Retirement?

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This thread is equally uplifting and depressing

 

[Alan Clifford]

November 2019, 2 months renting a house on Rockley Golf course in Barbados. February, 2020. 2 months renting an apartment at Langebaan Country Estate in South Africa. This was the new normal until Covid. We don't have a lot of money but we don't spend a lot whilst we are here in the UK. Our golf club is 1.5 miles away.

Don't do part time work if you want to go away for longer periods.

I retired at 57, 10 years ago. What you get is time. So instead of a 2 day weekend break, you choose a more modest hotel and go for a week.

Unfortunately, now stuck in Blighty after being caught in the lockdown in South Africa. Soon as we get the vaccine, we'll be off again.

 

[BrianM]

Hopefully 55 for me, I’ve been putting 25% of my salary into my pension and work where putting in 19.5%, very decent contribution.
Im unemployed now, so will need to see what I get next and take it from there.
I’ve got a holiday house as well which provides a very good income.
Only 16 years to go ??

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

After a bit of reflection and discussion with my Mrs over the Christmas and NY break I yesterday submitted my request to drop to 4 day week. She noticed that I was a less grumpy old git when I had a bit of time away from work...and my sums indicated that we could afford for me to drop a day,

With 'phase down in advance of retirement' as one of the reasons for my request...and to give fair warning - I stuck 8-12months as timescales for that. We'll see on that one.

Company process has it as a max of 6weeks from request to decision - but hopefully I might get it approved and in place sooner than 1st March date I've stuck on my request.

I didn't add that a benefit to the company would be that I'd be cheaper to give 'Voluntary Exit'

 

[IanM]

This is my first week of working only "3 days a week" in the guise of your second paragraph above.

I've failed so far, as I was asked to do Monday and Tuesday this week to cover some meetings! I am doing 4 days next week, and who knows thereafter. Mind you, courses are all closed, so i might as well be earning!

 

[USER1999]

Once we hit April ish, more daylight, and hopefully open golf courses, I am planning to ask for a 3 day week, with the option to work the other days if required. The company has nothing to lose by this, and can only really gain, as they will be paying me less if we are not busy.
It's too simple, so they will probably throw it out.

 

[oxymoron]

Requested a 4 day week myself , fed up to the back teeth with the place as it is now so pushing the firm to get a youngster in i can train up
but get the old " we cant recruit until you put your notice in" , this is wearing thin so i may just go straight for the 3 month notice and stuff it .
Trouble is you feel like you are letting your colleagues down leaving them short handed when you have been a close team for quite a while .

 

[Hobbit]

This is my first week of working only "3 days a week" in the guise of your second paragraph above.

I've failed so far, as I was asked to do Monday and Tuesday this week to cover some meetings! I am doing 4 days next week, and who knows thereafter. Mind you, courses are all closed, so i might as well be earning!

The very reason I decided not to go for phased retirement! And even then I got asked to lead a project in the US for 6 weeks, post-retirement. Guaranteed that a 6 week project would have some overrun and then the support phase would run a lot longer.

 

[Hobbit]

Requested a 4 day week myself , fed up to the back teeth with the place as it is now so pushing the firm to get a youngster in i can train up
but get the old " we cant recruit until you put your notice in" , this is wearing thin so i may just go straight for the 3 month notice and stuff it .
Trouble is you feel like you are letting your colleagues down leaving them short handed when you have been a close team for quite a while .

I know what you mean in terms of letting people down but if there were redundancies, a) the company wouldn't give a second thought to dropping you, and b) if you were the one made redundant your colleagues would shed a tear for all of 5 mins then thank their lucky stars its you not them.

I was gutted when my dad, a 40 year company man, told me his loyalty only went from pay cheque to pay cheque, i.e. exactly the same loyalty the company would give him. A lot of years later I realised what he meant, not that I was ever made redundant.

 

[Canfordhacker]

I know what you mean in terms of letting people down but if there were redundancies, a) the company wouldn't give a second thought to dropping you, and b) if you were the one made redundant your colleagues would shed a tear for all of 5 mins then thank their lucky stars its you not them.

I was gutted when my dad, a 40 year company man, told me his loyalty only went from pay cheque to pay cheque, i.e. exactly the same loyalty the company would give him. A lot of years later I realised what he meant, not that I was ever made redundant.

This is exactly right. I was made redundant after 22 years, worked my nuts off right to the last day. My advice to anybody is to put yourself first as nobody else will.

I went three days a week 18 months ago, and would be retired now except for Brexit and Covid - just preserving options a few week longer, then three months notice, summer, holidays, travel, golf.

 

[harpo_72]

Requested a 4 day week myself , fed up to the back teeth with the place as it is now so pushing the firm to get a youngster in i can train up
but get the old " we cant recruit until you put your notice in" , this is wearing thin so i may just go straight for the 3 month notice and stuff it .
Trouble is you feel like you are letting your colleagues down leaving them short handed when you have been a close team for quite a while .

Put yourself first if or when the redundancies start, your colleagues will have to suck it up, anyway.
If the organisation hasn’t planned for an ageing workforce, then that is poor planning on their part.
Basically “team” is a misused word in business, collection of disposable people paid the least amount to do a task - doesn’t have a word/description. We are swamped with business gurus propagating this rubbish.
By all means play the game, but in the end life is not a dress rehearsal and put yourself first. Do what suits you.
The truth is your oil in a machine not a cog ( they stopped existing long ago) , when the machine isn’t working the oil is changed, when the oil is old, then the oil is changed ... it’s a very pessimistic view of life, but if you accept it, so called hard decisions are so much easier.

 

[NearHull]

I had two employers in my adult life of forty six years, both were extremely large organisation. In both I wore my heart on my sleeve, I really cared. But, in both cases I made a decision to leave them and planned my departure over a year - in both cases, good decisions. Whilst the notice obviously gave me time to plan the next phases of my life, it meant that I had rejected them and that was paramount. I now sit in retirement, occasionally thinking back to my working life, but with, I think, a balanced view. I committed to the organisations and was appropriately rewarded but the day I left there was no stuttering of the work place, the hole that I left just disappeared and I was happy to come to terms with the idea that the organisations were just that, impersonal and self centre groups of disparate people tasked with the same aims.

editted to add.
My younger sister once told me ‘ Cherish the past, look to the future, but live for today’. Wise words that do really work.

Oh! And don’t go to reunions.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

This is exactly right. I was made redundant after 22 years, worked my nuts off right to the last day. My advice to anybody is to put yourself first as nobody else will.

I went three days a week 18 months ago, and would be retired now except for Brexit and Covid - just preserving options a few week longer, then three months notice, summer, holidays, travel, golf.

Thinking now that I should have requested to drop two days...thinking that the nature of what I have recently moved to work on could support that. Anyway. I can make many weeks 3-day weeks by taking holiday.

 

[clubchamp98]

I had two employers in my adult life of forty six years, both were extremely large organisation. In both I wore my heart on my sleeve, I really cared. But, in both cases I made a decision to leave them and planned my departure over a year - in both cases, good decisions. Whilst the notice obviously gave me time to plan the next phases of my life, it meant that I had rejected them and that was paramount. I now sit in retirement, occasionally thinking back to my working life, but with, I think, a balanced view. I committed to the organisations and was appropriately rewarded but the day I left there was no stuttering of the work place, the hole that I left just disappeared and I was happy to come to terms with the idea that the organisations were just that, impersonal and self centre groups of disparate people tasked with the same aims.

editted to add.
My younger sister once told me ‘ Cherish the past, look to the future, but live for today’. Wise words that do really work.

Oh! And don’t go to reunions.

Totally agree except the last bit.
I enjoy seeing the lads again .

 

[IanM]

Reunions are great... if there are people there you want to see.

 

[IanM]

Interesting supplementary thought ... looking at what needs doing, both work and personally, I will do 17 days work in January... my average over a normal year. Next month it could be as low as 12.

But I am sat here thinking, it's winter, we're locked down, so I might as well get a days pay, or Donna will have me sorting out the garage!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Interesting supplementary thought ... looking at what needs doing, both work and personally, I will do 17 days work in January... my average over a normal year. Next month it could be as low as 12.

But I am sat here thinking, it's winter, we're locked down, so I might as well get a days pay, or Donna will have me sorting out the garage!

Rather why I was thinking I wouldn't drop Fridays until Spring was upon us. But 1st March - if that's what turns out - Spring and lighter evenings not too far away - though not sure I'm going to be playing much golf on a Friday in early March.

 

[SocketRocket]

I had two employers in my adult life of forty six years, both were extremely large organisation. In both I wore my heart on my sleeve, I really cared. But, in both cases I made a decision to leave them and planned my departure over a year - in both cases, good decisions. Whilst the notice obviously gave me time to plan the next phases of my life, it meant that I had rejected them and that was paramount. I now sit in retirement, occasionally thinking back to my working life, but with, I think, a balanced view. I committed to the organisations and was appropriately rewarded but the day I left there was no stuttering of the work place, the hole that I left just disappeared and I was happy to come to terms with the idea that the organisations were just that, impersonal and self centre groups of disparate people tasked with the same aims.

editted to add.
My younger sister once told me ‘ Cherish the past, look to the future, but live for today’. Wise words that do really work.

Oh! And don’t go to reunions.

Reminds me of something I once read on a bog wall. ?

'If you work and do your best you'll get the sack like all the rest.
On your tombstone neatly laquered
Not just dead but bloody knackered'

 

[williamalex1]

Reminds me of something I once read on a bog wall. ?

'If you work and do your best you'll get the sack like all the rest.
On your tombstone neatly laquered
Not just dead but bloody knackered'

The tombstone will show your date of birth and date of death with a just a dash in between.
The Dash is a poem by Lynda Ellis, used by some Humanists . worth a google search, sadly I don't know how to post links

 

[PhilTheFragger]

The tombstone will show your date of birth and date of death with a just a dash in between.
The Dash is a poem by an unknown author [ i think ] used by some Humanists . worth a google search, sadly I don't know how to post links

There you go Billy ?

THE DASH
the poem by Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning... to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars... the house... the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard; are there things you'd like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.
To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we've never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile... remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.
So when your eulogy is being read, with your life's actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?