Everybody’s talking at me…….
8July 5, 2012 by welshcyclist
All I seem to hear, these days, is talk of retirement and pensions. Quite frankly, it’s getting me down, very probably, because I don’t believe that I have provided adequately enough for our dotage, and it’s far too close. I am sixty-one and a half.
I’m the oldest of 18 plus employees at the power signalbox where I work, by about 8-10 years, the youngest is in his late twenties, the majority 35-45. Retirement and how much pension they’re going to get is a major topic of conversation. Talk about wishing your life away.
Some while ago, I mentioned, in this blog, that I felt retirement was a bit scary. Others commented that it was to be embraced as an opportunity to do the things I have always wanted to do. Well that would be hard, when I still have responsibilities and people who depend on me. Sure, I’d love to drop everything and pedal off on a bicycle tour to everywhere and nowhere (baby)! But it can’t happen, not unless I win the lottery, and contrive a rikshaw contraption to tow “her indoors” around the world with me. And yes  I have checked the various sites selling such pedalling machines, but they’re £3000 plus.
It would be great though! It remains just a pipe dream.
So, why are these colleagues of mine, all rabbiting on about retirement, 10-15 years at least for them in the future?  Â
If I was them I wouldn’t be so confident, not the way the world economy is stuttering at present.
It’s frightening!
Welshcyclist's Weblog 
You make a good point there. It’s the responsibilities that weigh on your mind. Luckily the children had long left home by the time I retired and my wife enjoys a little part time work just for the sociability so we are in a good place as they say. Then it’s fingers crossed for your health. I hope things work out and you can enjoy your retirement when it comes because it is great if you have things to do and time to do them in.
Reblogged this on Tim's cycling blog and commented:
I consider myself retired at weekends… I relax, potter around the house or garden, but I don’t cycle, so I’m hoping my retirement will be more of the same but with cycling in there too. I’m looking forward to that, my work is generally good, nice people and I enjoy the commute via bicycle, but it all takes up too much time. I never have enough time, retirement will give me time to do whatever I want, that will be nice.
With regards retirement planning, I think the best anyone can do is live within their means, save and pay into a pension (alongside employer). Notice I put pension last, it is and always has been important, but with recent pension issues I would never solely rely on that any longer.
Modern people don’t seem to live within their means, we are well into the credit age.
I have always saved hard and not wasted money on gadgets etc – if you have a fancy mobile phone on contract then you are not me! – nor do I have a fancy car, my car is an aging Hyundai Amica, soon my bicycle will be worth more than my car.
Retirement will happen, I look forward to embracing it or getting a second and third job to pay my crippling debt.
Yes, living within one’s means that is the key, but 2nd and 3rd jobs will still be important for me. As long as I can pedal to each eh?
I think, (without wishing my life away), retirement is the thing I’m looking forward to the most. This means I can do what I love instead of what I have to. Rugby Coaching and cycling (when you’re already biked up) isn’t expensive.
Work is a necessary evil that I’d rather not be doing.
Great to hear from you Clive, I wish it was that simple for me, but I’ve got loads to sort out, before I make the leap. I know that I am lucky in so many ways, so I should appreciate how things are going currently, I’m still pedalling. Hopefully the future will sort itself. Cheers
Been there, done that – and have ended up living like a peasant in a very foreign country. And guess what, I’m surviving it – and even enjoying it, rather more than I enjoyed working as a salaryman for forty-something years. Yes, contemplating it is frightening, but once the evil day arrives you just sort of do it, and discover that it’s not so evil after all.
Regards, Nick
Hi Nick, Good to hear from you, a bit of deja vu, I’ve moaned about this before, but sadly I’m not, as you put it, “…a reject from the consumer society”, like yourself. Oh yes, I’d love to be, however, as Amen Korner sang, ” I can’t get free from these chains, free from these chains oh, oh, oh.” It will be forced on me soon enough, I don’t dread the stopping work aspect, just not being able to provide a comfortable life for her indoors. I feel alot of pressure around that. All my own fault, I should have planned and saved as all, it appears, my colleagues have been doing since they were knee high to a grasshopper. “Old age” or OAPism has just crept up on me. Some people control their destiny, life has just kind of led me from here to hither. A ” Magical Mystery Tour” that waited and took me away. I just keep pedalling hoping it will all sort itself out.
Cheers, Keiron.
You think that’s bad, our local bank is trying to sell us a pension scheme for out son, who is five: and this isn’t ths first time either, the first suggestion that we should do this was in a letter we got a week after he was born.
Apart from the rather depressing nature of this, it also assumes that the economy will always grow, the bankers will never make a mistake, and there will never be a major change in the way we do business for the next century. I’m not sure that’s a sensible assumption to make.
And with your colleagues in the power box: what future does the job have with ETRMS coming online (perhaps, if it can be persuaded to work) in the future?