12 retirement tips from retirees...did it work for us?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- In this video, we’re diving into 12 retirement tips shared by seasoned retirees and revealing how accurate these tips turned out to be for us.
18 months into early reetirement, we’ve come across a wealth of advice from those who’ve walked this path before. But how practical and beneficial were these tips in reality? Join us as we reflect on our experiences and evaluate each piece of advice, sharing our personal insights and lessons learned along the way.
In this video, we’ll cover:
00:00 Early retirement advice from retirees
01:44 Deciding what retirement lifestyle you want...
02:41 Live your retirement budget for 12 months prior to retirement...
03:09 Have no debts at retirement...
03:33 Have no surprises at retirement...
04:36 Aches and pains only get worse as you age...
05:29 Have a bucket list...
06:27 Fix up your home...
07:10 Responsibilities can change...
08:18 Stress changes...
09:12 Build for emotional support and relationships...
10:41 Maintain health...
11:23 Retire when you are ready...don't leave it too late...
12:25 Our final thoughts on early retirement advice from retirees
We are Richard and Jackie and we live in the UK. We retired from teaching at the age of 51 in the summer of 2022. Our plans for early requirement include relocating to the Yorkshire Dales, developing our forever home and travelling the UK, Europe and eventually the world in our VW campervan Nelson.
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Check out our blog earlyretirementwanderlust.com
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Many thanks,
Richard & Jackie
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I retired 10 years ago at the age of 54 and haven’t regretted it for a moment. My top tip for anyone considering retiring early is to be mortgage/debt free. In the few years leading up to me finishing work I overpaid on my mortgage when I could, so that was cleared and then got rid of credit card and bank debt.
My 2nd recommendation is to always have a reason to get up in the morning. I got myself a dog and he needs his routine walks regardless of the weather and how I’m feeling. In fact, on those days when I might otherwise stay in bed feeling sorry for myself, by the time we’ve had a walk my mood has lifted considerably. And as a single man the daily interactions with other dog walkers are a great help too.
Glad to hear you are still enjoying retirement after 10 years with no regrets, that was our one worry when we made the decision. Being mortgage and debt free is crucial and it was the best advice we read - we do wish we had started that process a little earlier in our lives as we did feel we spent a lot of frivolous money on possessions that we didn't really need. But hindsight is a great thing!! We do miss our cats that now live with our son as we are away travelling so much - animals give you that unconditional love and companionship.
Lots of good advice,I retire today at 55 after 38 years in the same job but it's time for some new adventures
Good luck, I am retiring 12th June and cant wait.
Happy retirement! 38 years in the same job is a long time - hope you get as much out of your retirement as we have 😊
Almost there - hope you have some great plans for your first few months
@@earlyretirementwanderlust yep. I am converting a van to go travelling.
yay - so many fab adventures to come
For your planning, my mum (86 years old) still travels with her VW California….now planning trip to NE Germany.
You mum sounds as amazing as mine who still gets out there travelling on her own - and definitely how we hope we will be at the age of 86!
Great advice. I retired at 53. The key to making this decision was a good knowledge of income against expenditure. I kept a detailed spreadsheet of all expenditure for a few years and identified how much income we would need in retirement. When I took the big step to give up work, I was a bit anxious for the first 6 months to see if my calculations were correct. In fact I had been cautious and we were better off than we thought. We could take cheap travel deal off peak and we had time to look for good deals in all areas of life. That was our Go-Go period. We are in a Go-Slow period as my wife is having a hip replacement and my 90 year old mum has dementia. But we hope to go back to Go-Go soon. In the meantime Passenger Assist on the railways and Jet2 Passenger Assistance at Manchester Airport are both excellent. Phil
Yes, it really helped us trying to stick to our early retirement budget for a year before we took the plunge to give us an idea of if it was doable. Having the van is our saviour for cheap and frequent travel (although campsite fees are increasing at an alarming rate compared to when we were in our planning retirement stage!!) Hope all goes well with your wife's operation and it enables her to make the most of the go go years you have left!
Great summary of things to think about when deciding to early retire. I'm 13 months in and don't regret my decision. I had always lived a frugal lifestyle (hence the name!), so I was well prepared for a reduction in income - and I have set a realistic budget and track all my spending via spreadsheets to ensure that I live within my means. One area that I need to improve is travel - I haven't really done much recently, and I need to change that (I've been inspired by all your travels!)
They were definitely points that we found handy when we were getting ready to retire. We are really enjoying the travel wanderlust part of our retirement now 😊
So much invaluable advice in your video, as in all your videos, thank you :) I'm 56 now and planning to retire at 60, if not slightly before. We are mortgage free now, and almost finished paying the credit card off. So just aiming to put as much away as possible to build up a good pot. Like Richard, my mum also has dementia. My dad is her full time carer, which has meant that retirement has not been good to them. This is one of my main reasons for planning an early retirement. Life is too short, we have to make the most of it.
Thank you 😊 Richards mum was diagnosed in her mid 60's which definitely makes us realise we should make the most of our time. His dad also had a major heart attack at 52 which he luckily recovered from and my dad died at 65. We are taking note and making the most of our go go years!
We retired early John from Oil and I from nursing and now at the age of 71 so glad we did. We bought our VW Ocean when we retired and have traveled all over our country Scotland and parts of England . Had three grandsons arrive in that time and been able to be part of them growing up. I like you googled Were we ready for retirement? It was a good thing to do as I looked at the emotional side of not being the Nurse Manager and being just Jeanette. It’s not easy to pair back the professional person but liberating as well. Great advice from the Visio thanks 👍
It sounds like you have enjoyed your retirement - we have discovered so many beautiful places we didn't know existed in the UK already! We are off to the Shetlands and the Orkneys in the summer which we are excited for 🚐 It is strange still bumping into children that we taught as mum lives in the same town, but lovely. I think we will have a few years travel until any potential grandchildren arrive and then we will look forward to being able to take them with us!
Lots of great advice and useful reflection. Tx
Thank you x
Your thoughts pretty much cover everything and help to reinforce the pros and cons; we are 3/4 through our first year and gradually finding our new lifestyle - picked up some ideas from you - going to start a journal to record our adventures , draw up a list of future goals - and going to try and have some weekly points to be greatful for - thanks folks
Thank you - we are glad you have been able to take something away from our vlogs! Isn't it great being retired and just having the time to get out there. Richard particularly enjoys reflecting each day on things he is grateful for and it is amazing how long, wide and varied the list is 😊 Happy travels x
Amazing advice thank you. Food for thought x I'm making notes for the future ❤
Thank you - these were a lot of things we read about and watched when we were getting ready to retire which really helped us
You guys are awesome!
Thank you! ☺️
Meaningful and balanced. Go go! Richard and Jackie! X
Thank you 😊
Great honest vid as as always 😊🙏🇬🇧👍
Thank you 😊
Loving your vlogs and enjoy your adventures with good advice. I retired slightly before my actual time and wish I'd have planned to finish earlier. Keep looking after yourselves both physical and mental and keep up the great vids. Thanks 👍
Thank you - we know we are blessed to be able to finish so early and we are determined to make the most of every minute with our families and travels 😊
The advice pretty much mirrors my own experience, although not in the same order, because of my own circumstances. In my case it was redundancy, COVID and my mother needing much more help that precipitated my decision to stop full time work. Volunteer work doing what I used to do is a big part of what I do now, as is caring. There are some really useful tips in this video. If i could add anything, it's that it can take some time and bumps in the road to get to a settled position, but you do. Time and your health are most precious, make the most of them, as you always say. Thanks and happy travelling.
Thank you - I think you are right about the bumps in the road - life will never go as smoothly as you want, it Is just how we deal with the bumps to get to the other side. Hope all continues to go well for you x
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Thank you.
Great advice. Congrats on the channel growth. Keep it up.
Thank you 😊
Thank you - this was such an interesting video. I am just starting my teaching career and my husband is starting to think about retiring in the next few years so we are not really in sync. You are right that it is such a personal thing - I want the time to travel, look after my health and have more adventures, and want it now, but also know how difficult I would find the lack of routine and the purpose that I'm just rediscovering! I know that you've both worked really hard to make sure you still have that, but it still worries me. However, I'm very much enjoying your early retirement, so thank you!
thank you - we are really enjoying our retirement together but You will hopefully love getting into your teaching career as much as we did.I taught primary and had the fortune to teach at 2 schools over the years that had the most fantastic creative curriculums and wonderful staff to work alongside and have so many great memories and stories to tell. It is a rewarding career and then you will have your retirement to look forward to aswell. A win, win hopefully 😊 And teaching will give you the time to travel a little more - (apparently we only work part time and have 13 weeks holiday a year 😂)
Best travel video on you tube and I truly mean that. Your videos are very very good and your knowledge is invaluable for the likes of me. 52 and retiring end of year. Camper van and travel. Keep up your good work. Il be watching. We only get 1 life so make the most of it.
Thank you for your lovely kind comment - we enjoy sharing information about both our travels and early retirement and are glad people find some of it of use 😊
Greetings from Australia. We have recently discovered your Channel and have now subscribed. Absolutely love you guys and your philosophy on life and travel. Such an inspiration. 😁
Thanks for this Rob and great to hear from you guys down under. It's nice to know that what we are trying to do is applicable across the world.
Thanks for the lovely feedback. 👍
This is a very thought provoking video - thank you for posting your ideas - it is really helpful for making retirement decisions.
You are so welcome! Glad you found it interesting and helpful 😊 I know we found some of the points really useful when we were in our last year before retiring.
Lovely sensible chat and agree with all you say. Just one thing - other than being around for the elderly members of the family which is lovely - what if grand kids come along? For us that has been an eye opener and more of a pull than having our own children (their parents)!!!
Ah grandkids would be the icing on the cake that we could have quality time to spend with them! We are already thinking ahead when we buy our next van in a few years that it needs to have a couple of fixed seats in the back just incase 😊
Great content guys and love the 3 stages of retirement. I am finding the adjustment process tricky. However I had to call back into work today and everyone said I looked and seemed more chilled and healthy. Warden life must be agreeable! I have no regrets about early retirement at 60.
Hi Dave- thanks for this comment. We think that we all find the adjustment process quite strange and it definitely has its ups and downs…and that is change! Great that others can see the physical changes in you…sometimes we can be a bit blind to that and often miss the changes in ourselves 😂 How is warden life going? We are really interested in that for sometime in the future.
Have a good one and enjoy the process.👍R
You are right, there's loads of "retirement" content out there on TH-cam....
However this is one of my favourite channels, there's no lecturing, it's well balanced, you share your own real-life findings and experiences and present in a really relaxed/friendly manner.
Above all there's always great ideas for me to incorporate into my own journey and adventures.
Thank you.
Wow, thank you! We are loving our retirement and the freedom we have to travel. Happy travels 🚐
It seemed such an easy decision in my late forties to retire at 55 but here i am at 56 still kicking the can down the road. Can't believe how big a decision its become and the last thing i want is to realise ive made a mistake and find myself having to jump back into the rat race.
We did have a few 'OMG - what have we done' moments when we first gave in our resignations as it seemed so final and there was no going back but we have had no regrets so far. We always thought we may have to do some sort of work to supplement our pensions until 67. We do some travel writing for magazines and TH-cam brings in a small income, but what we did know is that we would not have to go back into full time work in a high paying stressful career as we are debt and mortgage free. It would be stress free work, probably seasonal or temp work. Good luck in what ever you decide to do x
You could make a video what trade-offs you make now by asking yourself what you now would do if you had 5 or 10,000 gbp/y more. Out to dinner, travel more further more luxurious or luxurious food etc to show what your working longer less money trade off is
Maybe! We did chat about this - I think the only thing we would tweak is going out for a pub lunch more often and not having to think as much about saving campsite fees on our van travels. But to us the time we have is the most valuable commodity and worth a few sacrifices.
I totally agree with the comment - we lived our teaching jobs but ..... . I'm constantly explaining to people I don't dislike teaching , I just have other things I want to do , and I can't do both .
Yes, we just like being time rich now to choose to do what we want
Great vlog guys, with some amazing advice. Thankyou. 😊
I myself work part time only 2 days a week, so I’m happy with that. I like the sense of purpose I get. However later on I will probably retire. I’m 52 🙌🙌
Thank you - sounds like you have a great life balance too 😊
We've bought a Auto trail imala motorhome and pick it up mid June so your blogs and advice has given us some great ideas
How exciting - where have you got planned for your first trip? We came upto the dales from Cheshire not knowing we would live here 5 years later 😊
We live in Carlisle so somewhere local,we love South West Scotland and there's a little campsite at gatehouse of fleet so probably there as it's not too far away if and when we make mistakes because this is our first van😬
Lots of great advice as always. I retired from teaching at 55 and 10 years on have no regrets at all. Those years have flown by as our days are filled with our outdoor activities, volunteering in our community and connecting with family and friends. I liked your 3 stages of retirement. As long as you stay fit and healthy those Go - Go years can last well into retirement - just this morning I was out maintaining local paths with a couple in their late 70’s. They were trekking in New Zealand in December and January, are going cycle touring in a couple of weeks before heading off to the Dolomites on a hut to hut walking tour - truly inspirational!!
We are just hoping we have as many go go years as them!! How epic is that hut to hut hiking in your 70’s. We really want to do the tour de Mont Blanc hut to hut but just can’t justify the cost at the moment 🥾 we can’t believe it is 2 years this summer since we retired!
@@earlyretirementwanderlust We did the TMB in 2014 and would highly recommend it. Having said that we repeated a couple of stages when we did the Tor des Geants 4 years ago and it seemed much busier. Book your huts well in advance and if possible get a room - the shared dorms can be a wee bit noisy. Retirement years certainly fly in !!!
Thanks- that's our main worry...the number of people on route and getting booked into the huts. The logistics seem just as hard as the walking😂
@@earlyretirementwanderlust I’d recommend starting mid-week as most companies who run organised tours start at the weekend. They book huts well in advance and, in my view, make it harder for independent walkers. We found this helped but that was 10 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Scenically it’s superb so I hope you get to do it.
I think that we are just going to have to battle trough the logistics and get on with it...or take our own camping kit...but that also means food weight as well😂
Great Video and great advice it is certainly a decision full of many emotions. I am now semi retired working for myself 3 days per week and the balance feels great right now, and eventually that will become No days per week but possibly by a natural process. It is such an important subject that most of us do not put enough energy and time into thinking about and equipping ourselves to make balanced, objective plans to achieve. Really love watching you guys and I am so pleased your subscriber numbers are increasing....very well deserved.
Thank you for such a lovely comment - it certainly is a huge decision that needs planning for many years ahead. Working 3 days is a great way of getting that balance of time for yourself and keeping some purpose and routine.
This is a subject very close to my thoughts and has been since I was diagnosed with an illness, after major surgery several years ago Im fine but it will always be a cloud over the horizon and let’s hope it stays that way. Myself and my wife both said we wanted to retire early at a specific age and we are a couple of years away from that. Our goal was to sell the house at that point and move area and downsize giving us a lump sum to supplement income until official retirement age. I do look at what our pensions will be and worry if that will be enough but on top of that now the in laws are getting frail which brings it’s own responsibilities too. I fear that and probably know that we will not achieve our goal which brings it’s own worries such as will I be able to cope with my job in a few years and of course the big worry is that nature will take it’s course and we will have very little time to enjoy life together and not be able to travel as we had hoped.
Sometimes life throws these spanners into the mix doesn’t it and we just have to accept what happens or doesn’t happen.
Hope you don't mind me butting in. I've watched A LOT of retirement and budgeting channels and they are having great retirements on budgets they didn't think would work. 'It'll be fun', 'This is our retirement', living off £2000 ish pcm. We live off £1600 ish with dogs, 2 vehicles so if you can follow Jackie and Richard's suggestions I would say 'Go now!'
@@denisescally7090 one thing about it, time is more valuable than possessions etc. That is something serious illness teaches us. Fingers crossed for two years time when other things will come to fruition. Thanks for the advice.
As you say a lot can change in the 2 years before you hope to retire, I know our lives were completely turned upside down over one fateful summer and we moved our plans forward and have had no regrets. Until we get to state pension age, we will probably keep finding a way of supplementing our teachers pension, at the moment we do freelance travel writing and TH-cam brings in a small income. We always said we may need to work again at some point but that it would be a part time, no stress job rather than an all consuming career. Hope you find a way through to make your goals a reality
J & R
Brilliant vlog, just hit 47 and keen to replicate your experiences.
Thanks Kenny- we hope it shows that we are genuinely having a blast. We are not regretting it yet and we are nearly 2 years in...😳
Good luck with your plans. 👍
Great video good luck maybe being a couple doing things together helps fill the days,some lifestyles are harder to move away from ie being a farmer born and bred,but then farming is not like it was
Thank you - my mums family were dairy farmers, it is definitely not as easy to move on from. The farming has now wound up and the fields rented out!
Another thought provoking video. Whilst I wait for my husband to retire early in a couple of years I am making sure that all the big jobs that need doing on our home are being done this year whilst we have the extra income. We prioritised family holidays to Florida for a few years over house jobs 😂 We’re also focusing on getting healthier and planning our bucket list.
The kids have convinced us to have one more big family trip to Florida with my mum and my sisters family in September which we are very excited about 😊
My daughters inform me that they’ll still come on any holidays to America 😂 hoping to go back to Florida next year but don’t want to go in the height of summer and finding a date that works around Uni terms /placements is just as bad as school holidays- thought it would get easier as they got older!
@dianeh1408 we are off early September so my sisters daughter who is at uni can go! But at least not high season, we are going to the gulf coast 😊
Not all surprises are avoidable- we’ll sadly never be able to visit Russia again and Covid stopped us travelling for 2 years so we missed two of our planned big trips. We did catch up on the trips elsewhere but it wasn’t the same. However we surprised ourselves in adapting- during Covid we learnt to play Saxophone! That was a big surprise to all our friends and family haha 😛 as we’re not at all musical. The other post Covid surprise was going to all the away games following our local Premier League football team and having mini staycations across England. The other surprise was our son and his wife deciding to stay in Australia long term…. leaving us with a huge unexpected decision to now make. The recent surprises have been health related…. despite being fit we’ve both now got age related conditions to deal with ….
@BoninBrighton
In a lot of cases it was possible to travel during Covid as long as the countries aligned - we did international travel several times - not for the faint of heart, but doable
It has certainly been a strange few years during and since Covid. We could not do any of our silver wedding celebrations and travels so for us 30 is the new 25 years and next year we will hopefully get to Canada as we had planned in 2020. Covid also made us appreciate just what a great country we live in and pushed us to explore and discover lots of places in the UK that are just so beautiful. Hope all goes well with your future plans health wise and Children relocating to Australia wise!!
You regret being able to visit Russia? You don’t seem wanting to see the truth (or maybe you rather enjoy the aggression coming from them).
@@cedarcanoe we’d already visited Russia once, were interested in geography and history so yes we had plans to return. We’ve also visited China and many other places…. we don’t only visit places where we agree with the politics this would be very restrictive don’t you think? Russian literature is fascinating- and I still read it.
@@BoninBrighton I don't get that. For me it would be like if a Brit would have wanted to travel 'on holiday' to nazi Germany during ww2. Does that feel like enjoying or supporting the country?
I've very much been judged for retiring at 50! People can be incredibly rude about it too
Our family were quite shocked when we first said we were retiring so early but I think they have seen the positive benefits to us now and mum has certainly enjoyed the fact that we spend so much more time with her. We have also had some people be quite rude and opinionated about our choice but most people are happy for us that we were able to make that decision.
I am going to say that those people are super envious of you retiring so early. I say Way To Go!!
This is very good. After a lot of financial planning and no debts, I’ve retired at 57, but husband is 60 and still wants to work because he enjoys it, and that’s fine. He’s also helping to care for his mum, who is the last elder. I suspect when she sadly passes away, he will retire. I have some concerns that we may not get many years together to travel, but on the other hand we travelled a lot together during our life, so whatever will be, will be.
Thank you. Time is such a strange thing as you can't guarantee anything. Hopefully you will have plenty of time to still get to travel far and wide together. My mum is still going strong travelling independently and she is 80 soon! It is good that he is content in his work, for some people that is really important both mentally and socially. Travel was the one thing we never really did before we had our children although we did find a love of Florida for a few years with our family. I think we are making up for the travel now though! Good luck in what ever your future holds 😊
@@earlyretirementwanderlust I’m surely glad you can travel now and to hear your mother is still having adventures. My MIL is 91, so slowing down, but we are lucky to have her with us. Good luck on your European adventure.
Without going into your private finance it's hard to know what you mean by modest. We are retiring soon (at 61 and 66) on what I would call a very modest, if not small budget. It's not two pensions I'm afraid. We have money from downsizing but I wonder what you would consider modest as your lifestyle seems great and with scope for travel. We are not big spenders but equally just tend to go with the flow rather than think closely about a budget. Any advice and any figures you can give, without revealing anything you are uncomfortable with, would be appreciated. Thanks. N x
Hi - budget is a strange one as it depends what lifestyle you are used to and want to have.
We try to live on a budget of £200 a week which includes petrol, food and travel expenses like campsite fees as much as possible (we spend a lot on petrol visiting both parents regularly which is important to us). We take this out in cash as it is easier to keep track of spending and feel like we need to justify to ourselves anything extra to the £200 that we spend!
We have a total of £2000 a month which covers weekly budget (£800), monthly bills and large expenses which invariably come up such as car and van service, different insurances (car, house, travel..), birthdays, Christmas, septic tank emptying... Anything that is left over is saved in a travel pot.
We do get a small extra income from freelance travel writing and TH-cam that we put in the travel pot which pays for flights, ferries, petrol on big trips and extra campsite fees.
Hope this helps a little
J and R
Thank you. That's some great information. We prob have less but have savings to draw on. Its quite hard to spend savings when you dont have the same coming in anymore, definitely a very different mindset. We haven't got round to considering a budget yet but its got to be done, not something we have dwelt on before really. I guess we have just spent what we needed to and saved when we could. I really appreciate all your info. X
@@earlyretirementwanderlust
Most people that can afford to retire earlier those that have either boatloads of cash or their government employees and get a great pension. People don’t realize the value of a pension and not having to worry about the stock market returns, etc. I have a lot of friends that were in the military that were able to retire at 55 and keep saying to me hey you should retire you’ve gotten money. The money I have is based on investments that could go south and therefore don’t have the security that they have. So if you’re a government employee and spent your career working your solid Five hours a day then good for you. Of course I’m kidding for all your government employees.
We know we are very fortunate to have such a good pension...although we cannot even touch it for another couple of years until we are 55. I guess it is some of the payback for not having the equivalent salaries that industry has. Don't get us wrong, we absolutely loved our jobs, but circumstances made us realise that there is more to life than work.
Thanks for the comment. 👍
So did you two have kids?
Yep👍 We are very blessed.
Brilliant, you mentioned so many important issues. For me the key takeaways from your video are: fulfillment, time and health. I'm hoping that our decision to retire in 2025 will give us the time to enjoy a fulfilling life, improve our health, have time for each other, family and friends, and enjoy more opportunities for travel in our campervan, work is simply a blocker to these opportunities, and the time has come for us to wind down 😍🚐. Thank you for sharing your experience and advice xxx
Thanks Janet, good to hear that some things resonated! We found the lead up to early retirement really quite exiting, but apprehensive at the same time. Once we had made the jump, we couldn't work out what we were apprehensive about😂 Making the decision is the hardest part, the plans are then the exciting bit.
As always, thanks for the lovely comment. 👍