When I saw the topic for this week's Dreemport Silver Bloggers Challenge I had to pause for thought.
When do I want to retire? What do I want from retirement? What do I plan to do with those years when the time comes?
And you know what... the answers were quite simple... and I'll get to them shortly.
First a bit of backstory...
I have been quite fortunate to have been in gainful employment most of my adult life, albeit my husband and I started over from scratch when I was 29 and he was 30. We emigrated from South Africa to the U.K. in 2001 and cashed in our pensions to fund the transition. But since we moved to the U.K. I have saved again towards my pension and we have purchased a home together.
I already work a reduced-hour week (part-time) so that I can be there to take my children to school in the mornings and fetch them in the afternoons. The cost of child care is very prohibitive but I want to be able to spend that time with them anyway. Even working part-time, I find that my time only starts after 9 pm at night and sometimes that can stretch to starting at 10 pm or 11 pm depending on my family's needs. In order to eek out as much time for myself as possible, I tend to go to bed very late, sleep less and wake tired... except on weekends when I enjoy the luxury of a lie-in to catch up.
I do love my sleep but I am also resigned to being a night owl!
I have so many interests that I would love to be able to pursue BUT I just don't have the time.
Now here's the thing... most people, either have money, but no time to make the best use of it because they are always working, or they have time (retirement) but much less money to use during that time because they are not working! So we need to find the balance point somewhere in between.
For me... retirement means no longer being beholden to someone else; to the corporate world. It means being able to reclaim my time and do with it what I want to do. Sure, I may have less money, but a lot of things that I enjoy, don't require massive capital input eg: writing, reading, music, growing my own food, learning, hiking, and time with family and friends. I think one of the few things that will require money will be travel.
Travel is something I will not be able to give up as I have family and friends abroad that mean the world to me and time with them is a sacrifice I am not prepared to make.
So... I think retirement for me may be a journey towards reclaiming my time... perhaps reducing my working week by a day at a time... down to 3 half days a week. Then potentially switching to contract work or a less stressful part-time job, earning less but doing something I enjoy. Where I feel valued and feel as though I am making a contribution to society, rather than simply filling the pockets of wealthy shareholders.
But ultimately I will stop working altogether. There comes a point where I know that I will have enough to get by. I will again reprioritise my spending habits and trade money for time because time is worth so much more!!! I am already focussed on finding ways to reduce my outgoings and making my money work better for me. I think that is important. And I am working on instilling a savings habit into my children too. That's not as easy but we'll get there!
Time in itself is a precious limited commodity and none of us know how much of it we have left. Money we can count and plan out... Time? Not so much! So, we have to make the most of every day we are given... and that's what I want. I don't want to spend the rest of my life eeking out joy, wringing it out of the few hours I can claim for myself each day in the quiet hours of the night. I no longer want to be ruled by time; I want to be blessed by it.
So I can't wait to reach that balance point where I can truly drop the daily grind altogether and throw myself into my interests and everything that brings me joy. I know that I will have more than enough to keep me busy... and... with the extra time, I may just get to sleep a solid 8-9 hours again*
*ps: That last point... who am I kidding?😂
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