So here I am, sixty four and said to be looking healthy for my age. I have an early teacher's pension, not much, but it is regular, and my state pension comes in June 2015, along with a small rise in my teacher's pension. Then the text message arrives from the supply teaching agency: am I looking for long term teaching work, reply if I am seeking it? I have not replied. Why? I have already told them that my resignation date is April. So why don't I grab a bit more money? Easy, it's about lifestyle. I am building a lifestyle that puts long term employed work behind me, a lifestyle that fits in with my feelings and self-awareness. Yes, I know that schools are becoming desperate for qualified Religious Education Teachers, but I do not feel up to taking the high pressure of the state school system any longer. Know thyself; and it is simply a matter of saying that I know when to stop.
Pretirement means assessing where you are. You have to first consider your health and ability to take pressure. In my case my health is very good, but I feel less able to take high pressure situations of the kind that you find in school work. So that is stopping, but your self-awareness should show you what you can do, and there is so much that is possible. The key is to pace yourself. If you go with your natural pace you can work for ages. But if you over-pressure yourself, then you will feel it and be ill.
Retreating to activities that you enjoy is very desirable, as it maintains your motivation, enabling you to continue for many a year. These kind of activities combine work and recreation, so you are working but replenishing yourself at the same time. Some can be voluntary activities. My father, who died in 2004, at 82, spent much of his retirement working for the Catholic Church as a Eucharistic minister, lay reader, charity worker and as an organizer for parish events. A blessed retirement in which he earned nothing to add to his pension, he was happy doing what he loved.
For me, the recreational activities are writing and gardening. I am on the allotment committee and we give help to inexperienced gardeners, particularly to the handicapped people who have taken up a half plot. I have some economically profitable interests, but they are activities that I find amenable, and I can do these for years to come, please God.
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Thanks. An agency contacted me today for a lecturing job. I turned it down. I have enough money and plenty of productive activity to do.
This is an excellent piece.
Keeping you up to date. My strategy is to write, garden and work for the examination boards. My political party, local branch, came to me and said that they realize that I will not be standing for council elections again, but can I act as a kind of elder statesman to the young candidates that they want to bring forward. I am also been elected vice chair of my allotment association and an official of the area society. This shows how giving up full time work can be the door to a more positive way of life.
In a few weeks time I will add my state pension to my occupational pension, which I took early. I will do some paid work afterwards, but I will mainly write, garden and work for the allotment society, with maybe a bit of work for my political party. I won't need much money.
My husband is in this pretirement stage. He recently moved from working full time to just a few days a week. At first he was concerned about finances and what he would do with his time. However, we learned very quickly to adapt to a much lower income and are spending much more valuable and enjoyable time together going for walks and doing gardening. It has become a really pleasurable time of life.
Some significant pretirement events this week. I decided to finish classroom work for good, a few weeks ahead of the planned date.
But the great announcement can be made now. I spoke of helping with grandchildren in a general sense, but was not ready to state that my first grandchild is on the way, due in late August. I knew when I wrote the article, but my son did not want to declare until the mother had had her three month scan. That's why I could not reply to you, Ologsinquito, when you said how blessed I was with grandchildren. I would normally have replied.
Good advice Frank, thank you.
In the UK employers are obliged to provide a pension scheme, and basic medical treatment is free, though old age care is not. What you say about pretirement is of great worth, as it shows that it is affected by conditions that vary between countries. The reason that I see self-reliance as an integral part of pretirement is that it is taking control of one's life at a time when employment opportunities are shrinking. No school will give me a long temr job now that I am sixty four, and I do not want one, but I have my eye open for small opportunities that wll make me money.
With inflation and cost of living on the rise, one needs to be wise and practical. I need to plan my retirement income here and now, I really do not have a choice. My mother was fortunate because she had pension, now with dwindling opportunities in government sector, people cannot rely on old age pension schemes.
Also, private companies do not offer retirement benefits. Medical expenses are the most important and a big chunk of your income will go in paying those bills. If you are healthy, you can definitely make it work. Pre-retirement as put by the author gives us a thought to contemplate and be prepared for the retirement when it strikes at us at difficult times - we might not be ready yet and with the knowledge that we are no longer employable.
The key, Telesto, is to think lifestyle. What is the lifestyle that you want? As a writer you will be a cerebral person at home in her own thoughts and probably more interested in ideas than possessions, though you need money to live. Try to design a life around who you are. I find that who I am makes be best in quiet situations, working alone as a writer/examiner or with individuals, so I have tried to design my life accordingly.