maggyd Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Good for you Mel and Congratulations you will wonder after a few months how on earth you had the time to go to work :-D believe me the weeks just fly by. O.H. took early retirement at 50 and hasnt looked back. Enjoy your Feb trip I would love to be brave enough to go away for the Winter months Ill be looking for your blog so dont forget to keep us up to date where you are and what you are doing. Glad your back is healing alright you dont want that hindering your travels good luck and dont forget all your friends on here when you are away enjoying yourselves in the sun. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tp002c784tp002c784tp Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hi Mel Good on you tell her what you think of her before you leave. I took early retirement 16 years ago, I now have had more pension out of my old employer than a lot do, only trouble is can not get the boss to retire she's 7 years over her retirement age. As you more than likely realise you have to watch what you spend as you no longer have any decent income coming in. One big snag is you no longer get any holidays and no holiday pay and you also get no bank holidays. Good luck in your retirement. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 Good news again ... hubby's ordered one of the jigsaw portapuzzle board things fo me today! :-> I think he was getting fed up of my jigsaw clogging up the table on the piece of board that I currently use ... so soon I'll be able to tidy it away when I'm not doing it. :D Terry, not planning on being any more 'tight' with money that we already are ... stingy, who moi? Never!!! :$ Your 'boss' really ought to retire ... you just don't know what's around the corner, I hear toooooooo many sad stories :-( of people who aren't able to enjoy their retirement ... hopefully I'll have plenty of time to enjoy my early retirement! :-D She who thinks she 'must' be obeyed has allowed me to book an appointment to see the solicitor about my compromise agreement during work's time ... she must be desperate to get shot of me! 8-) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Hiya Mel Your story is matching mine in many ways. Just turned 55 and I am on the blocks ready to jump the employment bandwagon. Why are all new bosses obsessed with targets, analysis, data and getting you to do more and more work in less and less time. I am Head of Department in Physical Education in a Secondary school and I spend most of my evenings and free time marking, documentation, analysing data etc. The days of giving all my time to the kids and extra-curricular are decreasing as I am now pulled so many ways that I do not know which way to turn next. I still do fixtures etc but its getting too much. My long suffering husband has been retired for 17 years and he has had enough of me with my head in paperwork every night. This summer term I snapped! and I have stepped back and tried to take control of things. Its nice to know that I can go now if I want and that has made me smile and let things "go over my head more" Wow Mel, this is becoming a cathartic thread as I am having a good moan. Good luck in retirement. No packages on offer anymore but who cares as money isn't everything. I am planning for the future now Chris :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Update ... been to see the solicitor today to go over the agreement ... then signed it! 8-) The solicitor's gonna do what he has too and then send it back to the University for it to be signed by them and then the deal is done! :-> Nearly free .... nearly ....... :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Congratulations Mel, hubby will have to look out for his full time boiss after Christmas (lol) I'm sure you won't have time to even think about missing work, once you leave. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 For anyone who's interested, the Jumbo Deluxe 1000 piece puzzle board has been reduced to £14.99 now!!! puzzle board Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Mel B - 2011-09-21 6:08 PM Update ... been to see the solicitor today to go over the agreement ... then signed it! 8-) The solicitor's gonna do what he has too and then send it back to the University for it to be signed by them and then the deal is done! :-> Nearly free .... nearly ....... :D It's confirmed ... I'll be leaving officially on 31 December 2011 .... in reality 23 December though! :-D I'm sure the next 3 months will go by very quickly ... make that 2 months and 3 weeks! By heck that week went quick!!!!! :-> (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hiya Mel, I will be joining you. :-D Monday morning I handed my notice in. To say people were shocked was an understatement as I had not given any inclination that I was leaving. I have worked the finances out and we will "manage". As said I am taking a cut going at 55 and there are no packages on offer but I want my life back!!!! Too much expected and less focus on the teaching part. Its sad as I know I am good without blowing my own trumpet but enough is enough so roll on Xmas. Trouble is I have 33yeasrs of sorting out to do ha ha. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 To the OP I started work at 15, and retired at 65, just like my father before me who was still climbing gantry cranes right up to the time he retired at 65 as well. Not for us the luxury of "being paid to go" more a case of being paid to turn up day in day out for 50 years, and with just a final weeks pay packet at the end, hard slog, you really don't know the meaning of the word like most in the public sector. I always wondered where he and I went wrong in life in, 50 bloody years of hard manual work. Now I know, reading your comments, I should have had a tax payer funded job, complete with tax payer funded payouts, and ill health early retirement that is so endemic in the public sector. Strange thing is, in your shoes I would not be shouting it from the rooftops, but just quietly enjoying my good fortune, anyway enjoy some of my money, sour grapes, you bet ya, ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Look out 1 foot8-)..........You've lit the blue touch paper now........(lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HymerVan Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 To "1 foot" Your post saddens me as one of your generation. My father left school at 14 and worked in a variety of lowly jobs ultimately qualifying as a teacher and retiring at 62. His father worked until he was 72 (coincidentally as craneman and climbing into a gantry crane) and died two weeks after he retired. Nature gives us a variety of gifts, personalities and fortunes and it is completely pointless and quite unhealthy to resent the good fortune of others if that is indeed what you are saying. Rather look back on your own working life and rejoice in the good bits and in your achievements large or small. Everyone has bad times but they tend to be forgotten. Look forward and enjoy what you have now because health is by far the most important factor. Oh and given that you have an IH Tio you cant have done that badly so focus on enjoying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Well done 1 foot posting how many of us feel. If one looks at the early retirements they all tend to come from public funded organisation spending our money. I had to work until 65 and had I stayed in Local Government I too would have retired at 55 as I was an administrator however the manual workers did/do not get these privileges, all wrong. If you have saved and privately funded your retirement then I have no problems but I too find coming on here and saying that indirectly I will be funding your early retirement a bit galling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickydicky Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 oh how my life changed the day i got the big "C" at 54. i'm in remission now, fit and healthy and making the most of every single day,whereas before i wouldn't spend any money needlessly,never took a day off work since i left school, always at the beck and call of my employers.......not any more,we are having the time of our life,spending the kids inheritance and enjoying ourselves while we are still young (ish). having a serious illness certainly puts everything into perspective. spain here we come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I guess the OP post hit a raw nerve. Having a friend who went to hell and back after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus at 51 ( and no not a smoker ) and a relative with breast cancer at 49, again,went to hell and back, they both after now being ( thank God ) in remission have both had to return to work, why, because they both work in the private sector, and no one is about to give them something for nothing, just seems so unfair that's all. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Tricky , great post just read it . Illness makes you rethink does it not . Its unfortunate that sometimes we only think about living when the thought of death knocks on the door . My wife has just finished her last day today in the business we have sold . Next Friday house goes through and on the Sunday we have a ticket for Santander . We will have 5 months touring and then come back to our first grandchild , then we will come back and instead of been trapped in the making money world we are going to hopefully live in the sod it lets be happy world . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Well, I'm absolutely shocked at the reaction of some of you to the news that I'm leaving work and the nastiness of some of the comments, if the shoe was on the other foot I would NEVER post what some of you have. To answer one question about whether universities are classed as public bodies, this is taken from Wikipedia as to whether universities are classes as public bodies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_university In the United Kingdom all universities, with the exception of the University of Buckingham[10] and BPP University College, are currently funded mainly by government teaching and research grants. At all English universities, excluding the University of Buckingham and BPP University College, the UK government also regulates tuition fees, student funding and student loans. The UK government commissions and regulates a research assessment and teaching review. However, unlike in some Continental European countries, the UK government does not own universities' assets, and university staff are not civil servants. Government regulation arises as a condition of accepting funding from bodies such as HEFCE and any university can choose to leave the HEFCE regulated system at any time. With the release of the 2010 Browne report and the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, this model of funding higher education has been changed in England. From 2012 much more of the responsibility for funding undergraduate university teaching will be placed on students rather than the UK government. The government will continue to fund research, give limited funding to master's degrees and will continue to contribute (albeit in a reduced manner) to some undergraduate degrees, particularly those in the natural sciences. Different arrangements will continue to apply elsewhere in the United Kingdom. You can decide how you feel about it all, but all I can tell you is that working at the University in the jobs I have had has been anything but a walk in the flaming park. For information, the payments are being made out of the University’s own coffers, not from government, to enable the University to reduce the staff in areas it doesn’t need them/to restructure/to make it more efficient/change the skill-set. They are preparing for the no doubt reduced income they will get next year when the £9,000 fees kick in, so that they are better placed to be able to continue to exist and be one of the city’s largest employers. They will save a lot more than they pay me to leave due to the high cost of pensions/on costs to them - if they payments weren’t being paid then I might not have left yet. sshortcircuit - 2011-10-21 11:07 AM Well done 1 foot posting how many of us feel. Really, I sincerely hope not, and I certainly have not seen any evidence to back that up, quite the contrary in fact. sshortcircuit - 2011-10-21 11:07 AM If one looks at the early retirements they all tend to come from public funded organisation spending our money. I had to work until 65 and had I stayed in Local Government I too would have retired at 55 as I was an administrator however the manual workers did/do not get these privileges, all wrong. If you have saved and privately funded your retirement then I have no problems but I too find coming on here and saying that indirectly I will be funding your early retirement a bit galling Yes, we have saved and scrounged for many, many, many years, doing without a lot of things that you may NOT have ... but I certainly wouldn’t then criticise you and say you are responsible for not being able to retire early as you have frittered your money away - you made the choices you did, just as we have chosen to do what we have. I am not permitted to say the exact amount I am getting, but safe to say it is not anything like enough to keep us going until my pension kicks in, around a couple of years frugal living. I was going to leave anyway at some point, so this has just come at the right time for me, but if it hadn’t, then I would have left with nothing ... would you have preferred that? 1footinthegrave - 2011-10-21 9:45 AM To the OP I started work at 15, and retired at 65, just like my father before me who was still climbing gantry cranes right up to the time he retired at 65 as well. Not for us the luxury of "being paid to go" more a case of being paid to turn up day in day out for 50 years, and with just a final weeks pay packet at the end, hard slog, you really don't know the meaning of the word like most in the public sector. I always wondered where he and I went wrong in life in, 50 bloody years of hard manual work. Now I know, reading your comments, I should have had a tax payer funded job, complete with tax payer funded payouts, and ill health early retirement that is so endemic in the public sector. Strange thing is, in your shoes I would not be shouting it from the rooftops, but just quietly enjoying my good fortune, anyway enjoy some of my money, sour grapes, you bet ya, ! What a bitter person you are. My father worked from 14 to 68, he’s been disabled since the age of 3 due to polio but still worked a full week in a garage, slogging his guts out and putting in many more hours than the ‘able bodied’ workers there. I used to help him at home do the timesheets which was a ‘duty’ he had landed on him but didn’t get paid for. He got a ‘watch’ when he left ... wow, what a wonderful reward he got. But, that doesn’t make me bitter, it was the way it was. For info, my Mum also worked, out of choice, until she was 67. You do not know me or what my jobs have entailed over the last 32 years of being in work yet you think you can say I don’t know hard slog ... you should be ashamed of yourself. Tell me - have you got kids? If so, did you claim benefit or child allowance? How about maternity pay for your wife? We’ve never had kids, one of the sacrifices we’ve made, but do you hear me complaining about the people who do have them and me having to fund them???? No, you don’t. 1footinthegrave - 2011-10-21 11:41 AM I guess the OP post hit a raw nerve. Having a friend who went to hell and back after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus at 51 ( and no not a smoker ) and a relative with breast cancer at 49, again, went to hell and back, they both after now being ( thank God ) in remission have both had to return to work, why, because they both work in the private sector, and no one is about to give them something for nothing, just seems so unfair that's all. I One of the reasons I’m leaving is due to health issues, although this is NOT ill health retirement and I certainly would not ever say I fell into that group having seen what some colleagues have been like when they met that criteria. What you have stated above about your friends is part of the reason WHY I’m going whilst I have the chance, I’ve known too many colleagues and friends who have had illnesses and the like, or have died, and have had no opportunity to enjoy themselves and ‘have a life’. A colleague of mine is currently undergoing treatment for lymphoma ... she’s only 58 and it has come on totally out of the blue, her husband is out of work and can’t get a job and she is at her wits end. Hopefully I’ll be able to give her some support and help to get through it all. I’m not, actually getting ‘something for nothing’ as you put it ... I’ve put in a lot of hard graft over the years, not just in admin work, and if it didn’t suit the University to pay me off there’s no way I’d get it ... it is not a right and most people never ever get anything when they leave the University. We don’t get retirement at 55/60 like the ‘public sector’ does, it is normally 65 - mine would actually be 66 if I stayed on. As for my posting on here that I’m getting paid to leave, I don’t see either of you having a go and throwing insults at people who post that they are spending large amounts of money on a motorhome, perhaps I should have said that instead ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 1footinthegrave - 2011-10-21 11:41 AM I guess the OP post hit a raw nerve. Having a friend who went to hell and back after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus at 51 ( and no not a smoker ) and a relative with breast cancer at 49, again,went to hell and back, they both after now being ( thank God ) in remission have both had to return to work, why, because they both work in the private sector, and no one is about to give them something for nothing, just seems so unfair that's all. But, you do seem to be blaming those who perhaps have fared better than you, for their good fortune. Some things we choose, some are imposed on us. The things that are imposed, none of us can escape. With the things we choose, it turns out that some chose more wisely, in retrospect, than others. Unfair? Well, life is never really fair, is it? It is a lottery. Your assumptions are not unfair - a matter of chance, but unreasonable - a matter of intellectual reasoning. Some are born gifted, some with great wealth, some with disabilities, some to parents who barely merit the title. To berate someone for choosing to work for an organisation that unexpectedly, years later, presents them with the choice to retire early, is about as reasonable as blaming one of life's failures for not choosing their parents with more care. So, what should Mel do, reject the offer and stay working because you and your dad had to, or put the clock back and make a different career choice, to be able to join you in dissatisfaction? I'm afraid I think you, and sshortcircuit, seem to be indulging in a rather nasty, mean-minded, outbreak of spiteful jealousy. So, just let me ask, purely out of curiosity, as you both seem so good at this early career choosing lark, why didn't you retire as directors of banks, rather than from the jobs it seems you actually took? After all, you must have had the choice, mustn't you? Was it the noble desire to have to work to 65, and retire on a bit less that £100,000 per year, that influenced you? Senior bankers, in case you haven't noticed, do seem to retire rather earlier than 65, and seem to go on huge pensions, with copious share options, and huge golden handshakes. I understand though that they don't actually work for the public sector, and that of course their, and their colleagues', lifetimes of accumulated perks, have had no impact whatever on the cost of banking services the rest of us have to put up with. That money, of course is generated by the sheer magic of the stock exchange and, unlike incomes derived from taxation, has no impact on the cost of anything the rest of us do or buy. Unfair, of course it is, but how can it ever be otherwise? Some win, some loose, don't brood over it, enjoy what you have, and sod the rest. You can't alter the way the dice fell for them. Apologies for the unforgivable sarcasm, I think you may have caught a raw nerve of mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 antony1969 - 2011-10-21 6:25 PMMy wife has just finished her last day today in the business we have sold . Next Friday house goes through and on the Sunday we have a ticket for Santander . We will have 5 months touring and then come back to our first grandchild , then we will come back and instead of been trapped in the making money world we are going to hopefully live in the sod it lets be happy world .Lucky b******d:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Well I have no intention of getting involved in a slanging match and in no way did I think any postings were intended to be nasty, more indicating that many outside public funded bodies do not get the opportunities to retire early. I do take exception to your insinuation "you are responsible for not being able to retire early as you have frittered your money away - you made the choices you did, " No way did i say this and I have saved for retirement but was not lucky enough to be employed by an organisation that could afford early retirements which unfortunately whether you like it or not is seen by many as being easily available to the public funded organisations employees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Brian "I'm afraid I think you, and sshortcircuit, seem to be indulging in a rather nasty, mean-minded, outbreak of spiteful jealousy. So, just let me ask, purely out of curiosity, as you both seem so good at this early career choosing lark, why didn't you retire as directors of banks, rather than from the jobs it seems you actually took? After all, you must have had the choice, mustn't you? Was it the noble desire to have to work to 65, and retire on a bit less that £100,000 per year, that influenced you? Senior bankers, in case you haven't noticed, do seem to retire rather earlier than 65, and seem to go on huge pensions, with copious share options, and huge golden handshakes. I understand though that they don't actually work for the public sector, and that of course their, and their colleagues', lifetimes of accumulated perks, have had no impact whatever on the cost of banking services the rest of us have to put up with. That money, of course is generated by the sheer magic of the stock exchange and, unlike incomes derived from taxation, has no impact on the cost of anything the rest of us do or buy. Unfair, of course it is, but how can it ever be otherwise? Some win, some loose, don't brood over it, enjoy what you have, and sod the rest. You can't alter the way the dice fell for them. Apologies for the unforgivable sarcasm, I think you may have caught a raw nerve of mine!" Where did that come from and to be blunt, what a load of drivel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 To Mel B Perhaps a "blog" would be a better place to tell the world of your plans, after all this is supposed to be "Motorhome matters" not with respect " MEL B's life plan matters" some may be fascinated, but perhaps "chatter box" may have been a better place. I will say you do not have to spell it all out chapter and verse, and strange that you perpetuate the £9000 fee's. As you well know there are NO fee's until students are earning a substantial salary after they have left university, and in many cases it will NEVER have to be repaid ( am I better informed than you I wonder ) And to Brian I say this, if we all chose to be something other than truck drivers, foundry workers, service industry workers, or yes even the mechanic or M/home production line worker we all depend upon, the world would be a very different place. The one thing these folk have in common is retirement means working to 65 with no golden handshake at the end. I thought it was quite simple, retirement age for men is 65 and women 60, unless of course you've made other choices, just don't shout about it on an open forum, keep your head down and enjoy your good fortune, some of us have HAD to work till we drop, so it does rather rub to read of folk packing it in at 48, and no doubt not having to go on job seekers allowance ! ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Thanks Dave ,we were lucky house sold house quick . Like a lot of folk were sick of paying money into a pot for others to take the p... . We have a couple of properties we rent and they give us x amount . When we come back we will look at what actually is important in life although I already know it is not having what we have left behind . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 If you are going to quote what I said, at least get it right: Yes, we have saved and scrounged for many, many, many years, doing without a lot of things that you may NOT have ... but I certainly wouldn’t then criticise you and say you are responsible for not being able to retire early as you have frittered your money away - you made the choices you did, just as we have chosen to do what we have. Which is the opposite of how you are implying it was meant by your 'cutting' of the rest of the phrase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I tend to agree with some of the posters that this is neither the time nor the place to ‘brag’ about retiring at the age of 55. Regardless of how the Mel feels she is entitled to her rewards, I doubt that if she looked at all the figures would she be able to say, ‘I paid for all that’. If she can, then all I can say is why did the rest of us not find such a billet? Assuming she lives to the new projected ages for women she will claim her pension for almost as long as she worked, if not more, which I am sure is comforting to all the students now paying higher fees and the families who actually have to find the cash. I wish her well in retirement but again feel that such information should have been kept private. I have met ex teachers on campsites around Europe, who managed to get early retirement under similar schemes and in some cases left at age 53 with full pension rights. The scheme were offered by Local Authorities who did not care as the tax payer paid the money. They will claim more than they earned. I have also met pensioners who have had their schemes decimated by fees and poor returns in schemes to which they had little option but to join and are facing the prospect of working until age 70 in the hope they can make ends meet. Somewhere something is not right in our world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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