like!)

Do people find leaving the routines behind easy, or do they develop new routines?

seven-day-weekend

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I also meant to say, when we do retire, I want to try and get out of routines and clock watching.

I don't want to one of these retirees who has to sit down for lunch at 12.15 everyday and watch Bargain Hunt.

(Although I do like Bargain Hunt, but I can record it and watch it when I like!)

Do people find leaving the routines behind easy, or do they develop new routines?

No, we don't have routines

Dunroamin

Goldiegirl wrote: »

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!

Bear in mind that by that stage (and possibly earlier) you may well need to pay for help in the house, garden and general handywork.

pollypenny

As you don't work on Wednesday why not treat yourself to the cinema, 2 for 1 on Orange Wednesday . Before 5.15 you can get senior concession, too.

We finish off with a meal at Pizza Express or Bella Italia, using coupons,of course.

margaretclare

Dunroamin wrote: »

Bear in mind that by that stage (and possibly earlier) you may well need to pay for help in the house, garden and general handywork.

Yes, that's very true, but you're making a wrong assumption if you think that by age 65 or 70 you 'wouldn't want to travel any more'.

We still want to travel, and we're only a couple of years off 80. We had a wonderful holiday visiting various parts of the Hebrides and Highlands a few weeks ago, staying a couple of nights here, another 2 or 3 somewhere else, always good-quality B&Bs. Met some lovely people, saw some wonderful scenery and wildlife. No sooner back than my DH mentioned the word 'Interlaken'.

Myself, I'd really like to fly from our little airport, having seen it grow after being in decline for years. Alicante is in my mind. So whether it's Switzerland by road or Spain by air, we haven't given up on the idea of travelling and seeing places that we haven't yet seen together.

whitesatin

Oh, the luxury of sitting down and watching Bargain Hunt at lunch time! Well, the tail end of it anyway, as that is the bit that interests us most.

Of course we wouldn't stay in to watch it or anything else but somehow it feels comforting to be able to sit with my husband and watch something familiar that we wouldn't have been able to do when both working.

But, it's more about being able to do these things than the programmes themselves, of course. We still pinch ourselves that we were lucky enough to be able to take early retirement and haven't really noticed any economic drawbacks. We go away on holiday more these days, if anything. Looking after the grandchildren regulary brings some routine but that is good as we enjoy doing it. We don't shop on particular days like we used to (I hated the Saturday morning supermarket trip) and now just pick things up as we go along or eat out - something else we do more nowadays. Catching up with friends on the phone, spending time working or sitting in the garden, going for walks. I suppose that is some sort of routine.

Dunroamin

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes, that's very true, but you're making a wrong assumption if you think that by age 65 or 70 you 'wouldn't want to travel any more'..

That was Goldiegirl's assumption, not mine - I can't envisage a time when I wouldn't want to travel even when I have to do it alone!

Goldiegirl

Dunroamin wrote: »

That was Goldiegirl's assumption, not mine - I can't envisage a time when I wouldn't want to travel even when I have to do it alone!

What I've observed is that, if people are lucky, they can have 15- 20 'good' years of retirement, where they are healthy and fit enough to be active and do their travelling.

Unfortunately, when they hit their late 70's to early 80's, they begin to slow up a little, and although they might still want to travel, their health may prevent it.

So their need for spending money gradually reduces. At that point, if we / I hadn't already done so, I'd make the move to a smaller home, so which would hopefully mean I wouldn't need so much help with gardening etc, but would free up capital for help that I did need.

Dunroamin

Goldiegirl wrote: »

What I've observed is that, if people are lucky, they can have 15- 20 'good' years of retirement, where they are healthy and fit enough to be active and do their travelling.

Unfortunately, when they hit their late 70's to early 80's, they begin to slow up a little, and although they might still want to travel, their health may prevent it.

So their need for spending money gradually reduces. At that point, if we / I hadn't already done so, I'd make the move to a smaller home, so which would hopefully mean I wouldn't need so much help with gardening etc, but would free up capital for help that I did need.

Poor health may slow you down but it doesn't need to stop you travelling, you just need to adapt. My husband's disabled and on oxygen so we bought a big car which will carry all his mobility equipment (and at least one dog!) and still manage to get away at least a couple of times a year.

I wouldn't want to wait until late 70s to move to a smaller, more convenient home - much better to do it when you're younger and can better cope with the stress of moving.

whitesatin

We moved into our home two and a half years ago to be nearer the children and grandchildren. It is probably a bit too big for us (I feel guilty having spare bedrooms when young families in the street are struggling with tiny homes) but it works for the moment in that we can have the grandchildren to stay easily, the garden keeps us (and them) going. OK, we could do without the constant stream of work that needs doing but needs must. We have room for my hobbies and to get away from each other when we feel the need. Sometimes I think about what we might do with the extra money if we downsized but I can't, for the moment, see what it would do to enhance our lives. An interesting point though about minimising the stress of moving when you are older. Mind you, a lot of things are out of our control, e.g. health and we might have to face some sort of move in the future. We are currently healthy and aged 61 and almost 55.