Retirement

I hated my job and love my retirement. Since I retired I have gained a degree, am learning Swedish (which I love) always doing something or other to the house. Long walks with or without friends. Spending more time with the pets. The list is endless. The big plus before Covid was looking after GC but as long as we all get through to the other side fit and well I can wait to look after them again.

I was looking forward for a long time to my retirment, and then the world exploded !!!!! Every single club or organasion I was going to join; closed down because of covid; I dont have much money and that makes a big difference to what you can do with your time,My husband is not a well person, so often we cant go anywhere anyway.
I didnt have the funds to buy stuff for a new hobby, so my experence of retirment has been very miserible and i have just got more and more depressed, now my health wont let me even volunteer. whats the point of any of it. I have learnt my lesson; just dont make any plans or hope for better times. they never come true !!!!!

DH and I planned my escape from workinglife with meticulous care and lots of investigation. My plan was originally meant to take 5 years but eventually it took 7 before we were ready to retire. Part of the plan covered downsizing the house, ensuring our adult children were settled, and making financial plans to support ourselves.

I eventually dug the tunnel out of corporate life last April, aged 59. Despite things being quite different to what we had planned we love every day! Walking in the local countryside, listening to birdsong, with time for our hobbies and crafts ... and just being, is more wonderful than we could have imagined.

It is essential to work out what matters to you, ie material things, travelling etc., and how you will use your time. Of course it would not suit everyone - but we both love each day, even though we cannot travel as we had planned, and we miss our children dreadfully.

Still, we count our blessings each and every day and I can honestly say I have not missed the stress of my former career once.

I took early retirement aged 57. My then husband, who had retired 5 years earlier, wanted ‘a fresh start’ after I’d discovered his adultery. We moved away and a year later he was at it again and left. I started working freelance for my previous employers and, now approaching 63, I still do occasional work for them. I also tutor online as I’m a qualified teacher. I enjoy working and am able to choose how much I do. When I’m not working, I have plenty of hobbies to keep me occupied and once we’re allowed out again I’ll start enjoying trips to the theatre, museums, galleries and the like again.

I worked until i was 63 when i found out i had COPD which as i was a home support carer i was finding the work caused me to be breathless most of te time and slowing down. so retired and now at 70 have not regreted it , i drive so spent time visiting places i never had time to do at 67 i moved to the countryside to help my health by getting away from the pollution where i was living and started walking and visiting new places, my health has not gt worse i take a day at a time due to covid and look forward to being ab;e to visit the places on my list no dont regret retiring but would of liked to continue with my volunteering with Dogs Trust but due to covid this is on hold

If you don't feel ready to retire and you are able to keep working, then do so. An old school friend advised me not to retire unless i really wanted to; we were both teachers; she loved her job but had been forced to retire due to ill-health in her early sixties and hated it. I took her advice and retired only when I had to, age sixty-five. I was worried more about the financial aspect but managed well, and like every one else, wonder how I found time to work. I certainly realised how tired I had been.
The important thing is to go when you feel ready; don't be hassled into it because people say you should.

I retired as as a community mental health nurse at 57 due to ill health, I loved my job until the last two years when we had a new manager who was an incompetent bully.
I find that since I finished work I feel old and don’t have much to do all day partly due to my ill health.
I was also more organised when I worked, now everything can wait until tomorrow.
I would suggest if you love your job and you are in good health stay there until you feel you have had enough

I haven't "retired" and tbh was a bit worried what I would fill my time. Thanks to Covid I have been furloughed since last March and have loved it. I am not looking forward to doing back to work after lockdown and cant wait till Christmas when I will retire officially.

grannyrebel7 it really depends on what your work is and what your finances are? I used to do complimentary therapies which I really enjoyed, I also worked as a support worker which I really enjoyed. I gave up the therapies when my thumbs started to be arthritic, I could not longer do a decent reflexology. I loved my support job and the people I worked with. I tried just doing 2 days a week, but somehow they turned our to be 5, 6, or 7 days a week. My hip joints started to be a problem so decided to retire at 67. I'm still in touch with the friends I made there, most of the residents have since died and I have been to their funerals (apart from covid) My DH and I travelled a lot then by the time I was 70 I was granny (a job I love). I'm 76 now and no regrets.

I retired at 60 and had been planning it for a couple of years before. At that time I had just one grandchild I was looking after part time, but knew there would be more. Plenty of hobbies as well as house and garden and several retired friends. Since OH retired we've had more days out and holidays pre Covid. Neither of us regret retirement although he likes to do a bit of freelance work as and when.

I retired early in my 50's because I was sick of doing the work of 3 people after they left. I'm very happy and have not taken up all the voluntary work and hobbies that people here suggest because I'm very happy not having a structured life but doing whatever I like whenever I like. We moved shortly after I retired and have recently moved again so I can look forward to the renovation of my new home and seeing more of my DC and GC now that we live near them again.
If you're not a "joiner" there is no reason why your character should change now, nor that you would be happy to force yourself to be busy through voluntary work or whatever.
Only you know how you will or will not fill your time.

Ordinarily, when Covid hasn’t got everything shut down, I juggle three volunteer roles with different organisations, all to do with the arts, education and entertainment. In other words, I don’t think of myself as retired but as someone who no longer works for money.

Never, never regretted it. My company was keen to lose people so made very generous redundancy and early pension offers. I managed to retire at 50 with a good pension. Driving out of the gates for the last time was one of the happiest days of my life. I only missed the company of my workmates. I didn’t miss being bored and having my life run by the clock. My DH, 10 years older than me, had also retired early just before me. We indulged our mutual passion— travel, travel, and more travel. Long haul to exotic places and odysseys all over the UK and Europe in our caravan.
You have to have something you want to do more than work. I had one colleague who retired and had no interests. He was always popping back into work for a chat to his former workmates, just to get company and pass the time. Really sad. He died soon after.

PernillaVanilla

Me too. I always said that I would not let the government make me work until I was 66, so I'm thinking of going at the end of this year when I'd be 65 and 4 months. I haven't enjoyed my job in social care management since Covid came along and I don't think I want to go through another full winter. On the other hand if I stay til next August there will be a bit extra in the pension pot and I will get my state pension, which is better than most as I have some SERPS and SSP to come.
I'm probably going to do some freelance work on a self employed basis for a few hours a week and spend more time with the dog and at the gym, more travel and all the usual stuff. DH is semi retired and works 2 days a week, that seems to be a good working pattern, especially if you enjoy what you do.

You wont get any more state pension working until next August, under the new rules if you had more than 35 years contributions/credits before 6th April 2016 you get the basic plus protected payments for the extra years worked but any NI contributions you pay after that will not go towards your pension, and the protected payments have been reduced under the last 2 budgets. I reached pension age this month I do get a lot more that the basic, but not as much I would have done if the 5 years of NI contributions after 2016 were counted towards my pension

Elusivebutterfly

If you enjoy work you don't need to retire yet. We are all different.
I was keen to retire as I was stressed and exhausted. Even so, I did feel a little nervous about having no job after so many years. I loved retirement. I used to feel bored quite often at work but am never bored at home. I was always busy. Covid means much less to do but I am happy reading, going online and pottering about at home.

This sounds very like my reasons for retirement and my current life.
We're looking forward to spending time travelling this country once the worst of the pandemic has passed. We can take life as it comes and have all the time in the world to do whatever we want to do, at our own pace.

I 'retired' at 60 I refused to work till 66 as we had planned everything around my 60th. I was lucky I had a local gov pension and will get my state pension next month. I love it until pandemic we have travelled out of school holidays I knit sew garden walk get up when I want go away when I want. Visit my children and grandchildren. After 6 years I have virtually no contact with my former work colleagues as you make new friends. I would do it again tomorrow

I retired 5 years ago and have t missed work a bit! Been busy looking after elderly family so retired at the right time. I would have retired earlier if I could have. Large construction company accounts director, so glad I am not doing it now!

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I don't regret it for 1 moment. I was 68 when I finally retired, having spent 47 years nursing and 2 years working with The Blood Transfusion service. I did some voluntary work with WVS and some craft work in a primary school before I finally hung up the work clothes and got a dog.

I loved my job and my colleagues. I carried on working part time for 18 months. After this I felt ready to retire. I could afford it and my health was not great. I haven’t regretted it.

Daisymae Excellent advice

I'm 69,I retired at 63,now people have to work till 66.I was enjoying my retirement until the first lockdown.I had 2 little voluntary jobs,went to classes etc,was able to go out using my bus pass.I spent time with my family,including my granddaughter.But I've felt a lot older since the lockdowns,I haven't the same purpose to my days,and I just hope I can find the confidence to return to things when they can start again

Love retirement and the freedom to take things at my pace. I agree that you need a bit of structure and its easy to fall into the trap of others filĺing your time . A lot of my retired friends are stuck doing endless childcare and it restricts them. I told my lot that they can ask me to do anything but not to expect a yes all the time or even an explaination of why we say no. It works well for us. Covid has made a difference of course but I feel blessed not to have to use public transport or mix with 40 or more people each day any more. I feel safe and perfectly at ease with life. I cherish my relationships with family and friends in a way I didnt have time to before. Embrace retirement. Its not the end of life but the start of a new way of living one. Enjoy x

Retirement can’t come quick enough for me. Next Spring hooray! I have a bucket list of things I plan to do and places I want to visit whilst my health is good. I do think it’s a mindset I won’t feel I’m getting old,I’ll just feel I’ve been given freedom to eventually do what I want when I want.

I did! It was never my intention to retire in my late fifties but the workplace I’d been very happy in was taken over by a new company and there was a completely different focus which I was very unhappy with. I resigned with the intention of having a few months break before finding a new job but in that time my daughter became a single parent and I decided to retire to help raise my grandchild. Of course her circumstances changed, as they do, and now I’m bored and unfulfilled and too old to get a job. C’est la vie.