The Retirement Newsletter: Into the home stretch?
Issue Number: -3.5 — How is it going?
Welcome
Welcome to issue -3.5 – into the homestretch.
It now feels like things are moving fast. I can see the finishing line. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
It feels like I am in my final days at work, and the start of my retirement is imminent. But I still have seven weeks to go, which feels like a long time.
Planning
I’ve been planning for my retirement for about 40 years.
The only piece of financial advice my father ever gave me was to make sure that I got a job with a good pension. And when I started working at a university in the UK, I had a good pension.
Unfortunately, over the years, changes have eroded the quality of the pension, but it is still a good pension compared to many.
Despite all my planning, the end feels quite chaotic.
So what is going on?
Well, as always, there are things that I need to do, and there are things that are happening that catch me by surprise.
Things I need to do
I’m discovering that when you retire, there are many things you must do.
I thought the process would be pretty straightforward, but it isn’t.
I had naïvely assumed that all I had to do to retire was write a letter and give it to my boss. (I got chatGPT to write the letter. It did an excellent job, and the letter only needed a minor edit.)
I wrote the letter and handed it to my boss.
A week later, I received an email saying I had resigned to the wrong person. I should have resigned not to my boss, not even my boss’s boss, but to the person who is the boss of my boss’s boss — if that makes sense. I had to go three levels up at the university. Why?
It was all very confusing.
I was then told I had to speak to my HR manager, which I did.
The HR manager confirmed that they had received my resignation letter.
I foolishly assumed that was it.
But no.
For some reason, I also need to talk to payroll and somebody about my pension. Unfortunately, neither payroll nor the pensions people seem to be able to respond to my emails. I emailed them, and they said they would reply in three days, but I heard nothing. It’s now been a month, nearly two, and I still haven’t heard anything, despite follow-up emails.
Will this hold up my retirement? Is this part of a cunning plan to keep me working?
Why is it so complicated?
And why is HR not responding to my emails?
Is this some strange conspiracy to prevent me from retiring, or am I just getting paranoid?
Things that surprise me
This is an odd one.
These are things that I hadn’t thought about but keep catching me by surprise.
Generally, they are the "last time” things.
For example, this week, I gave my last lecture.
It felt very odd to know that that was the last time I would be standing in the lecture theatre with a group of students, talking to them about some aspect of biomedical sciences — it didn’t feel real. I also found it surprisingly emotional.
As I left the theatre, I couldn’t help but think about all the time I had spent studying and passing that knowledge to the students. It felt wrong to be stopping.
Last month, I taught my last laboratory session.
As I left the lab, I glanced over my shoulder at the lab benches and wondered how many times I had run lab sessions over the years. How many students had gone through lab classes with me? How many students had I taught to pipette, use a spectrophotometer, and work safely in the lab? The number must be well into the thousands if not several thousand.
I thought about all the years I had spent perfecting my lab skills and passing them on to students. I would not be doing that any more.
Teaching my last lab affected me more than I expected. It feels wrong to hang up my lab coat. I will miss my time in the lab, both doing and teaching science. I still miss doing lab-based research, and it has been many years since I stopped working at the bench.
Then there are things that I am doing for the last time, and I think, “What a relief that I never have to do that again”.
Interestingly, nearly all these “what a relief” things are connected to marking, administration and meetings.
I have filled in my last end-of-year teaching reports. I have completed my last forms on student attainment and attrition rates. No more timetabling. What a relief!
Unfortunately, I still have some marking to do — actually, I’ve got a lot of marking to do. But, soon, even that will be over.
Overall, I have been amazed at how emotional I have felt about stopping teaching. I will miss it. But when feel myself missing teaching, all I have to do is think about admin and marking, and the pain goes away.
Travel — Nostalgia Corner
This was the next stage of my ‘world tour’ of Southeast Asia (and a bit of Australia). From Langkawi, I moved on to the Cameron Highlands:
Malaysia — Driving to the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia — My drive to the Highlands from Kuala Lumpur — what a drive!
Malaysia — Heritage Hotel, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia — It was not the best hotel, and I had an unwelcome guest in the middle of the night.
Malaysia — Cameron Valley Tea House, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia — Anyone for tea? I found looking at tea plantations strangely relaxing.
Malaysia — Land Rovers in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia — Why are there so many old Land Rovers in the Cameron Highlands? It was weird.
Malaysia — Cameron Highlands and Poly-tunnels — They do like a poly-tunnel in the Cameron Highlands.
Next week, I will tell you about my tour of the Highlands with Hill Top Travel and Tour and the search for a Rafflesia.
Next week
Next week, in issue -3, there are only six weeks to go, and I will be looking at how things are progressing to ease me into my retirement.
Thanks
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Until next time,
Nick
PS, If you want to contribute something to the newsletter — a story, advice, anything — please get in touch.