It sounds to me like this is a very personal thing to you, but you keep referring to everyone and anyone thinking of retiring won't like it bla de bla. We are not all like you, and some may actually love it. My dad retired at 53, he's now 77, and has loved every minute of it. You appear to be judging all folk by the way you feel. I will retire at 55, and don't suspect for a second that I'll be telling you how correct you were 2 years after that.......
I have no inclination to move away in retirement. My brother and sister in law "retired" near Almeria about 12 years ago to live the dream and to run an olive farm. They hate it and have been trying to sell up for the past 6 years as they can't afford to live there any longer. And in the 6 years the house has been up for sale they've not had a sniff of any interest. And all the expats they knew that moved there have all come back as the dream was just that, and not a reality.
My dad took early retirement at 55 and he's now 89. He took up lots of hobbies when he finished work and has always kept himself busy doing stuff he enjoys. He had a very stressful job and I'm convinced he would never have reached the age he is now if he'd carried on working until he was 65. I have my own business which pretty much runs itself now and I work 1-2 days a week and have done for the last 3 years. I buy and renovate houses in my spare time so I'm always busy but it's doing something I enjoy and doesn't feel like work. I'm 58 and will keep doing what I'm doing as long as I enjoy it. When I stop enjoying it I will look for something else to do as I don't think I could ever fully retire while in good health.
Never wise to buy...At least not at first. Also don't move there relying on work, only to retire. It has become more costly to live there in the last 10 years, lower interest rates at home has hit many people.
Not a put down, olive groves are stood idle all over Spain and other countries. Hard work and little return. Doesnt sound like retirement material. Agree, lots of people do come back, they miss family, have poor health or just miss friends and home! Got to know what you want. Plus maybe if you are piling every penny in to it...be very careful and consider all options. Go with a plan. Make sure your going somewhere you love and have visited at different times of the year, not just once in July. Taking in to consideration what I have just said, its a gamble. But life is short, I dont want to regret not going for it. Cant imagine anything worse than hitting 70 (if lucky with health) and thinking ...'I wish!'.....that would be the biggest fuck up ever.
They didn't think it was a gamble. They'd had an apartment in Mojacar for 10 years before that and spent 6 months a year there anyway as they had a fish and chip shop there too. They were sold "the dream" of the olive farm and it is far from that. Their best year they made £20k and their worst year just £3.5k. IMO they'd do better by turning the main house into an agro-tourism accomodation as it has a pool etc too, and they could move into the "granny flat" that is on the property. But some folk won't listen.
I'll give you my take. 2 years after retiring I was 47 and young enough to ride bikes all day long if I wanted. Here I am now at 59 and still loving retirement. So that is how I felt after 2 years. Many Brits seek some sort of income to supplement their pension, then find that they are effectively still working and sometimes for a pittance. They are the ones who want out. I had a friend who bought a gite business near us and paid around 750,000 euros for it. He was then working 50 hours per week doing change overs, cutting grass, maintaining the pool, doing the accounts etc. He called me lucky because I just do what I want. After 3 years he managed to sell the business for about the same as what he had paid for it, bought a place for 160,000 euros and has enough money left in the bank to survive for the rest of his life, he is now like me, not lucky, but someone who made a good decision. I consider myself a time millionaire. I am not rich and have no desire to be rich. I can give people my time if I want to, but have no price, I would never work for anyone whatever they wanted to pay me as I see no point in worshiping wealth when I live a good life on what I have.
Portugal wetter too, although that’s what makes it arguably more beautiful. Re challenge of a job TT600, having spent 3 month on garden leave where I had all the funds I want and no reason not to enjoy it, I was bored out of my head after 4 weeks. Because no one else was around.... Those I find enjoy retirement (I’m surrounded by them in my village) have people to interact with every day. They are part of clubs (probus, WI, whatever) and sit on committees; play golf or gardening allotment or (friends not villagers) have mates they ride with during the week. I don’t fancy all the clubs and committee stuff, hence I plan to do a few days of ‘something’
Depends tho. If that’s profit, it hasn’t touched their savings and has kept them busy, but if they were aiming good to make a business from it, double ouch!! My plan is take 12m and travel Europe. Then 6m rent in s Spain, and see where it goes from there.
Spain is a fantastic country with friendly people. A bit hot and dry though for me in general. I plan on visiting a lot from my new location for cheap hols out of peak season!
It’s not profit. That was revenue only. SWMBO’s brother has had to dip several times into the family trust and is just depleting his inheritance.
Inheritance is no good when you are dead...imho the sad thing about what you have said isn’t that it’s not making money, or costing them money, it’s that it’s not being enjoyed I fully intend to give my lad (only the one sprog) about half of what I am worth when I sell up, then spend the rest. If I make 70 (doubtful, 63 has always been the age) and ai have no cash the govt can look after me or if I’m unwell or infirm I’ll just need a push to the edge of a cliff and I’ll do the rest
Not me boss. Not posted in this interesting and informative thread (thankfully bereft thus far of stupid fucking ‘eyes watching’ emoticons) Think the question was posed by my junior ( unrelated) brethren-50% less ‘T’s and 100 less cc’s.......T500....!
Agreed. The plan is to use our cash/pension pot for living till we pop our clogs and the lads will get the house to cash in when we do.
Nearly agree, we gonna rent abroad, then if we like it, sell the houses, spend the fecking lot, spend the pensions, shares etc etc, and my laddo can have what ever is left over, if anything after I have decimated it on bikes, cars and wine....
