20 months ago I told my business partner that I intended to retire at the end of August 2022. This must have come as a shock to him but I’d been building up to it for a while.
During the Covid pandemic Helen came in to see me and said that she had decided to retire. This came as a bit of a shock as it was a complete acceleration from the plan I thought we had agreed. Once I’d picked myself up I agreed that if our IFA said it was doable then go for it. He said that it was ok so she handed in her notice. I’ve seen how much retirement has suited Helen so I’ve been looking forward to joining her.
Life in three stages
I’ve always considered my life to be in three distinct phases:
- Birth and education
- Working
- Retirement
The first lasts about 20 years. The second 30-50 and who knows the length of the third? The unpredictability of phase three made me want to make the most of it and I felt I couldn’t do that and work too. This was also brought sharply into focus when someone on our sales team died suddenly at the same age as me. Better to make the most of what time you have as you don’t know what might be around the corner.
Am I retiring “early”? Well I am certainly retiring earlier than the age at which I can draw my state pension but there is no longer an upper retirement age in the UK so why should there be a lower one?
What are you going to do?
Whenever I tell someone that I am intendng to retire, and particularly those that are of a similar age, they all ask the same question – “what are you going to do?” Well, for a start I might finally get round to creosoting the pergola.
I get why people ask this question. You have spent all your working life having your time allocated and dictated, never having to think about how to fill your days, and now you have to make those decisions for yourself. I have no problem with that and so have nothing to fear on that front.
“People” seem to expect you to have one, singular, large thing that you can point to that is going to fill the void left by what you did when working but I don’t see it like that. I’m not even sure what that one thing might be. Instead I have a long list of things that I am interested in doing, but I am not going to list them out here.
Starting with a bang
It will be hard for me to judge how I have settled in to retirement for a while as I have decided to stuff the first month with as many activites as I possibly can. This does include a couple of holidays but also day trips out too. I am going to try and blog each day too so you can monitor exactly how I am going to fill all that time!
*to be strictly accurate I have semi-retired. I am continuing to work for my current employer in a consultancy capacity but I won’t be sat behind a desk each day.
2 Replies to “I’ve Retired*”