Hi everyone on the UK board. You may recall that me and Mrs PD retired at the end of April, eight weeks ago today. We're not as RE as some - I'm 63 and she is 59. I thought I'd add some insights from our first couple of months.
1. It's true what they say - how did I ever find the time to work? There's always something to be done, and we haven't been bored once!
2. I'm still unravelling our pension funds from our employers and converting our SIPPS into drawdown. We had a mix of defined benefits and defined contributions pensions from existing and previous employers. It all takes so much longer than you think! Everyone wants to see birth certificates and marriage certificates. I'd advise anyone in a similar situation to contact the registrars some time in advance and get a second copy of these. Some institutions returned the documents immediately. One - Capita - held my birth certificate for nearly six weeks, which really held me up.
3. It's wonderful to be able to go shopping or do errands etc. when most people are at work! SO much quicker and stress free compared with trying to fit everything in at the weekend.
4. We've really enjoyed sitting down together and planning some trips and travel with much more depth and thought than we ever used to have time for.
5. We joined the National Trust for Scotland - really inexpensive for what you can get out of it, and of course we can visit places when they are quieter.
6. Neither me nor Mrs PD have given our jobs or ex-employers a moment's thought!
7. We've agreed to spend the rest of this year just chilling out, going on a few holidays, learning to be grandparents (Mrs PD is a natural of course...) We feel no compulsion as of yet to develop a new life plan. We both worked full time for 44 years, and reckon it's someone else's turn now!
8. I've spent most of the last eight weeks walking around with a big grin on my face!
That's all for now, thanks for reading.
MP
