Spokes!

That’s an issue, certainly. I’d suggest the bigger one is that the picture has changed irrevocably with the end of DB pensions — which, it’s clear in hindsight, were an anomaly that contravened the Second Law of Thermodynamics. So people of T&E’s and Bromp’s generation had options that those of us half a generation younger can envy, and that those younger still, who began work in the Major-Lamont recession of the 1990s, and have struggled ever since to match the living standards their parents took for granted, can barely imagine.

So I’m certainly not in a position to contemplate retirement much before the end of this decade, when I’ll be 62 and my tranche of DB pension matures. But I might have the luxury of deciding before then that I don’t need the full corporate soup and fish — depending on MrsB1’s appetite, of course. 🤓

Indeed, which is why I prefaced my post with the fact that I never intended to work beyond 60 - that was my mindset. In addition, I've acknowledged in the post that "all people are different". I do think I've been lucky, though I've made some of that luck. 

I've known people who don't want to retire, full stop, at any age. Each to their own, but given the financial ability to do so, and potentially to do things that simply aren't possible during working life, that seems rather sad to me. I do know people who have taken up alternative (mainly part-time) employment after retirement, and have done something rewarding and very different. (My ex-colleague I mentioned would quite happily have set up a landscaping business if he could be *rsed, but he's getting compensatory experience by volunteering to work in the gardens at Chatsworth, and with commitments he can drop at short notice). 

It took me a year to crystallise the fact that I would be better off out of my then employment. It became increasingly obvious that, though I would take a financial hit, I could leave my pensions on the original payment dates, and still bridge the gap with handle-able impact. I drove in to work one Monday morning, and the decision was made in the car.

TBF, I hedged my bets; as part of my leaving arrangements there was professional outplacement support, which I took, as there was no upside in not doing, and there was always a chance I'd subsequently decide I'd made a big mistake. I did three sessions with a consultant where I was honest that I was not at all sure I wanted it to be fruitful; on the third and last he said "from your demeanour, I don't think I'll be seeing you again!"; quite right! (If I'd been really serious about continuing to work, I'd already immediately been offered work by a small, and very good management consultancy I'd worked alongside five years earlier, and for about six months after leaving I was regularly getting calls from old contacts asking me if I wanted lucrative consultancy work. I remember taking one call in Finland (one of the bucket-list road trips) "you're where?! WTF are you doing there?"   

...but, it's a mindset thing. There is a little switch that flips in the brain that says "time to go". Watching other people, you sometimes wonder why it hasn't, and what it will take. My colleague already mentioned should and could, from an external view, have taken retirement several years earlier, but it took a significant health scare to make him reconsider (and he now doesn't regret the decision a bit). His wife is rather younger, has a University based job she loves (or did), and wasn't at all ready to retire, which rather restricted their joint activities. She went part-time a year or so ago, and then, in the middle of the year the switch flipped (I suspect Covid and WFH for a job that was previously quite personal-contact heavy had something to do with that). She's now finishing early in the new year; any financial concerns that were there before the decision have now dissolved, and she can't wait (I can see a real positive change in her outlook).

As I say, people are different, with different mindsets and personal circumstances.

As for being involuntarily "retired", surely that's redundancy or unemployment really, and if you don't want to be there (or can't afford to) patently not enjoyable. Things like social contact and mental stimulation can be fixed (albeit probably through different routes than work) but the financial aspect isn't easy. It's also not easy to come to terms with the fact that you're no longer "wanted", whatever the circumstances, unless you've decided yourself you don't want work. As I've said, it took me a year to decide that I could come to terms with all the downsides, and I was quite well placed to do so.

Do I interpret from your post Dixi, that you are still looking around for gainful employment? If so, I wish you all the best in getting there. Not easy times, and I doubt NZ is much better than anywhere else at the moment for prospects.
  

...assuming the pound holds its current value against the euro. In 2016 a euro was 70p, remember. It's 90p now - once Johnson's 'deal' emerges from the oven...?

Or, maybe the ones with white graphics are sort of "Extra Load" spec?
🤔

You should never interfere with a sporran when there's an R in the month.

...well, that at least is very good news, even should it be only a stop-gap (though I hope it is somewhat more than that).

I don't think any of us can accurately forecast next year's events for ourselves.

Those of us that are retired with sufficient income have (other than being somewhat closer to the "target group") been better placed to ride things out than most, something I am/have been very aware of. Being in such a position wasn't really part of the planning though ("pandemic" didn't figure in my retirement plans ).

The major effect on us "oldies" is that rather unforeseen circumstances are robbing us of a considerably greater proportion of our active life (a year + is quite a part of that) with plans still to fulfil (some of which will now never come to fruition as "new normal" circumstances will dictate otherwise). Still, first world problems, eh? 

I dislike spending my days sitting at a desk peering at a screen. It's work Jim, but not as we know it.