Now i'am really looking forward to the growing season!!

[pauco]

Well after a few months of should i souldent i. I have done it.

End of November i put in a request for early retirement,i will be 62 this year and in December i got the ok. I have worked in the NHS for 35 years, it used to be the Jewel in our countries crown, but alas no more.
The NHS is now run by nothing more than pen-pushing bureaucracy.
Who have still no idea what the NHS is really about!! So for me enough is enough, it's such a sad ending to what started out as a rewarding and interesting job, no not nursing. I work at the sharp end of Pathology.
So come the end of May i will be really looking forward to enjoying my Veg growing, these last few weeks i feel a huge relief and the decision just feels right, my wife has even said she feels she has got her husband of old back, lol.
So roll on spring.

paul.

[TonyF]

Pauco, I've been medically retired twice and voluntarily early retired once and have recently (in the past 4 weeks) closed down and given away all my work related stuff, closed my research company down, got rid of my work library (not easy in itself, hundreds of books, papers and projects) and have decided that at 63, I'm going to enjoy this early retirement which is the reason I moved to France.

For me, it's now the garden, the potager, the woods, building things, making things and only thinking about what we want here, not what clients and insignificant others demand of us.

Welcome to the club, enjoy every minute of it and make every minute count !!!

[Glutton4...]

Oh shut up you two! Remember, some of us haven't even reached 50 yet!








Seriously - best wishes for you both!

[scarletrunner]

Retired 2 years ago aged 58.after 40 years of chemical factory maintenance,do not miss long hours and call outs.Glad to get out in the finish and advise anyone who can to do the same.Now having best times of my life!

[jojo2910]

Enjoy it, I can't wait to retire, but at 30, have a little way to go!

[piskieinboots]

Snowdrop retires in 2015 from the RAF but if he thinks that's it he can jolly well think again

[Jeanied]

I'm being evicted in three months' time. Local authority cutbacks. I wasn't planning on retiring till at least 2018. Hey ho. Just reminding myself that I still do not know what I want to do when I grow up.

[piskieinboots]

...Just reminding myself that I still do not know what I want to do when I grow up.

That's a good point hun - how many of us really ever get to do what we dreamed of as children!

I still don't really know what I want to do for a living - I muddle along

[Florence Fennel]

Oh how I wish I was nearer retirement, but I have at least another 8 years to go because I am the breadwinner and have to pay the mortgage. Enjoy yourselves and make the most of it, you deserve it.

[TonyF]

That's a good point hun - how many of us really ever get to do what we dreamed of as children!

I didn't have any dreams or ambitions when I was a child but in the 80s, after Uni and when J and I got together and started to holiday around Europe, it was always our dream to move to Italy or France when we retired. It didn't happen the way we had thought it would but suddenly everything fell into place and almost 6 years ago to the day we signed to move into our home in France with the garden we had always wanted.

Some people on the French living forums bang on about not living the dream, rose coloured specs etc but for us, it has been - with all the crap that has happened along with everyday living - just what we wanted and is our perfect retirement.

I think one of the advantages of being a baby boomer is that for those of us who chose to work in the public (like us) and private sectors were able to plan our retirements quite well, probably able to be more forward looking than younger people today because of the changes the governments of every stripe have made.

If you have a dream, even a small dream, and you can actually acheive it, you should go for it, planning, research and execution is everything!

[chris]

Small world, Paul ! I'm developing a handbook for pathology that's probably going to be rolled out nation wide and attempted to be sold to Scotland too

I wouldn't mind retiring too, but erm I've only been there a year and 6 months now. It PAINS me to think I've another 37 years (minimum at current retirement age) of my working life to go before I can put my feet up!

[grenhouse]

Retiring sounds pretty awesome, but at 25 I think I have a few years left! Actually I really enjoy my job, and at least teaching gives me 6 weeks in the summer to spend at the lottie!

[pjh75]

Retirement??... not till 2040 at the earliest for me . I do love my job though, having changed in mid-November and I am actually working for the company I dreamed of as a child, although not doing the job I imagined

Both my parents have retired in the past few years and are really enjoying themselves... in fact they jetted off to South America after Christmas and are not due back till the end of January.

Make the most of it I say, to all those people who have put in the years of work to be able to retire, early or otherwise