Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Retirement beckons.

Neil,
Welcome to the wonderful world of "Old Coffin Dodgers!" I retired when I was 46 and I can easily equate to the fear that others have had of spending all you have saved however, the abiding theme must be " If not now then when?"
Once you have paid all you debts and ensured the Ankle Biters are sorted then you must have a good time after all, you can't take it with you.
I wish you and yours a very happy and long retirement.

Excellent work and great success for building the two businesses. Both for yourself and those you provided with employment.

I understand the emotion around selling the first +4 but you do also have the confidence that the typical Morgan actually represents a reasonable "fun" spend. You can always sell it and recover a good degree of your investment. In the meantime it provides that treat element of life. Whilst money is earning almost nothing in interest in the bank it is a fair use of the funds. God save us if brexit and other rubbish ends up giving us 18% mortgages and interest rates again, that would be different.

When we bought the Series 2 it was with the intention of keeping it for a few years knowing they do retain their value. It was an alternative savings account. If you consider the price of holidays, golf and other recreational uses of cash it represents a good use. You can drive it every day not just twice a year etc. The running costs are not prohibitive.

When we purchased the Coupe we looked at the S2 as retaining its value and not really costing us a lot. We acknowledged that this was not a wise thing to do in truth but we could not bring ourselves to sell the S2 as it was such a wonderful thing. Actually a very different experience to the Coupe. So we put more of our savings into the Coupe. What a blast, its an experience everyone should have in their life. All Morgans are like this regardless of model. But we still felt guilty for not selling it and releasing the money.

Rags and £700k or drunk and penniless. Savings and a Mog/smile seems positively sensible to me.

I do reserve the right to apply man maths to achieve this, plus G&T but what else is life for. Clearly I can't count road tax, insurance, servicing and other things. Thank the heavens.

I retired 7 months ago, still not had time to do any of the things I intended to do when I retired.
Don't know how I had time to work.

Retired first at 52 to take advantage of the superb package (R1). Got a " fill in " job at police ops room until 60 then retired full time.(R2).
Bought my first Mog during fill in job time and upgraded to Plus8.
Great move!
Became a grandad about a year ago so keeping busy!
Golf is improving again.
also retired a year ago but was enticed back part time.
Weekdays are busy leaving weekends free.
The good bit of R1 was the pre retirement course the company gave me. It really helped get the right mindset and opened up my thoughts and options. This helped prepare for full retirement at R2.
During the 8 years we sorted the house, got a Morgan, did several cruises etc. well in advance as part of the long term plan.
Do I miss work?
No.
Well....some aspects but mostly no.
Regrets? None.
The early planning was the key.

Congratulations Neil! I'm a lazy bugga....stopped working at 45, became an artist for a few years...a long held ambition...and pension at 50. I probably gave up a lot for peace of mind but never regretted it. And now I find myself back at "the daily grind" at Morgan for a few days a week...hardly a hardship!

Peter, don't forget that some of us have to keep working, as much as I would like to retire it's just not possible. All depends on the cards that one is dealt with and finding myself starting out again in my 50's after having been 'towelled' in a divorce I reckon I'll need to keep going until at least 70.

But good luck to those that can, most of those that I know that managed it early
deserved it!

This has been a great discussion and the things that I have learnt, both from others posting their experience here and from my own experience, is that a bit of planning and self analysis helps. I took a package at age 58 but went freelance and kept working and five years later I am still keeping busy with part-time work and no end in sight. This has given me the flexibility to a. give more time to family and b. buy a Morgan and care for it c. do more flying. My lovely SWMBO is still fully employed so it helps us (we're in the same profession) to be able to talk about work each evening and share the day, so to speak. Some never retire and that's good for them. Some go early and it's great if they can. Others don't have options but I admire those who can get out of bed, smile, and then just get on with life and survival no matter how difficult that can sometimes be. My 91 year-old dad still goes down to his shed every day and makes something with his hands and sometimes sells the result of his labours but more often passes it on to a family member. In our now large extended family he is the example and the tribal elder; the benchmark upon which we calibrate our expectations and aspirations. He shows us how to get through life and we aspire to be like him when we hit our nineties. Oh this has gone on a bit but I just wanted to say that the discussion "retirement beckons" is a good one.