Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: Pedal Castro on 23 May, 2017, 08:24:30 pm
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Not actually given notice yet but formal announcement to staff and parents that I will retire at the end of the next academic year has been made., 199 days to go...
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Eh? You're not old enough to retire yet, Shirley? If you can afford to, then well done! I thought we all had to work till we dropped nowadays...
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I did all the sums and it seems I will have enough to get by on ;D
I want to be able to enjoy my cycling/photography/other stuff and work is just getting in the way too much.
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Being a considerate sort of chap, and bearing in mind the number of hats I wear at work which will need filling, before Christmas I said I was going to leave in June 2018. Only 1 year and 5 days to go............
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I did all the sums and it seems I will have enough to get by on ;D
I want to be able to enjoy my cycling/photography/other stuff and work is just getting in the way too much.
This is exactly my feeling too.
I was 55 this week. That means I can access pension funds. One of the upsides of being a small, insignificant cog, in giant corporations is that they take the responsibility of pensions away from you. In my case that was perfect as I am hopeless at "putting some aside for a rainy day".
Buying the Motorhome was supposed to be part of the retirement plan, to sell the house and follow our noses around Europe until we got bored. As it turned out the perfect Motorhome came available a year early (and we're so glad it did because we've had a great year).
Humans are unjustifiably over-optimistic about life-expectancy. We tend to feel immortal (until just before we aren't). I looked at the reality of the situation and figured, if I'm going to do something, then I'd better start doing it soon or it will be too late.
I've spent 20 years avoiding redundancies that have come and gone at regular intervals. Now I will put my hand up I think.
A couple of managed rental flats in the UK and a house with a couple of Gites in the Dordogne will suit me fine. I just need a couple of bikes (got them), my camera (got it) and enough to live on (fingers crossed). People manage on less than I will have, and happiness is related to what you have compared to what you want, not just what you have.
All I've done with my (I admit, decent) salary is accumulate a garage and loft full of crap I hardly use but thought I wanted.
I feel the need to declutter and live the rest of my life in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops (and cycling gear natch)
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MrsC, who is seven years older than me, would very much like to be retired. I will be 58 next birthday so the pensions being available thing applies to me as well.
I have not done the sums and I suspect we wouldn't quite manage it just yet.
What would be ideal would be another set of redundancies, with the same Ts&Cs as the last lot. Since then we've paid off the mortgage (and taken out loans for the new car & caravan) so things would be different.
Probably depends on the decisions of the next government, who ever they turn out to be.
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I feel the need to declutter and live the rest of my life in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops (and cycling gear natch)
Fuck, YEAH!
Unfortunately it isn't likely to happen for me, despite being 55 next month. Hopefully in about 10 years I'll be able to scale back a little and find some one to run the business for me but I doubt I'll ever be able to afford to 'retire'...
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I've stopped looking at retirement per se and am looking more at earning income in a way that I am happy with as oppose to just being a wage slave. This feels a bit bourgeois but fortunately I am in a position to 'enjoy' my work but many if not most of us are not.
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I've stopped looking at retirement per se and am looking more at earning income in a way that I am happy with as oppose to just being a wage slave. This feels a bit bourgeois but fortunately I am in a position to 'enjoy' my work but many if not most of us are not.
Indeed - this is the way to look at out imo. I retired about 6 years ago - not in the way I wanted to (it was ill health, but the bastards wouldn't do 'ill health retirement') - this meant I wasn't able to build up a 'plan B'.
I feel that it is essential to have a fairly good idea about what you are going to actually /do/ when you are not in the regimented world of work. Saying that you are 'going to spend all this time in flip flops and shorts' is a good plan for the first fortnight, but will lead too desperation (in many people) after three months. The other way of becoming frustrated is too micro-plan, by that I mean 'it's Thursday afternoon, so I must be out on the bike' - doing this closes the door to serendipity and new adventures.
My old boss learned how to silversmith and blow glass, and his plan B was to make and sell jewellery , something that he could do as a 'hobby' that brought in some cash, but didn't constrain him in terms of time or commitment.
Two other thoughts for early retirement : spreadsheet for financial planning, and warm socks.
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Good pointers. I have been doing some wheelbuilding as well as the frustrating electric bike conversion* and I can still do a bit of legal advice. I have slots where I will earmark cycling or other activities but they are not fixed in stone.
* My tip would be not to buy a secondhand kit, nor try to work on a bicycle where the motor wheel is an odd size and thus requires a wheel build with 12g spokes.
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As much as I'd love to retire (mid 50s and _utterly_ pissed off with idiots at work) circumstances, some beyond my control, but not all, mean it ain't going to happen. I'm in the work 'til you drop category. Sometimes the thought gets me down, but at least I'm in a trade where I ought to be able to do reasonably well paid part-time work when I can no longer face the tedium of full time. Sort of the Polar Bear option, but not a complete change of direction. You never know I might actually enjoy it, not being completely out of the hurly-burly.
So good luck to PC and all the others who can retire and I hope you _really_ enjoy it.
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Having just had 5 months off work (illness and compassionate), the idea of retiring has just become a lot more appealing! Just preparing to go back to work is quite stressful. A newish mortgage and a child in university mean it ain't gonna happen this year or next. I've asked for part-time, but if they can't do it by 2019, I'll be off.
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If a proposal (https://www.ft.com/content/d63ee8a2-f9c3-11e6-bd4e-68d53499ed71) made by the tories last February comes to fruition to allow companies to reduce the benefits of pension schemes to lessen the pain for them there will be even more people no longer able to retire. I bet the proposal doesn't insist that exec pay and pensions should be frozen or even reduced in the same way.
I do not expect any such measures to apply to existing pensioners though as they will be majority tory voters.
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If you can do it, "tapering off" to retirement is good . . I worked for myself, pretty much alone as an interim manager/director in various businesses along with marketing consultancy projects with the emphasis on technology/digital and managed partly by planning and partly by market forces to move from 5 to 4 to 3 to 0 over about 8 years until 65.
Five years later I don't know where the time goes with a day a week volunteering at a charity bike shop and two days a week (plus holiday cover) working 0900-1400 in an LBS. Cycling on my own or with a friend on Mondays, club run on Wednesdays and trying to get miles in on the weekends.
The key thing is to keep active and stem the potential boredom of nothing to do .....
Rob
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Retiring from the police in 2014 was the best move I ever made. yes I enjoyed The Job but, it could be soul destroying. Waiting until I had a full time job offer which meant that, combining my new salary with my pension meant I broke even on the police income was a good idea.
The impending move from current job to full time LBS droid will put me in the category of someone happy to work until they drop.
My heart went out to all the cops who were shafted by the change in pension regulations some 6 or 7 years ago. I knew at least one guy who, pre shake up had 17 years until a full pension. Post shake up he found himself looking at another 30 years as a cop...
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If you can do it, "tapering off" to retirement is good . . I worked for myself, pretty much alone as an interim manager/director in various businesses along with marketing consultancy projects with the emphasis on technology/digital and managed partly by planning and partly by market forces to move from 5 to 4 to 3 to 0 over about 8 years until 65.
Five years later I don't know where the time goes with a day a week volunteering at a charity bike shop and two days a week (plus holiday cover) working 0900-1400 in an LBS. Cycling on my own or with a friend on Mondays, club run on Wednesdays and trying to get miles in on the weekends.
The key thing is to keep active and stem the potential boredom of nothing to do .....
Rob
I think the tapering off is a very good idea. How you can go from a 40 hour week on a Friday to 0 hours on a Monday is beyond me, given that you'll probably have 40 to 45 years of 40 hours weeks behind you.
For unforeseen medical reasons, after spinal surgery aged 56, I found that I could no longer do a full week as an engineering geologist, out and about, clambering around construction sites, travelling regularly. Regrettably (I thought) I dropped to a 3 day week for 5 years, and when my parents died and left me half a house etc. I went to 1 day a week for a year, finally calling it a day after the untimely deaths of 2 friends and colleagues due to ill health. They missed out on retirement from their hectic engineering careers, I wasn't about to let the same happen to me. I was very, very fortunate, I could afford to do that at 62.
So, as Rob says, if you can taper off, do it. I still feel guilty about not being a full time employee, supporting my younger colleagues, problem solving and being part of a team, travelling up and down the UK and over half the globe to look at holes in the ground, flooded excavations and wobbly slopes, but you only get one chance at this life. We owe it to ourselves to make the most of it if we can.
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If you can do it, "tapering off" to retirement is good . . I worked for myself, pretty much alone as an interim manager/director in various businesses along with marketing consultancy projects with the emphasis on technology/digital and managed partly by planning and partly by market forces to move from 5 to 4 to 3 to 0 over about 8 years until 65.
Five years later I don't know where the time goes with a day a week volunteering at a charity bike shop and two days a week (plus holiday cover) working 0900-1400 in an LBS. Cycling on my own or with a friend on Mondays, club run on Wednesdays and trying to get miles in on the weekends.
The key thing is to keep active and stem the potential boredom of nothing to do .....
Rob
I think the tapering off is a very good idea. How you can go from a 40 hour week on a Friday to 0 hours on a Monday is beyond me, given that you'll probably have 40 to 45 years of 40 hours weeks behind you.
For unforeseen medical reasons, after spinal surgery aged 56, I found that I could no longer do a full week as an engineering geologist, out and about, clambering around construction sites, travelling regularly. Regrettably (I thought) I dropped to a 3 day week for 5 years, and when my parents died and left me half a house etc. I went to 1 day a week for a year, finally calling it a day after the untimely deaths of 2 friends and colleagues due to ill health. They missed out on retirement from their hectic engineering careers, I wasn't about to let the same happen to me. I was very, very fortunate, I could afford to do that at 62.
So, as Rob says, if you can taper off, do it. I still feel guilty about not being a full time employee, supporting my younger colleagues, problem solving and being part of a team, travelling up and down the UK and over half the globe to look at holes in the ground, flooded excavations and wobbly slopes, but you only get one chance at this life. We owe it to ourselves to make the most of it if we can.
What I didn't mention was that from 2005 through to May 2016 I organised, as a volunteer, about 35 charity cycle events raising funds (total of about £800,000) for Macmillan Cancer Support - the team of 3 that I led ran it almost like a small business to make it efficient and cost effective - that occupied my mind.
Rob
PS: I have a young(er) wife too !
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If you can do it, "tapering off" to retirement is good . . I worked for myself, pretty much alone as an interim manager/director in various businesses along with marketing consultancy projects with the emphasis on technology/digital and managed partly by planning and partly by market forces to move from 5 to 4 to 3 to 0 over about 8 years until 65.
Five years later I don't know where the time goes with a day a week volunteering at a charity bike shop and two days a week (plus holiday cover) working 0900-1400 in an LBS. Cycling on my own or with a friend on Mondays, club run on Wednesdays and trying to get miles in on the weekends.
The key thing is to keep active and stem the potential boredom of nothing to do .....
Rob
I think the tapering off is a very good idea. How you can go from a 40 hour week on a Friday to 0 hours on a Monday is beyond me, given that you'll probably have 40 to 45 years of 40 hours weeks behind you.
For unforeseen medical reasons, after spinal surgery aged 56, I found that I could no longer do a full week as an engineering geologist, out and about, clambering around construction sites, travelling regularly. Regrettably (I thought) I dropped to a 3 day week for 5 years, and when my parents died and left me half a house etc. I went to 1 day a week for a year, finally calling it a day after the untimely deaths of 2 friends and colleagues due to ill health. They missed out on retirement from their hectic engineering careers, I wasn't about to let the same happen to me. I was very, very fortunate, I could afford to do that at 62.
So, as Rob says, if you can taper off, do it. I still feel guilty about not being a full time employee, supporting my younger colleagues, problem solving and being part of a team, travelling up and down the UK and over half the globe to look at holes in the ground, flooded excavations and wobbly slopes, but you only get one chance at this life. We owe it to ourselves to make the most of it if we can.
It sounds like you have retired from a facinating job Andy.
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It was, fuzzy, but when you walk onto a construction site, aided by 2 walking poles to make sure you don't have a fall and generate a RIDDOR report, the site manager, who has an HSE responsibility, not surprisingly gets a bit concerned about giving you an induction and letting you onto his site so that you can work out how to solve his problem. Not unreasonably, he wants to know if there's anyone else in the company can solve his problem, without giving him an HSE risk.
Then, your own employer tells you that you can no longer travel abroad on your own in case you have a fall, and then sue them because they didn't take good care of you.
I see the employer's problem. I didn't like it, but we live in a litigious age where me doing something that results in my injury can be spun as my employer's fault.
So I called it a day. I'd worked from the Caribbean to Mauritius, from Norway to Nigeria and many of the countries in between. I'd been invited to leave a farmer's land at the end of a shotgun (the M40!) and witnessed armed guards protecting me in Nigeria beating up some poor local who got too close in his car (twice!!). I had the run of southern Iceland for a weekend in a car given to me, and lived in more fly-blown flats in out-of-the-way 3rd world towns than was probably good for me. I was scalded when a cheapo Chinese kettle melted in the Sinai and dumped boiling water over my arm, and collapsed on a filthy pharmacy floor in El Tor (Sinai) when a local 'nurse' couldn't find a suitable vein to give me an antibiotic injection - she was working on a trial and error basis with my arm as a pincushion.
But I got the most satisfaction from seeing younger colleagues grow into intelligent, pragmatic and practical geo-engineers, quick at practical problem solving, and good at giving our clients the sound advice they needed, even if they didn't like what they were being told.
It was a great 40 year career, and I miss it like (fill in your own simile....)
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To have a head full of fantastic memories is probably the best leaving present you could get. It was for me.
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Robgul mentions volunteering - this is a great way of filling your time. Either using a skillet you already have, or do what I did and travel outside your comfort zone and learn new things (and new things about yourself in the process). For me, it's work without the headache, politics, hours (or pay); I can't say it doesn't have frustrations, but I know that some of that is self-induced.
Today I'm off to help move two historic narrow-boats along the Grand Union Canal in Leicestershire.
Tapatalk puts this signature here, not me!
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I'd worked from the Caribbean to Mauritius, from Norway to Nigeria and many of the countries in between. I'd been invited to leave a farmer's land at the end of a shotgun (the M40!) and witnessed armed guards protecting me in Nigeria beating up some poor local who got too close in his car (twice!!). I had the run of southern Iceland for a weekend in a car given to me, and lived in more fly-blown flats in out-of-the-way 3rd world towns than was probably good for me. I was scalded when a cheapo Chinese kettle melted in the Sinai and dumped boiling water over my arm, and collapsed on a filthy pharmacy floor in El Tor (Sinai) when a local 'nurse' couldn't find a suitable vein to give me an antibiotic injection
All these moments...lost in time...like ..tears..in rain.
As for my Shorts & flip-flop plan, that's actually a plan until we come across a suitable place in France with a few Gites to rent out and top up the pension. Ideally it would be a base for cyclists to explore vineyards and medieval towns.
I realise I will end up working harder than I do today ....but I'll be working for me, a small cog in a small machine (and not an tiny spare cog in a vast machine).
I've really had enough of not making the slightest difference. I can't be the only person who got promoted and moved far, far away, from the role they actually enjoyed doing.
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I can't be the only person who got promoted and moved far, far away, from the role they actually enjoyed doing.
How true... 20 odd years ago I somehow got persuaded to accept a position in Quality Assurance :facepalm: I shouldn't complain as I've earned far more than if I'd have continued in what I really enjoyed doing and having a really tedious job also makes the prospect of retirement positively life affirming! Only 18 months to go :thumbsup:
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<< Either using a skillet you already have,>>
Tapatalk puts this signature here, not me!
Don't you just LOVE AutoCorrect? ;D
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<snip>
Two other thoughts for early retirement : spreadsheet for financial planning, and warm socks.
I feel the need to declutter and live the rest of my life in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops (and cycling gear natch)
Flip-flops with socks - that really is a perversion!
Good luck with the retirement plans, everyone. My decision, which I haven't made yet, is whether to give up all together. I teach in just two schools now, just one day a week, and out of the house or about 4 hours. I'm lucky enough that I don't need the money. It's just that there is a certain status involved with doing stuff for money which, when I do stop, means that that's it until I cark it. Is that an addiction? I never considered that I had an addiction to work, having spent most of my life trying to avoid it.
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One of the good things about retirement is having all day to do at leisure the things you had to run around like a blue arsed fly doing in the evenings.
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What about France, then as a retirement venue - full or part time ?
I know some YACFers who reside there and wonder what their experience of 'social cycling' has been ?
Are you embraced by local clubs? Or is YACF / CTC style 'pottering' frowned on by racing snakes ?
(I wonder what the nearest-to-YACF francophone chat room is?)
I was an 'outre-mer' member of FFCT for a couple of years and they were nice to me on a week's holiday in Fréjus.
It's a general query about Brexit looming too - that's going to change the dynamic - and the € -£ rate.
Are the Brits scurrying away or staying put?
We have friends who live half the year in Auvergne - they spend every summer there and pay rates and taxes; they
tell me if they want to take French nationality they just sign up of the next ceremony at la mairie !
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It's a general query about Brexit looming too - that's going to change the dynamic - and the € -£ rate.
Are the Brits scurrying away or staying put?
We have friends who live half the year in Auvergne - they spend every summer there and pay rates and taxes; they
tell me if they want to take French nationality they just sign up of the next ceremony at la mairie !
All the Brits I know are staying firmly put while moaning about the state of the £ if they are pensioners. Most have employment or self-employment. I am not optimistic about the £ as it seems the Eurozone isn't doing badly at the moment.
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Having been off "sick" for 6 weeks I have missed my school so much I almost regret my retirement decision! I popped in on Tuesday to touch base with my deputy and was overwhelmed by how pleased to see me were the staff and especially the children. Technically I have been signed off until 1 January but I saw my GP last week and she was amazed at my recovery rate. In fact, the only thing that stopped me returning last week was lack of sleep and inability to drive caused by a very painful shoulder which now seems to have turned the corner.
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61 working days to go! ;D
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39 working days for me.
Although actually it will be less than that as I've got 2 weeks off to get married, plus I'm owed about another weeks holiday. I'll see how I feel, and then decide how many days to work. ;D
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22 working days to to...😁
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Yay! Enjoy! :thumbsup:
Approximately 2730 for me... :-/
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How much of a lump sum and pension are you all making do with?
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1495 for me but if they throw me out after 780, I won't complain.
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Counting down from about 4500, and that's only if retiring at 65 remains an option
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47 days until i could go. I have now put my papers in for 24 hour retirement and return.
However my colleagues have made no attempt to cover my reduced hours for the month and the paperwork may well take longer so at the moment I am very stressed by a lot of things including an inability to say when I am actually retiring and returning.
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What does retire and return actually entail then?
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retire and return under the 1995 NHS rules means that I cannot be paid for 24 hours and then can work no more than 16 hours per week for a calendar month.
So this is a calendar month not four weeks which i find strange having lived the last 30+years working around 2,3 and 4 week rotations but they make the rules.
Then i get an email yesterday afternoon saying I had not put in my date of retirement despite another real saying they will sort out the holiday, etc and then tell me the date!!
I had to fill in my bank details twice as the payment people are not electronically linked to the pension people. You cannot make this up.
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In our place, it usually involves retirement followed by an almost immediate return in a new suit and car as an overpaid day rate contractor because they couldn't find a replacement.
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In the NHS we just come back. I will probably py do the exact same job but may drop on call
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Another week down, last Sixth Form Ball done, quite a few last times coming up in the next three weeks...
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Last day of term yesterday so just admin stuff to do now.
Yesterday was excellent, my last every Speech Day speech was about challenges and opportunities a school like ours can offer. Hidden under my academic gown was a pink feather boa and as I got to the bit about challenges I mentioned that my head of biology had dared me to wear the pink feather boa that had been a costume prop in the mornings talent show... ;D