Best Place (world) To Live +50 / Not Working - Opinion, Advice And Discussion

can't speak for the retirement thing, but if you are worried about life outside London, why not stay a bit closer, we live down in Hungerford, still a 1:30hr train ride straight into london paddington but has a population of around 10k, or go out towards Oxford but on a train link into London if you want to hop on a train. Ross is a lovely part of the world though, but yeah I guess out there it's Bristol if you want to go to a city.

 

London is pants, its all manic crazy expensive shite. Get your business sold. Move to Yorkshire dales or wolds. Enjoy life, sociable people, cheaper housing and , most of all, the riding. Loads of meets and bikes round ere lad.
Lack of good trades people too.

 

Retirement is brilliant, look at me for a fine example, 65 and still working four days a week on a building site, can't wait for the sunny days, I might drop down to three days.
Unless of course you're lazy and want to lounge about and get fat, that's just another option.
Steve

 

First thing I did before making a final decision was to understand where the money was going to come from and how much I needed to pay for the basics. Only issue I’ve had so far was the bucket for “fun stuff” got very low very quicly because I under budgeted spending on foreign track days. Mostly bills have come in on estimate and budgeted increase on basics spending is in line with what I allowed. Estimated increases on investments have under performed by about 0.5%. The unbudgeted sale of the maisonette my sister used to live in has provided for instant gratification (V4 Speciale), topped up the fun stuff pot and added to the emergency/ rainy day pot. First year has been a blast but now must buckle down and do routine maintenance on the house and garden inbetween track days and weekend touring. To be fair, IAM observer training and delivering additional training for TVAM is taking a fair bit of time. Part time job at MRs has been great. Retiring at 63 is much later than you so IMO you need to put more emphasis on longer term finances so you don’t end up having to go back to work full time. Good luck. Andy

 

bring it on

 

Depends on just how rural you want to go? The first time I retired I went quite rural, so there were things I didn't have to worry about before like oil for central heating, cesspit systems due to no mains drainage, tradesmen thinking you are minted if you live in the middle of nowhere so try their luck on quotes, popping to the shop will always include a transport etc. The airports around you would be Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol so you only need to check their websites to see where they fly too.

 

3yrs left on my mortgage. Then we're off from that surrey to somewhere full of normal people. Ie oop north. Western Highlands is my choice, buy wifey would like Nottingham (nr her family). Reckon we'll end up devon/dorset/somerset though.

 

I retired at a similar age in April last year and have really enjoyed the first year.Its as if I was born to be retired
I was a bit worried about the winter months but have not had any boredom at all really.
You sound as if you will have loads going on anyway,go for it would be my advice
Good luck with whatever you choose

 

Hi

I have been thinking to retire early - I am 49 now and want to finish at 55 - I am currently banging in as much as I can into my pension to get my pension pot to a large sum - my house will also be nigh on paid at 55 too - so that's approx half the spending gone.

I already live in South Wales - Hereford if 30 or 40 miles away as is Ross on Wye - Hereford and the roads around there are my ridding route.

If you want Rural then there are plenty of small villages - but as Noobie says - its always a car for shopping etc. Clyro and the road between Hay on Wye and Brecon is where I would go.

I personally would retire to Hungary or similar - where your money goes 3 x further... but my wife is not keen.

I would think all 3 would go hand in hand - selling up and moving starting afresh - maybe make it a 4 and swap the wife too.... just kidding... but Ducbirds whipping sounded tempting and a good offer

I plan on either working for myself - breeding dogs / van hire / burger van - just to keep busy - that way you can really do what you want - and keep as busy as you like / free time as you like - that keeps a bit of money coming in and you busy. The pension draw down to provide for all the bills etc and working - just a hobby - bike money..

Again as Andy said make sure you have enough money - my plan is to just draw off interest that accumulates annually and try to limit the with drawl of the principle - that way it lasts longer - and there is money to fall back on.

I am assuming that there is a 5% - 6% growth / interest and need about 35 to 40K a year - so i stay out of the high tax bracket to live as now when mortgage is paid - for those thats retired - Andy - is that enough?.

I assume if you are a City or Town person then you may find it difficult - but me I hate cities and towns..

Not sure about organised rides - but plenty of places to meet up and make friend and go riding with.

 

I know this may sound weird, but your relationship.

When myself and my partner moved upto Norfolk, she's more front of stage and I'm more support crew behind the stage. I had plenty to do in the new house doing blokey things but she was used to her work girls, her friend girls and suddenly in an isolated quiet farmhouse with no girly things to do, job or friends, the peace she craved gave her an almighty kick in the no social life yet part of her body

She ended up taking a part time job to have an outlet beyond just the house she had dreamed of, so slowly built up a few friends she could have a social life with too. It was a tough first year