Retirement Trips

The Pitons, St Lucia

Our six years of retirement have been the best days of my life. A large contributing factor to our enjoyment has been our fantastic retirement trips. When we took early retirement in 2011, we had trips to New Zealand and St Lucia planned, but apart from that, we had no set agenda, except a general… Continue reading Retirement Trips

A Day Well Spent – Passing on my skills

Casting kit

What did you do with your weekend? I used mine to pass on some specialist skills. As I no longer work, weekends sort of lose their urgency, but I can still appreciate the attraction and enjoyment for those who are still working. For me, a Saturday is pretty much the same as a Tuesday, except… Continue reading A Day Well Spent – Passing on my skills

Retirement – The best 6 years of my life

On 28th October 2011, I said goodbye to the world of work. I had just turned 56. I couldn’t really believe I was walking away from a very well paid job, which I mostly enjoyed, but it had got very stressful (or maybe it was that I had ceased to manage the stress well!). My… Continue reading Retirement – The best 6 years of my life

Goodbye Madrid – We’ll Miss You

Sadly our trip to Madrid has come to a close. We were really spoiled. The sun shone every day. Only in the last 24 hours did we get any rain. For someone who has lived in Ireland and Scotland, I think that is the longest I have ever gone without seeing rain. The reason Scotland… Continue reading Goodbye Madrid – We’ll Miss You

1, 2, 3, RETIRE – Ready or not

For many people, retirement comes along whether you want it or not. However, recently some are choosing a different path. Some in the FIRE community (Financially Independent, Retire Early) are choosing to continue at work whether they are financially independent or not. I read an article recently by Monevator on why the FIRE acronym no… Continue reading 1, 2, 3, RETIRE – Ready or not