At what age did you retire from work ..? For me it was at 59

55 and not once have I regretted it.

69. I was a local authority councillor until earlier this month. I'm now a f/t Fine Art student.

As a widow of 5 years, I really enjoy having a daily routine as retirement is not the same without a partner to do things with.

However, I'm busy painting and making and exhibiting in local art fairs.

I retired from teaching six weeks before my 60th birthday as I did not want to work another term - teachers can only leave or change jobs at the end of a term. I’m still waiting for my state pension but it won’t be the full amount as I was contracted out in both my jobs.

I am so grateful that I listened to advice from my father when I first started work after University, he told me to always pay into a work pension scheme so I get a decent private pension from British Gas ( worked for them for 8 years after university) and another pension for the Teachers scheme as I retrained as a teacher when I was 37. I only had 7 years when I did not work due to child care needs but I got those missing years covered in my divorce settlement.

I do appreciate that I could afford to retire at 60, my mortgage was paid off after I downsized and I’d saved hard for my retirement once my children left home. I was also lucky to have responsible, well paid jobs which contributed to my retirement fund and good financial advice for my investments.

I cannot imagine having to have worked longer, my mobility is rather limited now so I could not really carry on teaching and being retired enabled me to care for my mum with Alzheimer’s until her death two weeks ago.

I'm with your dad TeacherAnne, I was adamant that I'd have my own pension. But of course many women of our age weren't allowed to joined pension schemes in the 1960s and 1970s, while others were 'encouraged' to pay the 'married woman's' NI stamp

7 years ago when I was 67. Although my life is enjoyable (most of the time!) I miss my profession, sadly my head won’t hold the amount of information needed now and I’m not sure I would want to go back to the constraints of my working life.

We’re all different. No rights or wrongs here. Interesting to read such a wide range of experiences.

I finished full time voluntary work a couple of months ago at the age of 68. I worked with homeless and vulnerably housed people and loved the role, but there’s no denying that it was very stressful. It’s taking me some time to recover from a stress-related episode where I had a brief period of amnesia.

I still support my husband in our business, but that’s not at all arduous as I love working with him and my contribution is really quite small.

Teacheranne, condolences on the death of your mum.

63. There were major changes at work, which meant I’d have had to increase my hours, and dh was due to retire anyway, so I opted out.
I thought I might miss it, but I never have. ?

A month before my 60th birthday last year and its been wonderful. I've not missed work at all although I was worried I would. So nice not having constant work worries on my head and jumping through various hoops. DH had retired 4 years previously so we've slotted into married retired life very easily. We are in walking groups and busy with grandchildren, hobbies etc. No idea how I had time to go to work ?

Snowedunder

62 and 2 months. 5 years ago. Had a lump sum plus small works pension. OH had retired 4 years previously and enjoyed every minute of it. In the beginning I took some free courses which I had always enjoyed. Soon stopped that as it was taking up too much of my retirement time. Dad was deteriorating so took him out often. I’m so happy to have spent that time with him. Downsized house. Spend a lot of time researching my family tree. Help with childcare. Socialise a lot- which is not good for the waistline!! Line dancing twice /week. Walking twice /week. Lump sum has been spent. Still have decent health so no complaints and very glad I retired when I did. Some friends have died before reaching pension age as it has been raised to 66/67

Some of your friends passed away before reaching retirement age of 67 ..that is why I packed work in at 59 ..I would still have another 8 years of work to go ! I have a work place pension and a lump sum ..I am hoping to make the lump sum last me till 67 ..I do not have anywhere near the amount of money I was getting while working ..(having a weekly wage plus my monthly works pension I had more money than I could spend !!) Now it's just my monthly pension and I by my food , petrol for the car .my dog etc etc I write down every penny I spend and what ever I am short of at the end of the month to pay the bills I make it up by taking the difference out of my lump sum ..I do not have a mortgage or rent to pay ..but I just could not face going back to my job and working from 8 am to 7pm every night ...I would not have made it to 67 !!

49 due to ill health.
It definitely wasn’t the plan!

56, I'd had enough of teaching, especially Yr 6 SATs. Did a few years of supply teaching and then other educational placements (sports clubs study centres), but stopped after DH was diagnosed with cancer and then had a stroke.

63, I had burnout and completely ground to a halt. I couldn’t think straight or even answer the simplest questions, very frightening.
I had worked full time from starting nursing at 18, doing night duty when I had the DCs and ended up (reluctantly) the main breadwinner.
I had an awful premonition that I wouldn’t live long enough to get my pension at 67 too.
Luckily I could access my NHS pension.
A year later I ended up with severe heart failure, my dreams have had to change but that’s fine, at least I’m still here!!

74 for me because I loved what I was doing. Management changed and so did my thinking. Out immediately and one very happy bunny.

I’m 62 and still working. Albeit in a job I once loved but now it’s taking its toll and my health is suffering a lot. I can’t retire till 66 but I’m still full time and looking to go part time next year hopefully when hubby gets his pension.

I retired at 65 but am now back at work part-time as a nurse in a vaccination centre. Never thought I’d want work again but loving every minute!

61 and two days, it gain me a bit more pension, a week later we headed of to France for 6 months. I did go back to admin part time early 2019, then covid, now I do voluntary work. MrJ still works, he’s somewhat younger than me.

56. No regrets.

2 months ago - aged 60

55 as I was really on the edge and DH is a bit older and wanted to retire. I did some p/t community nursing work for a while the volunteering as a Trustee which I do now for a hospice.

66 from NHS, was looking forward to being retired but few months later became disabled. That was 4 years ago. If you're thinking of retiring do it now, you don't know what the future will be.

4 weeks today, aged 66, will no longer be getting up early except for the school run once a week.

Sacked from work as off sick will mental breakdown as "unfit for duties" after working in the council since I was 17. Workplace bullying and menopause symptoms made it too much to cope. I was 54. My savings now run out and work pension very meagre. Problems now with partner being very tight with money and reluctant to help out after me supporting for 22 years. He wants me to go to work again even though I'm still ill 6 years later. Tbh I'm on the verge yet again with everything

69 like Bluebell. I also wanted to work till 70 but they were getting rid of older people before it became illegal to sack people on grounds of age.

I 'retired' at the age of 64 under a reorganisation of the department and a Voluntary Redundancy scheme. Never looked back.