Just retired from teaching at 55!

[Foxymoxy68]

I've just retired from teaching at the earliest possible opportunity.....55 next month. I thought it would never come as the last few years have been utterly horrendous! But I made it and it's just starting to sink in.

Does anyone have any retirement tips for me? Particularly if you were involved in teaching? I'm keeping a very open mind on what to do going forward. I'd like to earn a little to boost my reduced pension but would rather not have a contract and at the moment feel like I never want to set foot in a classroom ever again! For context, I taught for 31 years and was deputy head and SENCo for the last few years. Thanks.

Is it worth looking at local authority advisory or school inspection work?

I stopped my professional life at 49 but decided I wasn't ready for retirement after 4 months. I now work on checkouts in a supermarket 14 hrs a week. No stress, meeting people (colleagues and customers) and plenty of free time with a bit of structure to the week, and 5 weeks holiday and 1 weeks notice too!

It's no wonder that the whole pension thing is completely buggered now, why on earth hasn't retirement age been raised higher as life expectancy has increased so much?

It has been raised though, I work in the NHS and cannot get either my NHS pension or state pension until 67. Average life expectancy in the UK is just under 81 years, so if I make it to that age, I will have worked in the NHS nearly 40 years for 13 years worth of pension.

With the Teachers' Pension you can retire early, but you lose roughly 4 or 5 % of the pension for each year. I would imagine that it's the same for NHS, but obviously not for the State Pension.

Normal Pensionable Age in the TPS is now 67, but some older teachers are still (partly) in previous schemes with NPA 65 or 60.

Congratulations!
I am 6 months into early retirement. My DH is also retired.

So far we have been focusing on travel which has been excellent. We are spending less for more as I have shopped around and found some great prices. I think the urge to go away so much may ease off but it's a pleasure right now so I am indulging it whilst it is still a novelty.
I've also started exercising regularly after years of being too tired to, I've been sewing, gardening and joined a book club as well as seeing family and friends and supporting elderly relatives and several other things.

Might be worth taking a good 6 months off and seeing how your finances pan out and how your expenditure settles before going into any more paid work. I have also spent a lot of time on my spreadsheets!
All the best.

Is online teach English to students in china etc

Exam invigilator so that's seasonal

And tutor around exam times again seasonal

Just enough to give you a little boost and could probably earn a fair bit easily with no contracts and just do it all from the comfort of you own home while still using the skills that have become natural to you

I would highly recommend signing up to a few Extras agencies. Your age would be perfect and I assume you are in England or somewhere in the UK? They have so many! You pick and choose where and when you want to work and I always find most days on set to be fun! The pay isn't amazing but they do provide you with meals and most times you meet lots of interesting and nice people. This is a good side line to those that are carers too who can get cover on the odd day to give you some time away from home. Best of luck!

Read the OP - the OP isn't retiring. She has retired from teaching and is going to be looking for alternative part time work.

That said, if people have saved private provision to fund the years before the formal pensions kick in, or are taking a reduced pension in return for early retirement then its not costing you or me anything.

Hello, twin. Same profession, same age at retirement. Have I ever looked back? Not for one minute.
I went on lots of guided walks, thoroughly enjoying being in the role of student, to maximise enjoyment of my environment. Nowadays a brisk twenty minute walk evolves into a ramble appreciating how nature changes. I wasn’t looking for freebies - it just happened that everything in which I was interested was gratis. Many friends sharing these interests have been made, meet ups organised, which have enriched the experiences.
Also discovered were mid-week term time hotel deals. Wow! After 30+ years of paying full whack, they’re amazing. You might find, as I did, the pension goes further than you thought.
Explore the many options available, and absorb living life at a less hectic pace!

The NHS is floundering under the weight of all of the treatments for all of the people that are living far longer due to the treatments and everyone wants to stop working earlier. Madness.

So you are going to happily work til you're 67 (or beyond). and refuse any treatments that prolong your life so you don't become the drain on society you're complaining about?

The nhs is floundering from ill health caused by poverty & stress,
Overwork time poor , cash poor , leading to poor diets and lack of exercise , leading to diabetes , cancer , frailty

Maybes people would work longer if it didn't exhaust them quite so much ?

When I started work you got lunch breaks , coffee breaks, Friday afternoons were for socialising down the pub, you got team building and training week long events in beautiful locations, there was no concept of forcing a set percentage of the workforce into low performance ratings . Women tended not to work with very young children

the whole pace was different
And whilst you can keep up the pace for a while everyone will have a limit - you just are not there yet

And when you hit that limit you wonder what on earth you are doing it for ? To put money in the pockets of the rich, to watch society disintegrate, pay less tax as the education and nhs flounder , to make stuff and buy stuff that will destroy the planet for the children , suck up the death wishes that people give you for having the gall to have a home to live in

Enjoy your retirement- you worked and saved for it

What @echt said
In no time at all you'll be so busy you'll wonder how you ever found time to work.
My parents, both teachers, took retirement at a similar age to you and were always saying this!

They soon filled their lives with things they enjoyed doing - gardening, choir, book groups, walks, etc. I'm really glad they did, because it gave them some happy memories to cherish when their mobility declined in (much) later years.

Congratulations on your retirement (I'm envious!) and enjoy making the most of it.

paid jobs you can do now you've retired from teaching:
supply work (ok, I know its the same old same old, but you take jobs where and when you want to! and no extra duties!)
become a registered storyteller
private tuition
check with the education dept of your local university - they often need associate tutors to visit students on school placements, or to mark assessments
Open University tutor jobs
art/drama/music/maths/science/dance lessons (or whatever is your speciality)

If you work for the Open Uni as a tutor ("Associate Lecturer") you also get big discounts on taking courses with them!

If you don't need steady money have you considered working as an educator for a museum, gallery, nature reserve or Botanic Garden? They often need people only in the summer season when the kids go on school trips.
Short day, delivering interesting content to enthusiastic children. Fun.

@SonicStars One of my retirement plans is to be the person sitting in a National Trust property who greets people and explains about the history of a particular room. Then go for a walk around the grounds every day that I'm there, maybe a little photography or something. But we'll see how the finances work out..!

Thats very interesting and explains how it’s affordable. Is that drop of 5% per year due to the final pension calculation?

A final pension is an amazing perk, sadly gone for most/all. Truly bar some public servants on grandfathered arrangements, it’s just the current pensioners who have it.

I'm 55 but no chance of retiring early. So jealous.

I'm 52 and plan to retire at 57 (fingers crossed).

At the moment most of my pension is in the "final salary" scheme, NPA 60. Some of it is in the "career average" scheme, NPA 67.

If I do manage to leave at 57, I'll get 88% of the NPA60 pension (3 years early), and only about 55% of NPA67 bit.

(The McCloud judgement about age discrimination is huge for people in my position, because once it's implemented, I should be able to switch 7 years from the NPA67 scheme to the NPA60 scheme. This has a much bigger effect for people who are retiring early. The NPA60 also has a lump-sum attached to it, which should actually keep me going until the State Pension kicks in. Fingers crossed.)

Ok foamy hate on the career and pension plan this person chose, guess you will hate the armed forces then? They get a pension form 40-42.

Dh and I retired at 53 and 52 respectively. We do a lot of voluntary work: charity trustee, charity shop volunteer, mentoring, parish councillor and I also work as an exam invigilator. Dd is still at school so exam invigilation fits in well with our existing commitments. We both go to the gym several times per week, have weekends away, visit national trust properties etc.
congratulations on your retirement!

@BaroldBalonz
the age you receive state pension age has been raised…
Not sure how me not working buggers the system: I still pay tax and will be waiting another 12 years for my state pension.

Dymaxion can’t you take a reduced NHS pension and retire early. I thought you could do this once you got to 55. Also there is the NHS retire and return scheme.

I missed the social side and knowing and mixing with people when I took early retirement from my profession. I wanted a clean break after 30 years.

I started working in a job where I already had knowledge gained from my hobby. It was at a basic level job amongst working class younger men. Yes I sound a snob but two of them wore Tags as part of their probation.

It was a lot of fun, and so different. The job ended as soon as I booked out after each shift. No worries no evening phone calls but a steady wage.
Good Luck and Enjoy.

It has been raised. I can't get my state pension til I'm almost 67.
OP has obviously done her sums to feel able to retire and she's boosting her pension.
I'm going at 55 , 25 years NHS , I'll find something part time.