I'm retired - AMA

[Westfacing]

I posted on the first AMA, before they were officially titled AMA, started by the person who worked at a crematorium. It was very informative and I like the concept... so AMA 😊

My only advice on day to day would be to have a few things in your diary for the coming week - no need to cram it full but do have events to look forward to.

It's very important to me to exercise - I aim to walk for at least an hour a day and go to a weekly dance class, and weekly Tai Chi. I have no artistic talent but do dabble in water colours.

I have made new friends - dance, Tai Chi, art activities are all intertwined - one led to another via various participants.

I didn't have a retirement date, just gradually wound down so never really had a hurdle to jump. Not sure if I 'settled' into retirement... just sort of found myself here!

What is your biggest monthly expense?

In general, has anything about retirement surprised you?

I suppose food, wine and leisure is my biggest monthly expense 😊

Yesterday I mentioned upthread was going to see Wuthering Heights with a friend. We went to the local Everyman which is a bit expensive and had a large glass of wine and nibbles brought to our seats 😊 Total cost each for seats and wine was £34 - which is more than my gas, electricity & water each week.

As for have I been surprised in retirement... gawd, difficult to say because I gradually reduced work over the years and didn't have a cliff edge. One surprise is that I am actually retired having worked since I was 15, so 55 years of working.

I suppose another surprise is that although one minute I was young next minute old I do at times lean in to this being older lark... when ordering our drinks at the Everyman bar I asked the two young chaps attending to us if there was any reduction for old ladies and they gave us members' discount of 10%! 😄

I think you were late 60s when you fully retired. Do you wish you'd retired earlier and at what age?

What advice would you give to people of different ages about retirement and/or planning for it?

Like what would you say to someone in their 30s, their 40s or their 50s?

I'm really struck by your comments that you were young and then suddenly old. I can't quite articulate how they've made me feel (a bit sad but 'sad' doesn't quite get at it). But they've really stuck with me and made me start to think about how I'm living my life and what I want it to look like.

Are you mortgage free?

No, in fact the opposite - sometimes I get a twinge of regret that I didn't Re-validate my nursing registration which was due last year.

The main advice is obviously to contribute to your pension as much as you can afford, at any age. But you must also live in the day - in my 30s I doubt I gave it much thought. My big advice to anyone single is to try your hardest to find the right partner! Sounds flippant and I know it's the luck of the draw at how marriages pan out but divorce at 50 or any age isn't good for future finances.

I get what you mean about 'sad' there is a certain wistfulness when thinking that time has gone so quickly - expect most people feel this way. I think at many stages we all question how we are living our life and what changes or directions to take.

Yes I am

With the state pension around £12k a year, how come 55 years of work only gets £8k a year private pension?

Because for most of those years I wasn't in pensionable jobs.

After qualifying as a nurse aged 21 I worked for a year then after that I never worked directly for the NHS again. I had my children in my 20s and due to family responsibilities I did either office work or agency/bank nursing. I like the freedom to choose when and where to work - as far as I can remember I have haven't worked a Xmas Day since around 1975! I had a permanent office admin job in my 40s and that's where in the main my private pension comes from.

For the past 20 years I've done agency nursing but it's only in the past years that auto-enrolment came into being and I had a few lump sums from these agencies at retirement age.

Slightly off the retirement topic, I hope that's OK.

What changes have you seen in nursing, the NHS, other practitioners, patients and the public since you first qualified as a nurse? How have things changed, basically?

There have been so many changes - too many to mention!

Back in the 70s we trained on the job for the most part, included in staffing numbers not supernumerary.

It's now a degree profession which is a good thing

Absolutely no mixed wards - the few male nurses around (only one in my cohort of around 30) were not even allowed onto a female ward

Over the years nurses have taken on tasks that were once the job of junior doctors e.g. cannulation, phlebotomy, ECGs, IV drugs, male catheterisation

I'd say patients are about the same - for the most part appreciative of what staff are trying to do. There have always been the difficult and disruptive ones

In the 70s we wore the traditional uniform of dress with starched collar, starched white apron, white cap, black tights. Gifts from patients would be either chocolates or black tights - imagine that today! 😄

That’s interesting because having worked for 55 years, 20k per annum including state pension is very low.

do you regret not doing at least a significant chunk more of pensionable work? I’m late 50s and to me, a big priority has been to work full time and max out my occupational pension. Not to the extent that I’d do a job I disliked just for the pension, but it’s certainly an important factor. I’ve always viewed the state pension as a top up to my main pension, not a main source of income post retirement.

Would you advise the younger generation to do things differently to you? I know there’s auto enrolment now but would you advise people to do salary sacrifice where possible to make extra payments?

I find it worrying that overall, women are financially far worse off than men in retirement - and statistically likely to live longer, so it’s a negative double whammy!

My working life spanned 55 years but not the entirety was full-time e.g. five years ago I had a total abdominal hysterectomy - in the subsequent three years I worked the minimum, just about enough to maintain my Registration.

I don't regret not working more pensionable jobs as did what I thought right at that time - I was the primary parent and much the lower earner.

It's not for me to give any financial advice to younger women, other than what I've said upthread.

I'm not sure there will be many long-term pensionable career paths and stable long-term employment as there were when I was younger. For instance a schoolfriend went to a high street bank as a cashier as a 16 year-old and stayed for decades, haven't seen her for years but no doubt she retired at 60 on a decent bank pension - this sort of scenario simply doesn't exist anymore.

Hi, interesting thread. I know you mentioned ‘It's now a degree profession which is a good thing’ . Do you mind me asking why you feel this is? Also do you have grandchildren and if so, do you help look after any?

The status of nurses needed to be raised, if only to keep up with similar health professionals. Everyone from physio, OT, dietician, play therapist etc works towards a degree, so nurses whom patients spend 95% of their time with, need to be on a par. Also, skills and qualifications have to be portable - I think most other countries have degree-qualified nurses. It's not degree entry - but the training leads to a degree

I didn't help day to day with the grandchildren as they don't live near me but of course they come and stay, taken them on holiday, stepped-in when parents were ill or moving house etc