Thread: It''s Finally Happening RETIREMENT

Retired two years ago. Promised I would finish the house renos in six months and we would be out in the boar fishing at least once a month. To date reno's no where near finished and boat has been out twice. Busier than when I was working.

Congrats Brian, it sounds like a fun plan.

Coincidentally I will be joining the ranks of the retired about 3 weeks after you.

Even though its 5 months away my wind down at work is about to start in just 3 weeks.
I plan to clean out my office by the end of Nov and then take 8 weeks holidays over Dec - Jan and then go back to work (no office - just a hot desk) for 4 weeks in Feb.
A rather strange arrangement but that's the terms of my redundancy agreement.

Even though SWMBO is seriously into horse riding, both she and I have no big ideas about owning some sort of property to cater for horses.
Instead she wants to finish off her basic riding instructors qualification so she can teach at a riding school for a couple of 1/2 days a week and continue learning equestrian stuff.

Even though we have done a lot of travelling and lived for extended periods in the US, Europe, Canada and Japan, we have only ever moved our household effects once in 35 years and that was moving out and back into our house when we went to the US for 2.5 years. Just that one move was enough to get me to sit tight on our small inner city suburban block.

So for the foreseeable future we have decided to stay where we are I have upgraded my shed and it is more or less ready for action.
I have dozens of milled logs in the last few years and they are now dry and awaiting reprocessing at the tree loppers yard and a few other places scattered around WA.

Roll on Feb!

I am pleased to here that you are retiring. I am still about 3 to 5 years away from this event but as soon as I finish on the forum I am going to look for a position which does not keep me away from home for 11 hours every day and which lets me have more shed time.

Not wanting to wish my life away however I envy you guys. All the best with this phase of your life, you deserve it. Enjoy

I retired at the age of 57. The first 10 years were good then health problems started.(Prostate Cancer) Now as I approach 75 I seem to be planning my life around the medical profession. Nothing life threating, this time a second knee replacement next month. My advice is enjoy your retirement while your physically able as old age is not fun.

Whitewood

I retired in 2006 aged 58 and it was a strange feeling. My wife sold our house and we moved into a caravan while I negotiated with the prospective purchaser of our business. I worked as an owner driver for a concrete company, a job I had had for 26 years and which I really enjoyed. The thought of retirement didn't really have me all that excited to tell the truth. Anyhow the buyer had difficulty raising the money initially and time rolled by and I just went to work in my truck each day, as I had for a quarter of a century, but after 6 weeks of his dithering SWMBO was getting pretty damn impatient.
Finally the day came when the money was in our bank, I stepped out of the truck, handed him the keys, took my cup from the smoko room, said tata to the crew and wandered off. Two days later with the caravan behind the car and SWMBO driving the ute we left town.
My job entailed very long hours and after all those years the feeling permanently tired becomes "normal". I can tell you that now after 6 years of regular nightly sleep I feel better than I did when I was working.


Geoff.

Originally Posted by Boringgeoff

. . . . .
My job entailed very long hours and after all those years the feeling permanently tired becomes "normal". I can tell you that now after 6 years of regular nightly sleep I feel better than I did when I was working.

I'm really looking forward to the sleep.

Long work hours, and the 24 hours a day 7 days a week stress of line managing 65+ people is what finally did it for me. Although I stepped down as line manager over 2 years ago and my sleep has improved considerably since, the stress still haunts me and I just want out. One issue for me is once I threw the retirement switch I cannot leave fast enough and staying engaged in the work has become very difficult.

That's buggered it! You won't have any time to do what you WANT to do!

I injured my back, at work for IBM, when I was about 45. 3 months before my 50th I was offered a good package after having a year off in total on the sick. I took it. That was 18 years ago. Not a good reason for getting out but a fantastic result. I started making wooden toys then and haven't really looked back.

Brian, I hope that you enjoy your retirement as much as I have done with mine! Not always fit and arthritis in my lower back, neck and hands, but what the hell, I'm enjoying. No, we are enjoying our life here in France now and wouldn't change it!!

Good luck to you mate!

Originally Posted by Jethrow

Hi all




By the way do furniture removalists have a problem with moving machinery (something i havent checked out yet)

I wondered the same thing, but booked them anyway. I asked the bloke who quoted if I needed to dismantle my 9X20 metal lathe, which weighed about 150kg. His reply was "no worries". On the day of the move, two men lifted the lathe, complete with its bench onto a trolley and loaded it onto their truck, as easily as if it was a bedside table!

I'm not quite there yet but hopefully staring down the barrel. I tried resigning earlier this year, in April, but got talked into taking long service leave on half pay to extend 3 months leave into 6 months. Now with about a month before I'm due to return to work they're offering voluntary retrenchments and I've been accepted

I've been working on my property near Roma SW QLD building a cordwood yurt from cypress, my own trees and other locally grown stuff. I agree what others say, I've never been busier but enjoy what I'm doing. Still need more shed time to learn finer skills for turning and furniture making but those tools are back in Brisbane. Out there I work using a small generator and a small metal shed for storage. I need to start a thread about this one day.

I will need to find work out in Roma but would be happy doing part time stuff just for the extra dollars.

cheers
Derek