How many retired folks do we have on this forum?

I was born near the end of the Baby Boomer era (1963), and figure I still got a good 20 years of work ahead of me before I can retire.  Hoping my ears will still appreciate my Naim kit at that point .  Yet to be determined.

You  missing the grandkids, Mango?   ;-)

Chris

Count me in as a Greytop. Called it a day at 60. But as in my profile the  BIG mistake i made was not calling it a day at 50 same as her indoors. Work was just a way of making money,now i can enjoy life and do what i want to do when i want to do it.

Mista H

I'm retired, and thankfully fit and well.

Still doing a little bit of consultancy and have a wide range of hobbies.

One problem with retirement -

You don't know how much you have left of it - one year or thirty?  Difficult to plan.

One bit of advice for those not yet retired -

Develop your hobbies and recreational skills when you are younger.  It is easier then, and perhaps you will be satisfyingly or even professionally good at a hobby when you retire.  Then you will have something worthwhile to fall back on.  Otherwise its the six-pack of lager and watching Jeremy Kyle every day.

Don overcast downtown York

I arrived in 1944,   my Mum was there at the time & she said I did - so there

And she is still around for questioning if anyone doubts it. 

I kicked the compulsion to get up & catch early morning planes & spend weekends working instead of taking kids to do stuff & travelling for weeks/months in places not on the map in 2009. 

I miss some of it like a hole in the head with targets, schedules, deadlines, objectives, PMP, BS & US style PC. 

I loved the technical problems - the more challenging the better

I miss - really miss - the people, work colleagues & customers, travel & the people en-route

Did I mention travel, did I mention the weekends with nothing to do except go look & photo animals, walk around & soak up the atmosphere in cities & other places & best of all take in the views of the best views in some parts our very large & beautiful planet.

Now my life is full of other stuff, new knees, DIY, gardening & a raft of other things but best of all is doing stuff & travelling to places we both like.

Mike, sounds like you have an awful life.

I'm guilty too. I planned to retire at 55 in 2005 and, despite dire warnings from my colleagues that I'd be incredibly bored, suffer mental torture, go rapidly downhill and generally revert to a vegetative state, I walked away on the appointed day & I've never regretted it for a moment. I did make myself available for consultative work after a plea from the new CEO but somehow the company managed to muddle along quite happily without my contribution. 

Of course, as Don has mentioned, you do need to have an interest outside of work but I find so much to occupy me in this world I really have not been at a loss for something to do.

During a recent interview with Sir Alex Ferguson, when asked about his likely retirement plans, he commented that retirement should be a young man's game and he was too old and set in his ways to adapt to a life of leisure outside football. Very wise I thought.

The Naim formula

Retired person = No work

Retired person  = Less debt (hopefully)

Retired person = Disposable income (again hopefully)

Retired person = Developed an earlier interest

Formula

Retired person + disposable income + spare time + established interest = Naim forum member

back to original question

there are probably a lot of retired members on the forum

and why not !!

I did my 38 years at GPO/BT and then another 10 part time driving. I had to give up driving and therefore working end of last year due to a small medical problem. I have now been joined in retirement by my lady, Sally, who after 20 years of teaching has finally been forced into  retirement to save her sanity (?). She will be doing a couple of  part days in a local library.

We hope to have some more "our" time in the years ahead.

As Donuk says the only problem is how long? I guess that question has always been there though hasn't it?

In a sense I consider myself somewhat fortunate.

However I lost my wife to breast cancer at the age of 45.

That put a new perspective on my attitude to life.

At the age of 53 my department re-structured, and I as others, was asked to "apply for my position".

Having lost my wife, and the son having flown the nest I requested voluntary redundancy.

I was asked if I would remain at least for 2 years. That would take me to 55 with a pension without actuarial loss of pension. At 55 I pushed for retirement and got it plus redundancy payment. The company didn't have to let me go and didn't want to, but they honoured our agreement.

Do I miss work? The technical aspects yes,and the people contact. The man management , no.

One thing I learned; don't retire without a plan. I heard of many who retired (best thing since sliced bread; maybe) and vegitated into a premature state of apathy. I took a 2 day a week part time job(no pressure) and spent one day walking in the Peak District with my mate.

Currently I help my son with his business and continue to walk at least one day a week in the Peaks.

The rest of the time I listen to music, do a little reading, look in on the Naim  forum, tend my bonsai trees and as chairman of our society keep it running. The remainder is domestic chores ( cooking dinner etc.) . My partner has her own business and is busy in her own right. I like cooking!!

So don't retire without ensuring you can fill your days. 

p.s. Forgot to mention I do one day a week voluntary service for a local nature conservation organisation. I'm now a trained first aider, dry stone waller, hedge layer, qualified strimmer and chain saw operator. 

I retired at at 52 after returning from 4 years in Australia. I am at college doing a course i have wanted to do for years. I do not miss work at all and find i can fill my days with the simple pleasures of life.

Sadly i will have to get some sort of job next year to keep the wolf from the door, but luckily do not have to return to the slog.

Money for more hifi and cd's dvd's etc would also be nice.

After 25 years in my occupation i decided that was enough.

I really enjoy the college course i am with kids from 18 up to 44 years of age and this has been good. Do not want to become a boring old fart just yet.

Looking at friends who are forced to endure the daily grind i feel very fortunate.

Nearly 57. Wishing and hoping. Unfortunately financially rebuilding since costly divorce in late '90s. Kids still financially holding on. Would be nice to retire at 60 but realistically I think it'll be 65. 

Made redundant at 60, so I decided to retire mainly because of longterm lower disc problems.

Hav'nt regreted it one bit.

Chris N

66 and compelled to retire from my previous work because of age restrictions - [60 and you must be a member of a multi-crewed aircraft with the other pilot(s) under 60, then at 65...........chop....as far as Commercial Air Transport is concerned].

But I had been doing part-time instruction for quite a while and last year turned this into a relaxing and flexible 5 day per week job. Not much pay, but gives me a real purpose and keeps me mentally active.

The other days and holidays are spent with Mrs D either here or in Canada, mountain walking, playing golf, helping with grandchildren.

Good heavens, people must have had fantastic pension plans in the past! I'm 58 and can see me still working in 10 years time. Got my own tiny software company bringing in enough to keep head above water. But Thank You New Labour (and the gurning Gordon Brown) and the Bank of England, my private pension pot would now be enough to keep me in naff all.

Dave, join the club.

I have a small pension from the days when I worked for the government plus a small annuity from the days when I had to save for my own pension pot, plus some savings and investments that I could have put into a pension plan but chose not to. It all amounts to less than the 2/3 final salary scheme that I thought I was going to get when I joined a pension scheme after leaving the government job. But take-overs which scrapped the final salary scheme, plus the effects of Gordon Brown, buggered up those arrangements for me, I guess just like for you.

I don't "have" to work to make ends meet, but it certainly helps. Fortunately, I do enjoy my retirement job and would rather do that than sit around reading the newspaper.

Although I "enjoy" a small gov pension, I consider it wrong that for the most part, non-gov tax-paying workers are effectively funding "gold-plated" pensions for gov and local authority workers.

Cheers

Don

Am 55. Working like crazy ( means a lot! ) in a media company here in Montreal. Hope to work as much as possible if heath - physical and mental - is good, make enough money to be able to afford those great Naim kits...

Yip

yes count me in ... Been retired about 18 months now after 33 years , best thing ever invented , I was double dipping for a while but then i just lost the will to live at work , knowing that I really didn't need to be there ... Spend all day now watching the cricket , football ,American football , snooker , skiing , sky sports , espn , Eurosport , in between i manage to slip in some gardening , times crossword , jogging  , grinding coffee beans .. I look after an old car as well .....i have just started reading some e books as well!!!! , what is going on ,  Ive gone well soft somehow. Busy next few days cricket in India 04:00 am start ... Roy

Well, I've got about 30 more years to go. ;-)

Mohit,

As much as I'm in a position to give advice, just enjoy guiding your youngster during his early growth.  The teachings he receives during his early, formative years will set him on the course for the rest of his life.  His ethics will be learned at home, not at school.  Cheers.

Semi retired 50 years old. I get up at 9am and take a walk in the garden to check out the sea wall (100 metres of beach front looking out at the crystal clear blue waters of the Sulu Sea) which has shown signs of recent wear and tear (the wall not the sea).

I take a dip in the swimming pool or the sea depending on the tide then walk back through the garden eating a mango from one of our fruit trees or some other exotic fruit. I check out the orchids and other plants then I put out a sugar solution for the Sunbirds or sit and watch the Kingfishers. We have (mercifully) very slow growing grass which only needs to be cut twice a year but I sometimes like to water the plants. 

I work between 2 and 4 hours every weekday - academic support for a Russian university - plus an hour or two for my own publishing interests. I potter around the garden with my camera hoping to catch sight of the Sea Eagle who only ever shows up when I don't have the camera in my hands or I sit and look at the sea and local sail boats. We go shopping on a neighbouring island by boat (sometimes we snorkel and feed the tropical fish with bread which they nibble from our hands) or take a long walk along a palm tree lined deserted beach with the dogs. I'm toying with the idea of getting into kite surfing. 

I saw the recession coming years ago and got out of the UK rat race - we have a live-in maid and a pool boy who does odd jobs (he seems to have no family so we send him to school and pay him a salary which makes him a very happy bunny indeed. He is only 14 but he made himself a bed out of scrap wood and a bedroom above the garage even though we offered him his own room/bathroom inside the house. He climbs our coconut trees like a bloody monkey and makes us delicious 'buko' drinks) and we have a  part time gardener (although my wife likes to look after the orchids). I wear shorts and t shirt every day and go about bare footed most of the time. It gets windy from time to time and for six months of the year we have to spoil our views with a wind break but I've never felt cold here even in the strongest wind and rain. If it rains really hard I take some soap and shampoo into the garden for a refreshing shower amongst the tropical flowers. We can';t afford a car so we walk everywhere and this keeps us trim and we enjoy the smiles from the local kids. 

It is not all paradise here and once or twice I have had to go into the garden at night and introduce intruders to millie but its been very quiet for the last 10 months. 

Dear Mr Sniper,

I would be very grateful if you could send me some of your grass seeds. I trust the variety will flourish in the balmy climes of East Anglia?

Thanks in anticipation.