Do you ever fantasize about being a pensioner?

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

Only slightly lighthearted!

I know the years are short, shouldn't wish it away etc but fucking hell, I'm tired and I sometimes imagine living with just me and DH, no babies around, not having to get up for work and spending my time making the house look nice and doing light gardening and listening to Radio 4.

Anyone else? What is your retirement like? Mine involves fishpaste sandwiches and playing the lotto once a week

I’m an unemployable sahm. I fantasise about being able to contribute something of worth to society.

When kids grow up I think I’ll do mother and baby fostering (if there is still such a thing by then).

Never fantasized about being a pensioner as worried about health then, if DH will still be alive, money a bit.

But did want to stop working in London money was good, work was interesting but 2 hours commuting and a lot of stress was wearing me down with 2 kids too and a house that needed renovating, one child with ASD. So in the summer moved to a thatched cottage in the middle of the countryside.

I’ve picked out a lodge type affair for over 55s. It’s on the edge of the canal and has a mooring with it. I shall row leisurely to the shops and back, with a smallish, well behaved dog who is nothing like our current clumsy lurcher (whom I love dearly).

I’ll do lots of community stuff and join the am dram group too.

And hats- I’ll have a collection of hats.

It will generally be sunny.

Reading this makes me sad on so many levels.
I'm angry with myself that my having worked part time, my pension pot is small and I won't be able to afford the lifestyle that I want, which is the one quite a few posters have posted.

I have just set my retirement date in 16 years. And emailed DH to tell him he's going then too.

We will play cards, do loads of free courses, walk the dog, join a health club, go to every play and exhibition we can afford.

I'd like to have a retirement like my old grandad.
Up at 7.00. Potter in the allotment.
Come home for lunch
Down the labour club- get pissed
Wobble home for tea
Watch the racing/snooker/football
Snooze in front of telly
Wake up and do it again.
He reached 97 in great health like that. Looked blissful.

Can’t bloody wait.

So sick of the treadmill..... I’d fill my days doing charity work, crafting, walking the dog and doing courses to keep my brain alive.

If you have a decent pension and good health it must be a wonderful time in life.

Retired and pensioner are two different things.

I retired early and then got my work pension at 60, as expected. However, my state pension age was changed from 60 to 65 in one leap and then changed again to 66 so I still have 4 years before I get it.

It has affected many women born in the 50s and because none of us were informed of the change many people were taken by surprise. Fortunately although I am substantially worse off than I expected to be post 60 my work pension means I'm ok. Not all of us are that lucky.

I am 37 and can't fucking wait to retire. I know I won't have much money but I don't have much now either so no change there. I just hope I have my health as otherwise it will be a miserable time.

No, I’m cashing in my pension as soon as possible and doing something frivolous with it.

I read that as "prisoner"!!!!
You could always go part time, which is better for work/life balance if having grey hair and being 68 seems a long way off!
(Joke - I know most of us can't afford it!)

I love my life now, but see no reason not to spend a little bit of time looking forward to the future too. We work hard and save and invest carefully, so we should be able to retire at 60, on a good income.

I don't fancy spending 25 years pottering around garden centres though, or arranging flowers in the local church while getting exercised about someone else's chutney recipe. But last year I took a sneaky couple of hours out to visit a London Gallery, and there they all were. Older ladies in wafty scarves and eccentric hosiery, having a great life. Now I've started thinking about it, I see them everywhere I go; plays, political events, lectures, through the windows of nice restaurants at lunchtime (the set menus are a steal, my mum eats like a queen on Tuesdays), buying trout at the fish shop, hiking up mountains. Doesn't seem too bad a life to me. That sort of thing, plus using one's skills in a meaningful voluntary role (I'd like to do something in prisons I think), seems a later-life well-lived.

God no. I will be dirt poor, hungry and cold, and in physically poor shape / pain due to years of hard manual work. Although I can't see myself ever retiring to be honest as I will never be able to afford to.

No, I'm only 42 and have much to look forward to before that! My dc are still young, 4 and 6, so it's hard to imagine them being grown up. Also my parents are still alive in their late seventies and I see them a lot. I do get tired with work, family, house juggling but find life fulfilling in my 40s. I've no desire to be any older.

@notpushyinterested why do you think this? have you had a bad day or is this how you really feel about retirement age? Seeing that makes me sad, but I am aware that there are some out there who are in the scenario you describe. I wonder whether it is partly avoidable for you, since you’re not at retirement yet?