When Will or Did you Retire?

[JtB]

My mum knows of several people who moved to Spain in the 80's and 90's and came back after a few years to the area they'd always lived. I guess if it's in you, then it's in you.

I quite fancy better weather when I retire, but given my disslike for package holidays I can think of nothing more horrendous than retiring to a British expat community. Maybe a better approach is to learn how to make the most of the weather at home using the greater flexibility in time management that retirement brings.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I quite fancy better weather when I retire, but given my disslike for package holidays I can think of nothing more horrendous than retiring to a British expat community. Maybe a better approach is to learn how to make the most of the weather at home using the greater flexibility in time management that retirement brings.

We have a friend with v.nice villa in Cyprus and she and my best mate retired there about 12 years ago (he sadly died shortly after ). Maybe because she is on her own (she has friends out there but that's not the same as a partner) she desperately wants to come back. Sadly she cannot as with property prices in Bromley (where they originally lived) having gone stratospheric and with Cyprus having latterly gone the other way it was a one way choice.

She absolutely craves 'low' cloudy skies (!), proper British pubs and shopping in Sainsbury's/M&S.

In retrospect she wouldn't do it again.

 

[PaulB]

I took a career break in my early 50s from May 2012 as I'd always wanted to do all the Munros while still fit and capable of doing them. I bought a run around estate car as a 'mobile home' while I travelled the Highlands and was unbelievably lucky with the weather for about 12 weeks so I got them done far quicker than I'd ever imagined. The thing I discovered though was during that time I realised how much I actually missed the discipline and routine of work so since I went back into employment, the thoughts of retirement fill me with dread!

One former colleague who had retired said I'd become a window-starer if I went too soon and never went back and that's what I started to feel like. You think there's tons of fun stuff to do but if the weather's bad, you've done all the things on your to-do list, what then? You look out of the window wondering what you can do to fill the day! Apart from my running group two mornings a week, a Thursday bike ride with a local club and my voluntary reading newspapers for the blind, I felt lonely and without colleagues five days a week so got back on the hamster-wheel of employment. And despite the demands, I'm glad of it too. As the kids have left home and we paid off the mortgage years ago and my wife loves her position as senior nurse manager, it's not for the money, despite the luxuries it brings. It's purely for the structure and the discipline of the job.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I took a career break in my early 50s from May 2012 as I'd always wanted to do all the Munros while still fit and capable of doing them. I bought a run around estate car as a 'mobile home' while I travelled the Highlands and was unbelievably lucky with the weather for about 12 weeks so I got them done far quicker than I'd ever imagined. The thing I discovered though was during that time I realised how much I actually missed the discipline and routine of work so since I went back into employment, the thoughts of retirement fill me with dread!

One former colleague who had retired said I'd become a window-starer if I went too soon and never went back and that's what I started to feel like. You think there's tons of fun stuff to do but if the weather's bad, you've done all the things on your to-do list, what then? You look out of the window wondering what you can do to fill the day! Apart from my running group two mornings a week, a Thursday bike ride with a local club and my voluntary reading newspapers for the blind, I felt lonely and without colleagues five days a week so got back on the hamster-wheel of employment. And despite the demands, I'm glad of it too. As the kids have left home and we paid off the mortgage years ago and my wife loves her position as senior nurse manager, it's not for the money, despite the luxuries it brings. It's purely for the structure and the discipline of the job.

Second para' describes my wife & I to a tee and you've put it very well. When we quit in 2004 we re-emerged (in powered down form) a year later as we had had enough. Maybe we went too young (48 me & 41 Lovely Wife) - who knows. The nice thing is, like you, the money is neither here nor there (apart from more for the kids one day) and because you don't have to work it no longer feels like work at all. It just becomes something you enjoy doing.

 

[gavroche]

[QUOTE 4032810, member: 43827"]I did think of buying an apartment in Italy and spending a lot of time there in retirement, but luckily my wife is not a great fan of wall-to-wall sunshine and talked me out of it.

With hindsight I much prefer our current choice of several British/European holidays a year in different locations than going to the same place all the time. We've deliberately gone to loads of UK locations over the past few years as there are many great places that we never really knew when I worked (and it's easy to put the bike in the back of the car).[/QUOTE]
We had a holiday home in France once and we enjoyed using it but in the end, we realised that it did cost a lot of money just for the privilege and we felt compelled to go only there. So we sold it, paid off the mortgage over here and now go to different parts of Europe either for short trips or longer holidays . No regrets.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I'm hoping to go early in about 3 or 4 years time, which will be a long way off full pension. Like someone else earlier on, I've tried to work out how much I'll get, and try to live on that and save the surplus for the time being so I can see how it pans out and build up a nest egg.

I'm not living like a miser, and I do dip into the savings if I need to, but so far it's looking promising. I need my employer's permission to go early, so I've got to time being dispensable to a tee, as there's redundancies in the offing.

I've never really grasped why idleness is seen as a bad thing. I do my work and help others do theirs, but I'd much prefer to be busy doing nothing, as the song says. There's a pile of books that won't read themselves, and a bundle of hobbies to practice and clocks to smash.

 

[perplexed]

I look forward very much to not having to get up at 0415, or get in from work at 0330, or 0500. I look forward to not working so that I can jettison the not-seeing-my-wife-for-a-week runs of appalling shifts.

I miss out on so much time with family whilst working for an utterly ungrateful employer. The money may be ok, but it will not compensate for my inevitable early ill health problems if I stick around too long. I'm on the cusp (next couple of years) of being able to do something about it at around age 50 ish, and I will.

I cannot understand how people can be bored when they leave work (no offence to those who've proclaimed such a sentiment!). I've got a massive list of books to read, walks to do, things to photograph, places to go, projects in mind, courses to do (including a degree) and that's just scratching the surface.

I wouldn't mind going back back to work, in some easier-going capacity, but back to my massively pressurised, stress inducing job with appalling hours? Not a chance.

 

[screenman]

I do not know how people stick at jobs they hate, or why.

 

[FrankCrank]

I look forward very much to not having to get up at 0415, or get in from work at 0330, or 0500. I look forward to not working so that I can jettison the not-seeing-my-wife-for-a-week runs of appalling shifts.

I miss out on so much time with family whilst working for an utterly ungrateful employer. The money may be ok, but it will not compensate for my inevitable early ill health problems if I stick around too long. I'm on the cusp (next couple of years) of being able to do something about it at around age 50 ish, and I will.

I cannot understand how people can be bored when they leave work (no offence to those who've proclaimed such a sentiment!). I've got a massive list of books to read, walks to do, things to photograph, places to go, projects in mind, courses to do (including a degree) and that's just scratching the surface.

I wouldn't mind going back back to work, in some easier-going capacity, but back to my massively pressurised, stress inducing job with appalling hours? Not a chance.

...like you, I simply don't have enough hours in a day to do all the stuff I wanna do. I think a lot of people become 'institutionalized' for want of a better word. Fear of the unknown after many years of regular employment can make you think that working for an employer is the only way to fill your day, and this is quite sad really. My longest stint in the UK was 14 years, working in an office in west London. I could see myself growing old in the rear view mirror, driving up and down the M4 everyday, really felt like I was in the rat-race.

I think the other great fear is having enough money to retire, and sure, the UK is an expensive country to live and retire in. Not so in other countries, and certainly not in the part of the world I live. Cost of living here is a small fraction of UK, so you really don't need a huge amount to retire on, and I certainly don't plan on being the richest guy in the graveyard
As always YMMV, and everyone's circumstances are different. Hope many others can dig an escape tunnel, it's really nothing to be afraid of........

 

[screenman]

I have a load of dents booked in to fix today and I am looking forward to getting stuck in. Work is great if you enjoy it.

 

[andytheflyer]

I wonder if working today for some sectors is harder than it used to be, and why some sectors seem to burn out before the retirement age. Clearly, not the case for the mining industry, and maybe construction (although mechanisation has made that easier I suggest).

I'm thinking that the pace has picked up enormously and that has lead to some people in certain sectors literally running out of energy. My dad retired (as a civil engineer) at 62, but only because the opportunity was there - not because he was stressed out, or worked out. Me, however, after 40 years of traveling in a world-wide engineering consultancy, working away, increasingly stupid project deadlines driven by accountants, OTT HnS, procedures, brain-dead young entrants into the profession who can't think for themselves without having a procedure to hand, politicking, and project budgets squeezed to the point that you simply cannot do the job properly, I just find I've no longer got what it takes. I just do not have the energy any more.

Do others find that, or is it just me?

 

[Venod]

I do not know how people stick at jobs they hate, or why

I fully understand that statement and having a job you like is a massive plus, unfortunaetley for a lot of people (me included working was/is a necessity) sticking at a job you hate is the only option to get by in life. I have done various Jobs mainly for the same employer the ones that payed the best were the worst but without them I would not have been in a position to pack in when I did and no offence to the people who find not working boring, but I have never regretted packing in, there is always something to do if you make it happen.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I'm 39, by the time I'm nearing retirement age I doubt anyone will be able to stop working. No assets, no private pension, state pension non existent.

Fortunately many years ago I decided not to put off living the bulk of my life until I retire. I have the working flexibility to go out on my bike whenever the hell I want and I get to spend tons of time with family, certainly more than my own (brilliant) dad did.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I wonder if working today for some sectors is harder than it used to be, and why some sectors seem to burn out before the retirement age. Clearly, not the case for the mining industry, and maybe construction (although mechanisation has made that easier I suggest).

I'm thinking that the pace has picked up enormously and that has lead to some people in certain sectors literally running out of energy. My dad retired (as a civil engineer) at 62, but only because the opportunity was there - not because he was stressed out, or worked out. Me, however, after 40 years of traveling in a world-wide engineering consultancy, working away, increasingly stupid project deadlines driven by accountants, OTT HnS, procedures, brain-dead young entrants into the profession who can't think for themselves without having a procedure to hand, politicking, and project budgets squeezed to the point that you simply cannot do the job properly, I just find I've no longer got what it takes. I just do not have the energy any more.

Do others find that, or is it just me?

From experience, construction has physical and mental challenges that tend to result in a physical outcome, so there is a visible reward for the effort. The work needs completing to degrees of tolerance.

Some other fields involve mainly headwork, with no real tangible outcome, and the work is done to degrees of uncertainty. Often, the work is part of other schemes, so the effort melds in to the overall concept.

I think the lack of perceived outcome is a factor in the ability to draw satisfaction from the effort. If it's visible, it tends to need no explanation, so job satisfaction is easier to gain and take to the next job, whereas the mainly mental effort often just seems to drift on.

 

[Dayvo]

Hopefully I'll be healthy and able enough to work 6-7 months a year and be free for 5-6 months a year until I'm 67 (in 12 years time) and then see what happens.

I enjoy my job and am good at it (cutting grass ), I get reasonably well paid - helped by a good disposable income), I'm outdoors and active, and never get stressed.

If I had the means to retire now, I probably would, but as it is I'm happy to carry on as I am.