Well I’ve finished my first retirement challenge, Visiting a Different Cafe Every Day for 30 Days and it worked out well. When I first thought of this ‘challenge’ I was mostly having a laugh with myself, it’s hardly a challenge to go to cafes and lots of people commented “can...
I’m just past the one month mark in my retirement and just moving out of the – I’m on holiday – phase and moving into the – rest of my life – phase. It’s a slightly disconcerting feeling, but a hopeful one. During the first month I took some concrete...
Now that I’ve retired from traditional work I have to face up to the fact that for the next 10 years I’m living off a fixed lump sum and thereafter living off a pension who’s value waxes and wanes with the vagaries of the stock market. Although I’ve lived for...
The main reason that I decided to retire was that work had stopped being fun. For over three decades I’d loved my work, it provided me with friends, status, accomplishment and lot’s of laughs and excitement, but gradually that changed. Conference calls replaced face to face interactions, strangers replaced friends,...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. This is a difficult post to write, I’ve been in paid work in some form or another for over 40 years, 30 years in traditional employment and...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. I’m resigning and retiring tomorrow, so this post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life. It’s a perfect time to...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. I’ve just started to read the classic Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and it opens with a description of the people who shaped his life. It struck me...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. I’m 52 this year which many might consider a bit young to retire and it’s not like I didn’t have other options, but in the end I...