Retirement: I thought it was great when I retired and I still think it's great.

B

BillK

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Don't wish to gloat, honestly, but thought I'd share with you all that, as of 5 pm today,I will have been retired for 9 years. I thought it was great when I retired and I still think it's great.
 
Re: Retirement

I can see a book coming "The secrets to a happy retirement"
 
Re: Retirement

Why is it great, or rather, what do you do that makes it great for you?

My father was offered 'early retirement'/'voluntary redundancy' with a very good pension a couple of years ago but he turned it down. I think he was a bit frightened about what he would do when he didn't have to get up for work every day. And, of course, the office couldn't have survived without him!!

As one of his regrets is that he never travelled, we all tried to convince him that he should take the lump sum and blow it on a 'round the world' trip but, alas, 'the office couldn't survive without him.'

So, what do you do that makes retirement great for you?
 
Re: Retirement

The short answer, Sluice44, is whatever I want!

Seriously, we travel quite a lot pulling in 1 longish holiday a year (about a month) along with 3 - 4 short ones of a week. Then there are the weekends away or whatever takes our fancy.

I must emphasise that I appreciate that we are fortunate to be able to afford this sort of lifestyle, but if you time your holidays right it doesn't have to cost a fortune. We are going to South Africa for about a month next month; May is the start of the low season down there as it is getting in to winter. One of the hotels we are staying at is the Drostdy in Graaf Reinet in the Eastern Cape. We have stayed there three times previously over the years and know that the quality is great. I emailed Christa Hahn, the General Manager, the other day to get a price for a stay and the rate for the suite that we normally stay in is R550 instead of the high season price of R840. That price is for the suite, per night, without breakfast, but as Ms Hahn says in her reply " breakfast is R63 per person but as you will recall, it is a survival breakfast".

The other places we will be staying at will be guest houses which feature in the Portfolio guides which I believe I have mentioned previously on the board.

(I should point out that there are about R7.50 to the Euro and that R= rand.)

The other thing that I did when I first retired was to enrol at Leicester University on a part time basis and got a 2:1 degree in psychology, purely out of interest. It took me 4 years to complete and was very stretching.

Many people who have retired say that they don't know how they found the time to go to work and that is certainly the situation in my case.
 
I always thought that "retirement" was a dirty word. I don't believe in "retiring" - to me it simply means a chance to do something else.
True retirement in my book means certain death.
It is purpose that keeps a person going , don't you think?
 
I used to think that Id retire on a small farm on an island or way down the country somewhere until a friend put dampeners on that idea by telling me how his father and his fathers friends all aged about 20 years (some of them died) shortly after retiring.
Im thinking hard on working til I die now! (not- but I'll try keep busy to keep the brain active)
 
redbhoy said:
his father and his fathers friends all aged about 20 years (some of them died) shortly after retiring.
Im thinking hard on working til I die now! (not- but I'll try keep busy to keep the brain active)
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Bit of a depressing approach to retirement. Have things not changed a lot recently. With possibility of better pension etc. people have access to more funds and can therefore remain active as Bill says above and do things that they have never had the time to do before.
 
The main thing that retirement gives you is the freedom to do what you want, when you want to do it. I accept absolutely that you have to be able to afford the money to do what you want, but the joy of not being tied to being at a specific place between specific hours is worth diamonds.

Surely in Ireland if you are retired you get preferential travel rates on buses and trains? What about part-time courses such as carpentry, or water-colour painting? My wife has done a couple of courses on antiques restoration which she loved (the restoration she tried on me hasn't worked yet!), but surely there must be lots of things like that going on?
 
Oh to retire-what a dream,I'm afraid my generation(early 30s) will have to work well into our 70s(if you consider the cost of living nowadays).Anybody who says that they wouldn't know what to do if they reitred are in my opnion clinically certifiable/workaholics or depressed!
 
I'm in the same boat as JohnnyBoy. I might think about retiring when I'm 63 and the mortgage is paid off.
 
My father in law retired as managing director of a company 4 years ago (at 50)... 3 months later he went back to work ... just couldn't handle the lack of stress ...
 
I would love to retire early as can't imagine working to 65! I am mid 30's at the moment but if I cleared off my mortgage early then at least it would be an option. My husband loves his work on the otherhand and even when we are on holidays he can't wait to go back!

I would love to travel and can think of loads of destinations i would like to visit before I die! Also there are a lot of hobbies I would like to take up i.e dancing or painting or dressmaking....

I have 2 small kids now so time is caught up between a fulll-time job and them and my husband works 6 days and is completing a course so our lives are hectic and we hardly pause.
When out walking in Doneraile Park recently we remarked on how little time we just spend doing things like this (for free) and with the free travel you could even see a lot of Ireland.
congrats on your 9th year of retirement BilK and heres to many more!
 
I actually retired six weeks after my 55th birthday.
So far as stress is concerned HP, I found myself repeating the mantra during my psych exams " Remember, you're doing this for fun" but still felt as if I had an iron bar transplanted into my shoulders!
 
sueellen said:
Bit of a depressing approach to retirement. Have things not changed a lot recently. With possibility of better pension etc. people have access to more funds and can therefore remain active as Bill says above and do things that they have never had the time to do before.
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These lads weren't short of a few bob. Mustnt have known what to occupy themselves with. Brains werent working as much as when they were responsible for the people under them at work.
Personally Id retire now if it was possible. I could find numerous things to occupy my time with outside my work commitments!
 
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