I am desperate to retire, I am exhausted, I cope with arthritis and pain on a daily basis. I closed my surveying business at 58 because my body and eyesight were struggling with it, the lady in the tax office asked me what I was going to do now, I explained I had a little driving job to keep me going for two years. "no dear, you have another 8 years" she told me, and explained that women would no longer be able to retire at 60, as some of my friends were doing at that time.
She told me that she hears all the time from women not knowing about the change. Seems I was too busy bringing up a family single handed, working and looking after house and garden all on my own to sit and read the magazines that the notices were in!
I can now retire in 37 months time, then some younger person can have my job, instead of being on benefits, and I can have the pension that I paid my NI for, it will be almost 50 years of working when I retire. In the meantime, my mother had to go into a care home for her last few months as I had to work, and most of my grandchildren have grown up now so wont need me to help with babysitting and school runs and stuff like that, to help my working daughters, which is what I had hoped to do once I reached 60.
For the women who don't understand why women should have been able to retire earlier than men, I guess they were lucky enough to marry men who did a lot of the physical work, gardening, decorating, car maintenance, as well as sharing the childcare, and the housework, personally I did the whole lot myself whilst bringing up 5 children and working full time.
I never benefitted from equal pay till I got a job on minimum wage, and yet I was obliged to have an equal retirement age, perhaps they should have sorted the one before the other. So for the original poster, If there is a way to retire early, go for it, and enjoy.
