Breaking Through, Travelling On

gallygirl

edinburgher wrote: »

I once spoke to a very successful chap at work about houses, he is a wee bit older than me. I mentioned looking at small houses in a fairly posh suburb and he said:

'All you'll get is a German sports car in the driveway and more bills to pay'

That has stuck with me.

And that basically sums up The Millionaire Next Door :T (apart from the bit about not giving your kids money which I trot out at regular intervals to my two ).

Karmacat

Conscious retirement people, I love it, how brilliant :j

I'm definitely living at retirement level income, because I'm earning not far from that, and some of it is transferred to France for the apartment anyway. Though I *haven't* been making the most of my opportunities to frugalise my food bill - mostly because of low level illness/virus/energy issues. I hope. I can do much more there, and thats a good part of the reason for the push on the garden.

The other thing is that I don't want to retire by staying in this house, my retirement plans are very fluid. I realise I haven't actually written out the options, and as I'm taking the morning off from serious work (more of which in a minute), I'll do that now:

Option One: rent this place out, buy a little van (a friend on here had a lovely comfy bed in the back of a Berlingo, don't even need to do a full camper van) and pootle about. Travel on the European continent. Stay with my mum sometimes to help her and give me a base - she'll be 90 in 2016, and is currently very, very tired (though still travelling - my sister is taking her to France today!). Ideally, I'll have sold the French apartment. Explore where I might like to live in the future: down south near my sister, up north near where I come from and near my brother.

Option Two: stay here, really pull my horns in to the ultimate degree. Difficult to continue doing the counselling work - you have to work towards endings with people, and I can't turn round halfway through that and say I've decided not to retire. More focus on the cat website.

Option Three: re-learning the trading has really tired me out, but if I succeed, my options really open out: keep on trading, push the pension contributions to the max, travel as per Option One, but perhaps sell this house straight away and look to buy sooner than previously.

In other words, its all very fluid, and my ideal retirement is very travel-oriented, for my 60s at least, and hopefully my 70s, and none of the options above are completely exclusive of one another. My Norfolk rellies are doing this in a way, off on foreign jaunts every couple of months, though they live in a standard 3 bed semi.

This is probably why I haven't optioned it out before :rotfl:I'm not particularly attached to the town I live in, though its a nice town, and I don't want to stay in this area of it anyway.

Karmacat

And yep, I'm taking the morning off. I caught up with an hour's sleep this morning, thank heavens (6 hours sleep instead of 5!) though that makes you more tired for a while, not less, of course. And with my mum and my sister heading off to France, and my trip to London last Tuesday, I realise that I haven't bagged any time at all as a staycation It can't be today - I've got 3 hours paid work this afternoon, and even tomorrow I've got a 7 hour online conference for work, grrr.

But at least I can not-work-on-the-trading, and keep on getting myself straight (my offline list, that I made on Wednesday, is still going strong :rotfl:though I've done about two thirds).

More later




ETA - all hands on deck! my sister just gave me a heads up, when they come back, my mum wants to pop round here on the day she rests between the journey from France, and her onward journey to her house - she wants to see the garden here :eek::rotfl: my own fault, I've been rabbiting about it

edinburgher

gallygirl wrote: »

And that basically sums up The Millionaire Next Door :T (apart from the bit about not giving your kids money which I trot out at regular intervals to my two ).

Didn't you give one of your kids a deposit?

gallygirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Conscious retirement people,

I think the phrase we're looking for is 'consciously uncoupling' from work :rotfl:.

edinburgher wrote: »

Didn't you give one of your kids a deposit?

Both of them, that's permitted as long as then they stand on their own feet (or in DD's case, own ladder. I'm going there next weekend and she thinks she's holding the ladder while I paint her window. Em, not quite........ ). It's the letting them live at home whilst they dabble at self employment (i.e. no need to succeed), paying their children's school fees (parents feel they need to spend to keep up with the other parents), put your hand in your pocket every time they get a bill (never learn to stand on own 2 feet) etc that's not approved of. Suits me . Seriously, if you think of people you know in that situation, it makes sense. Which is nice .

Karmacat

gallygirl wrote: »

I think the phrase we're looking for is 'consciously uncoupling' from work :rotfl:.

Thanks! I couldn't quite figure out how to work it in :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Both of them, that's permitted as long as then they stand on their own feet (or in DD's case, own ladder. I'm going there next weekend and she thinks she's holding the ladder while I paint her window. Em, not quite........ ). It's the letting them live at home whilst they dabble at self employment (i.e. no need to succeed), paying their children's school fees (parents feel they need to spend to keep up with the other parents), put your hand in your pocket every time they get a bill (never learn to stand on own 2 feet) etc that's not approved of. Suits me . Seriously, if you think of people you know in that situation, it makes sense. Which is nice .

Yep, its awful to see really quite elderly pensioners bearing the costs of their offsprings' lives - but nowadays, its a very, very fortunate young twenty something that doesn't need help from mum and dad in buying a place.

I'm halfway through. After this, something to eat, then make *sure* I get out into the garden, come rain, hail or pollution

Goldiegirl

gallygirl wrote: »

I think the phrase we're looking for is 'consciously uncoupling' from work :rotfl:.


.

:rotfl:Good one!

edinburgher

Did you make it back from the garden in one piece?! :eek:

I think it's all going a bit John Wyndham :rotfl:

ZTD

Karmacat wrote: »

Option One: rent this place out, buy a little van (a friend on here had a lovely comfy bed in the back of a Berlingo, don't even need to do a full camper van)

What about this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2373434/Mini-Clubvan-Camper-Mini-unveils-worlds-smallest-luxury-camper-van-safari-style-tent.html

Karmacat wrote: »

In other words, its all very fluid, and my ideal retirement is very travel-oriented, for my 60s at least, and hopefully my 70s, and none of the options above are completely exclusive of one another. My Norfolk rellies are doing this in a way, off on foreign jaunts every couple of months, though they live in a standard 3 bed semi.

Don't forget the option of disappearing to Spain for 6 months on the off season. It used to be cheaper than staying in England and running the central heating.

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

Did you make it back from the garden in one piece?! :eek:

I think it's all going a bit John Wyndham :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: it is, isn't it! Clearer today, tho, no haze discernible.

I was chuffed at what I managed to do - cleared up a square yard or so of the sunny border, and cut back more of the ivy that grows into my garden from next door's its right by my back door, and there's nothing I can do to get rid of it, the roots are on his ground.

Chained here. Online conference I'm listening to for CPD at work. Keeps freezing, but I'm taking notes where I can from the chat and the conference. Bah!

Sock darning in the meantime. Can I be bovvered :eek::rotfl: