Weeks to go: 134

Issue Number: -134 - A long way to go!

Nick

Jun 28, 2021

Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash

Welcome

Welcome to the second newsletter, issue number -134.

Now, you may have noticed that my newsletters have a minus number. Why?

Well, I am counting down to zero week - the week I retire.

So, I have 134 weeks to go! It seems like a long way off, but it feels like only yesterday I started my first job.

Planning

In the last newsletter, issue -135, I started talking about planning and how I am already on my second plan, if not my third or fourth. And there is nothing wrong with that. Plans change. Circumstances change. You need to adapt. But I would argue, you need a plan.

The plan

There are, as I see it, at least four reasons which can dictate when you retire:

Money - you retire when you feel you can afford to retire - when you have enough money in your pension pot.
Health - you retire at an age you feel will give you the correct number of years to enjoy being retired before your health becomes an issue and prevents you from doing those things you want to do.
The government or your employer says you have to retire - becoming increasingly rare, but it can happen.
You have had enough and feel you can no longer do the job, or you need a change, and there are other things you want to do.

Now, maybe, you are just one of the above or a mixture?

For me, it is mainly number 4 - I feel I need a change, plus there are other things I want to do.

However, number 1 - the money - is a significant factor as I want to be "comfortable" in my retirement and hopefully not have too many money worries. I would retire now, and I could, but if I wait another 134 weeks, my pension gets a bit of a boost, and that reduces money worries.

But number 2 (health) also figures in my plans. When will my health fail? Internally, heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, and brain (and other bits), you don't know. But for me, I feel my knees and hips will become an issue as they have received some abuse through hiking and skiing. And I want to hike and ski long into my retirement.

So, when are you going to retire? What is driving you to take the next step?

The Future - what are you going to do?

One of the key things that helped me decide that I wanted to retire was I felt there were other things I want to do.

I have had a long career. I have done a lot. I have worked hard. But now it is time for a change. Time for another career?

What will you do when you retire?

In the news

There is always something funny in the news that has something to do with being retired or involving someone who is retired (or should be retired), and this one amused me:

Tree cut in half in neighbour row over driveway pigeon poo - check out the photo!

Next week

OK, so next week, I will write a little more about planning and tell you how I came up with my plan, what I put in it and how I tried to make it work.

Thanks

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Until next time,