To ask for examples of living contently in retirement

[MrsEdithOrme]

On a modest income.

It could be you, your family or friends.

DH and I won't have gold plated pensions or huge pension pots so I'm looking for positive stories.

My parents have been retired for ages and had a great time but are very old now so much more limited. They both did and still do to some extent a lot of volunteering using their work skill sets, my mother's garden is absolutely beautiful, they are interested the world and there is always some project on the go. Quite inspiring retirement wise. I'm just hoping to Iast long enough to get to that point.

You’ll probably be about as happy as you are now once you’ve settled down to retirement. So long as you can cover bills, there are lots of inexpensive things to do.

❤️

this sounds idyllic; would suit me! I’m very happy for you both x 🙂

I took early retirement seven years ago and just recently qualified for my state pension which supplements my small teacher's pension. I am content living quietly. I'm not a traveller and don't have a bucket list. I take happiness in small things. I look after my grandsons two days a week and have this year volunteered to sort and run their school/nursery library. I was a chartered librarian and an English teacher so the school snapped me up 😂. I also took up art with a fabulous tutor and made loads of friends at the classes. I downsized when I retired and future proofed by moving to a smaller bungalow and garden. I am happy with what I have

I plan to get a dog and spend time dog walking and painting. If I can afford it I’d like to continue my gym membership and go to Pilates classes and have leisurely swims. 😁. Settle down with a book in the evening. It sounds bliss to me. I won’t be bothered about holidays, travelling, restaurant meals, new clothes.

I'm 79 and have a rather tiresome disability (Myalgic Encephalitus) which needs careful management to ensure that I don't have exhausting crashes. I'm a widow, and live in a beautiful and remote area of the UK, with my cat and my horse.
I had a dangerous professional job which I did for nearly forty years and has provided me with a good pension. I also have my state pension.

The upsides of my situation is that, as an introvert, I can politely interact with as few people as possible and I am surrounded by nature and beautiful views. The downside is that I have to solve any problems that arise when anything goes wrong with me, the dwelling, the car, the horse, cat and/or any random thing like getting lost yesterday, whilst taking cat for a routine vet check because I couldn't get a signal on the mobile phone and ended up lost for two hours and having to go back home. Fortunately, the vets were really good about it, and I'm going to try again today, without the cat!
The nearest village has an excellent library, a reasonably priced village shop, ditto car garage and petrol station, and a larger shopping centre about two miles away.

I'm quite resourceful and, so far, have coped quite well with life's difficulties. There are people who are around if I had to ask for help, but they have full lives and families and I don't want to bother them.

Do you have children?

We retired early but still support DC in Uni (12k a year!). After giving them their money we manage on 2.5k a month for everything, no mortgage.

Time is precious so don’t regret choosing a simpler life for time. I can work part time easily but try not to as we are trying to manage on our pensions (both early retirement final salary).

We are downsizing and selling our main home to release equity for DC house deposits.

Still to get state pension and one other private pension (if we live long enough).

You adapt. My advice is go for it but leave a door open for part time work.

I am early-retired and so is my husband. it takes some getting used to ! But I really like the comment earlier from @TeachMeSomething about Kaizen, continuously improving.

We have a very small income compared to what it used to be, but it seems to be enough (we did a lot of planning before we stopped work). We are both involved in different sorts of volunteer work (one paid, the rest unpaid) as well as pursuing various hobbies and arranging to meet up with friends. I think we are as content as it is ever likely to be - by which I mean that there are always some niggles or bothers in life, whether or not you are retired - but what is a great benefit to us both after a challenging working life is that (generally) we aren't having to deal with last-minute demands from bosses / colleagues etc, and we can choose where to focus our energy.

I can see we are much more conscious of the value of things (now that we have a much lower income). For example, going for a walk and calling into a cafe for a hot drink and a fancy cake - well I realise that sometimes I would only order the cake because it looks pretty, not because I am hungry. So it might be, go for a walk, call into a cafe for a cup of tea / use the loo, but bring a banana or some snacks with us to eat on the walk rather than paying £4 plus for a small slice of cake. There are other examples too where we consider the cost of something - if it's worth it to us, we will pay for it. We are trying to balance up the importance of living within our means with the importance of enjoying life while you can.

If you are looking for other examples of living contentedly on a small income in retirement, I would suggest try the Money Saving Expert forum - they have an Over 50s section which has several people posting about this.

I’m lucky in that my civil service pension plus my state pension pays me just a little bit less than I received working full time.
I retired a year ago last week and it took me a few months to settle into a new way of living, mostly - funnily enough - not having the work stress, but I can say I now have a contentment never achieved before.
I now give something back - I’m a parish councillor and chair of planning, I volunteer steward, I’m a social secretary at a sports club, all serving to replace work companions with new acquaintances. I do go to a U3A group but as a poster has said, the others are all very old.
Life has changed a lot, but I’ve purpose, loose friendships, and more importantly, can drive my own agenda. Roll on three years when my husband might retire (he’s a farm manager) or a least slow down a bit.

i am very interested as planning for retirement
bit daunting

I love Kaizen! It feels really satisfying. It doesn't have to be extreme or anything. Just things like looking at the ingredients on the packets in your fridge or cupboards and trying to find something 'cleaner' to replace them with. At the moment, I'm trying to replace all my chemical-laden shampoos and stuff with cleaner alternatives. I usually change one thing per shop if possible.

Another thing I 'kaizened' was the NHS markers of frailty https://www.bgs.org.uk/recognising-frailty So that included regularly standing on one leg whenever I remember to, standing up from sitting on a chair without using hands (worked up to a set of 30 at a time), 50 wall press ups whenever I go into the bathroom, using grip strengtheners. etc. All of which may do me no good whatsoever, but at least I tried! 😀

I retired from teaching 3 years ago at 55. I'd just had enough of the daily drudgery. I get £15k a year. The last few years of teaching had really worn me down and just waking up every day knowing that the day is mine to do what I like is absolute bliss. I have no mortgage and a decent amount of savings which I haven't touched but they're there if I need then. I live simply (always have). I volunteer one day a week and go on a few short UK breaks a year. I live in an area with excellent public transport and often take myself off for a day out to visit an art gallery or take in a matinee show. My DH recently dropped to 3 days a week as he could see how chilled and happy I was and intends to retire fully in a couple of years.

We retired 8 years ago at 55, no mortgage, no more support for the kids, no more foreign holidays,

Previous income about £3500 a month , now 2 small private pensions,£1000 a month, about 20k in the bank which we dip in to now and then. Prepared to get a job if we needed one.

Only one car, takeaways rare but we fakeaways instead, pub once or twice a year, used to be once or twice a day.

I think we live like kings.

No more jumping through hoops and work place politics, no more out of their depth bully managers, stupid courses with no relevance and having to pretend to care about pronouns. No more continual grinding down of wages and conditions.

Days filed with dogs, walking, reading, hobbies ( loads of hobbies) and best of all, our wonderful grandchildren.

If it's sunny, we are outside. When we get our state pensions ( stamp paid in full) we will be rich.

We live on a very modest income and are utterly content. We are lucky enough to own our own little cottage in a bustly market town where we can walk or cycle everywhere. We rarely drive but when we do we have a 20 year old van that is what can only be called a wreck. We fill our days with sea swimming, making lovely meals and our own wine, growing our own veg in the garden and on our allotment and doing our hobbies. In summer it's all about outdoors - the garden, the coast path, fish and chips on the beach or a coffee from a flask after a swim.

DH makes garden furniture from reclaimed wood, I knit and sew cloth bags and tops from reclaimed fabric and we both make stained glass. We sell what we make at the market several times a year. These hobbies keep us busy in winter and give us a little beer money.

We go camping, are in a pub quiz team, use the local library and cinema and volunteer for local environmental charities. I suppose we live a very small, quiet life. We have both had all consuming careers and have been self employed - we were always happy and content but never more so than now.

@TeachMeSomething Wow, your post describes me to a T also. I very contentedly (and with some relief) retired a little early with a decent package to get me out the door!

I think "contentment" is something that depends on our personality type. Some people NEED to be out and about every day, volunteering, joining clubs, and so on. They need people and need to be doing something to fill their time every day. That's great for them.

Others are different, and don't need constant activity and time filling and making new friends and so on. To me, retirement was the means to a peaceful life, NOT having to do things all the time, NOT having to juggle my time and so on. Some might call it lazy but to me it's an introvert's dream.

A simple life is very rewarding. Of course money is needed for living, for repairs, for emergencies, but most things that people spend frivolously on is filling a void of some sort. I was like that once in a tragic period of my life, but I'm sane again now and appreciate the simple things again.

Sorry for going on, but although I have a very healthy pension and substantial savings, I find now that I don't need that much anymore. If only I had that disposable income when younger, but hey, that's life!

And health folks. Take care of it. Enjoy it while you have it good. Good health is worth millions more than a good pension. I know this, and am happy to have come out the other side. It changes you in a good way sometimes - to appreciate that life is not all about possessions, things, travel, the latest gadget, kitchen and so on. I'm happy now.

I'm here to endorse what others are saying.
Also, it was a pleasant surprise to see the savings made by not commuting to work, lunches, etc.
After years of working in a stressful job, on the treadmill, the best part of retirement I’d getting my life back.

I reckon I'd be pretty much unemployable now. I constantly marvel at all the stuff I no longer have to do: trekking all over the country to attend conferences that are of no interest to me whatsoever, having to request time off, having to be polite to people who really don't deserve it, pointless meetings, passive-aggressive emails, coming up with excuses to dodge yet another "team night out", tiptoeing around a psychopathic CEO... I could go on but I don't want to give myself PTSD!

I've taken early retirement and it's great. The best thing we've done is paying off the mortgage. We currently live on DH state and private pensions and my private pension. Last month we were in Newcastle upon Tyne and at the end of this month we'll be in Nottingham. Weird destinations but we're going up for a sports match.

Also not having to tie things around work is really freeing.

I think that’s why a poster asked what you meant by ‘modest income’ as we all have different perceptions.

I retired early at 58, voluntary early exit scheme. We have two occupational pensions and a state pension, and another state pension to come when I am 67 (In three years, I’ve made up my NI contributions to the full stamp - I had already paid 35 years but you still get penalised if you retire before state pension age). We manage nicely No kids, no mortgage. We do have a decent savings cushion thanks to inheritance. As far as retirement goes, never been happier.

What a fantastic thread. I think about retirement constantly. Could go at 60 with about £16k, mortgage paid off (£550k house) and £50k in the bank.
Everyone says it’s not nearly enough and I need to partially retire. (Civil Service).
Could go to 50% and have another £27k a year for as long as I can bear it but I really just want to throw my laptop in the office and run away. Just read books and go for walks. Watch the birds.
I have travelled loads, achieved lots. Just want a quiet peaceful life now. I think I’ll just go for it and leave completely. Can always sell up or rent a room if I don’t survive on a small income. Anyway the young people need my job!

This is actually a really nice thread. Lovely to hear that so many are enjoying a peaceful, stress free retirement.

I'm around 10 years away from it but will be on a modest income then. But I have been relying on the fact that I will want to slow down and enjoy a more simple life so nice to hear it's working well for people. As many have said, it totally depends what type of person you are. I love "pottering around" and am looking forward to being able to do it full time!

we make excellent use of the council run leisure centre - we do fitness classes, gym, swim etc and always something new to try. I started body combat in May and am fitter than I was 10 years ago.

I retired 3 years ago and found I was comfortably off to begin with. However, as prices have gone up, my pension has not increased accordingly and I'm finding that I'm spending virtually all my pension each month.
I have a lump sum in the bank but don't want to touch that in case we need to move house in the future.
I'm actually thinking of doing some paid work for the next 4 years until I get my state pension, which is not what I wanted to do.

We've retired early because of health. We have around £25k between us and are mortgage free. We could make more use of the free, or low cost stuff, but I busy myself doing childcare, care and helping neighbours etc. We have a holiday every year, local concerts a few times a year and a bigger trip. We are due to have a drop to £21k ish because we are going into over 55 housing which will incur fees, but apparently heating is a lot cheaper. Hopefully there'll still be free bus pass schemes, as we age. We have savings for a replacement car, if needed. Our funerals are paid for. Aside from pain issues, we are happy. The 'needed' money quoted on here is insane.