Things to do after early retirement?

missbiggles1

EdSwippet wrote: »

Yes, that one :-) This is exactly what I fear. Well okay, maybe fear is too strong a word. But I'm aware that sinking into torpor is, for me at least, a danger. It may also be something that I'm just naturally more predisposed towards than other people; perhaps a personality thing. Whatever its cause, though, I want to be sure to head it off. What I'm particularly after is the sense of moving to something at least as much as moving away from something.

Like you I'm not aiming to plan every single minute. And I definitely want to make sure than anything spontaneous that comes up can be gripped with both hands. I guess that what I'm aiming to framework here (can framework be used as a verb?) is the time where something spontaneous is not happening. That is, some default behaviour I can slip into with little thought but which isn't entirely empty.

That said, Goldiegirl's reminder to just 'be' is not only quite right, but also perfectly put, and I intend a good chunk of that too. I've been learning to meditate, which is the quintessential essence of 'be'ing!.

All of these responses are really useful, and so much appreciated.

Reading...

EdSwippet

amstel2 wrote: »

... the grief & harrassment he gets off the the tv licencing people is outrageous. They just don't believe him. I keep telling him to let them take him to court & counter sue them for harrassment.

Suing them is going to be expensive. There is a cheaper way to keep them at bay.

If he looks closely at one of what is probably a reasonably continuous stream of alarmist letters from them, he should find a reference to this web page. Go there and enter a few simple (non-intrusive) details, and the hassle will stop. It will start up again after two years, at which point you do this short confirmation again and get another two years. Repeat biennially.

It certainly seems a touch ridiculous to have to declare that you don't do something or other, but TV Licensing has a difficult job to do here, not least because the law and regulations in this area are a total muddle. (The pessimist in me suspects that the government will soon 'clean up' this muddle in ways that will end up being worse for me, but we'll see).

EdSwippet

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Reading...

Oh, indeed! I read a lot. Aside from regular library visits I have manybooks.net on speed-dial (so to speak) on my tablet's eReader app. 33,000 instantly downloadable and free books should be enough to keep anyone busy.

Last week I finished War and Peace. It's been on my list for literally years. Just under six weeks from start to finish. It's a behemoth, but oddly, now that I've finished it I kind of miss it. Kind of like a slightly annoying dinner party guest who outstays their welcome somewhat but where the house feels oddly empty when they have gone.

melanzana

It is fascinating reading all views on retirement and what to do and NOT to do aswell!

I think it's an each to their own at the end of the day.

My OH was in a job that required routine and discipline. Guess!

So now he is still in that mode after six years of retirement. Has to have a routine.

Me... no. Then they always say opposites attract and all that! So while he is doing his routine in the gym and so on, I am dreaming of holidays and book them, and get the visas and the travel insurance and do all the online stuff. Oh have you got that sorted love? Yes dear!

As long as I can get away with knees that work, and can walk and talk at the same time, I'm happy.

It's about attitude. Glad I have good health (no question), glad I can afford to do the things I want.

And glad I don't worry too much about anything really.

Retirement is FANTASTIC. But it is all about your attitude to it.

Do I miss work? Not at all, a bit of a surprise there, but it was seamless.

Do I feel bored? Not at all, I love life and it has its ups and downs, of course, but it had that when I was working and it was far more difficult to juggle it all then.

I honestly have to pinch myself sometimes.

Get with the program and enjoy, whatever way that might mean for you.

But do not EVER think retirement is for boredom, one foot in the grave or whatever. It is a window to freedom. And whatever way you choose to enjoy that freedom... embrace it. You will not be disappointed.

EdSwippet

melanzana wrote: »

But it is all about your attitude to it.

I think you've neatly encapsulated here what I've struggled to say over several postings. I'm trying to crystallize my attitude to my retirement. And I'm getting there, even if rather slowly and cautiously. :-)

Thanks again to everybody who has chipped in here. It's been both tremendously useful and very encouraging!

poppasmurf_bewdley

I took early retirement in 2008 when I just turned 60, and it's a decision I haven't regretted for one moment.

I'll omit the old cliche of saying I don't know how I had time to go to work, but I have to admit my life has been much fuller since retirement.

I'm divorced with two grown up children, and had a caravan until this year. I was a member of a singles caravan club and became fed up with going to week long meetings on a Friday evening and leaving on a Sunday because I had to get back to work.

Once retirement happened, I was able to go caravanning with good friends for literally weeks on end, usually amounting to about 12 weeks away between April and September.

I sold my caravan this year because the enjoyment was beginning to pale, and I was finding it getting increasingly expensive with site fees, fuel, storage, etc.

Now I've invested some of the money from the sale into installing a woodburner into my cottage, and it's one of the best things I've ever bought. I've had it two months and the whole cottage is warm throughout, and I've gone from keeping all the doors shut to stop draughts to leaving them all open to let the heat spread. Additionally, I have the exercise of chopping wood in the fresh air, and unloading logs and stacking them.

The other things I've done during retirement is achieve a lifelong ambition. I've built a model railway in a spare bedroom which has taken me about three years so far and is still not finished. I've spent about £3k on it so far and it's been worth every penny. Now that winter is coming, I will be making much more us of it than I do in the summer.

I've also joined a social club in my local area which has enabled me to make many more friends locally, one result of which is visiting the cinema on an almost weekly basis. We're off to see The Lady in the Van tonight.

Retirement - it's great and I recommend it.

EdSwippet

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

...Retirement - it's great and I recommend it.

Another positive vote in favour of retirement, then. Thanks for the response, poppasmurf.

Lots of enthusiasm for retirement, and interestingly not one single response suggesting that anyone preferred working or has any regrets, even partial or fleeting, about giving up work!

Perhaps folk reading this thread are in a way already 'self-selected' for positive retirement experiences. Or anyone not particularly enjoying retirement may be unwilling to share that. Or worse, have become mesmerized by daytime television to the point where its impossible to stir up the enthusiasm even for a cutting or negative response! Or maybe genuinely nobody wished to remain in work...

What I should perhaps also have looked for at the start is what type of pensions -- defined benefits, defined contributions, or some combination of the two -- folk are using, and how much impact you think this might have on 'happiness' (defined however you like!) in retirement.

I have only defined contribution pensions. I plan direct drawdown for at least a decade and probably more, because annuity rates for someone my age are dire. I have a well diversified portfolio of index tracker funds, and while I think I have sufficient cushion for market shocks and the like, you can never be sure. I do have some non-pension saving to augment this, so income will be a patchwork.

There are "unknown unknowns" -- not least a future continuation of government skulduggery, shenanigans, meddling and destabilization of pension and other saving frameworks -- and I'm cognizant that early retirement will feel, financially, like walking a tightrope without a safety net and while staring down the barrel of a gun. Yet I must take the risk and step out anyway, because the alternative is to work 'just one more year' again and again to plump up the safety cushion, and that path leads to death at your desk. And I'm not planning that at all!

Has anyone else struggled similarly with finding the balance between risk of running out of money through insufficient savings in defined contribution pensions, and risk of over-saving and not spending everything down? If yes, how have you tackled it?

I suspect I may need to set both maximum and minimum annual spending levels. There are some useful rule-based systems that help optimize drawdown which I hope to use. Work in this area is rather new, though, and backtesting can only tell you so much. Nobody really knows if it will continue to work in future.

Now... feel free to accuse me, probably entirely rightly, of overthinking this. :-)

kremmen

EdSwippet wrote: »

Paul, that's quite a story. Thank you for sharing it. I'm really enjoying reading the feedback I'm receiving here; it's all so useful and relevant.

Funnily enough, I was thinking idly just yesterday about the practicality of living on a narrowboat. The town I live in currently is smack dab on the Grand Union canal, and a tow-path walk or cycle past the moored boats, day-tripper boaters, and fishermen and up to a picnic spot is a regular outing for us. Narrowboat life definitely appeals. I could easily shrink my life down to fit that -- with a laptop and the internet, these days you have access to all the television, radio, books, films, music and entertainment you can handle. (I have a strong suspicion my other half could not shrink her life quite so easily. Our attic still contains her O-level course notes 'just in case'. Parting with this much stuff would I think be impossible for her. No harm in trying, though!)

Your sojourn in Andalucia sounds fabulous. Precisely the sort of thing I hope to be able to do, and in that part of the world too! The ability to do things like this is much of why I'm inclined not to drop down to part-time work (something I've discussed with my employer) as a slower transition towards retirement, but rather to stop entirely, cold-turkey style, and make a clean break. At some point the chance to do what you are doing now will come up, perhaps at short notice, and I would not want to miss it for anything.

Buenas noches, y gracias por el mensaje :-)

I think that you sound flexible enough to fit into life on the cut but obviously it isn't a lifestyle for everyone especially not your wife . And there's the rub.
I really enjoy the lifestyle but when presented with the opportunity to Airbnb a couple of months in the sun there was no contest however I have only been here a few weeks and I could be bored:rotfl: .
An erstwhile colleague advised me about a cheap cruiser in a marina near Malaga and maybe I will look at that as a winter home instead of renting.

Paul

missbiggles1

EdSwippet wrote: »

Another positive vote in favour of retirement, then. Thanks for the response, poppasmurf.

Lots of enthusiasm for retirement, and interestingly not one single response suggesting that anyone preferred working or has any regrets, even partial or fleeting, about giving up work!

Perhaps folk reading this thread are in a way already 'self-selected' for positive retirement experiences. Or anyone not particularly enjoying retirement may be unwilling to share that. Or worse, have become mesmerized by daytime television to the point where its impossible to stir up the enthusiasm even for a cutting or negative response! Or maybe genuinely nobody wished to remain in work...

What I should perhaps also have looked for at the start is what type of pensions -- defined benefits, defined contributions, or some combination of the two -- folk are using, and how much impact you think this might have on 'happiness' (defined however you like!) in retirement.

I have only defined contribution pensions. I plan direct drawdown for at least a decade and probably more, because annuity rates for someone my age are dire. I have a well diversified portfolio of index tracker funds, and while I think I have sufficient cushion for market shocks and the like, you can never be sure. I do have some non-pension saving to augment this, so income will be a patchwork.

There are "unknown unknowns" -- not least a future continuation of government skulduggery, shenanigans, meddling and destabilization of pension and other saving frameworks -- and I'm cognizant that early retirement will feel, financially, like walking a tightrope without a safety net and while staring down the barrel of a gun. Yet I must take the risk and step out anyway, because the alternative is to work 'just one more year' again and again to plump up the safety cushion, and that path leads to death at your desk. And I'm not planning that at all!

Has anyone else struggled similarly with finding the balance between risk of running out of money through insufficient savings in defined contribution pensions, and risk of over-saving and not spending everything down? If yes, how have you tackled it?

I suspect I may need to set both maximum and minimum annual spending levels. There are some useful rule-based systems that help optimize drawdown which I hope to use. Work in this area is rather new, though, and backtesting can only tell you so much. Nobody really knows if it will continue to work in future.

Now... feel free to accuse me, probably entirely rightly, of overthinking this. :-)

You may find that many of us on here have what I'd describe as "proper pensions" - some of them even index linked.:beer::)

plumduff55

Hi, I am really enjoying reading this thread as I have just retired and cannot believe how quickly I have settled into retirement mode.

I retired mid October and immediately went on a 3 week holiday so have been home and not working for just over 2 weeks. I had not planned to retire now but a change of management in May pushed me to retire on my 60th birthday.

I am passionate about all types of crafting and knew I would have lots to occupy my time but was apprehensive about being at home most of the day instead of mixing with people at work. I am not finding this a problem at all and am enjoying the slower pace and ability to visit friends or meet up for coffee whenever I feel like it.

The last couple of months at work were very stressful but after only 5 weeks of retirement its old history and I have moved on to this unbelievably relaxed lifestyle.

I am having to use a large chunk of my lump sum to top up my income untill my state retirement age of 66, but the way I feel at the moment it is absolutely the best way to spend this money.

I am planning to do a bit of voluntary work from January and also join U3A as I realise the way I feel at the moment may change and I may get bored. But reading this thread has reinforced my belief that retiring early was the right decision.