Retirement life

[BG2015]

So I retired in the summer from my teaching job after 29 years. I'm nearly 57 so I've retired, early but my love for the job just wasn't there anymore and after recovering from a cancer diagnosis in 2021 I just decided life was too short.

Im waiting to start my very flexible part time freelance job delivering speed awareness courses which I plan on doing for about 12 hours a week.

But I am loving having a slower pace each day. I can't say I've been bored at all.

I've enjoyed swimming three times a week, walking with a local Nordic walking group, meeting a couple of friends for coffee, reading, cooking new things from scratch for our evening meal ( I live with my DP, adult son and his gf), watching TV and just pleasing myself.

Anyone else newly retired? How are you finding it?

I will definitely report back! I look forward to hearing about your first cruise. DH would love to go on a cruise but I’m a little nervous to be honest.

Well I've now been retired a year! It has been the BEST thing ever and I've loved every minute of it.

Ive done 10 months of supply work - about 45 days in total which has boosted my pension and meant I've not had to dip into my savings at all. I plan to do a couple of more years of supply and finally finish at 60 completely (I'll be 58 in February).

We have had a busy few weekends seeing Fat Boy Slim, Take That and this weekend we have been to Madrid for 4 days, incorporating a music festival which was amazing.

I've been back into my primary school to celebrate a colleague's retirement today, a teaching assistant I've worked alongside with for 16 years and now a dear friend. It was nice to see all the children I've taught and my lovely colleagues, 2 who now have babies!

Now it's time to sort out our clothes for our up and coming cruise in 3 weeks.

Exciting times!

Wow how quickly a year has passed. I have 2 more weeks to go until I reach my first year anniversary. I love reading back over this thread. It starts out understandably with a little bit of anxiety mixed in with a huge amount of relief. We’ve tried various things we thought we would like, only to find out we didn’t like them after all! And the great thing was it didn’t matter so we moved on to try something else. The freedom has been amazing.

You have certainly been living life to the full @BG2015and it’s great to hear the financial side has worked out so well too. My small pension has held up well with the pot being the same amount as when I started drawing down in November, so effectively only used the returns on my pot. I’m taking way more than the recommended 4% but DH has a good police pension so we are not so reliant on mine. Add to that my salary from my 2 day job and I actually have more money each month than when I was working!

I’ve just finished jury service which I was quite excited about only to spend a day sitting around court doing nothing, 2 days on call where I didn’t have to attend but couldn’t plan anything for the next day until I received my daily text to say whether I was needed, to then receiving an email on Wednesday evening saying I had been released. What a damp squib that was!

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and please do report back as it sounds amazing. I returned from Lake Garda a couple of weeks ago and it’s beyond stunning and we are totally in love with the place and can’t wait to go back. Definitely keep it on your bucket list!

Have a fab holiday.

@Icequeen01 it certainly has been a journey hasn't it.

Im glad you enjoyed Lake Garda, would you recommend a particular area to stay? It's definitely a place we want to visit along with Vietnam, Hong Kong, Canada, Venice, Switzerland......the list is endless 😂

Ive just done my 30 lengths at my local pool and now im off to Aldi.

I’m impressed at your 30 lengths @BG2015 Many years ago when DH and I first got married we used to swim a lot and would do 64 lengths a few times a week which, if memory serves me right, was 1 mile in a full size pool. I would be lucky if I could do 5 lengths now!

I would definitely recommend Bardolino where we stayed which is on the eastern side of the Lake. Bardolino is a lovely little medieval town with lots of lovely restaurants. You can pick up the public ferry there to visit other towns on the Lake. We hired a car for a couple of days and visited Verona and went to Riva Del Garda at the most northern tip. You can also visit Venice easily for the day. We still have the southern end of the Lake to explore so that will be for next year. I honestly can’t recommend it enough.

Wow, you do have a long list. I’m not a great flyer so long haul is a bit off putting for me, much to DH’s annoyance!