Retirement

[cloughie]

As of today, I am officially 20% retired, having given up that proportion of my job, so I will be knocking off 12.30 sharp Thursdays from now on.Just so you all know…….

Lots to be doing, loafing around on here, playing unplayed CDs, watching Daytime GBN etc.
Am I supposed to buy 20% fewer CDs now ?

Good move ts - I made a similar move some 18 months before I managed to escape completely - For my 4 day week I gave up working Mondays and it worked well for me. It changed my outlook on life in a very positive way. Don’t be too optimistic about playing time for CDs - there still won’t be enough time but enjoy and use well the extra freedom. 20 plus years on I do not have enough time to do all I want to do.

[JasonPalmer]

I kind of retired years ago when became a house husband, always some housework and childcare to do but now my son five he spends more time at school.

[Petrushka]

My official retirement date of December 31 2019 was the very day that the first covid case was announced in China and the pandemic largely threw everything up in the air regarding my retirement wishes and expectations. I adored the first lockdown but it got a bit tedious after that. Plans to take day trips, post pandemic, have been scuppered by rail strikes, the odd health issue and poor weather and I've never really got into the routine I wanted.

One thing though: I'm still loving it and it beats hell out of work!

[french frank]

Plans to take day trips, post pandemic, have been scuppered by rail strikes, the odd health issue and poor weather and I've never really got into the routine I wanted.

I can sympathise, nay empathise. I had just got back into the 'routine' - or perhaps habit - of shouldering my rucksack and making for Europe with my train ticket. Then with each subsequent year there seemed to be something. I did get to Falmouth, though.

[gradus]

It seems that Steve Clarke has been overstating NHS Consultants average retirement pensions, not £78k as he stated but just over £41k. It seems that the higher figure is what a consultant with 30 years of service ahead might expect on retirement.

[Bryn]

I can sympathise, nay empathise. I had just got back into the 'routine' - or perhaps habit - of shouldering my rucksack and making for Europe with my train ticket. Then with each subsequent year there seemed to be something. I did get to Falmouth, though.

I have delayed getting a new Senior Railcard, due to the current unreliability of the rail services. I have taken the car off the road, and thus have not been to my favourite UK break hunts for over 30 months. Getting the 30 miles to London for evening concerts has also become a rare trip, compounded by the withdrawal of the late evening bus services from Victoria to Bracknell.

[oddoneout]

My official retirement date of December 31 2019 was the very day that the first covid case was announced in China and the pandemic largely threw everything up in the air regarding my retirement wishes and expectations. I adored the first lockdown but it got a bit tedious after that. Plans to take day trips, post pandemic, have been scuppered by rail strikes, the odd health issue and poor weather and I've never really got into the routine I wanted.

One thing though: I'm still loving it and it beats hell out of work!

Your disrupted plans for daytrips rather mirrors my experience, and it has been tiresome and often rather depressing - trying to get the various factors to align sufficiently has proved nigh on impossible. The worst part is not being able to see my grandchildren, as visiting them adds an extra variable into the mix due to the need to stay over rather than being able to do a daytrip. However I'm determined to try and get some use out of my 3 year railcard before too long and take some short trips out to the coast before the weather and daylength stick their spanners in the mix, although to be fair with the chronic fatigue issues that now plague me the short days aren't so much of an issue - I run out of energy long before the ending of the light!
My work was only ever part-time(casual staff) and seasonal, so my official retirement at the end of October won't be a big change, not least as I'll still be doing voluntary work there. I already get my(nearly full) State Pension, but now need to decide what to do about the tiny sum from my current employer and the even tinier sum from a previous job - in total something like £800 pa!

[Pulcinella]

Your disrupted plans for daytrips rather mirrors my experience, and it has been tiresome and often rather depressing - trying to get the various factors to align sufficiently has proved nigh on impossible. The worst part is not being able to see my grandchildren, as visiting them adds an extra variable into the mix due to the need to stay over rather than being able to do a daytrip. However I'm determined to try and get some use out of my 3 year railcard before too long and take some short trips out to the coast before the weather and daylength stick their spanners in the mix, although to be fair with the chronic fatigue issues that now plague me the short days aren't so much of an issue - I run out of energy long before the ending of the light!
My work was only ever part-time(casual staff) and seasonal, so my official retirement at the end of October won't be a big change, not least as I'll still be doing voluntary work there. I already get my(nearly full) State Pension, but now need to decide what to do about the tiny sum from my current employer and the even tinier sum from a previous job - in total something like £800 pa!

I thought it rather shoddy that no extension or refund on rail passes was offered during/after the pandemic: I imagine that the rail companies got better financial support/compensation than my local cinema did, but the cinema extended my membership card more than once during the period without being asked.

[oddoneout]

I thought it rather shoddy that no extension or refund on rail passes was offered during/after the pandemic: I imagine that the rail companies got better financial support/compensation than my local cinema did, but the cinema extended my membership card more than once during the period without being asked.

The official line was that as trains did run then cardholders could have used them and therefore recouped the cost of buying them. Not an argument that stood up to any form of scrutiny obviously, but that's modern life isn't it? Heads they win tails you lose. I was fortunate in that I managed to scrape together enough Tesco reward points(I'd stopped accumulating them some time previously due to a change of credit card) for a final annual pass and got one use out of it before travel became impossible. If there hadn't been enough points I was considering stumping up for a 3 year pass so that was a lucky escape!

[Nick Armstrong]

One thing though: I'm still loving it and it beats hell out of work!

Ditto, 7 years & 4 months on!

I can honestly say that I haven’t missed work for one single second - you too?

[Petrushka]

Ditto, 7 years & 4 months on!

I can honestly say that I haven’t missed work for one single second - you too?

Yes, me too. In fact, leaving the office that final afternoon I never even turned to look back, it was already in the past. I hardly ever think about the 45 years I spent working and have trouble remembering the names of many of my colleagues.

[richardfinegold]

It’s all over the place. I know many that feared retirement and wound up really enjoying it, and others that had their fears confirmed. I also have seen a great many think that they were done and suddenly realize they were living beyond their means and have to renter the workforce. Some of the latter are bitter, but more of them seem to realize that they had missed the socialization and structure that work gave them. Some of the same issues prevail in the discussion re Remote vs On Site working in the wake of the pandemic.
In my case I had planned to engage in Adult Education in Retirement, possibly getting a History or Literature Degree. However the programs that had sought Adult Learners all vanished in the wake of the pandemic, some of them being available in rump form on Zoom only, and I detest Zoom. Then, there is the Protestant Work Ethic that my wife and I seem to be afflicted with (despite her being Irish Catholic and myself Jewish), namely that despite both of us spending over 4 decades in Patient Care, we somehow haven’t earned the right to not be gainfully employed

[Ein Heldenleben]

It’s all over the place. I know many that feared retirement and wound up really enjoying it, and others that had their fears confirmed. I also have seen a great many think that they were done and suddenly realize they were living beyond their means and have to renter the workforce. Some of the latter are bitter, but more of them seem to realize that they had missed the socialization and structure that work gave them. Some of the same issues prevail in the discussion re Remote vs On Site working in the wake of the pandemic.
In my case I had planned to engage in Adult Education in Retirement, possibly getting a History or Literature Degree. However the programs that had sought Adult Learners all vanished in the wake of the pandemic, some of them being available in rump form on Zoom only, and I detest Zoom. Then, there is the Protestant Work Ethic that my wife and I seem to be afflicted with (despite her being Irish Catholic and myself Jewish), namely that despite both of us spending over 4 decades in Patient Care, we somehow haven’t earned the right to not be gainfully employed

The US seems to have a much more enlightened attitude to “elder “ employment. My area (tv and film) is still very ageist with very few presenter/reporters in their 60’s and it’s the same pretty much the case behind the scenes ; whereas US news esp local programmes always seem to have plenty of grey hairs. I guess the pensions and health care costs mean you have to keep going into your sixties. Just about every UK GP I know retired at sixty on fifty per cent salary as a pension and that index linked ; plus their share of the practice bought back. Things have changed a bit within the BBC as compulsory early retirement at 60 was made illegal several years ago so you know have a few taking a final salary pension , still working , and paying into a defined contribution pension - probably to avoid a big tax bill. I suspect that’s pretty common in other areas.

[Pulcinella]

Richard: on retirement in the US do you forfeit the medical insurance that your employer has provided for you (and your family) or is there some provision that goes alongside any pension entitlement? Or am I mistaken in thinking that medical cover is any longer a perk of the job?

[Sir Velo]

Ditto, 7 years & 4 months on!

I can honestly say that I haven’t missed work for one single second - you too?

You lucky so and sos. Still several years away yet for YT. Unlike RFG the Protestant work ethic has no hold for me - far too much of a sybarite I'm afraid. I'm constantly amazed at how some people appear to have no outside interests. There are colleagues who will literally spend their Sundays reading the work emails they missed during the week. I'm fortunate enough to have a profession where one is always able to do some fairly remunerative work on a short term basis should finances dictate but the goal is to devote myself to all those pursuits that have been neglected for too long. You never know when you're going to pop your clogs so I want to be able to indulge all my personal interests while I still can. Currently, I'm obsessing with bikepacking in off the beaten track locations. A Youtube video of gravel riding in Transylvania is a particular inspiration - like a scene out of Bydlo - oxcarts and cattle in the streets, unspoilt medieval villages, folk music everywhere. Given the choice between that and a life behind a computer screen, well...