Retirement realities

[Celeriacacaca]

I'm of an age where retirement is closer than ever before. I'd be interested to hear from those that have what the realities are. Did you regret stopping work? What age did you stop? Upsides/downsides etc? If I'm honest, thinking about it is a bit terrifying!

I was made redundant, from a job I loved, when I was 52. In a state of panic I took another job which I hated and left after 2 miserable years. I then did temporary work for another 18 months and retired at 55.

Looking back it was a very bad decision.i should have retrained and mad e my skills relevant to the current workplace . I suffered financial loss in my state pension which is only 75%.

Because I was at home I was expected to care for my parents and MiL as well as be on hand for ad hoc childminding, I totally lost myself in caring for others.

Think very carefully about what you want to do in retirement, probably go part time to begin with until you are absolutely certain.

I went from full time to three days a week, then two. So it was gradual. Then we moved to an area where I knew no one. I was pretty miserable for a few months, but gradually got involved with things and now I wouldn’t go back to work again.

I think you do have to provide some structure for the week though, otherwise it’s easy to drift. I have a pension and we own our house, but we need to be careful. The price of everything increases, but the pension doesn’t keep pace.

Bump