Retirement Regrets

Phossy

Top 5 regrets from those that have retired already (from a Canadian site). Seems a fair summary to me and I like the Phrase 'retire into something, not retire from something'

https://youtu.be/uvm_1wXzeR0?si=w1mpGuMB-zWlNBHi

enthusiasticsaver

I don't have any regrets and retired at 58 and am now 64. Hopefully my answer will be the same in 20-30 years time. 

cfw1994

I used that phrase a lot myself - absolutely critical that you should retire TO something, not FROM something….you have to have a (rough) plan for how you intend to spend your time after almost a lifetime of work 🤷‍♂️

3 years ago….many festivals, a 2 month interrail epic journey, a few cycling adventures (a mostly solo LEJoG, Iron-2-Iron, overnight camping fun with a pal), skiing shenanigans, plus a chunk of random time spent helping run County DofE for a spot of good-feel volunteering….
…...never regretted a minute 😎

Spent some time today checking finances to see we can continue this crazy enjoyable experience: seems we can 🎉🍻👍

eastcorkram

Good video. 
Into something is what I need to think about, because even though I'm thinking of finishing this year, at the moment, retirement is just completely void of anything. 

powerspowers

A friend put off retiring during covid as she didn’t know what to do with herself once retired. She finally retired late last year and died suddenly a few weeks ago. 

I 100% agree with point 2 

GibbsRule_No3.

powerspowers said:

A friend put off retiring during covid as she didn’t know what to do with herself once retired. She finally retired late last year and died suddenly a few weeks ago. 

I 100% agree with point 2 

I am approaching 70 and still do two days a week at the same job I’ve been doing for 53 years, so tell people I have already retired, as it is not a hardship doing those two days. I have also told people that when I do finally stop if I die shortly after that people are not to say “she only had a few months, years” because if I do pass away quickly I will have had a good life, with plenty of time and extra money in my pocket to do things I wanted to do. The five days I don’t work are full. It might be due to my being single that I feel like this.

powerspowers

That’s a good point @GibbsRule_No3 and maybe I’m projecting a little. Agree that you don’t have to retire to be living a full life! Which is a good thing as it’s a long way off for me x

Bobinyorkshire

Saw this video before and thought it was very useful. Even when you check and recheck your numbers, in my own opinion the transition to ‘full time retirement’ is so difficult especially if you are in your 50s. Both me and my wife would have combined DB pensions which would cover our ongoing lifestyle and have savings for extras (home repairs, car upgrades, support kids etc), but still not getting that salary at the end of the month and the stimulation and sense of worth I get from work would be difficult to replicate. Have worked part time since I was 50 (soon to be 57) and spend too long procrastinating and too little time being decisive. My problem, but there it is 😳

Nebulous2

I've repeatedly told my story - so wont draw it out it again, but I retired from something, without enough in place to retire to, which meant I very quickly thought I had made a mistake. 

I went back to work, in a less senior position, part-time, and that has been a good compromise. 

The idea of seizing the day - as he describes with travel, is one I'd also whole-heartedly agree with. We've found ourselves, somewhat unexpectedly, with some caring responsibilities, that mean our plans to tour the continent in the winter will probably never happen. 

Life is a series of compromises, and one of the biggest problems many people in this group will have is the one of trading off more time retired against accruing more money. 

Considering the world is full of people, who don't know where their next meal will come from, we have many reasons to be grateful..... 

ProDave

My only regret is I should have retired a year ago.  But it was circumstances beyond my control, I needed to sell our rental property and that took way longer than we hoped.  Until that was sold we had insufficient savings and too much income so I delayed drawing one of my pensions.

I have been self employed and since Covid have been reducing the amount of work I do until this last tax year that we are just finishing I have not earned very much at all.  So bit by bit I have been having less and less work and more free time.  Retiring from self employment is a lot different to retiring from a full time job where one day you just stop going to work.

MetaPhysical

Your remaining time in this mortal coil is your biggest asset, never, ever forget that.  You can be shuffled off of said coil very quickly so whether work or fun, whatever YOU want to do is what matters.