crumbs - have I done the right thing!

I retired 4 years ago and I've been busier than ever - family, voluntary work and yes, a day in work at least once a week often leaves me very tired and not what I imagined retirement to be. If you can stick to your guns and do things YOU want to do, do it and enjoy!

tangle rose please gt in touch and mabe we can chat on line in face book#

its a pity u cant chat on line in here as its a great website

all youcan do is post messages you cant actually chat to someone about your problems

many thanks for so many kind comments - am totally amazed so many of you have taken the time to reply. Have decided to really look forward now and will put a bar chart on the office wall, only 6 weeks to go and the new person starts next week to be trained up. Hope I can offer support to you all in the future

It's all mutual tanglerose love the name.

Good to get to know you, tanglerose (I also love the name). Don't think about what you'll be missing - you have so much to gain from an active retirement.

tanglerose so pleased to meet you and welcome to GN you will have to be very strict with yourself not to become addicted to the forum we do enjoy the site with all the help and knowledge that a vast amount of GNers have between them.
I retired the first time at 50 when we moved abroad,after 18mths of winding down and experiencing our new life we set up a new business and so the work process started again and I really enjoyed it,learnt new skills and a new language and made some fab new friends.
After retiring again at 58 for definate this time I find sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to fit everything in that I want to do including keeping up to date on GN some days I am just too busy to post.
I now find by default another interest to keep me busy by way of private catering something I had always aspired to do but did not have the confidence to do when I was younger.
So retire from your job enjoy life and never be surprised at what lies around the next corner.

Obviously it's a big change, especially if you've been working full time, and it will take time to adjust but I'm sure you won't regret it. If you have plenty of interests, whether it's familly or hobbies or charity work or whatever it's great to have the freedom to indulge them. Our retirement hasn't quite worked out as we'd envisaged because of my husband's unexpected illness which means we've not been able to do the travelling we hoped, but on the other hand trying to work round his illness would have been a nightmare.

I am in the same position as Tanglerose. I too am retiring at the end of the month because of family commitments. I've thoroughly enjoyed my job (give or take!!) and I will miss it. I have always enjoyed working and when the children were growing up I would work for a few years, then have a couple of years off and then go back to work. In some ways I'm looking forward to the freedom retirement will give me, however, what rather depresses me is the realisation that once I give up this job there is no going back and the option of "going back to work" is no longer there.

Seems to me most of you are enjoying your time even if sadly things don't always work out as planned.A new opportunity in catering sounds good , could I possibly book you to fill up the freezer with meals, am bored with cooking at the moment although am sure that too will change. Today have de tanglerosed the office and am ready to help new girl settle in - her first job since leaving uni so a good start for her. Again many thanks for all your comments and am looking forward to more time here after the C word at year end!

There's always plenty of volunteer work to do. Masses of variety too.

When I got early retirement / redundancy at 59 in London I could not get out of the office fast enough when I saw the pension and the redundancy money.
I was widowed and came to Birmingham to join my father and daughters and got a job for two and a half days a week 10 minutes drive from home.
Dad could not drive so I was able to take him to several places but sadly he passed away earlier this year.
My house in London was sold within 6 weeks.
I was made redundant from my part time job late last year and sadly my father passed away early in 2012.
I have plenty to do helping with my 3 grandaughters. My only regret is my wife passed away before they were born.

I was fortunate enough to retire at 53 because it was my own business. I could have carried on for a few more years but, as my husband was older than me, we wouldn't have had his last ten years together in the same way. Oh how I treasure those years.

After two years of widowhood I have learnt another way of life in many respects. I am contented. The most important thing for me has been finding someone to walk with on an almost daily basis and perhaps as vital to my mental well-being, doing things away from home on my own.

I love my children and DGCs but retirement is more than filling your time with family.

Again thank you for all the posts. If nothing else some of them have made me think about the time to come when either very DH or I will be left alone and how very brave you all are to speak so openly about what must be the worst of all things. So I am truly grateful to have the chance to spend time together and am waiting for Dec 20th with much excitement and happiness. I hope at some point there will be occasions when I can offer encouragement or sympathy to all of you who have been so kind

I think our mantra since retiring has been 'because we can'. It could be about going on an unexpected weekend away, staying up reading late into the night or still putting one more piece in a jigsaw at one in the morning, baking cookies for when the grandchildren come straight from school, today's pub meal when we bumped into friends, turning over in bed or reading before getting up. Window shopping on a Monday when it's really quiet, taking on some voluntary work, trawling through Gransnet while eating breakfast in my dressing gown [new, pink and cuddly], being a fairweather gardener and never,never having to work to a timetable -doing things when it suits us 'because we can'. Being a bit more careful with the money is a very small price to pay. Go for it Tanglerose and create your own retirement. It's what you make of it. Read all the wise words from the gransnetters. We can't all be wrong. Enjoy your life!

Tanglerose, I was made redundant in January and was just 64 years at the time. I was also worried as I loved working and have applied for several jobs but to no avail. I am convinced it is ageism, in fact one company admitted to me that it had an 65 age policy. It seems that once you turn sixty there is the inference you have lost your marbles!!
Anyway getting used to home life now, do a bit of volunteering and write a newsletter and have to decided to start my own online business . I have lovely grandchildren but they live a long way off so I have not been completely 'granified' by my daughters yet!
Think of all the skills you have and see how you can utilise them for your future. Good luck.

I absolutely love being retired, and Rosiebee has summed it up beautifully. I loved my job, but I walked away at 61 and never shed a tear. Enjoy it all - especially the first few Sunday evenings and Monday mornings!

I'm retired! So why am I working 4days next week?

Hi tangle I retired 20 months ago. I have had loads of fun, been busy with friends/family and now find myself caught up in bits of work in the latter part of this year to the detriment of my social life .. so I am having a work free January to re-assess the balance of work and friends/family that I want to try to achieve! I promise you will find plenty of things to do!

I have been on garden leave' since July and cannot decide whether to return to work or quit. A meeting on Friday may help me decide. Drop in income is a bit scary and the Chancellor has caught me out with his granny tax!

The drop in income is scary to start with, but you quickly cut your coat according to your cloth and we do not have expensive tastes so it has not been a big problem - although I was listening to the radio today and they gave a figure below which a family was deemed to be poor and our income is well below that - but we do not have housing costs of course, nor young children to support.

The joy of choosing to do what you will when you wish; not having to drive through traffic jams; being free to go for a swim with the GC - I could go on....! It's all good. The world is your oyster and life becomes what you choose to make it, not what someone else dictates it should be.

Hello Tanglerose... I agree with all the positive things that have been said about retirement, particularly Rosiebee's comments.
Altho' my pension is small (mix-up over contributions years ago!) I am spoilt for choice as to what to do each day, I try to get the boring jobs over with in the morning leaving afternoons free to frolic! (smile)

Rowan Atkinson gave a very good description of what retirement can be like (although he was not talking about it as such)
He said "I like to juggle with one ball at a time.Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time"
Having attempted to juggle far too many balls at once in the course of my career, this resonated with me!

A very frightening thing happened at the weekend which has only confirmed am doing the right thing in retiring. DDinlaw's DF went to dentist for antibiotics for tooth abcess had a bad reaction and was very lucky to be caught just in time at the doctors with the magic epi pen but still required time in hospital to recover. Just shows never know what is around the corner - 4weeks and 3 days left!!