No Rest For The Wicked

How do you want to retire?

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stopped laughing.” – Michael Pritchard

Retirement…. What actually does this mean? Am I retiring from life completely. Death being the end. Or are you talking about taking life, or what is left of it into a different direction?

I took my life in a different direction when the company I was working for decided to reduce the workforce. It was a tough decision to take redundancy, but at the time, it gave me the opportunity to pay off the mortgage and leave my husband and I debt free.

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I had always wanted the opportunity to be creative and to be able to spend my time writing full-time seemed amazing at the time. Being at home all day has many advantages but there’s disadvantages too.

To start with: housework. My mind won’t focus if there are things around the house that need doing. Garden: the changing seasons bring more work in the summer than during the winter months. Cold callers: you just get into the flow and the door bell or phone rings. Then there’s the attitude that as you are at home, you’re not working your time is your own like you’re on permanent holiday.

In reality, time is ticking and you find yourself stressing about whether you are good enough, why fame and fortune isn’t hammering on your door, especially when you receive rejection after rejection.

Finally, you have a small glimmer of success but realise the goal posts are just an illusion. Writing a bestselling novel isn’t quite what it seems. It certainly doesn’t happen overnight, or within the first year of retiring from the workforce. You need to have a back catalogue of at least 30 books to make any sort of livelihood, or to buy a couple of loaves and a pint of milk .

The book industry is flooded with writers all believing their book will be the next bestseller and will bring them fame and fortune, but all to soon they find this isn’t true. Even self-publishing doesn’t bring riches.

Now I write and paint for my own joy, and stopped worrying about monetary gains or deadlines. For me, retirement is about keeping healthy, happy and productive in things I enjoy doing this includes looking after my husband, seeing my son, and growing vegetables etc. Oh, and having a decent pension to relax my stress levels after 35 years old working in dead end jobs. This helps to keep the bills ticking over nicely.

Stay happy and keep laughing, everyone because life is precious.