I took retirement a tad early, at age 59. Since I always wanted to travel the world, I sold my house and all of my possessions and, emptied my bank accounts and set out on my travels. Spent several years in southeast Asia, including: The Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand. Itchy feet soon overtook me and I decided that I needed to do a serous tour of Egypt, a life-long dream. From Egypt onward to Costa Rica, and Mexico.

Having circumnavigated the globe, my plan was to live the remainder of my life in Italy. However, a heart attack and various other health issues caused me to end my international travels and settle in Mexico but near enough to the U.S. to take advantage of my U.S. health insurance.

I'm glad that I did my most of my traveling while I still had good health. Had I waited any longer, I never would have been able to fulfill my dreams.

I too live in a two bed bungalow, there’s three of us here, and yes, I wish we’d moved years ago, Mrs,p would move tomorrow if she could, but we have a reasonable garden with a lovely summerhouse we can sit in and relax on those lovely summer days and evenings with a nice drink of something cold, I’m not sure of my retirement plans yet, I have just over 5 years before I can claim my state pension, but I could actually go now as I have a not two bad private pension, but I’ll stick it out for at least a couple more years, even if I leave this job I’d try and find something else, part time maybe, minx, your retirement sounds idyllic and we’ve thought about buying a motor home and travelling the uk, but I think we’d tire of that quite quickly...

It’s great that you intend to keep going as long as you can. It all adds up for a comfortable retirement. It’s just an option that I’m seriously considering at this stage .

I too live in a two bed bungalow, there’s three of us here, and yes, I wish we’d moved years ago, Mrs,p would move tomorrow if she could, but we have a reasonable garden with a lovely summerhouse we can sit in and relax on those lovely summer days and evenings with a nice drink of something cold, I’m not sure of my retirement plans yet, I have just over 5 years before I can claim my state pension, but I could actually go now as I have a not two bad private pension, but I’ll stick it out for at least a couple more years, even if I leave this job I’d try and find something else, part time maybe, minx, your retirement sounds idyllic and we’ve thought about buying a motor home and travelling the uk, but I think we’d tire of that quite quickly...

Will l downsize? No never! You never go backwards in life as it’s a downward spiral after that.

My parents and in-laws waited too long to renovate or sell their three-story homes so they could live on one level, and I don't want to find myself in the same boat.

We have talked about living aboard a sailboat or in an RV for a couple of years, but as for the brick and mortar places, our main house will be set up so that no matter how many bedrooms there are on other levels, we can fully live on one.

The more navigable the house and the less we have to do to maintain it, the longer we can live in it before our kids pitch us out .

If I could drive, then I would certainly get a van and drive around, parking up wherever we wanted. Mr P could work freelance (if he chose to) and I'm sure I could get something online too. Or a houseboat..that would be good also. But we don't drive, and I think we would (or I would, to be blunt) get fed up with it after a while. I like having a proper roof over my head. So maybe a few years, then that would do us.

We finalised our retirement objectives in 1990 but had decided what we wanted to do in the late 1980's because I decided to retire in 2000 and so made career changes to enable me to do so. The move from Epping to Suffolk was straightforward once we'd found where we now live, but the bridging loan ---- don't ask!

To get a Bungalow for when the stairs get too much!