(NON FINANCIAL) Retirement plans/ dreams/ discussion.

BoxerfanUK

Nebulous2 wrote: »

Our favourite bit of France is probably the South-East coastal area, just a bit North of the Spanish border. You hear a lot about how cheap French property is, so we set off for 3 weeks to view property, expecting to buy. The whole experience was extremely disappointing. Everything we saw at our budget point was falling apart and would have been a real money pit. We came to the conclusion going cheaper at home was more sensible, allowing us to tour abroad, rather than be tied to one area.

You do have a point about being tied to one area. The thing is, there's no point in buying abroad unless you are going to use it.

Having said that, apart from Cyprus we do also go elsewhere. We've been to South Africa touring the garden route (highly recommended) and a couple of years ago went to Borneo (again, highly recommended) and recently came back from a long weekend in Alicante so we can still go other places, just not quite as often whilst my OH is still working. TBH quite often we just get fed up with hotels. It's nice to be able to 'go home' to somewhere in the sun, do what you want in your own space.

Also quite popular now instead of buying abroad is long term rentals abroad. Parts of Greece and the islands can be very cheap to rent a property for a month or two without the expense of any maintenance and you are not tied to one place.

[Deleted User]

I am 49, don’t have a fixed retirement date but likely within 6 years. Financially we could probably afford to do it now but I’d be bored and it’s financially risky when there is (hopefully) so much time ahead of us. Besides, our younger son still has a couple of years to go before he graduates.

So, the “retirement” plan is to start a small business. We started off on this path 2 years ago. Bought a small farm with a large pond, got some bees, some ducks, planted lots of fruit trees. The idea is to make craft meads and melomels. Business income is still tiny compared to my salary but it went up from 1k in 2017 to over 5K in 2018 to over 10k in sales so far in 2019.

Should keep us off the streets, provide a bit of excitement in achieving business plan, the dogs enjoy this lifestyle and it keeps us exercised.

MallyGirl

Techno wrote: »

Have you found any good garden design courses or are you looking on-line?

crv1963 wrote: »

No but I haven't really had a good look yet, leaving it to nearer the time, I love gardening and feel that I would like to know more about understanding and constructing the framework of a well laid out garden over the ad hoc approach I and I suspect the majority of people use to make a nice garden.

I would recommend a face to face design course rather than online - distance learning would be ok if there was proper individual feedback from a tutor. There would need to be some contact hours with an expert. You learn a lot from what didn't work so you need to get that input. On my course I did quite a bit of technical drawing (which I had done before) but also CAD, surveying, patio laying and bricklaying. I would never do hard landscaping myself as professionals do it so much better and quicker but the surveying was useful. CAD was interesting but I preferred to draw by hand and colour with pencils. I did have a little hobby design business for a bit but found that it spoiled my hobby so I stopped after it had funded a few workshops, lots of art materials and a nice A3 printer.

Techno

thanks MallyGirl. We have bought our 'retirement' property and are in the process of selling our main home. The house is on a hill with a flat front garden but a terraced back one. We hope to build a family room/kitchen/diner but need to know what to do with the rest of the back when we are finished .

Vespaboy

MallyGirl

very jealous about your camper - the site is now bookmarked as one of the options on my browser so I can lust after and dream about owning one. I assume the way to go is to get one converted

I am trying not to count down to retirement - I am 54 and feel comfortable giving it a few more years yet (I could pull the plug now but as ever feel a bit more oomph in the tank is what is needed, and at 54 feel a bit too young to call it a day, but the job as ever is a tad difficult at times- I will just see how the next few years pan out) but boy that Camper looks so appealing-driving through Europe and perhaps overland further, WOW what an adventure

Enjoy

bluenose1

I am definitely counting down, it helps keeping me going.
Loads of great ideas on here of holiday destinations.
I normally use HolidayPirates.co.uk to price up holidays and hotels. Its quite good as you can check prices of whole month, when I am retired this will be useful as wont matter what dates we go. I also like looking at the individual deals they recommend.
Anyone recommend any good sites they use?

bugslett

MallyGirl wrote: »

I already have a Physicsy degree but would like to carry on learning something - give the grey cells some exercise along with the body. I am going to start with the piano (taking DD's slot when she goes to uni) but I've thought about French too as I always liked it at school. I'd like to find a mahjong group too as we only play a very simplified version that we learned when I was a child - I don't think I have the concentration span to learn Bridge

Another gardener here and I'd like to learn more about design, happy for it to be the basics. Learning to play the harp is on the list as well.

I really need to work out if I am staying in a house or going for a live aboard narrowboat. Will a harp fit in a boat!

shinytop

Anyone recommend any good sites they use?

Mrs S uses travelzoo and we've had a couple of good trips from them. I think you have to subscribe and get sent stuff, which could be a bit annoying. I just use skyscanner for flights and tripadvisor, booking.com or similar for hotels. I'm also a big fan/user of Airbnb.

JoeEngland

I'm planning to retire from FT work when I turn 53 this year, give or take a few months, but may try to find some PT work for a while. Besides getting more sleep I plan to spend time on my writing hobby, do more reading, go for walks, potter around the garden a bit, do some new recreational activities, maybe do some volunteering, and maybe try to learn a new skill. Fortunately we have a fair sized holiday fund so will be able to do one long haul holiday a year for 10 years, after which some of the pension pots will give us more money for holidays if we don't we need them as contingency for living funds.

Our holidays are mainly the beach and relaxation type with a bit of sightseeing, but would like to do something different like Namibia and Iceland before we run out of money (or health!).

IvanOpinion

Great idea for a thread (brought me out of board retirement)

I looked at retiring a couple of years ago but didn't quite feel I was ready to be put out to pasture. Also, while we would have had a comfortable retirement, the funds would not have been enough to give me the retirement lifestyle I really wanted i.e. travel the world.

I love my job and the people I work with, so I had a word with my boss and simply asked for a few more days leave each year - I was surprised when it was granted with no strings attached (i.e. I did not even have to sacrifice part of my salary). So I feel I have the best of both worlds. I am still earning very good money in a job I love and now have enough annual leave to take a two week holiday every 3 months (plus a few spare days for things like hospital appointments etc.)

At this point of time I am planning for retirement in another 3 years (age 60) - but who knows what will happen between now and then.