Possible early retirement

NAR

Due to divorce I had to delay retirement to age 60 (last September).

But it is the best thing I have ever done. My days are easily filled and I have got enjoying a fair bit more time with my grandson.

Our retirement holiday was to Canada and Alaska for 3 weeks and it was an amazing holiday, giving us the thirst for more.

I have calculated we are financially sound until we are at least 80, which is fine by me.

I'm glad I have given you food for thought, I wish you all the best for the future.

Chezcat

NAR wrote: »

Due to divorce I had to delay retirement to age 60 (last September).

But it is the best thing I have ever done. My days are easily filled and I have got enjoying a fair bit more time with my grandson.

Our retirement holiday was to Canada and Alaska for 3 weeks and it was an amazing holiday, giving us the thirst for more.

I have calculated we are financially sound until we are at least 80, which is fine by me.

I'm glad I have given you food for thought, I wish you all the best for the future.

I believe you can take a train ride through Canada which we would be interested in so I have some research to do.

Thank you for your advice and enjoy your time with your grandson!:)

NAR

Chezcat wrote: »

I believe you can take a train ride through Canada which we would be interested in so I have some research to do.

Thank you for your advice and enjoy your time with your grandson!:)

Thank you for your kind remarks.

The train ride is the Rocky Mountaineer, which (as the name suggests) takes you through the Rockies. We spent two days travelling on it and it was absolutely fabulous with amazing views. A "must do" in my opinion.

If you wish I would be happy to send you our itinerary (by PM). My niece is a travel agent and she put together our package, 4 and 5 star all the way.

Chezcat

NAR wrote: »

Thank you for your kind remarks.

The train ride is the Rocky Mountaineer, which (as the name suggests) takes you through the Rockies. We spent two days travelling on it and it was absolutely fabulous with amazing views. A "must do" in my opinion.

If you wish I would be happy to send you our itinerary (by PM). My niece is a travel agent and she put together our package, 4 and 5 star all the way.

Yes please, that is very kind of you.:D

zygurat789

NAR wrote: »

Thank you for your kind remarks.

The train ride is the Rocky Mountaineer, which (as the name suggests) takes you through the Rockies. We spent two days travelling on it and it was absolutely fabulous with amazing views. A "must do" in my opinion.

If you wish I would be happy to send you our itinerary (by PM). My niece is a travel agent and she put together our package, 4 and 5 star all the way.

And when you get to Vancouver you can cruise up to Alaska great far better than the Med

NAR

Lol we did! :rotfl:

getmore4less

I think you will manage with a bit of time to think.

THe great thing about where you are is you are no longer a wage slave.

You can tell bad work situations the truth and they will either fix it or you leave and find something else to do.

Rather than just any job I would look for short or part time high value things to do, it will depend on skillset but there will be things that just need experience and a good worker.

One thing with lots of time is you can plan and do things a lot cheaper than when you have to fit it in with time off work.

Chezcat

I have certainly been doing a lot of thinking these last few weeks, I have never had so much free time since I left school 38 years ago and it feels very odd. I did see a part time job advertised locally that may suit me as it is similar to the one I got made redundant from which I enjoyed so I may apply for that. If I do get it (big IF!) and I don't like it I have options as you say. Got to brush up on the CV now and explain away the minor blip with the last job!

dktreesea

Hi, Chezcat,
What a great position to be in. Congratulations on your excellent savings. I gave up working for other people in my mid 40s, after being made redundant. And I am SO glad I went self employed. I've been able to keep my oar in, so to speak, had an income, that, while it hasn't been as much as I earned in the working for someone else world, has been enough to live on, and met some quite interesting people on my various travels around the UK.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I do agree with Errata though. There comes a point where you have to ask yourself what are you saving for.

How about going away together for a few days? It could give you a different perspective of your day to day life. Somewhere like Jersey, or Guernsey. Or even the Isle of man or the Isle of Wight if the former seem too far.

It is different, getting away, and then looking back over your shoulder at your life. A ship may be better for this than a plane. It gives you a different perspective, more of an overview of what your day to day life entailed, and what "pulls" you to that life. It might not be work at all. It could be friends, the garden, maybe some classes you always wanted to do but never got around to.

I had been working such long hours when I took time out to go away for a few days, - it seems so long ago now. But I do remember that the things that appealed to me, looking back at that life, had absolutely nothing to do with my job. Which was remarkable really, given the hours I had devoted to it.

Chezcat

dktreesea wrote: »

Hi, Chezcat,
What a great position to be in. Congratulations on your excellent savings. I gave up working for other people in my mid 40s, after being made redundant. And I am SO glad I went self employed. I've been able to keep my oar in, so to speak, had an income, that, while it hasn't been as much as I earned in the working for someone else world, has been enough to live on, and met some quite interesting people on my various travels around the UK.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I do agree with Errata though. There comes a point where you have to ask yourself what are you saving for.

How about going away together for a few days? It could give you a different perspective of your day to day life. Somewhere like Jersey, or Guernsey. Or even the Isle of man or the Isle of Wight if the former seem too far.

It is different, getting away, and then looking back over your shoulder at your life. A ship may be better for this than a plane. It gives you a different perspective, more of an overview of what your day to day life entailed, and what "pulls" you to that life. It might not be work at all. It could be friends, the garden, maybe some classes you always wanted to do but never got around to.

I had been working such long hours when I took time out to go away for a few days, - it seems so long ago now. But I do remember that the things that appealed to me, looking back at that life, had absolutely nothing to do with my job. Which was remarkable really, given the hours I had devoted to it.

Thank you for your comments, I am really grateful for everyone's thoughts on here which have been really helpful this week. My OH was self employed for 20 years but had to become an employee a few years ago, he really struggled to begin with and still does sometimes so I can understand how you value being self employed.
We have a week off at the end of September so I will look at getting away somewhere, I agree with you that removing yourself from the situation gives you a different perspective on things. I have plans for the garden and volunteering at a local animal shelter plus we are always saying we should learn Italian as we love Italy and visit every other year. We also bought new bikes last year but haven't used them much due to work/weather etc. I used to love writing stories when I was a kid, I won a few competitions and produced a few "books" for the school library but stopped when I left school. This is something I could pick up again as a hobby. I need to focus on what's important but I already feel much better than a week ago.:)