Having taken voluntary redundancy 7 years ago I can understand some of the feelings BAE workers will be going through. But this story is for people in their late 50’s. I was the right age and had a reasonable pension and a wife at work so my finances weren’t bad. The biggest concern was leaving somewhere I’d worked for a long time and if I’d be bored.
As far as leaving somewhere I’d worked for a long time. On walking out of the gate for the last time I found that for some reason I couldn’t stop laughing and it carried on for quite a while. Although strangely I dreamed of being at work nearly every night for 3 months. I’ve never been near where I worked and have no desire to. Sometimes I wonder if that’s a psychological condition but if it is I don’t really care.
Would I have anything to do? For quite a few years I’d been building up a couple of hobbies for when I retired. Yet on leaving I found quite a bit to do in addition. I’d also add that I’m not someone who needs a lot of company. So I started by building a new PC, then finished my Open University degree. Stripped the kitchen down to bare bricks and rebuilt it, regularly attend a fitness centre which to me is also a social activity and joined a couple of local societies, there seem to be dozens of these attended mainly by older people. The week goes at a different pace and meeting someone every day and doing at least one of the hobbies seems to give a sense of achievement. Also need to get out and have some exercise. Can’t say I’ve had any bored time although I have met people who hate being retired and go to work as sub-contractors or part-time.
To also pass the time, a few of the injuries of an active outdoor life start to need treatment and after having never attended a hospital for 58 years have had a couple of treatment programmes.
On finances, it seems that with the slowing down of pace your needs don’t seem as much. Also you have time to search out better deals and do things yourself. Going into town during the week seems less hurried and shops seem to have better deals than at weekend. There is no doubt you need to work out what you really need and you might be surprised at what you waste. Heating costs are more being at home but you can limit what you heat. After a while it settles down.
I haven’t regretted it but we’re all different. I’ve always had a lot of interests where new ones took hold as old ones got boring so it never seemed that I’d be short of things to do.