Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

I am quite surprised that l and maybe caricature, seem to be the only ones who dislike retirement.

I’m sure your brain dies a little when you retire or perhaps just slows down!!
I have joined lots of groups and keep my brain active with doing crosswords, going to quizzes and anything else that challenges my brain and keeps it alert.

I feel, once you allow your brain to slow down, you’re done....finito!

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

Yes, the old adage "use it or lose it" seems to apply to many things in retirement. Although I often wonder what I am going to use all this newly-found knowledge for at an age well past retirement age? Another aspect of this though is that the brain and mind control everything mentally and physically, perhaps that alone is good enough reason to keep mentally alert for as long as possible.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

I took early retirement from teaching in 2003 and have never regretted it. I took off my watch on the day I retired and have never worn one since - fed up with being ruled by timetables I suppose!
I can always find plenty to keep me occupied - I volunteer at a NT property as a room guide once a week and that is extremely enjoyable, a bit like teaching without the books to mark! (Though at the moment the property is closed for obvious reasons) I enjoy walking too but since I lost my little dog in January have found it hard to motivate myself to walk alone. I'm in two minds at the moment as to whether to get another dog due to my age.
I enjoy gardening and have created my first veggie plot this year. Now I am thinking I might take up dressmaking again after watching Sewing Bee on TV - something I used to do years ago!
There are so many possibilities when your days are your own.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

If that is what's stopping you then there are many folk who cannot, for various reasons, walk their dogs enough. You could have the opportunity to regularly walk one or more dogs which would save you being bothered about walking alone or getting another dog yourself due to your age. Added to that you would perhaps find people you would never have met and help them out with something they may be struggling with.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

I retired at 62, six years ago. Whilst I loved my job, I wanted to spend some quality time with my wee granddaughter before shestarted school. She is now at school and whilst I didn't regret giving up work at the time, I now find that I am missing it dreadfully.

I do voluntary work a couple of days a week but miss the buzz, the meeting of deadlines, the company and "that Friday feeling".

Many people who retire say they don't know how they found time to work, but I'm not one of them.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

My whole life revolves around my family, and being able to spend more time with them since retiring is absolutely fandabidozy.

I had a fantastic and well paid career that I loved, testing jet engines or parts thereof, and my job put food on my table and kept a roof over my head from the age of eighteen to sixty two.

The place where I worked ran on a fuel of insults and banter and I do miss that especially as I've know some of the people there longer than I've known my Lovely Cousin.
Pre-lockdown I would try and meet up with friends and former colleagues a few times a month to receive a top up of abuse, but this has now been replaced by a weekly zoom meeting where we all drink beer and keep up the tradition of exchanging the obligatory insults.

I was lucky enough to leave on a full company pension, and now I am at last in receipt of the state pension as well.

My Lovely Cousin was a stay at home mum and chose not to go back to work after our kids left home.

Between us we have many hobbies and interests, but spending time with friends and family is at the top of the list. This is obviously difficult at the moment but we keep in touch with everyone.

When I retired after forty two years of continuous employment, I walked out to my car, drove off into the sunset, and never looked back.
That part of my life is over. It got me where I am today and the only way now is forward.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

my husband and I are really looking forward to retirement and talk about it all the time.

I actually quite like my job but I'd still prefer to retire because I never seem to have enough hours in a day. If I could choose my own hours at work I might even not retire but I hate the robotic, groundhog day feeling every day.

My husband really wants to retire because he's fed up of the stress of work and he's so tired (he's diabetic)

Then I get to thinking, oh heck I'm wishing my time away and I should be grateful that I'm well enough to even go to work, some would kill to be in my position.

Saying all that, yes I'd really love to retire and do things when I please, if I please.

My husband always says he could be dead by time we get round to retiring so we should do it now but I'm not sure we'd want to have to pull in the purse strings as we only have two small pensions so could we even survive, I suppose we would as I think you live to your means but I love to spend soooooo............hmmmmmmmm do I want to retire? I'm confusing myself

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

I really was frightened of retirement I was worried about living on just a state pension and I was worried I'd be lonely, then I worried I would miss work so I decided to just give 3 months notice and I did it .

I loved it . My pension goes in weekly each Monday. I love my own company and I dont miss work . I hear the people going off to work during the day and I smile to myself and say now what shall I do today .

Wish I had retired younger I worked till I was 64 foolish me

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

It is possible to continue working, part-time if you wish and your employer is OK with this, and claim State Pension. I only mention this as that's what I did and in fact semi-retired at 60.

https://www.gov.uk/working-retirement-pension-age

I felt like you say your husband does, tired and stressed. All I had done, or that's how it felt at times, was to work. My offspring had been taken off by their mother many years previously, they lived a 50 mile round trip away. My parents had moved to the coast so that was a 250 mile round trip. All I seemed to have done was work, another 50 mile round trip each day and drive here, there and everywhere to work and to keep in touch with children and parents.

On semi-retirement I realised that suited me OK for a while. Then five years' later I decided enough was enough, a heart attack two years' after semi-retiring was the final decider, so retired fully.

Nowadays, twelve years on from that, I am enjoying all that I had been unable to due to commitments and work. My family cannot understand why I am quite happy to enjoy my home and freedom. They seem to believe I should be out doing this, that and everything else. As I say to them, it's unique for me to enjoy what I worked all those years for, plus I also need a well-earned rest!

On the financial side, it's surprising what you can manage on, there are savings from not having to travel to work and other areas where it's possible to manage alright. Try sitting down with all the figures of your outgoings and see where you could save, then imagine yourself semi-retired and what you could do with that time. If it didn't suit you then you could possibly return to full-time work.

Your husband says about being dead before you get round to retiring, with my experience of a heart attack that brought exactly that home to me and in a big way. We only come this way but once and we really should be working to live and not living to work. That's my theory anyway and something the Australians appear to have sorted, they have a far better work / life balance than we have here in the UK.

Re: Retirement – good or not so good?

Like said, I still work. Power electronics is my field.