Enjoying Retirement

[GT3Manthey]

monkfish1 said:

Do you not have any indoor type hobbies?

If i retired today, ive so much lined up both inside and outside, i doubt i would get through it all before my life ends. and i keep adding to it!

I had wondered how I’d fill my time during the winter months but , maybe I’d buzz off to Spain for a month on a cheap trip , learn to cook, use the winter months for indoor decorating etc .
Maybe with a mate spend some time working on a car .

Think that’ll be enough to keep me ticking over

[superlightr]

GT3Manthey said:

monkfish1 said:

Do you not have any indoor type hobbies?

If i retired today, ive so much lined up both inside and outside, i doubt i would get through it all before my life ends. and i keep adding to it!

I had wondered how I’d fill my time during the winter months but , maybe I’d buzz off to Spain for a month on a cheap trip , learn to cook, use the winter months for indoor decorating etc .
Maybe with a mate spend some time working on a car .

Think that’ll be enough to keep me ticking over

or meet up other PH retirees for a curry !

Ill give a shout when Im retired and the curry is on me.

[OldSkoolRS]

Well I'll worry about the bad weather later, but my first day of retirement has been gloriously sunny here: Got on clearing my garage, sorting out my tools, then as it warmed up I moved outside more and did some other jobs on the cars outdoors. Have barely stopped all day, apart from sitting in the garden for coffee/lunch with my wife while she got on doing a few things of her own.

I'm waiting for a Haynes manual to arrive, then I can get my son's car on the drive and replace a timing belt, hopefully tomorrow. Our own car is now washed and polished, ready to go round a few garages to see what we might replace it with.

Next week we're having a few days in Spain, then the following week a min break in Sussex I booked before I knew about the Spain trip (my wife is selling a property there and it's paperwork she needs to do in person).

I don't think I've even scratched the surface of the various things I want to do yet, though at the moment it's more about getting some long overdue jobs done. I find that really cathartic, even if they are small jobs, because they've been niggling for so long. At the moment I'm ahead of those jobs as I managed to get on with a few last week during the wind down to leave, so hopefully more time to go out and enjoy the weather with a few local trips/walks that we've not been on for a while due to various bereavement related factors.

Best news today was that my Dad's Will has finally been released, so we might be able to get probate sorted out at last and shuffle some of the finances around a bit.

[GT3Manthey]

superlightr said:

or meet up other PH retirees for a curry !

Ill give a shout when Im retired and the curry is on me.

As I stated this thread you know I’ll be holding you to that ;-)

[GT3Manthey]

OldSkoolRS said:

Well I'll worry about the bad weather later, but my first day of retirement has been gloriously sunny here: Got on clearing my garage, sorting out my tools, then as it warmed up I moved outside more and did some other jobs on the cars outdoors. Have barely stopped all day, apart from sitting in the garden for coffee/lunch with my wife while she got on doing a few things of her own.

I'm waiting for a Haynes manual to arrive, then I can get my son's car on the drive and replace a timing belt, hopefully tomorrow. Our own car is now washed and polished, ready to go round a few garages to see what we might replace it with.

Next week we're having a few days in Spain, then the following week a min break in Sussex I booked before I knew about the Spain trip (my wife is selling a property there and it's paperwork she needs to do in person).

I don't think I've even scratched the surface of the various things I want to do yet, though at the moment it's more about getting some long overdue jobs done. I find that really cathartic, even if they are small jobs, because they've been niggling for so long. At the moment I'm ahead of those jobs as I managed to get on with a few last week during the wind down to leave, so hopefully more time to go out and enjoy the weather with a few local trips/walks that we've not been on for a while due to various bereavement related factors.

Best news today was that my Dad's Will has finally been released, so we might be able to get probate sorted out at last and shuffle some of the finances around a bit.

Sounds an absolutely perfect start to retirement and I can see me doing similar .

Keep us posted and enjoy

[DT1975]

OldSkoolRS said:

Well I'll worry about the bad weather later, but my first day of retirement has been gloriously sunny here: Got on clearing my garage, sorting out my tools, then as it warmed up I moved outside more and did some other jobs on the cars outdoors. Have barely stopped all day, apart from sitting in the garden for coffee/lunch with my wife while she got on doing a few things of her own.

You need to slow down a bit

I played golf yesterday and today changed the discs & pads on the wifes Mini. That meant clearing the garage which I kind of started a week or so back in very slow time. Everything is now in slow time.

Tomorrow my big decision will be deciding to turn left or right out of the gate when I take the dog for a walk.

[Welshbeef]

DT1975 said:

You need to slow down a bit

I played golf yesterday and today changed the discs & pads on the wifes Mini. That meant clearing the garage which I kind of started a week or so back in very slow time. Everything is now in slow time.

Tomorrow my big decision will be deciding to turn left or right out of the gate when I take the dog for a walk.

Discs and pads and brake fluid - solo work in your garage that’s a fair amount of work. Enjoyable no doubt.

[GT3Manthey]

DT1975 said:

You need to slow down a bit

I played golf yesterday and today changed the discs & pads on the wifes Mini. That meant clearing the garage which I kind of started a week or so back in very slow time. Everything is now in slow time.

Tomorrow my big decision will be deciding to turn left or right out of the gate when I take the dog for a walk.

Love it , couldn’t think of anything better !

[DT1975]

Welshbeef said:

Discs and pads and brake fluid - solo work in your garage that’s a fair amount of work. Enjoyable no doubt.

Just pads and discs this time. I saved £256 on the stealer price which for a retirement thread is quite apt I reckon, less on Indy prices obviously but yes it's enjoyable which is half of it . We have three Minis in the family so DIY savings rack up.

We're not quite in our last forever home but the next will have a double garage, ours is a squeeze, I could get the BMW in but would have little room to work on it.

[OldSkoolRS]

DT1975 said:

You need to slow down a bit

I played golf yesterday and today changed the discs & pads on the wifes Mini. That meant clearing the garage which I kind of started a week or so back in very slow time. Everything is now in slow time.

Tomorrow my big decision will be deciding to turn left or right out of the gate when I take the dog for a walk.

Yes, sorry about that...I'm new to it all. I'll take the rest of the week to do the timing belt job if that's OK? We're going out for some walks over the next few days as well. Timing is just right as my wife has been busy lately sorting out getting some jobs done on her Mum's old place, ready to sell it and that's nearly all done now.

This time next week we hope to be sat having a glass of something at my friend's villa in Spain for a few days away: More bereavement related property selling, but since I'm not working we decided to stay over for the rest of the week rather than do it in one day. We'd have stopped longer, but already had another trip to Sussex booked and paid for...maybe I'll start getting the hang of this retirement lark by then.

[Somebody]

How's the increase in gas and electricity impacting people's "number"?

I had a small DB payment that just about covered the monthly council tax, gas and electric DD. Just come off a fix at the end of April and received a notification today that the DD will nearly double the previous DD.

[Hereward]

Very good point about the luxury of time to do your own DIY. I retired in February and being able to potter around in the garage without having to keep an eye on the clock is one of the joys of retirement.

On Monday I spent 6 hours dropping the subframe to remove the front differential from my Touareg. Beats getting the 06:59 to London Victoria. Tomorrow I will amble over to the specialist with the diff to discuss replacing the bearings.

[Welshbeef]

Somebody said:

How's the increase in gas and electricity impacting people's "number"?

I had a small DB payment that just about covered the monthly council tax, gas and electric DD. Just come off a fix at the end of April and received a notification today that the DD will nearly double the previous DD.

Is the 4% safe level to drawdown now 2-3% instead?

[tertius]

Welshbeef said:

Somebody said:

How's the increase in gas and electricity impacting people's "number"?

I had a small DB payment that just about covered the monthly council tax, gas and electric DD. Just come off a fix at the end of April and received a notification today that the DD will nearly double the previous DD.

Is the 4% safe level to drawdown now 2-3% instead?

Why would the increase in a utility bill change the safe drawdown percentage?

[Welshbeef]

tertius said:

Welshbeef said:

Somebody said:

How's the increase in gas and electricity impacting people's "number"?

I had a small DB payment that just about covered the monthly council tax, gas and electric DD. Just come off a fix at the end of April and received a notification today that the DD will nearly double the previous DD.

Is the 4% safe level to drawdown now 2-3% instead?

Why would the increase in a utility bill change the safe drawdown percentage?

Because we are or are moving into a recession. EU and USA too and with China in proper lockdown their growth is decimated.

Meaning stock prices will fall / earnings fall ——> pension fund decreases or it’s expected return isn’t as good anymore so if you continue drawing down at say 4% the fund will run out of capital far sooner than planned. So lower drawdown

[NortonES2]

Then surely you just take 4% of the new lower value not 4% of the original pension pot.

[tighnamara]

Welshbeef said:

Because we are or are moving into a recession. EU and USA too and with China in proper lockdown their growth is decimated.

Meaning stock prices will fall / earnings fall ——> pension fund decreases or it’s expected return isn’t as good anymore so if you continue drawing down at say 4% the fund will run out of capital far sooner than planned. So lower drawdown

Surely if you are drawing your pension you are set up with a few years pension payments sitting in low risk funds / cash and you leave the remaining pot working in the market as you see fit.

We all know there will be challenging times ahead with some a lot worse off than others, but your posts lately have this all sounding like the end of the world......I hope you are more upbeat at home

[GT3Manthey]

Welshbeef said:

Because we are or are moving into a recession. EU and USA too and with China in proper lockdown their growth is decimated.

Meaning stock prices will fall / earnings fall ——> pension fund decreases or it’s expected return isn’t as good anymore so if you continue drawing down at say 4% the fund will run out of capital far sooner than planned. So lower drawdown

Yes and a double whammy with rising inflation too .

Not a good all round situation but then I guess over the years we have been here before and retirees have had to weather the storms & hope that inflation then decrease and their pension pot growth keeps up .

Maybe this is why it’s super important to ensure from day one you have thoroughly factored in ALL monthly costs and have some spare over.

[Welshbeef]

GT3Manthey said:

Yes and a double whammy with rising inflation too .

Not a good all round situation but then I guess over the years we have been here before and retirees have had to weather the storms & hope that inflation then decrease and their pension pot growth keeps up .

Maybe this is why it’s super important to ensure from day one you have thoroughly factored in ALL monthly costs and have some spare over.

https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-crisis-inflation-hits-40-year-high-of-9-12615153
Cost of living crisis: Inflation hits 40-year high of 9%

9% now.

It makes the state pension rise that should have happened from Sept21 a now fair rate to increase.

I wonder what we will see as triple lock for Sept22 - will we see a 11% state pension rise?

[skeeterm5]

Welshbeef said:

Is the 4% safe level to drawdown now 2-3% instead?

I am just going to live less long 😊