Taking early retirement, pension release

TAKING EARLY RETIREMENT, PENSION RELEASE

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Taking early retirement, pension release, pension plans and planning for retirement, retirement age is far too early for men and women

If you are considering taking early retirement it is important that you do your sums and think carefully about how you will spend what could be the best part of a third of your life as a pensioner. Are you retiring for the right reasons or are you looking to release your pension because you are tired of working and life?

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I had to go to the wedding of my best friends son last month which was a real eye opener for me. My friend and I have been best friends for more than thirty years and when we get together, which isn't as often as we' like, the clock is rolled back and we behave like a couple of twenty year olds again. Laughter is good for the health and we don't stop laughing from one minute to another. Jokes, wind ups, pranks and practical jokes played on anyone we happen to encounter are the order of the day.

So when I was seated next to his sister in law and opposite his brother, who I have only met once before, I was non too pleased. Of course I had my wife and my best friend to talk to but out of politeness, I also had to engage his brother and his wife in conversation. Let me describe the situation for you.

My friend, myself and my wife are in our fifties, fun loving, take pride in our appearance and keep fairly fit. Our wives are vivacious and attractive and have kept their figures; they are what most healthy, red blooded men would call well maintained.

My friend's brother is grossly overweight and dresses like a middle aged man from the fifties. His wife, who is also overweight obviously takes no pride in her appearance and looks like a middle aged Miss Piggy with a pudding basin haircut. No offence Miss Piggy.

Now I am not saying that we should judge people by the way they look; there are after all certain features that we are born with that short of plastic surgery, we can do nothing about. However, how we choose to dress, what we choose to eat and how we present ourselves are within all our control.

Whilst my friend, myself and our wives chatted and joked together, I tried to engage Miss Piggy and her husband in conversation. It was like talking to people who try to give he impression that they are upstanding citizens who believe that humour is a sin. It was all very serious, staid and dour and it made me feel that I was trying to converse with people from Victorian times. They were the classic example of what young people would call "old farts" except that they were in their late forties but old before their time.

In a quite moment I thanked my friend for sitting me next to them and remarked how difficult it was to make light conversation. His response was that in almost thirty years, he had never had a decent conversation with his sister in law and that they were finally growing into the age where that they had been waiting all their lives to attain.

Whilst we were being dragged kicking and screaming into middle age or even, dare I say it, old age; they had just waddled along quite happy to let life and old age consume them without a fight. The gave the impression of being very smug and condescending whilst looking down their noses at anyone who might want to misbehave or have some fun that involved even a little energy. Not once did they smile, nor talk about anything but themselves; each telling me how important the other was in their chosen professions.

It turned out that she had taken early retirement due to ill health (probably caused through her obesity) and worked two mornings a week as a teaching assistant; which she found exhausting; whilst he worked for the YMCA. My asking him which member of the Village People he was and suggesting that he must have been the builder didn't even raise a grin.

Then the subject got around to the fact that he was going to be fifty next year and would be taking early retirement because he had worked so hard all his life and it was time to have a rest. It was another of those foot in mouth moments of mine.

Considering he had told me that he started work at 10.00 am and was usually home by 4.00 pm, I just blurted out that after such a long day he would need thirty years of doing nothing to make up for a career of not doing much else. It was said as a joke but I obviously hit a sore point because they got up and moved tables, where they just continued to sit and watch everyone else enjoying themselves.

Two more people heading from one scrap heap to another and not even having the patience to wait their turn. This is just one of the many things that is wrong with society today. Too many people don't want to work and think that thirty or forty years of attending work entitles them to another thirty or forty years of idleness. They are going to join the growing number of people who will reach retirement, having done little to ensure they will have enough money and then spend the rest of their lives complaining about what a rough deal they are getting after years of paying taxes.

So let me ask you one question. How can you possibly believe that you can somehow accumulate enough money in a pension fund in order to comfortably retire and live for another forty years?