Ditto. Human life is so short it’s like a bad joke. Others struggle to fill the years. I feel like 1000 years should be the minimum.
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I retired just over a year ago. Got up this morning full of beans down to the supermarket for a leisurely shop, coffee and paper. All very pleasant, even though bucketing down. I reflected that a year ago it would have been a rushed start, unpleasant and lengthy drive into work, a soaking and the shop, if it happened, would have been rushed and after 6pm, with depleted stock.
I counted my blessings !
My advice would be to make sure you get a good daily exercise routine in. Chances are that you will end up feeling fitter than you were when working !
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If anyone has an interest, no matter how slight, the local and/or favourite heritage steam railway would love to hear from you…
You could work at stations, on trains, in catering outlets, shops - even with the loco’s (but driving will take a bit of time).
I have now been volunteering as Station Platform staff at Loughborough, ion the Great Central. My logic - its the nearest ‘proper’ (IMO) railway. Despite being a long term member of the Ffestiniog, its really too far away. The GCR is much easier for me to get to.
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I was kind of forced into retirement by circumstance.
I took voluntary redundancy a couple of months before my 55th birthday from a job I hated in the year before Covid struck. I received a redundancy payment and I also won an industrial injury claim against my former employer (technically they settled OOC, but I took that as validation for my case).
By the time Covid struck my contribution based job seekers allowance had run out and I had no income, so was living off these two lump sums. Then my Dad’s health failed and I became an unpaid carer.
When I hit 58 the money was drying up and circumstances meant it would be really hard to get back into working so I investigated taking my pension early. I wasn’t going to lose out as much as I thought so went ahead. Obviously, if I live into my 80’s like my Dad I’ll lose out financially but my Mum died aged 56 though so who’s genes will prove most dominant?
Obviously, I now have a smaller income that impacts on lifestyle. Foreign holidays are off the agenda, but as my Dad and both my wife’s parents rely on us we couldn’t go anyway.
I’ll need to settle for the system I have now (which is quite a way up the chain so not a problem), but can afford, within reason, to add to my record collection and to replace my cartridge when needed. We can also afford to go out for meals, to gigs and the theatre.
I would say I’m happier now than I ever was when working and would advise that unless either you’re one of those who lives for your work or one of those who can continue to work, but on your terms, then retire at your earliest opportunity.
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+1 here. Except I did not get any redundancy payment… Bastards… 
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There is a lot of good advice being given on here.
The one thing I would add is try and have a plan of what you want to do after retirement, hobbies, travelling etc.
I made the mistake of retiring in October. I wanted to take up photography again and Photoshop as a hobby but the courses I wanted had started in September. My wife was still working full time and my son had left to go to university.
What with the nights drawing in I was a bit lost and bored until after Christmas when I could sign up for the courses. You can only listen to music and read for so long and I refuse to have the Tv on all day .
Yes I did do the housework and cook evening meal
Now 10 years on do I regret early retirement NO. My wife retired 3 years later and that enabled us to go on longer trips to Australia and New Zealand, Something that is difficult when working and limited holiday allowance.
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Dad joined at eighteen and Leaving at forty five.
A lot of the environments in retrospect were rather unpleasant and unhealthy.
Dad did 27 years , survived seven years afterwards .
Yes Mike, I think this is quite key. In speaking with a couple of acquaintances who are also retired, the topic that has come up regularly is, “How the heck did I ever find time to work?”
So, I believe the OP may find that keeping busy is just not an issue after a while.
And retirees should stop getting up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning like one used to, to go to work. Take it easy, relax, and really enjoy your morning coffee … maybe even with a bit of music.
A good practice is to get to the point where your normal resting facial expression is a soft smile. I find it a bit odd when I go to, say, the grocery store and look around at the people pushing their carts around the aisles, or waiting in the checkout queues, because 95% or even 100% of them have very sour, drab, looks on their faces, or even actual scowls. Seems to me, a bit of a sh*t way to go about life. N’est ce pas?
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No easy answer as I have noticed my idea of retirement is different to my wife’s. The main thing we both share is to develop a new routine, whatever that routine is.
I retired in two stages. First part time with something I was already doing, and then to having no outside forces controlling when I did whatever I chose to do. The second stage was the hardest. I now do nothing other than leisure and hobby pursuits, but for a number of years I did some voluntary work with different organisations. That gave me both an interest and reason to get up of a morning, and also gave me a sense of contributing something still. Try and find something you either already like doing, or something that makes you feel useful. Good luck and enjoy your new time for yourself.
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I have often suggested, only half jokingly, that people should retire as soon as they finish education, then have X years [max number to be decided somehow - maybe 10?] of “retirement”, somehow funded, then work the rest of their lives but as they reach old age with reducing hours. How on earth it would work I haven’t a clue!
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Everyone is different. I had a mentally challenging job but managed it with little stress. I don’t mind not doing very much - I do calisthenics at the gym 2 or 3 times a week and walk my German Shepherd dog twice a day.
I like the idea of spending winters in Portugal, but this will need a lot of admin with the dog.
Having saved into my pension and ISA all my life I find it difficult to go from saving mode into spending mode. Reminds me I must buy a new car.
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Several people have suggested pointed to the benefits of social interaction and having numbers of friends - whilst that sounds beneficial in retirement, achieving it may be a real problem for people who are shy or socially awkward/uncomfortable, all the more so where their only acquaintances have been through work, and especially so where their work may have involved either minimal interaction with others, or constantly changing work colleagues, or in positions where developing true friendship with colleagues is precluded such as in managerial positions.
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+1 - again… 
I ‘lost’ all my ‘work’ friends when I stopped working. It also didn’t help that I had changed location, within the company, within the previous 3 months…
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A lot of advice here 
. I took the jump 3 months before hitting 55 and 5 years later I don’t regret it at all. My, somewhat contrary, take on things is don’t feel obliged to plan things out, don’t feel the need to have new hobbies or volunteering or whatever. I found I fell into a happy rhythm of life; pottering, diy, gardening, exercise, days out, a bit of sailing now and then. I have no pressure to do anything though and I’m quite content with that.
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Although I miss some work friends and maintain virtually no contact, the sad truth is that many of my ‘cadre’ had already retired, replaced by younger whippersnappers. So that issue hasn’t really been a concern.
Good to have friendly neighbours and friends though.
Also worth mentioning that I was able to take a short pre-retirement course with the company, which I completed about 4 years before retiring. That helped me to prepare both financially and psychologically.
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Not sure your experience really is contrary - I don’t think people are saying that upon retirement you should take up new hobbies, or start volunteering, more that it is beneficial to have things to do, which for some people might easily be filled by existing interests, but if not then they are suggestions that might help if someone otherwise might fall into a pointless unstimulating existence, whiche seems often to lead to limited life expectancy.
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Likewise. My hobbies and interests are what they always were so I didn’t need to find anything new, I just have more time to do them 
I’m now three years in and really don’t worry about work.
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Sure, understood. The question I get asked all of the time by friends still at work is “what have you been doing?” or “how do you fill your time?” It drives me nuts. The sense of disappointment when I say I’ve been pottering 
I think you said it earlier - my most used phrase (retirement cliche) “I don’t know how I found all the time to do all these things before I retired and work as well”
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Another take on it, is are Work Friends really friends at all…? Or just people you work with.
Discuss…
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Friends at work are people who I would go out with for a social event ( but not a work do). The vast majority are colleagues ( who I get on well with)
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