What AGE are you planning or indeed DID retire... and if pos.. how.. ?

Re: What AGE are you planning or indeed DID retire... and if pos.. how

Planning on going off for a few years next year and see what happens. We will both be 37. Rent from my flat + interest on savings + return on other investments.

I've never liked working - I've been wanting (and semi-planning) escape of one sort or another since my very first job...

If I could find a way of making a living that I enjoy then it'd be different, but being tied to a fast-changing technical job I can't even have time off and go back, so it'd have to be something different...
 
Re: What AGE are you planning or indeed DID retire... and if pos.. how

[ QUOTE ]
Retirement means different things to different folk. I say we're retired because my husband no longer heads to the office, but he's busier now than he ever was then.

[/ QUOTE ]So true. I 'retired' from by professional accounting job six years ago, but it does not mean I am not 'working'. Many of my friends think that I just sit in the cockpit sipping drinks and looking at sunsets. That is part of cruising, but actually a very small part. I try to explain to my land lubber friends that we have just exchanged one type of full-time work (office-based) for another (boat-based). Sometimes it can take a whole day just to exchange gas bottles and that is then your 'work' for that day. Running a yacht is a fulltime job, but I would not like to exchange it for anything. It is very nice work.

"A sh***y day at sea is still better than a good day at the office."
 
I was lucky enough to retire with a pension at 53 (now58). I thought I'd done well until I was moored next to a couple in Almirimar who had left UK in 1986 on a 12 month sabatical and never gone back, they didn't have much money but a great life. Tradgically, I heard recently that the lady has since died - would have been more tradgic if they had worked all those years planning to set off and sail in their old age.
 
What an interesting post.

Really a minefield.......Retirement age well - early! 51 & 46 yrs. Swapped home for 3 small 'starter' houses which pay for our lifestyle. Plus a bit from stocks and shares.

Whatever you think you'll need TREBLE it and you'll not go too far wrong. The trouble with all these ideals is what do you really want out of life? Scrimping & saving is for the young! If you are used to a 'certain' type of lifestyle then plan for that or you're not going to be happy for long. Our income has dropped by about 30 percent. We could quit the EU and save loads but we're happy where we are and fortunately, at the moment, survive.
At the end of the day budgeting is down to what goes into the bank and what you spend. Simple 2 columns on the balance sheet. Don't be fooled by the 'experts' living on 2/6p per day! 'cos this doesn't include 'free' berthing 'cos you're writing the 'book', trips back to the uk to promote it, etc. Are you prepared to anchor for 12 months of the year and not haul out?

Of course it's feasable to live on virtually nothing but, come on, most of us want a comfortable life this includes marina fees for at least a couple of months, with a lift out and antifoul. Entertaining friends, even if it's only with a couple of beers and a few crisps. Having a meal out once a week/month, drinking a bottle of wine, or more, a day. Phoning relatives/family... it all adds up.
Not trying to be negative but as I said in the beginning - do the sums then x 3.. If we're wrong then you'll save a pretty penny!!
Don't let it stop you from doing it _ the most important thing is to go ahead - today is for living for tomorrow may never come! XXX
 
Soul-searching and self analysis....??? IS there an answer other than 42?

Wow, what an interesting topic, but, is the perceived answer to the question actually retirement or; change of life?

Since the early 1970s, I always had the dream of buying a Nauticat 44 and sailing off to ascertain the South Pacific. It was always that specific boat. However, until now, I have not been in a position to do this, both financially and due partly to the fact that I have been a single-parent for the last 12 years.

Now, however, with work just boring me and stressing me out senselessly, I asked the kids if they fancied living on a boat, and explained my lifelong ambition/dream. My 21 year old son responded positively (yeah, cool Dad. Go for it), while my 16 year old daughter tells me she was planning to get a flat of her own anyway. So, I start to look deeper into it.

First of all, I find my dream boat, the Nauticat 44. However, it does not appeal to me as much as it did in the 1970s. Although then, it seemed large, today it seems too small to liveaboard. So, I look for something bigger, I see a 20 year old 521 which seems to fit the bill. However, all the people in the know to whom I speak, tell me it's too big for a liveaboard as I would spend my whole life maintaining it!

Thus starts a period of introspection. Could I handle the maintenance at my age? Is it really an ideal liveaboard? Why do I want something that big? Am I too old to go off gadding about the world? What am I actually looking for - is it adventure?

The answers are frankly simple: I want something that big simply to mirror the comfort I have in my house. I am not really looking for adventure at all, just something different. Just to basically escape the rat race. I am not really all that eager to see the world. Cruising the UK, Channel Islands, maybe the Med, is as far as I really want to go. All I am after really is escapism, as I am no longer happy with my present lifestyle and possibly haven't been for a long while. But, am I trying to escape from myself? Will the boat fix the problem of depression or will it add to it? Will I stress even more?

While the kids and many friends will no doubt visit me and spend time aboard from time to time, I will essentially be alone (all my wives have run off over the years - so cannot expect a new one to be any different). Maybe I shall be lonely?

Work is not a problem, as although I will give up the job, and have no pension whatsoever, and will have blown all my money on the boat and fitting it out with the necessary mod cons - automatic dishwasher - essential for single man - would I have married so many times if I had known about automatic dishwashers then?), nonetheless, I can work from anywhere with a laptop and a satphone. I could probably scratch a living here and there, maybe write another book or two and so on.

There are a million and one questions, none of them have predictable answers...

At the end of the day, the decision, which could come any day now (well, as soon as the house is sold!) will eventually be made, after much soul searching, probably more as an act of impulse rather than calculation.

Will it be the right decision? Who knows?

Does anyone really care anyway? If it is the wrong decision, then all I have to do, is sell the boat again, buy or rent another flat or house somewhere, get put in an old peoples home, or die. Assuming that is, that I have not already sunk and gone to Davey Jone's locker, because of a crass mistake in my seamanship or weather forecasting or whatever.

Who knows, I might even meet the girl of my dreams, and have a heart attack due to the shock of realising how nice she is! Or other things.

At the end of the day... It really isn't such a big decision, as, save for something drastic happening, the decision to either retire, or to buy a boat and sail into the sunset, can easily be reversed, by simply steering a reciprocal course.

But, what an experience to have missed in life !!!
 
Hello. My name is Maria and I am 40 years old but my students tell me I look 35 years old so that I don't give them any homework.
Anyway, come March 2009, and it cannot come soon enough, I shall retire myself from a successful career of being FILTH - Failed in London, Tried Honshu' and intend to sail my cement boat into the port side of a grp boat called Vivid, the boat belonging to the Maltese skank, Kak, who recently shagged my boyfriend, /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif and after I've done that well, I think a little sojourn in the South Pacific might go down swell. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Like I said, I will consider myself retired at the age of 40 years and 11 months old.
Now I don't have much. I own my boat. I have two flats fully-paid for; one in Turkey and one in South Africa. Enough income comes in from renting out the SA one to cover levies etc.
I have 20k in sterling.
30k US once this slow year is over.
I will live off that and then when the money runs out will sell a flat. If I manage to live longer than my mother and grandmother did - both died in their early 40's[eek] /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif- and I get to the point where I have no money left, both flats have been sold, and I get sick[I have no health insurance or pension], I will just off myself or commit a crime in a country that has good prison food.
So that's how I'm managing to retire at such a young age having never been an executive of a multi-national corporation or a thrice-over divorcee.

Can't wait for the adventure to begin.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Ouch. Thrice? I had to read that four or five times. It's deep. A whole lot more than is written. Or am I reading more there than I should be? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
I haven't been divorced thrice, never married actually, but I bet some women have made a bunch of dosh from divorce and so can afford to set sail, too.
 
AAAhhhh! I seeeee. Yes, they probably have. I didn't though. I just buy everyone houses etc. What I cannot understand is why I get to keep all the kids as well. Please excuse my blinding ignorance. The way your post was written just raised more questions in my mind than it answered. The thrice applies to me I'm afraid. One did run off to Cuba or Jamaica with a Canadian yachtsmen, but his boat sank, and she had to come back. (He quietly sniggers).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

S
How much does re-upholstery cost?
Replies
11
Views
446
Dino
Dino
S
What are these for?
Replies
13
Views
699
Refueler
Refueler
S
Marine Ply for Bulkhead Glasgow
Replies
13
Views
557
sundanceoflorn
S

Share this page

Top