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 agree!

I retired four years ago. I absolutely love it now, but I must admit it took me some time to adjust. I think that was partly because it was a business sale and then a move to a different area of the country. It was also during Covid which didn’t help! All quite stressful - but very positive in the end.

Personally having worked with people all my career in emotionally demanding roles, I’d already decided that I never wanted to be tied to a schedule or chair a committee again! I was quite happy to leave my professional role behind when I retired, but I’ve got close friends for whom volunteering or doing a part time role suited them better. I just think it’s important to think about what you feel would give you the most enjoyment.

Instead we walk, go to gardens, museums and art galleries. Another interest is music and we go to a lot of concerts and festivals. We travel and spend a lot of time with family and friends. We love spending time with our granddaughter. Having no rigid structure is an absolute joy!

I now realise how stressed I was when I was still working. I could never really relax. I’ve lost weight, I’m fitter (have more time for exercise and cooking delicious healthy food). That’s a big bonus.

Well you're both wrong. And condescending. It sounds like OP has an interesting career which brings her a lot of fulfilment. Makes a pleasant change from all the people on this board who are "burnt out" and "on their knees" at 54!

Instead of having a couple of years to think about how she might fill her days, she's having it thrown at her unexpectedly and she's asking for advice from those in a similar position. Particularly those who aren't as well heeled as most of the early retirees on these threads seem to be.

Many of us enjoy our jobs and the things we enjoy doing at the weekends - reading, walking, National Trust, gym, gardening, art exhibitions, cinema, for example - aren't what we want to do all day, every day for 20 plus years.

I do hope OP comes back and updates.

You may be able to get contract work. Some of my friends have got really good work, no hassle and wondered why they had worked so long!

It looks like I’ll be retired by the end of next year and I’m starting to make peace with the idea. What has been interesting here is the assumption that ALL retirements involve two incomes and gold plated pensions - they don’t.

You situation isn’t the same as mine, but faced with retirement, I used the time I had remaining to do three things.

Firstly, thoroughly went over my finances. Made sure I knew what I had, all dollars/investments doing what they could. Savings in high interest accounts, debts paid off etc. It doesn’t matter how much you have, but make sure whatever you have and or can top up between now and retiring is sorted out.

Secondly, I took a good look at my health. I had some surgery taken care of while I could use sick pay. I also lost a significant amount of weight. Over 50kg. I wanted to make sure that once retired, I’d be healthy enough to enjoy it. I’d neglected myself for a long time, and after a long hard day at work, it had been easy to find excuses to flop on the couch and not be active after work.

Finally, I worked on my friendships. I had wonderful colleagues at work, many I would call friends, but, once retired, they would still be working. So I had a good think about friends and family that I hadn’t made time for. Again, working long hours, it can become easy to need weekends to recover and regroup, rather than always socialising. I started making this more of a priority, organising much more regular catch ups with the people who would be there for me once retired. These are also the group of people who will come with me and give new sports and activities a try when I want to try something.

Apart from that, I made a list of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to go. Not a bucket list, but similar I guess. Then I started planning how to make some of these things happen.

All of this meant that I retired knowing what I could afford, healthy enough to travel and try new things and with a great group of people to do it together with.

It also meant that the focus of retirement shifted. It was no longer about retiring away from or leaving g work and more about retiring to what exciting things come next.

Id suggest you really think about ‘what’s next’ for you and use the time left to really work on those future plans. These don’t need to be extravagant or costly, but things you want to do. It could be as simple as starting each day with a cup of tea, then staying in bed with a good book until 9 each morning, or catching up with a group of friends for a walk and coffee each week. I do this and coffee tends to take us a good 2-3 hours while we chat about everything.

Start planning your happy and healthy future.

You need a spreadsheet with essential spends and any possible pensions / savings.

work out what your essentials are , what corners you can cut and what you might be able to use for fun.

you have different needs at different times - you usually want more in the early years

once you are retired you can trade time for money - cheaper travel times. Use of public libraries. Save petrol money and walk more

but you need to work out what you want from the next stage of your life and then work out how to achieve it

sinple example - attend music festivals - can’t afford tickets? could volunteer instead

there will be many low cost groups such as U3A that you could join - shave a few pounds off your weekly shop and than you have a £5 for a club meeting

volunteering is a cheap way forward

think - health and exercise , leaning , volunteering, culture and make some directions

@ItsNotMeEither is right.

Make time to work out who are friends with whom you will really keep in touch with and who are actually work colleagues. There will be work besties with whom it is difficult to keep in contact with because of either time constraints or you drift apart because the links are no longer there.

I spent my first year of retirement working on my fitness as I actually had the time to focus on me.

Can I ask what is the significant difference of the two years and can you breach it? Why are you being made redundant?

@FrenchfrychicThe redundancy is coming as part of the contraction of Higher Education in the UK. I will have two full years till I reach state retirement age

Advice I was given was”don’t rush into the same thing you have always done.” I did not take this advice as I was so relieved to get a job at my age. I really regretted it and spent two years in a job I hated.in hindsight I wish I spent the time and some of the redundancy money on retraining.

Take your time and really think long and hard about what you would like to do.

Quite a lot of the advice around getting another job is kindly meant but is referring to another time when there were plenty of jobs out there. At the moment (if you exclude Christmas jobs) there’s hardly anything.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5366316-to-ask-for-examples-of-living-contently-in-retirement?reply=145491785

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/retirement/5367073-are-you-a-retired-single-woman?reply=145464711

OP - you might find these two threads interesting.

Start a side hussle! When I first retired as an academic I did consultancy work for a few years while I built up my side hustle. I now run several online shops selling antiques and also do private tutoring at postgrad level. Ive changed careers several times so my identity was never invested in any one job. I am child free and single and lucky enough to be complete in myself.

I retired from teaching in the summer and trained to deliver online speed awareness courses. Totally wfh, money not great but would top up a pension. I have ended up doing supply teaching as wfh wasn't for me, but there are definitely jobs out there.

There are not a lot of jobs out there I agree, but I am shortly starting a part time NHS admin role and was investigating exam invigilation as an option. There are opportunities out there, you just need to look for them.

Yes two of my ex education friends are doing exam invigilating.

Like all Minimum Wage jobs, it's only worth doing if it's local and a long-enough shift to make the transport costs worthwhile. And exams tend to be seasonal - you're better off (financially speaking) getting something more regular.

But then you’re more tied to a job.

I didn’t want a job as such but something I could dip in and out of and then be able to go on holiday out of school holidays.

Such a joy being able to pay £500 instead of a £1000 for a holiday

But then you’re more tied to a job.

I didn’t want a job as such but something I could dip in and out of and then be able to go on holiday out of school holidays.

Such a joy being able to pay £500 instead of a £1000 for a holiday

I have done that this year. It’s NMW and the minutes are counted! Exam invigilators are paid for whatever exam they are invigilating plus 30 mins beforehand and up to 10 mins after. The shifts can be very short. The school is lucky to have some ex-teachers doing it.

I am just finishing some mock exam stuff but I really doubt that I will do it next year. Think I made £1k before tax last year from invigilation and I was told I was lucky as I had been given art invigilation and so got extra hours.

But then you’re more tied to a job.
That's why I put in the "financially speaking" caveat.

I didn’t want a job as such but something I could dip in and out of and then be able to go on holiday out of school holidays.
If we are talking about invigilating school exams then the June dates are a pain because you miss out on some of the cheap-holiday season.