I had to retire at 55. I mean, I'd always planned
to retire early. And age 55 was my backstop,
really. I didn't want to leave it any later than
that. For years, I've had this rational fear
that I would drift without making any decisions
and then find myself stuck to an office chair
at age 60 with 25 days holiday a year and then
have a stroke and see all my retirement ambitions
dissolve into... managing a serious health condition.
Now I say that's an irrational fear but actually
it's not that uncommon and as you only get one
life it wasn't a risk I was prepared to take
really. Now I do have a tendency to overwork,
burn out and then make myself ill and I've done
this all over my working life so I knew that
my retirement plans had to be solid. If they
weren't... then I'd risk my own mental health
and I don't really operate well when I lose my
structure or routine. I get bored easily and
that can lead to downward spirals for me. So
retirement had to be well planned. And what I'm
going to do now is I'm going to run through you
a summary of the plans I put together prior to
handling my notice of work. And some of the activities
I'd planned to help me stay physically and mentally
active in retirement. So 10 years ago, we got
Pink, our Hungarian Vizsla. We chose an active
breed that required a lot of off -lead time.
Now, if you get yourself a Vizsla and you aren't
prepared to take it on, extensive walks at least
twice a day then be prepared to have all your
fairness are due to pieces this was deliberate
for us tracy and i love walking um this would
give us a reason and a necessity really to do
it every single day i think it's a bit older
now uh but she still keeps us both pretty active
and walking is one of those low impact and exercise
that's excellent for cardiovascular health as
well as The fact that we meet so many other dog
walkers that we stop and have a chat too, so
it's a social element too as well. Swimming was
next on our list and we try to get to our local
pool regularly. It's gentle on the joints and
it gives you a pretty good full body workout.
Many community centres offer these kind of swim
programmes as well and they're not particularly
expensive to access. yoga pilates tai chi that
kind of thing now i stopped my martial arts classes
about 10 years ago as they were a bit physical
they became a bit difficult for me to be honest
but i've since began begin to go to tai chi classes
and i find the mind body exercise improved my
flexibility my balance strength and they also
reduce stress and i think some mental calmness
as well Now, Tracy prefers yoga, and I see her
go to that every weekend. I see how good it is
for her. She absolutely loves it. Now, dancing
is a weird one. So from age 20 to 50, I don't
think I ever got up on a dance floor other than
the first dance at our wedding, really. So now
when I go to family parties, I try and make it
a must to get up and have a dance. And this is
not so much about keeping fit. It's more about...
that change in mindset and attitude and i'm trying
to be less self -conscious and more sociable
really um now cycling was on my list and it does
remain an ambition rather than a reality for
me i just cannot find a seat that works for me
um i really do find cycling uncomfortable so
that's not uh there yeah but strength yeah strength's
a good one strength training is really really
important um What I did is I bought a 6K exercise
ball, one of these rubber balls. I sit in the
corner of the room and whenever I pass it, I
try and pick it up over my head and slam it on
the floor a few times, which is good for the
mood, but it's also good for core strength and
balance and bone density as well, which is really
important when you get a bit older. Now, the
one that was a real big surprise for me, I had
on my list all the time, was gardening. Now,
gardening has become my favorite exercise, which
is strange, actually, because before I retired,
I absolutely hated gardening. Now, what I realized
is what I hated was gardening flowers, but I
actually love gardening veg. So I've now got
some potatoes, some beetroots, some tomatoes,
et cetera, on the go, and I'm loving that. A
garden combines physical activity with time spent
outdoors. And as you can see from the background
there, you've got some lovely surroundings. So
it benefits both body and mind. So that's me
keeping physically fit. Now, what about mental
activities? So my local music venue is great
where I live here. It's in Birkenhead, and they
offer courses in sound engineering completely
free. So I've signed up for that. It's always
been a passion of mine, sound engineering. Taking
up new subjects, such as online courses and local
classes, workshops, that kind of thing, or learning
a new language. These stimulate the brain and
help keep us sharp as we get a bit older. I think
that's really important as well. Now, also on
my list was reading and writing. Now, regular
reading, maybe... keeping a channel or doing
some creative writing does engage your mind and
improve your concentration as well. And I think
what I do is probably a bit obvious here. I really
enjoy making content for this YouTube channel
and it helps me keep my mind active. I mean,
as you can see from the style of this video,
I don't put a lot of effort into the production.
What I tend to do is sit and think. where I am
with my retirement, make a couple of notes and
then switch the camera on and basically start
talking. But I really, really enjoy doing it
and it does keep my mind active and keep me engaged.
So the next one then is puzzles and brain games.
These are really important. Crosswords, Sudoku,
chess, and kind of brain challenges. But the
ones... I particularly like, and this will be
the same for everyone, but what I like is I like
doing online strategy games on my phone in particular.
I just feel it gives you that kind of breakaway,
that kind of inward time to really enjoy doing.
But creative hobbies are really important as
well. So activities like painting and drawing,
photography, music, crafting, these really do
encourage creative expression. They also keep
the cogs turning in your brain, don't they? Now,
I've started to play more music. I mean, I've
always played saxophone all my life. I've never
really been particularly competent at playing
guitar. So I've set up a guitar club with some
friends and none of us are very good. But I think
that makes it more fun, to be honest, the fact
that we're all kind of learning together. And
the other thing that was always on my list was
volunteering and social clubs. volunteering and
joining book clubs or discussion groups, that
kind of stuff. It fosters that kind of social
connection and intellectual stimulation, really.
Now, there wasn't really the perfect club that
suited me locally that I could find. So what
I've done, I've gone and set up my own. Again,
it's related to music, which is my hobby of choice
and also linked to sound engineering. What I've
done is I've set up a not -for -profit record
label. And I'm actually applying for some money
from the National Lottery Social Fund to help
organise some community events around it. I'll
let you know how I'll get on that. I do actually
have another YouTube channel on there if you're
interested in that kind of stuff. If you look
for at Needle Jump Records, you'll see me on
there doing that. So that covers mind, body,
but what about soul? Now, a group of my friends
have a WhatsApp. group called gigs and whenever
somebody spots something interesting that's going
on locally what they do they post it up on the
group and as many of us who can make it go and
i tend to attend most of them to be honest as
i really do love live music also tracy and i
tend to do city breaks and when we do we link
these to either some cultural or historic interest
we both share. But then we also link it up to
a local concert that's going on in that city,
which always makes it more fun as well. Exploring
new places or attending cultural events like
theatres and galleries and concerts, these do
keep life interesting and stimulating as well.
So, as you can probably hear, I'm absolutely
loving my retirement. definitely is the best
decisions I ever made really and what I realized
here is I haven't really talked about you know
the financial aspect of retirement planning but
I do a lot of that on this channel so if that's
something you're interested keep tuned in