After Retirement

I wonder is there a golden age after retirement before grandchildren arrive while health is still good and energy is still high to do extended travel?

I can imagine I want to spend a lot of time with grandchildren pre school and then during school holidays so won't want to be gone for long stretches then.

Of course that is making lots of assumptions!!!
 
Tintagel said:
We have often thought of doing a Lep and heading off to Spain for a few months...

Cervelo, I am based in Blackrock. I wonder do we ever cross paths in our walks. I would not be a big walker.....are you in a walking club or is it a solo thing?
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Hi Tintagel,

First off, I love that "Doing a Lep" that put a smile on my face this morning as I'm sure it will for Mr Lep

With regards to the walking, no I'm not in a club,
it's just me and my need to be doing something other then sitting on the couch gaming or watching TV
So like this morning, I'll pop the headphones in at 11 and take myself to Rockfield Park and do two laps and back home in an hour
I too wonder about the people I see out walking and because we're usually creatures of habit or at least I am,
I see the same people out so we normally say hello to each other, so yes maybe we have crossed paths somewhere along the way and said hello
But there's only one way we'll find that out.....
 
I’d imagine the best time to travel would between 60-70 assuming you have remained healthy, exercised and in general good health. No fun travelling through airports etc if you are not reasonably fit and well. Same in relation to visiting attractions in cities - I would average over 20k steps walking around cities that I visit per day.
 
I'm going to disagree and say 55-60, if only to encourage myself to retire early.
 
misemoi said:
I can imagine I want to spend a lot of time with grandchildren pre school and then during school holidays so won't want to be gone for long stretches then.
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We have 6 grandchildren. Two of these are in Hong Kong and we have yet to meet up with them. This is the reason for our Hong Kong trip later in the year. It will be a big trip with 8 of us travelling. It will be costly but the taxman will get it if I don't spend it.

Last year we visited Spain, Spain, France, Italy and Slovenia. Just a week or so in each place.

We can walk up to 20k steps the first day, drops to 15k steps the second day and I find that after that we are down to about 10k steps per day.

We both hate airports and planes with a passion. It would be easy to stay at home and not travel but we push ourselves albeit keeping our flights less than 3 hours duration. Hong Kong will be a stressful flight for me. We travelled there in 2018 and chose to travel business class. It was a waste of money really. We didn't really use the business lounge at Dublin Airport. In the Abu Dhabi business lounge we drank water and ate very little. I was amazed at all the other travellers around us wolfing in to the endless free food and knocking back bottles of wine to beat the band. Not for us.

I really only travel business class for the less packed cabin and the ability to lie down on the plane, even though I don't sleep when on a plane.

So, we are looking at maybe premium economy this time.

I find that the only time we seem to eat out in restaurants is when we are away on holidays. We would seldom eat out in a restaurant in Ireland other than the low cost type place such as Milano Pizza and other similar Chinese or Indian options around our locality.

We live frugally enough so have the money to splash on holidays.
 
One curiosity I have is: will I feel like doing then (when I actually retire) what I now fantasise about doing when I'm retired.
Obviously there'll be differences. And obviously, as the years of retirement go on and as I age, what I want to be doing, and am capable of doing, will change.
Right now, here's a rough list:
  • Get up no later than x
  • Bring the dog for a walk every morning
  • Make arrangements to meet friends for coffee, walks, a pint
  • Check in on people maybe not doing so well
  • Arrange swim, cycle, golf, tennis, bowls, whatever x times a week with friends...maybe routine so it actually happens
  • Continue to read
  • Do a little volunteering work
  • Maybe learn to play bridge (maybe)
  • Join a walking/hiking group
  • Start to tick off the short breaks list I have (European cities, UK walking destinations)
  • Spend time with and money on my kids, help them out with whatever
  • Don't turn telly on before y
  • Spend darker months somehwere warmer/sunny
Has anyone retired approached it with a list? And found the list worked or went out the window? I'm very list or action oriented, i think the best chance I have of making retirement fulfilling is having a list. But maybe that's missing the point altogether.
 
My first post on AAM in a thread which has put a smile on my face and helping me focus in what matters.

I’ll be 60 next year. FFS I can’t believe I’m typing that. My wife will be 63. Following the sudden passing of a couple of close friends in the last couple of years alongside a stress/exhaustion related medical leave from work I am as the BBQ set say “done…stick a fork in me”. I see few advantages to continuing in paid employment. The incremental financial benefit doesn’t motivate me. We have been fortunate to contribute to a healthy pension. I think we’ll be ok. On advice from a neighbour we paid an independent consultant to review our situation right after paying off our mortgage last August. This week another big milestone as our youngest moved to London and is flying solo now.

This thread is incredibly important. Although I’m doing the excel models to figure out what our income will be and what lifestyle we can likely afford it’s important that we understand what we want to do when we are the sole determinant of our day.

Travel is a thing we both love. I’m not a fan of winter (my wife says she likes it…..) and hope we will compromise on winter plans. We have already done some practice runs since 2022 by using our holiday time on interrail travel. We love it. I hate airports, airplanes and airlines (ever get the feeling the air travel industry would prefer is there were no actual passengers? We seem to be a massive inconvenience…..). Wife has a fear of flying. We’ve already had three three week adventures through France, Spain and Italy. The dream is to go on an open ended trip.

I’m a musician and have long felt that a day job was a massive annoyance getting in the way of my art (man). One of my sons said his pal commented that I gave up a life in the arts and did a corporate gig so that my kids wouldn’t have to. When asked “but what will you do in retirement” I ask the person if they really know me LOL.

My question to the readers (see? I got there eventually!) how did you adjust to that somewhat unsettling difference in gross income as you moved into this phase of life? Logically I know the numbers state we should be comfortable but having spent decades ensuring as much income as possible to pay for the house and raise three kids the mindset change is quite something to get my head around.
 
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I think we approach our daily life with lists, there's the goal list, things to do list, list of attributes we look for in a person, the shopping list
and of course when you reach retirement age there's the bucket list
I think the main thing to remember is not to be ridged in your lists as your not always going to tick all of the boxes
 
I think the most important thing will be the fledglings leaving the nest and standing on their own two feet. Or I guess flying!!!

To this day if I arrived at my folks I know they would put me up, take care of me and probably pay off a debt if they had to without too many questions. But the expectation was always that we would fund our own lives beyond any emergency needs. And I hope to instill the same for my kids, though I would like to help them if needed for the larger things in life like maybe house deposit or large gift to help them furnish or renovate etc.

So we will work towards that in the coming years, ensure they focus on education, have a good idea of what the working world will be for them and what income they can generate and how to live within their means. A huge part of that will be them deciding where they live. If they want to stay where they grew up or even upgrade the suburb to one of the leafier ones they will need to consider that in their career aspirations. Life can get in the way sometimes so we will all adapt but in my retirement I don't expect to be funding fully grown adults to travel, entertain themselves etc if it means I can't too!
 
David_Dublin said:
Right now, here's a rough list:
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This won't happen, well some of it might.

We don't really make lists. I like spontaneity. Yesterday the weather was nice so I trimmed back some hedging in my garden. Really like being back outdoors in the garden. Spent about an hour and a half doing it. Didn't tidy up after myself but came in and watched a few shows on TV, happy with my work. The gardening wasn't planned.

Today we had thought we might visit Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt and pick up some items for our March holiday to Portugal and enjoy one of their incredibly cheap and tasty full Irish breakfasts. As I type this hasn't happened.....we might get a take out Chinese for lunch instead.

This morning thought about an Irish break for July and August. Spurred on by Cervelo who mentioned that they might re-discover Ireland this year. I have already sent an email to see if we can make a reservation. (Kerry). It will be more expensive than our overseas accommodation already booked but doing the math, if we don't spend it now the taxman will take a chunk of it when we die.

We have helped out our children purchase their home via the Bank of Mom and Dad. Thankfully we can afford to do this even though we are on a modest income. I inherited money from my parents when they died but never spent any of it as I have no need of any type of bling.

I notice that we have started helping our oldest grand child with some cash. This was never our plan really but to see the smiles and appreciation on her face makes it all worth it.


Our biggest concern is that we have not been spending enough money on ourselves. I am not sure this is true......however as I turn 73 the race is now on to spend as much as we can before a large chunk of it goes in inheritance tax.

We have agonised with downsizing our home. We will, we wont, we will we wont. Having bought well we have moved in to the "expensive house" bracket, well over the tax free inheritance threshold our children can avail of....so this is still a topic that we continue to have. What to do?
 
I disagree slightly.Why not continue to travel to say 90 and always live a healthy lifestyle.We always need something to look forward to and something to get up in the morning for.!.I am 77 and still love travel.Im glad i did not stop at 70.
 
DK123 said:
I disagree slightly.Why not continue to travel to say 90 and always live a healthy lifestyle.We always need something to look forward to and something to get up in the morning for.!.I am 77 and still love travel.Im glad i did not stop at 70.
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My father is now nearly 83 and still travel several times a year. Until recently he was renting cars abroad but I think he didn't enjoy it as much so stopped. 70 seems really early to stop if your healthy.
 
conor_mc said:
My widowed mother (77) and my Dad’s sister (83/84?) just booked themselves a nice trip to Tuscany today.

For God’s sake, don’t believe you’ll be done travelling at 70, keep going as long as you can!
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I have almost my quota of holidays booked for this year. I am looking for ways to squeeze in a few more if I can. I could probably fill 2026 with holidays already researched. My plan is to keep it "steady as she goes" and hope nothing untoward pops up to derail this happening.....health wise etc.
 
We are back in Gran Canaria again this year .We packed up our carry on bags and headed to Malaga for a week. We left on Jan 6th just as the cold and the snow hit. We walked and cycled in Malaga and enjoyed the week. We then took a two hour flight to Gran Canaria and we have 4and a half weeks here. So far we have been walking and sea swimming and generally enjoying the outdoor time. It’s nice to be in the sunshine in January. It is also nice to see people of all ages exercising outdoors daily. We also enjoy browsing in the supermarkets and food markets buying and cooking different foods.
When we are at home we usually have a daily plan exercise visiting and gardening golf and cycling.
I’m starting a digital marketing course one day a week when I return home. I’m not sure yet what the purpose of this is but hopefully I will learn something.
I did two short courses last year both personal development type and it was interesting to hear other peoples stories.
We also had 3 other trips abroad after our January break last year. We went to Italy Spain London and the USA .
We are lucky we are both healthy and that is our main focus now. We also take a few trips around Ireland and if we bring the bikes we like doing the greenways. I am a bit nervous on the roads. Last year we did a good section of the grand canal and enjoyed that.
This year we plan on visiting some of the smaller islands off our coast like Sherkin Cape Clear etc.
There are so many things to do and by meeting people and sharing ideas you can discover loads of interesting things to do.
So we have not reached 70 yet but have no plans to stop traveling. I have 2 aunts 91 & 88 and both continue to travel.
You have to tell your mind that your body can do it.
 
We know we have enough savings and can live comfortably on our income, but it was definitely unsettling to drop down to a smaller income. I would say make sure you have no debts if possible that makes it easier. We are still slow to dip in to savings and try to live on our income only, but slowly we are starting to do it. We still help out the kids occasionally. I also find I’m spending less on things like clothes and stuff as I’m trying to de clutter, so there is no point in de cluttering if you keep buying. My husband dropped to 19.5 hours a week for two years first and then he eased in to retirement . You will be amazed at all the things you find to keep you busy
 
Thank you, it will be quite an adjustment in mindset after decades of focus on increasing income and accumulation.
We , fortunately, have no debts and are taking the opportunity now to invest in imrpoved home insulation to reduce the running cost of the house. I'm a fan of using spreadsheets to understand our outgoings so I've started to model our future expenditure which is helping come to terms with a different income level vs expenditure.

Keeping busy will be easy there's places to go... people to see... things to make.
 
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