The beauty of nearing retirement is...

Bravepants

Diplodicus said:

MalMonroe said:

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.

 - 'life is a carnival, live it for all you're worth, you are the star of the greatest show on earth'. Couldn't have put it better myself.

So people enter retirement thinking this their time to shine? 

Great. How are you planning to leave your mark?

A mark that will be forgotten about in 10, 20, 30, 100, or 1000 years? When you've had your one life and the universe eventually degrades to nothing but photons, where will our mark be then?

EdSwippet

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

LV_426

EdSwippet said:

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

My work is all sedentary and screen based too. But my problem is that I can't just do the stuff I'm interested in. I have to work on projects the company puts me on. I'd like to pursue projects that interest me, not the ones that generate ££££ for the company.

cfw1994

triplea35 said:
I was first pensioned off/retired in my early 50's and to be quite honest after the initial honeymoon period was quite frankly bored and not to looking forward to the future.  We could have managed financially by decumulating but instead chose to retrain and take on a new line of self employed work. As with my previous role I feel I am giving service to the community, enjoy it immensely and get a great deal of personal satisfaction from it. 

I am now approaching SP age next year and although I always planned to retire then, I am considering continuing  albeit with much reduced hours.
Reading many of these similar post the underlying reason for retirement seems that the posters no longer enjoy their current role. Consider something else! 

I have one pal who got bored after 6 months....went back to work, & within 9 months was retired again!

But I do agree with you on considering something else.  

Part of the 'challenge' is that we spend our lives shaping a career....& it can sometimes be hard to see past that for 'alternative working options'. 
Right now, I don't want ANY particular calls on my time to be making demands on me.   My volunteering activities are flexible enough to not need attention on specific times/days.
Will spend some time helping our offspring with their next moves....all things we can do very easily without any demands on time.
I would like to take 12 months to 'decompress': maybe follow Ed's thinking:

EdSwippet said:

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

MAYBE after some time I will decide to do something else.

We are fortunate to own a holiday cottage on the IOW, & time will give us the ability to spend more of it on 'jobs' down there. 
Which happily lines up with many possibilities for much walking, cycling, perhaps sea swimming.   
Or indeed crafting: today's task was printing & laminating some sparrowhawks, attaching silvery streamers to their wings/tails, & attaching to our soffit board to discourage pesky pigeons from our sunroom roof: oh yes, I know how to live 🤪

sheslookinhot

cfw1994 said:

triplea35 said:
I was first pensioned off/retired in my early 50's and to be quite honest after the initial honeymoon period was quite frankly bored and not to looking forward to the future.  We could have managed financially by decumulating but instead chose to retrain and take on a new line of self employed work. As with my previous role I feel I am giving service to the community, enjoy it immensely and get a great deal of personal satisfaction from it. 

I am now approaching SP age next year and although I always planned to retire then, I am considering continuing  albeit with much reduced hours.
Reading many of these similar post the underlying reason for retirement seems that the posters no longer enjoy their current role. Consider something else! 

I have one pal who got bored after 6 months....went back to work, & within 9 months was retired again!

But I do agree with you on considering something else.  

Part of the 'challenge' is that we spend our lives shaping a career....& it can sometimes be hard to see past that for 'alternative working options'. 
Right now, I don't want ANY particular calls on my time to be making demands on me.   My volunteering activities are flexible enough to not need attention on specific times/days.
Will spend some time helping our offspring with their next moves....all things we can do very easily without any demands on time.
I would like to take 12 months to 'decompress': maybe follow Ed's thinking:

EdSwippet said:

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

MAYBE after some time I will decide to do something else.

We are fortunate to own a holiday cottage on the IOW, & time will give us the ability to spend more of it on 'jobs' down there. 
Which happily lines up with many possibilities for much walking, cycling, perhaps sea swimming.   
Or indeed crafting: today's task was printing & laminating some sparrowhawks, attaching silvery streamers to their wings/tails, & attaching to our soffit board to discourage pesky pigeons from our sunroom roof: oh yes, I know how to live 🤪

A house close to my DL gym has 2 dummy owls on the roof, trying to dissuade other birds. Last week there was a crowd of pigeons perching between them, LOL.

I’ve enjoyed my working life, great jobs, some promotions and seen a fair few bits of the world I would not otherwise have seen.

I’m looking forward to retirement in less than a year and will honestly not look back much, unless to help my kids in their career.

I am who I am, work has never defined me and I can live without the structure work brings. I will have lots to do but don’t need a structure to live my life. 45 years of work will finish, what remains of my time on this earth will be for me, DW and those close to enjoy.

bostonerimus

EdSwippet said:

bostonerimus said:

The best sort of retirement is one that isn't that different from when you were working. Work is important as that's how most of us initially get our income and hopefully it's fulfilling, but we should have other things in our lives so that when work stops we don't have to make major adjustments.

For some maybe, but personally I'd disagree.

My work life was indoors, technical, sedentary, and screen-based. I intentionally designed my post-work life to be outdoors (at least to the degree allowed by the fickle UK climate), non-technical, active, and real-world. A full 180 degrees. I travel as much possible, and spend my non-travel time at the gym, walking, cycling, gardening, learning new things: languages, drawing and painting, meditation, psychology, physiology, ...

All completely and entirely unconnected with my pre-retirement lifestyle. Consciously designed to be open-ended -- you can never be too fit, too good at drawing, too fluent in a language, or run out of new things to learn. It's been an eye-opening change, and I'm really happy with the results. Fitter, healthier, and more balanced than ever before. I don't want to do anything similar to what I did for a job.

My point was that your work should not dominate your life so that the transition between working life and retirement is not major. I would say that it's a pity that you didn't do the things you seem to be enjoying in retirement while you were still working.

gundo

Diplodicus said:

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

It's OK I'm adult, I don't need someone to tell me how to use my time

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

Office politics, overpriced unhealthy sandwiches at lunch time, gossip, male dominated Neanderthal "banter", wearing business casual, who's got the nicest computer/laptop, inflated egos etc

I won't miss any of that and WFH at the moment the absence of most of the above is great.

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've been working for nearly 4 decades and it's rarely if ever given me a sense of utility. I've always felt like a powerless cog in a huge bureaucracy. 

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 don't feel the need for more material possessions, what I have so far is sufficient i.e. a roof over my head that's paid for, reasonable health, a modest car that's also paid for 

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

I choose to opt out of the rat race

"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 have travelled a lot in my life and in fact I was originally born and still have half my family some 8000 miles away. Travel has taught me that life isn't that much different elsewhere and I consider myself fortunate to live where I do, where for example the police treat the public like human beings and government corruption is at low levels.

Not all retirees are beholden to their children, I have no children or dependants and in fact no one to leave anything to so I can enjoy what I've accumulated in my life without feeling I'm depriving my non-existent off-spring. I never expected help from my own parents, though regardless they did help me a great deal but I never felt any entitlement to the fruits of their hard labour. I would have been happy to see my parents live longer and spend their savings on lavish holidays but sadly they both died at 80 and had very modest retirement lifestyles (my own mother stopped work at some 2 years younger than I am currently and lived a further quarter century).

I intend to stop work while I still have the health to enjoy it. I watched my father develop Alzheimers less than a decade after he stopped work at 67 and die a few years later. I don't intend to repeat this example myself. 

Each to their own, but personally I can't wait to retire.

Brie

I am so not looking forward to retirement, being expected to do things around the house, not having the interaction with young and often silly people who dress in such weird ways (they do make me laugh & they laugh back at me as well), not having the enticement of where to go for lunch because I've been working so hard - yes I can splurge £4 on a chicken avocado lemon mayo with spinach leaves wrap made to order from the local sandwich shop!  Oh lordy!  And how can I put up with sharing a car with the other half complaining that I've adjusted the seats or the air con!!!

and yet....

I might miss the sense of daily personal achievement but I won't miss those thorns who skive and twist things to get their own way and go off for 3 weeks every time they get a sniffle or stub their toe.  

Prepping for 1 - 1 meetings?  Ah, no thanks.

Having to adjust to a new manager every 3 months?  Ah....no.

Being pushed into doing citizenship work, personal progression planning, self promotion, and actively show how I'm achieving the new work mindset?  

Having to read one more blinking email from yet another clueless twonk of a MD who chitters on about the delights of WFH in his new garden office?   Well everyone must be absolutely loving the lockdown, dontcha think???  Seriously?  In what world do you think most the staff live????  

Oh I could rant for hours.......

LV_426

Brie said:

I am so not looking forward to retirement, being expected to do things around the house, not having the interaction with young and often silly people who dress in such weird ways (they do make me laugh & they laugh back at me as well), not having the enticement of where to go for lunch because I've been working so hard - yes I can splurge £4 on a chicken avocado lemon mayo with spinach leaves wrap made to order from the local sandwich shop!  Oh lordy!  And how can I put up with sharing a car with the other half complaining that I've adjusted the seats or the air con!!!

and yet....

I might miss the sense of daily personal achievement but I won't miss those thorns who skive and twist things to get their own way and go off for 3 weeks every time they get a sniffle or stub their toe.  

Prepping for 1 - 1 meetings?  Ah, no thanks.

Having to adjust to a new manager every 3 months?  Ah....no.

Being pushed into doing citizenship work, personal progression planning, self promotion, and actively show how I'm achieving the new work mindset?  

Having to read one more blinking email from yet another clueless twonk of a MD who chitters on about the delights of WFH in his new garden office?   Well everyone must be absolutely loving the lockdown, dontcha think???  Seriously?  In what world do you think most the staff live????  

Oh I could rant for hours.......

Rant on!
There was a time when I would have said I'd be working on forever.
Not now. A combination of things has made me think it can't come soon enough. 

Brie

ajfielden said:

Brie said:

Oh I could rant for hours.......

Rant on!
There was a time when I would have said I'd be working on forever.
Not now. A combination of things has made me think it can't come soon enough. 

Being woke.  No.

Yes I will try to be awake.  And it's in my nature to be open and curious about others and I was brung up to be polite so no trouble there.  But woke?  No.