Unexpected retirement

[acatox]

It looks very much like I’m going to have to take redundancy a couple of years earlier than Id planned to properly retire at statutory pension age. Whilst I won’t be destitute there will need to be a fair bit of belt tightening so I won’t have unlimited cash for exciting holiday adventures or new and possibly costly hobbies.

The most difficult part is thinking about adapting my identity from a busy respected professional with a long career behind me and wondering what my point is. Any advice from others who have experienced the same would be really helpful

I am in a similar position albeit a bit younger - will be 5 years until state pension. I have just about got my head around the financial side and DH will have a reasonable pension. However now starting to think about who I will be and how my life will look is tricky. I thought I had at least another year to work this out.

@Greetingscard I’d kicked the thought of adapting to retirement down the road until now when I’ve unexpectedly confronted with actually having to face it! In one sense the idea that I can please myself and escape the fatigue and stress of working life sounds delicious and in the other absolutely terrifying

Ì've just dropped a couple of days a week. So far, taking things more slowly, gardening, getting on top of the house. It's easy to imagine doing it all the time.

You can also look for something else -part time or less arduous

For me retirement has been about freedom, the opportunity to do all the things I've ever wanted and not had time. I'm several years in and am loving every minute.

My advice would be to not rush into anything. Don't fill your days with part time jobs or volunteering from the outset. Early commitments might be difficult to get out of later. Also, that feeling of pace, of 'being someone' will be strong at the start. Give yourself time to be you. Just take some time to smell the roses and have a good think. Ease into doing things you enjoy and want to do as they arise.

Since I've retired I've turned two of my hobbies into little money making enterprises, I volunteer for several environmental organisations and the National Trust, I've renovated two houses, I travel (cheaply with a rail card and camper van), garden, keep hens, have studied, learned a new language and walked and cycled miles and now swim in the sea almost every day. I didn't plan any of this - it all grew organically.

You can get fitter, more widely read, more interested and interesting than you ever were. It's the beginning, not the end.

The point of me now is to do as I please. I hope you love it.

I got made redundant 3 years before state pension age and at the start of the pandemic. I found another job at the same level within a few months and I’ve moved on again since then into a more senior role which I was approached for. You don’t have to retire now if you aren’t ready.

My husband was made redundant and then chose to stop work, then retire as he had various health issues which meant that work was painful and hard. He took some time to just be, then has had various projects at home to do.

I would suggest you take a few weeks out like a holiday then add in a few things you want to do but are not committed to. You need a sense of purpose more than an identity which will come over time. If you get bored, try something new. Over time try to build in some balance too so exercise, be social, learn stuff, be creative. In my husband's case, my only concern is that he is being less social though he knows all the local gossip so perhaps he is getting there on that too.

He tends to have a rough idea of what he has on over the coming week and tailors that for when the weather is not so great. He hugely prefers to be outside pottering around our with a specific diy project to do.

Hope you love it when you get there.

The most difficult part is thinking about adapting my identity from a busy respected professional
Are you respected for being "you" and having your skillset? Or because you "borrowed" your respect from some external body?
If the former then you will have no problem. You can get a new job in the same vein (F/T, P/T, freelance, etc) or a new job in a different vocation or give up work totally for hobbies/learning/volunteering instead. The world is your oyster. Free yourself to not chase the profession any more - do what suits you, not Them.

As for "what is the point of it all" ... I can't help there. People have been pondering that for aeons!

I had your concerns before I retired. They vaporised in about 3 weeks.

Turns out you will still be a respected professional with a long career behind you, but you will have time to also be chilled, wise, on top of life, and a great friend. You will also be magnificently free to choose who and what deserves your time, and who doesn't. I honestly think this is the happiest time of my life.

@olderbutwiser So lovely to hear it's the happiest time of your life. Mine too. Enjoy it all.

Seize the opportunity @acatox Everyone is replaceable at work but you are not replaceable with family and friends. After a few months you will enjoy the freedom and there are lots of low/ zero costs activities to do.

I plan to continue working (my existing side hustle) part time after my retirement from FT job.

Volunteer. Be a trustee perhaps for a charity.

I am taking redundancy/premature retirement in January. I am going back in supple as I may not get my pension until March or April.
i am apprehensive about it all.

I've had a fair few conversations about identity and retirement (being newly retired). There seems to be a bit of a dividing line between people who regard themselves as good, respected, competent professionals, but whose identity isn't integral to being that professional (e.g.me), and those whose identity is so bound up with being that professional that they can't envisage dropping it completely - it seems to be a thing more with men than women and a lot end up clinging on by doing a bit of consultancy work.

I'd say that the first thing would be to decide which category you fall into and, if the latter, then why and how and in what non-work circumstances do you rely on having your professional identity? And take it from there to work on understanding that it's your own qualities that matter not any perceived external status.

What a pity that so many people invest their identity in a job!

Also a huge drop in money before you were expecting it.

If you have a job that you love and has value why would it not be part of your identity? The pity is that so many people don't have that.

I think that the reason for this is it’s been a really long career in various healthcare professional roles. A side effect of needing to invest empathy and compassion to the people we serve often means our identity and job roles can blur in an effort to manage the emotional labour of this.

I'll always be a teacher, but it's now part of my past identity. I'm still dabbling in it a bit doing bits of supply but it's a part of my life I loved and thrived in but now I'm looking forward to a different, slower pace of life.

Get a simple part time job it keeps your brain working and allows you to socially interact on a work level.

then retire

I am leaving work in August 2026 after I turn 54. I can take my pension at 55. I plan to:
work on our recent allotment that we have taken over which is a handy 5 minute walk
walk my youngest to school and back (if he wants) or lifts in the rain
spend as much with my lovely DH (met late in life after both of us went through trauma)
walk the dogs
Horseriding - used to do when younger but Dh will go once a week and I might even volunteer
do tai chi (already started)
join or run a book club
go to the WI - I already go to a knitting club

I work silly hours currently especially given I am ND and have an autoimmune disease I do 6-8 hours on a Sunday (unpaid to keep up) and most days 12 hours.

My son and husband go to the rugby club a few minutes walk from the back of our house and I will also volunteer there for social reasons.

DH and I are already future proofing our retirement and have approached it as: what hobbies can I do if my physical health fails (eg knitting, reading, book club), what social support do we have if one of us dies eg I have huge knitting club and friends and he has rugby club, that we can do.

Otherwise I am currently constantly exhausted - and I can’t do any exercise (waiting for an operation that should change everything!) but even before retirement.
We have started making life style choices we don’t drink or smoke. We have started cooking from scratch and at Easter (I will give my notice in after my operation and after I have recovered 6-8 weeks at Easter) I aim to do walk to 5 K (6 weeks with the dog building up again to walking 5 K or an hour each day with the dogs) and then couch to 5 K jogging programme but probably over 12 weeks or longer.

We will volunteers dogs rescue centre, and commit to one day a week or something and hopefully live.

We have got the camper van life bug and will buy one and that and the allotment. My life will be replaced by getting rid of an awful stressful work life and replacing it with stress over weeds at the allotment!!

I’m 18 months in after retiring at state pension age. That final day at work felt like jumping off a cliff into the unknown but within days I was glad to be facing a freer future. Certainly many don’t realise that beloved career was really a living shit-show.
I was already a local councillor (that’s something crying out for professional experience) and now volunteer over three other irregular roles, garden, cook, and have time to enjoy life, lately becoming a nana twice over.
I’m lucky to have a retirement income more of less equal to my old salary and my DH is still (happily) working with a good pension to look forward to.

What a condescending thing to say!

There’s plenty of work you can do, paid or otherwise.