All my adult life have looked and felt younger than the year printed on my British birth certificate. Turning 40..no big deal.. 50.. now married with 3 children.. still no big deal.

Turning 60. Ok, now THIS is getting interesting.

By 60 both my parents were dead, my 2 best friends and a few more friends along the way had also passed. I was also divorced and needed a much smaller home. My life was downsizing big time and I embraced the changes.

Plus in my 60’s, people had begun RETIREMENT; a huge shift in the paradigm of my life and for millions of others. I am speaking of “others” that are/were fortunate enough to live in a country where private and government pensions are the norm. However many of my friends were constantly checking their 401k plans and using “retirement calculators” on a regular basis. Not me, what would be the point, I would just get depressed! So how was I going to fund my life after 60? Many think they have to work until they are dead. Many others think that they would rather work that do nothing.

This website is full of ideas on how to change your thinking of what you need and where you can live for far less and still enjoy a safe and happy life.

My income as an engineer probably maxed out around 2008 and went lower from that point. However since my needs were less, since I was divorced and living alone, I was doing OK.. but unlike the US government I could see that my current lifestyle back around 2010 was not sustainable  with my future pension income and changes would have to be made. A huge shift was in the wind. But how? What? Where? So my search for the best place to retire, for me, was now my focus.

Can you the reader can relate to this? Was turning the earlier decades no big deal and 60 IS?! So, what are you going to do now? Literally, what are you going to do now? I contend that many, many people agonize over which big screen TV to buy or which car to buy  and give little thought to the BIG things in their lives. Things such as where do you really want to live and enjoy the rest of your life and what is it you will actually be doing while not having to work? You do realize that we get a chance at TWO lives-in-one nowadays? My parents were dead at 69 and 78, enjoying about 10 years of actual retirement. Me, I am hoping to live until 92 (I will die on a Tuesday, not sure which one) which means a whopping 30 years of not having to work.. a thing called retirement.

The mortgage on my last marital home could have supported several hundred, thousands perhaps, people living in a village in a Third World Country. All we all need is to change our way of thinking. For me I am going to think about what I absolutely can not live without. That list will include a comfortable bed with nice linens, a bathroom, a comfy place to sit, good quality food, a few happy friends and a computer so that i can continue this website :). Things that would be nice to have: a kitchen, a patio and so forth. Then a list of things I do NOT want in this huge shift in the wind: a crime ridden area, a polluted area and so forth.

So I am one of the lucky ones. First off, I am ALIVE, second I have great health and third I have a pension to look forward to. How about you? How will you make plans for your “golden years”? Does using on of those “retirement calculators” make you ill? Please make a comment below and share with us all what thoughts you have on this topic of turning 60 and retirement.