# I love being retired.



## Paul555 (23 Nov 2021)

It took me a month or more to make this in my garage. It's nowt special but made from some really old oak planks, planed redwood and a bit of black iron. I wanted it to be really solid so I bolted through the legs with some m10 coach bolts into the side rails and routed out some slots on the inside face of the rails to access the nuts. It's finished now, all oiled & waxed, but I can't get far enough away from it in the bedroom it occupies to get a decent picture. However, the bed isn't the reason for this post..... 
I'd like to blame my age, arthritic hands, dodgy knees and tennis elbow for the time it took to make but sadly that's not the case. In my little garage, along with a small wood burner and comfy chair, I keep a stash of rather nice single malt hidden from the wife..I say a stash, it's more like a case of the stuff, but it only ever came out when I'd finished for the day. The days were getting shorter and shorter, the job was taking longer and longer and despite my best efforts at subterfuge, the wife was getting more and more suspicious. I thought I was getting away with it until the day the bed was finally ready.
"Will you be bringing that whiskey indoors now?" she says....
With a daft grin on my face I ask her how she knew.
"Well" she says, "Your level of joviality seemed to increase as the mornings wore on, you've burn't your fingers twice on that damn stove, you booked 2 holidays, bought a Range Rover and you're asleep by 7 o'clock every night"
"Is that it?" I say..
"No, not exactly. Come with me" replies the wife as she leads me up the drive.
"Now, turn around and what do you see?

Let down and busted by my homemade trestles....!!!!!


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## Bristol_Rob (23 Nov 2021)

The honey do list never ends.

Now, I know you said the bed is ready after many a whiskey - but are you adding slats for the mattress? 

I think you could get a few more weeks out of that project


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## Paul555 (23 Nov 2021)

Great point Rob......I crumbled too soon mate.


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## Cabinetman (23 Nov 2021)

It’s a nice picture you paint, trouble is I can’t see anything much wrong with your trestles, what did she mean?


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## Paul555 (23 Nov 2021)

AA mate....Alcoholics Anonymous.


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## Linus (23 Nov 2021)

I'm not sure but it may have something to do with AA?

Our posts crossed!


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## Cabinetman (24 Nov 2021)

Brilliant, I could have looked for hours and not got it Doh!


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## Jameshow (24 Nov 2021)

I thought you have been rumbled for buying a new mitre saw!!!


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## Glitch (24 Nov 2021)

Bristol_Rob said:


> The honey do list never ends.
> 
> Now, I know you said the bed is ready after many a whiskey - but are you adding slats for the mattress?
> 
> I think you could get a few more weeks out of that project



I'm going to call it the Honey Do list for now on!  

I'm loving retirement, two and a half years in. Doing things you enjoy at your own pace. Procrastinating. Wasting hours reading stuff on forums. It's great.

Trouble is, wife has now decided to pack in her part time job in December,

Not only will the Honey Do list get longer but I will be summoned daily to give a progress update


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## Linus (24 Nov 2021)

Glitch said:


> I'm going to call it the Honey Do list for now on!
> 
> I'm loving retirement, two and a half years in. Doing things you enjoy at your own pace. Procrastinating. Wasting hours reading stuff on forums. It's great.
> 
> ...


As the quote went "Just because I said I would do it doesn't mean you have to remind me every six months!"


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## Woodernhift (6 Dec 2021)

Retired, best job ever should have done it earlie, highly recommended.


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## Glitch (6 Dec 2021)

I just tell people I've finally found something I'm good at.


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## Kittyhawk (13 Dec 2021)

Before I gave up my work, people used to tell me that they'd never been so busy as they were now that they're retired and I used to think 'absolute rubbish'.
Retired for quite a while now, and it's true!
The trouble is I don't know if I'm really busy or that everything just takes so much longer...


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## Blister (14 Dec 2021)

I think the best part of being retired for me is not clock watching or even knowing what day of the week it is 
It no longer matters


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## Keith 66 (14 Dec 2021)

I retired nearly two years ago from a job as a D&T technician in a secondary school. At times it was a really rewarding job that i thoroughly enjoyed, at other times it was horrendous largely due to the appalling behaviour of some of the kids & the inability of the senior staff to control it.
So i packed it in, I have never been so busy. Project after project completed, worshop re roofed & insulated & pretty well sorted. It is wonderful not to have to be ruled by the school bell & not having to wear a watch.
Few bits left to do like buy & install a decent laser cutter. I do have a lovely victorian set of beer engines, perhaps it is just as well that there is nowhere left to mount them due to having too many tools & machines!


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## Distinterior (14 Dec 2021)

Blister said:


> I think the best part of being retired for me is not clock watching or even knowing what day of the week it is
> It no longer matters



I good mate of mine retired about 5 years ago (he was 55 at the time and 6 months younger than me) and will come and give me a hand to carry/deliver large items to a job if I ask him.
On one occasion, i asked for his help and I suggested we could do the delivery on a weekend if it was more convenient for him.......His reply was, " Every day is the weekend for me now mate....!!"


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## RichardG (14 Dec 2021)

Me too, I retired 3 years ago and it's been great to be able to do what you want when you want. Luckily my wife still works, now only one day per week, but it at least keeps my day of week clock on track, otherwise I have @Blister's problem. I think I do suffer with the same problem as @Kittyhawk though I'm always busy doing something but my productivity seems to have dropped, but hey it doesn't matter, I get paid no matter what I do


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## baldkev (14 Dec 2021)

Aggghhgh!! I wish i was retired!!


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## Bm101 (14 Dec 2021)

This post is magic. Top quality Mr G. Had me chuckling away.
*sips Kracken smugly.... Good job I'm not a pisshead*


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## jonn (15 Dec 2021)

Being retired is great! In Australia I had spurts of unemployment/lack of work, and no pay. Now I have Norwegian minimum pension, which isn't great. But - and it's a large but, then the Norwegian social services helped me get Australian pension as well. So for once I have a steady income, and at least enough for my frequent AliExpress orders and other stuff I don't need, but want. The last was a battery-driven Husqvarna chain saw, which considering I have an electric 240 volt one, and a petrol one, maybe was not what I needed most. My rationale was that the new one I could safely use indoors. And, the lack of female interruptions has several advantages, not the least regarding what I spend money on. And the implement I used for sex has pretty well withered away, so no great needs there


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## Glitch (15 Dec 2021)

Retirement bliss hits a bump in the road this week. The wife has given up her part time job. 

I suspect my time is going to be managed for me and the 'Honey do' list is going to grow.

No harm in getting a little more encouragement I suppose but might need to find more things to do outside the home.
Maybe start spending hours doing 'research' in the local library


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## CaptainBudget (15 Dec 2021)

is "The Local Library" owned by Fullers by any chance...?


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## Linus (15 Dec 2021)

I know of a retired couple in Spain who have a full cooked breakfast every Saturday. When asked what day it is, they can quickly calculate.....hmmm! had breakfast 3 days ago - must be Tuesday. Works for me!


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## clogs (15 Dec 2021)

I'm quite lucky.....was self employed and quit at 55......16hr days x7per week...just got outta hand....
Now 72 at home all day with my wife who is my best friend and helper......
Only know Sundays by name because we have a full cooked brecky after taking the dogs to the beach (with poo bags) and a roast at T time.....
the rest of the week is a blur.......
winter time rain slows me down until the new workshop is built but long hot summers mean great working days OUTSIDE.....often 20 weeks or more of no rain......
I keep saying "retirement whats that...?"
plenty I know only play golf and get pxxxed each day.....not for me.....
really happy with life, just wish the joints and bones were not so painfull.......
take care and enjoy the toy's....


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## Ozi (15 Dec 2021)

After the day I had at work I am so jealous! Lucky to have a job mind. Still give me 2 or 3 years and I'm hoping to be let out to play.


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## Spectric (15 Dec 2021)

Retirement is the objective of a working life, once you have done it you will not look back but I now hear they are pushing it out to 68 for anyone born seventies or later and in some areas they reckon you may only have four years once retired at 68 due to shorter life expectancy in those areas. This is no incentive for the workforce, basicaly being told save more in a pension or work til you drop. On the flip side if people are having to remain in work longer then they stop the younger ones getting on the ladder at the other end, should really ultilise the older workers to pass on their experience rather than just an end date.


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## Sandyn (15 Dec 2021)

Before I retired full time, I did just over a year part time, only working Tuesday, Wed, Thurs, so a 4 day weekend every week. It was brilliant and a great transition from 24/7 stress to no stress. We would go out on a Friday morning to a garden centre, have a cooked breakfast, coffee and send pictures to people at work. I would sit in the sun and just enjoy the feeling of being released from hell. I still sometimes stop and just appreciate my life now. It's just a pity full retirement had been dominated by Covid, otherwise we would have travelled more.


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## HamsterJam (15 Dec 2021)

I have a few more years to go before I officially hit retirement although I am in the middle of getting pension illustrations to see whether I can afford to bail out early.


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## mikej460 (15 Dec 2021)

I retired at 60 and never regretted it


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## mikej460 (15 Dec 2021)

Spectric said:


> Retirement is the objective of a working life, once you have done it you will not look back but I now hear they are pushing it out to 68 for anyone born seventies or later and in some areas they reckon you may only have four years once retired at 68 due to shorter life expectancy in those areas. This is no incentive for the workforce, basicaly being told save more in a pension or work til you drop. On the flip side if people are having to remain in work longer then they stop the younger ones getting on the ladder at the other end, should really ultilise the older workers to pass on their experience rather than just an end date.


I read this today
State pension age review announced by DWP ‘must consider life expectancy, not just please the Treasury’ (msn.com)


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## mikej460 (15 Dec 2021)

clogs said:


> Only know Sundays by name because we have a full cooked brecky after taking the dogs to the beach (with poo bags)


is that your nickname for her then?


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## Puggers (16 Dec 2021)

I was lucky enough retire early a couple of years ago but find I still like a fair bit of structure in my life, whether it be my own to-do lists or certain tasks on certain days of the week/month.
If I break my own “rules”, I don’t let anyone down and the structure means the change in my way of life isn’t so dramatic.
Making the decision to go early was hard but having done so, one I’ll never regret and I sometimes cant get over how lucky I’ve been to be able to have had the choice.


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## ecokestove (16 Dec 2021)

The best bit about being retired is not having to go to meetings and listen to some complete a...hole drone on about some half-pineappled 'quality improvement programme'. The point of their pitch not being to improve things but to try and become more visible to upper management.


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## Spectric (16 Dec 2021)

ecokestove said:


> listen to some complete a...hole drone on about some half-pineappled 'quality improvement programme'. The point of their pitch not being to improve things but to try and become more visible to upper management.


We viewed the management structure as monkeys on a tree, those at the top looked down and saw smiley faces whilst those down the bottom looked up and saw just harse holes .


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## deema (16 Dec 2021)

When my wife was diagnosed with cancer it made us both reevaluate what matter to us in our lives. We both had very demanding jobs which we thoroughly enjoyed, however, life is short and if you plan what your going to do when you retire you might never get there! So at 50 I officially retired! Now, I think I need to retire from retirement as I have too many projects and not enough years ahead of me!
I love every day being Sunday.
Two things I discoveered the hard way, the first was that I was a real pain in the posterior for about 12 months after stopping. From being someone that everyone listened to (I probably also have a hairy sphincter too that people had to look up to!!!) to a person nobody cared about my opinion was a difficult transition. To my shame I know I compensated by trying to impart my wisdom on those close to me.
I found it too easy to become involved in too many things and consequently let people down. I had to reorganise what I was involved with and what I wanted to do.


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## Spectric (16 Dec 2021)

deema said:


> to a person nobody cared about


I think you have it round the wrong way, whilst at work in a position where everyone listened to you, you were just someone on the payroll and where others had to listen, they may not have cared or even liked you and were there because they were paid, now the people around you are genuine and are there because they want to be.


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## Tenacity (16 Dec 2021)

Bring back work, it was easier!


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## baldkev (21 Dec 2021)

mikej460 said:


> I read this today
> State pension age review announced by DWP ‘must consider life expectancy, not just please the Treasury’ (msn.com)



In russia a while back they proposed raising the pension age to 65, but there was widespread anger..... mostly because the average life expectancy for men is 66 i believe!!


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## harryc (22 Dec 2021)

Took redundancy last month after 33 years at the same company, hated the last 18 months with all the working at home rubbish.

Got to admit feel like a new person, re-energised going to finally train properly to run a sub 1.45 half marathon, grow exotic plants from seed, travel the world without having to pay extortionate prices fRon school holidays and of course spend as much time as I want in the workshop.


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