After Retirement

I am awake and up before 7 a.m. Both myself and my wife log on to the internet and read all that interests us. We have a second breakfast at about 9.30 a.m.
If it's a sunny day then out in to the garden. Lots of small jobs, take our time. If it is a wet day I find a few chores to do in the house. Thin out some paperwork, tidy a drawer, paint a door, clean the inside of a window.....sometimes it takes me a week to clean all the windows in our home.
Early lunch, back out in to the garden.....however I find that I don't really have a second wind for afternoon work.

Some days a visit to the park or supermarket or garden centre. Log on to the internet in the early afternoon...see any updates.

We watch a fair bit of TV. Programmes like "Bargain Brits Abroad." Lots of people living in mobile homes in Spain on about €10k per annum. Other programmes like "A New Life in The Sun", The Amazing Race plus lots of Walter Presents type shows....

We spend very little. Cook from scratch with a take out type meal once a week or restaurant visit when allowed.

Plan holidays both in Ireland and abroad.

Very simple life really.
 
She was 80 too. But at the time the UK government was pumping out terrifying AIDS TV commercials.
 
Oh I love reading these reply’s. I was off work for five months last year and it was the happiest of my life. I was like “so this is what retirement is like”. Wonderful. I’m 55 and can’t wait to press the button to retire. I know this is not a money makeover thread but I found 1.5k a month more than plenty. I have pension pot of 450k and 300k cash with no mortgage and house worth 280k . I’m now examining sunnier climate and can I live on this until state pension. Love reading your plans and good thread.
 
I just read the thread and found it fascinating. My own plan is to go at age 60, to do a four day week at age 58 and a three day week at age 59.

My wife’s defined benefit pension will kick in at age 60 so she’s planning to go at age 60 which should work nicely.

Our plan, touch wood, is to travel a lot but to spend a decent chunk of the year in Portugal. I’d like to work 1 or 2 days a week on and off, maybe half for free in the charity/not for profit space and half getting paid, maybe some lecturing/teaching for example.

Health is the big variable though. You never quite know what’s coming, but the two of us are doing our best. Financially, we’re setting aside as much as we can but we’re also investing heavily in our health and fit-ness.
 
Retired here as well and loving it.

My advice would be not to take any advice too seriously. Especially prescriptive advice. You have to find your own way. And even if/when you find it, you have to have the will to follow it. There will be lots of prompts and right through to expectations from others as to what your retirement should look like and how you should follow it. Most of it is well-meaning, some of it self-serving and probably some envious.

Some of you may remember the questions from your younger days that reflected social pressure (however well-intentioned or good natured) - "When are you going to settle down?", "When is the big day?" "Have you bought a house yet?", etc, etc. I suggest that you be prepared for the same in retirement (different questions of course- but often loaded with expectations). This is not without end, of course, but you need to hold your nerve and steer your own course (or joint course) at the outset. There is no right way in retirement - just a right way for you.
 
My wife and yours truly got our 1st vaccine today. Feel great, had a lovely dinner at home and bought 2 Supermac's Swirly's with buttons for desert, we both really enjoyed them. Tomorrow is promised a lovely day and it's out intention to go for an early walk before breakfast, then head off to one of the beaches on Achill Island for the day. Will bring some fruit, queen cakes from Aldi and 2 nice freshly made bread roll sandwiches that we'll get on the way in a Super-Value. Sweet dreams everyone and hope tomorrow's a good one for "YALL"
 
Monday morning here in Dublin. Been up since 7 a.m. Had a light breakfast, we will have our second breakfast in about a half hour. Been on the internet looking at places to visit in Spain when things improve. Looked at a few hotels and a plan is forming. Browsed a few other sites.

We will potter in the garden today. We had a long walk yesterday so today we will take it easier. We have a vegetable garden....I will plant out some spinach, chard and beetroot and my good wife will look after some tomato plants that are being hardened off. Maybe cut the grass. The sun is showing up the dust in the house so a bit of hoovering is needed.

A home made lunch after a morning's pottering is planned.

Beautiful sunny day. We were both vaccinated last week. The side effects are almost gone, just a bit of soreness in the arm. Feeling a bit more confident now.

Maybe visit a garden centre tomorrow, grab a takeout coffee or lunch, have a walk. Rain due later on in the week so I will leave any paperwork for that day.
 
I love this idea of the second breakfast. Been doing it for most my life now, started in work with the first breakfast just after opening up the factory at 6 am and then the second around 10 when the production staff had theirs and has continued on until now
My lovely wife refers to this as my Hobbit lifestyle along with my Hobbit feet, hands and other hobbit likenesses that she can find
But what my lovely wife forgets is that because she's a night owl and sleeps long into the morning compared to me is that she herself resembles Smaug in more ways then one and when I have to venture upstairs while she is sleeping I do wish I had the ring, the one ring to rule them all.

Now as others have said lovely day out there, so I'm off on a long cycle, enjoy what ever your up to.
 
With the restriction regarding inter county travel lifted we travelled to a Co Waterford village (a kind of Irish spiritual home for us). I had the misfortune to meet a man who worked as a professional next door to where I worked and I hadn't seen him in years. His wife was with him. We're into our 4th year of retirement and many people we meet of our age have retired too.

I asked my professional "friend" if he were enjoying his retirement. You'd swear that I had called him something offensive with his reaction. "Sure what would I be doing retiring . . . ? " he shouted and was clearly hurt with what I asked. He launched into a tirade that he was running his life his way etc. His wife was visibly concerned about her husband's words and plucked up the courage to say "Lep is only being friendly." Mrs Lep was taken aback too. But, he was right, retiring is a decision arrived at by him together with his wife (she is long retired).

I think inadvertently, I hit a nerve and perhaps I should not have started the conversation like I did? - I apologised on the spot.
 
That's hilarious, Lep! Some people need very little to take offence at. I think you hit a nerve alright!
 
Sounds like something was going on there. Maybe a bad day? Maybe he didn't have the finances to retire yet? Or maybe he dislikes some of the negative connotations of the word retirement/being described as retired? Or maybe he really doesn't/didn't want to retire?
 
Life is strange and long may it last as I head into my 70's. The differing viewpoints here are an enlightenment and to be ignored at one's peril.

You are going to find this strange:- You have to work at being successfully retired.

I'm not talking money; I take it for granted that most would have made efforts getting some finances in order before retiring. The biggest lie in Ireland is "Some day Dad, I'll pay you back . . . " which is eventually challenged by Dad "When we retire, we'll do this, that, t'other . . ."

When you retire, at least do some of the things you said you'd do. Let's not get caught up in lies that will shorten your life. How many people took the golden handshake, went home, sat around wondering what's happening and generally I'll do the same tomorrow and the day after and so on forever. This is fast track to changing your wife into a widow.

If you said you're going to go on a cruise, then do it. The cruise company is not going to contact you; you have to contact it. You promised your wife you'd spend a few months in Spain taking in the sunshine ,markets, cheaper lifestyle, more relaxed lifestyle, but you won't lift the phone to make an enquiry and if your wife does it, you're moaning too. In this, the Brits are way ahead of us. They retire early and spend winter/spring in Spain and Portugal and return to the UK for the summer. It's called living and it's cheaper than you think.
 
Hi Leper, what are the best websites to look at to get good 3-6 month rentals in those countries. Had my mind set towards trying to buy a place in France / Portugal over the coming years, but reading that, if you could get a decent place for 750 a month, it might make more sense to just rent and go somewhere different every year. Thinking about it, that sounds a lot more appealing to me than going to the same place every year.
 
If you google any estate agents in whatever area you wish to rent, they'll give you loads of information and prices. DoneDeal is a good website too especially if you wish to contact mainly Irish holiday home owners abroad. Word-of-mouth recommendations are usually best, particularly if you know the person offering the advice.
 
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AirBnB is another good place to look especially if your intending to travel during the winter season
I presume its the same in France and Portugal as it is in Spain that most of these places are booked solid during the summer season
but during their winter season the bookings are infrequent and the owners are more open to doing deals for longer stays such as 3 to 6 months
 
im 54 this year and im going to retire end of next year , no mortgage , car loan nearly paid off and 1 of 2 kids thru college , im going to live off savings from equities sales for the first 4 or 5 years ( i hated paying the CGT) before drawing down my pension, in my spare time i learn a bit of spanish, bit of Electric Guitar and a bit of stocks and shares and reading bout share trading , bit of swimming and restoring the odd vintage motorcycle and drinking the odd glass of wine so i should have enough with that lot. The wife and i intend to head to the sun afew times a year with a view to spending 3 months there once we find somewhere in spain we want to keep going back to. fingers crossed ! and the replies here are great and very encouraging
 
We have been playing with the idea of downsizing our house or rightsizing as I see it is now called. We get so far discussing this, then exhausted at the work involved we change the subject. Then we come back to the topic again.

Our home is far to big for us. Five bedrooms, one in use and one sometimes used. Too many reception rooms. Manageable garden but after 30 years of maintaining it, each year seems a repeat of the previous year.

Enough cash to see us through. Thrifty people. House in Blackrock, Dublin.

We love the area, also the road our house is on. Plenty of trees, green space etc. Short stroll to DART, short stroll to N11. Well serviced by transport and supermarkets.

Our house needs attention. I reckon we could spend up to €100k on new windows, kitchen, bathroom update, carpets, curtains, heating, painting etc. But do we need to update rooms that we don't use? My own parents ended up only using a few rooms in their house and the rest of the rooms became junk storage rooms. We don't want this to happen......but we can see it starting.

We enjoy our holidays. Reading Leper and Cervelo's travel experiences made us consider spending longer winters abroad and just closing the door on our house and hope that it would be OK when we came back. We do have children local to us that could keep an eye on it while away. Then Covid came along and that thought has been put on the back boiler for the moment.

I am not sure that we could live in an apartment. If we could find a decent site in the area we would consider building a two bed, with one large kitchen/diner/living room. But we don't know if there are any available in the area. We may manage buying the site but would run short on funds to fully build the house.

Has anyone been through the rightsizing experience and could give us an insight?
 

How big is your garden? You could consider building in the garden if the plot is big enough / shaped right.
 
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