"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in
message ...


Lesley wrote:
On Jul 15, 2:46 pm, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:

Indeed! The idea of "being retired" sounds great when you're a
young
wage-slave - especially if you don't particularly LIKE what you do
for a
living - but unless you have really GOOD "retirement benefits", it
not
only means curtailed physical abilities, but curtailed income,
too!

I know I often say things like "One day nearer retirement" but at
the
same time I can't imagine not working- my ambition is to retire
from
the NHS and maybe take a part or full time job back in
bookselling - I
have retirement funds piling up but the longer I wait to take them
the
better off I'll be when the time comes and I can combine my
booksellers wages (never good) with my retirement funds to give
myself
a moderately comfortable living

I took retirement benefits at age seventy (one is required to begin
withdrawing from one's IRA funds at seventy and a half, so I opted
for Social Security at the same time). However, I continued working
three days a week until I was seventy-five. That gave me enough
income so I FINALLY got to do some overseas travel - at least five
trips to Europe (a tour that visited Czechoslovakia, Austria and
Hungary; a month with a week each in Brussels, Vienna, London and
Paris; additional trips to Brussels, Paris, Zurich and Vienna, plus
several to New York City and the Metropolitan Opera). May traveling
days are over, now - both for financial reasons and growing physical
limitations - but I managed to collect a lifetime's worth of
memories in those five years!

That sounds wonderful.

I'm not a great traveler, much to my own dismay. So I always love to
hear about those who are able to travel the world and get pleasure out
of it.

Jo