The beauty of nearing retirement is...

LV_426

You can laugh at all the recruitment agents approaching you offering a "fantastic role with excellent promotion prospects" 

savingmore

time, freedom, choice, gardening, hobbies, travel, friendships, family......

Stubod

..you manage your own time...(or at least the OH does..:)   )

zagfles

And if you're employed in a big company you can ignore all the corporate bull, toadying and bandwagon wokeness that goes on. Or you can have fun with it. Get to set your own hours and pay (to some extent) if they need you. 

Diplodicus

What about the structure your working pattern injects in your week?

What about the office interactions, the office flirtations (going off the rails, just the possibility, making your stable life more intense in the mirror)?

What about a sense of personal utility? I don't get that a good pension funds a sense of entitlement to a comfortable life for the next 30 years. 

What about growing rather than dissipating your fortune? Do you think Alan Sugar or Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet are in the "decumulation phase."?

It is better to chuse than be chosen and it is better to be an agent rather than an observer:

"San Fransisco? Great, go to Fisherman's Wharf" - was advice from a newly retired couple. Do you envy them? You should not. Retired are beholden to their children and citizens of nowhere. The sense of displacement was palpable.

barnstar2077

Diplodicus said:

What about the structure your working pattern injects in your week?

What about the office interactions, the office flirtations (going off the rails, just the possibility, making your stable life more intense in the mirror)?

What about a sense of personal utility? I don't get that a good pension funds a sense of entitlement to a comfortable life for the next 30 years. 

What about growing rather than dissipating your fortune? Do you think Alan Sugar or Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet are in the "decumulation phase."?

It is better to chuse than be chosen and it is better to be an agent rather than an observer:

"San Fransisco? Great, go to Fisherman's Wharf" - was advice from a newly retired couple. Do you envy them? You should not. Retired are beholden to their children and citizens of nowhere. The sense of displacement was palpable.

So, not retiring early then? : ) 

LV_426

barnstar2077 said:

So, not retiring early then? : ) 

I guess not

LV_426

Diplodicus said:

What about the structure your working pattern injects in your week?

What about the office interactions, the office flirtations (going off the rails, just the possibility, making your stable life more intense in the mirror)?

What about a sense of personal utility? I don't get that a good pension funds a sense of entitlement to a comfortable life for the next 30 years. 

What about growing rather than dissipating your fortune? Do you think Alan Sugar or Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet are in the "decumulation phase."?

It is better to chuse than be chosen and it is better to be an agent rather than an observer:

"San Fransisco? Great, go to Fisherman's Wharf" - was advice from a newly retired couple. Do you envy them? You should not. Retired are beholden to their children and citizens of nowhere. The sense of displacement was palpable.

Wow seriously? You read all that into my post?

But I disagree with virtually every paragraph you wrote.

To start with, I have many interests that'll keep me occupied thanks. My daily fitness routine alone can take up to two hours, depending on how far I cycle.

Office interactions? Hmm spending 8 hours in a place I don't want to be, talking to people who have their own selfish agendas. No thanks.

Personal utility? What does that even mean? And a good pension certainly does afford an entitlement to a comfortable life in retirement. I've worked for 35 years and I think I've earned it.

I'm not intending to travel. Never been my thing. I've found my perfect house, in a perfect location. I'm happy where I am.

LV_426

Oh yeah, and I choose to bequeath my left over wealth to my kids or their kids. I want to give them some financial breaks that I had, and they'll never have. So they can have my surplus money, probably even before I've left this Earth.

hugheskevi

Diplodicus said:

What about the structure your working pattern injects in your week?

I don't think you need work to have structure. Personally I plan to probably engage in some voluntary work, and also have a regular fitness regime, which may well start with a regular early morning cycle or run.

What about the office interactions, the office flirtations (going off the rails, just the possibility, making your stable life more intense in the mirror)?

I look forward to spending a lot more time around people I have genuine shared interests with, rather than people who happen to do a similar job to me. Things like volunteering to work at an osprey centre. 

What about a sense of personal utility? I don't get that a good pension funds a sense of entitlement to a comfortable life for the next 30 years. 

I get far more utility from my non-work goals. When I list all the individual things which I am most proud of having achieved, not a single one is work related. The things that give me most satisfaction are also not work-related - I find simple stuff like leading a running group and getting the pacing spot on very rewarding. Far more so than pushing some words around on a Word doc or moving numbers around a spreadsheet.

What about growing rather than dissipating your fortune? Do you think Alan Sugar or Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet are in the "decumulation phase."?

I wonder how many millions any individual really needs and how many they can put to good effect. It is astonishing just how many celebrities and very wealthy suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. Money doesn't buy happiness, although not having enough can certainly cause misery.

My best memories come from spending a couple of years travelling across remote regions, spending most nights in a tent. I particularly recall the last day my paid leave ran out before moving to unpaid leave on one trip - I woke up in the Sahara next to a huge sand dune. Nothing for hundreds of miles to spend anything on.

The meal I recall most fondly was not the private dining clubs of London, but a simple beef stew with ugali in northern Kenya, after 6 weeks in Ethiopia eating injera for almost every meal (injera is great food, but not for every meal!).

 "San Fransisco? Great, go to Fisherman's Wharf" - was advice from a newly retired couple. Do you envy them? You should not. Retired are beholden to their children and citizens of nowhere. The sense of displacement was palpable.

I very much look forward to being a citizen of nowhere, as I return to spending life on the road for a year or two or three, travelling with only what my wife and I can carry, plenty of money in the bank to avoid any money concerns and a travel plan consisting of 'south-ish'

Retirement is whatever you make it, whilst perfection will vary widely across individuals, it is only a very small lucky few who can honestly answer that the best thing they can think of doing in the world is what they will be doing on Monday at 9am.

MalMonroe

ajfielden said:

You can laugh at all the recruitment agents approaching you offering a "fantastic role with excellent promotion prospects" 

Is that Tommy Lee Jones? It looks so much like him.

Retirement, in a word : FREEDOM!

I love it. I've been retired for a few years now and once I ran from my last job, never looked back. Have not missed it. Never, not once. Now I'm about to launch my own online business - crazy? Maybe but I do want to travel (again) and move house too so I must earn some cash. (My pension's rubbish) (My prospective boss is fab though, knows me inside out. And I don't even have to leave the house.)