Until I decided to make the leap into retirement, I thought about it the same way a lot of people do: it was all about slowing down and grabbing your slippers. But retirement has turned out to be one of the busiest times of my life.
Before I left full-time work in 2016, I’d had a varied career. I’d been in the music business, writing and producing underground house tracks with my band, Q-Rius. One of my records, Peace and Love, enjoyed some success in the US in the 1990s, but after spending six months in Los Angeles promoting it, I became a bit disillusioned with the industry – it was just too overwhelming.
It felt like time for a change of pace, so in 1999 I moved with my wife, JC, a poet and writer, and her children, Lauren and Lewis, from London to St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. I found a job teaching in a behavioural support school and organising evening classes for underprivileged kids. With JC’s help, I established a space where kids could work together and get creative with the arts, music and media in a safe and supportive environment – we called it the Respond academy.
The idea was to fire up the kids’ enthusiasm, get them working alongside professional artists, and help them to realise some of their aspirations. It was an incredibly rewarding experience, but my parents’ passing in 2013 inspired me to reassess my life. I was fed up with battling the red tape of teaching and the demands of working full-time, and in 2016, although I was only 52, I decided it was time to start doing my own thing.
Having run the academy for all those years, we spent a lot of time deliberating what to do next. To fund our retirement – which is what we called our move from full-time work – JC and I sold our large family home, and bought a little flat. We’ve never been interested in flashy cars, clothes or cruises, so we had enough money to enjoy the kind of retirement we wanted. We literally wanted to live a simpler life and as we made the move to the flat it became clearer and clearer what we could do. Eventually, we created a very simple budget – that we still adhere to – and it means we can go to watch dance and opera four times a year as well as take care of birthdays.
I then started doing a bit of acting work here and there, while at 73, JC has recently launched a side business, which advises people how to downsize their homes and other spaces. Having moved us from a big house to a flat, she’s well placed to help other people do the same, and now we’re retired she can pick and choose her clients. It means we’re still earning some money – but with no pressure to earn a living. We’re enjoying working on our own terms.
In retirement, I think it’s important to stay true to the things that drive you and to continue making a positive contribution, so I still work on music-based projects. I’m sometimes asked to remix music tracks, and I’m currently helping the organiser of Sono-Electro, a sound-based festival in St Leonards-on-Sea.
I’ve always got something on the go, and I bring in some of the kids I once taught to help out, which feels like a natural evolution of my career.
Outside work, JC and I enjoy our free time to the fullest. We’ll often catch the Eurostar and make our way to Berlin or Amsterdam for an impromptu weekend away, or jump in the car for a day trip. You’ll regularly find me at gigs held by former students, or at the opera or ballet – both of which I’m passionate about. We also enjoy running around with our grandchildren, Hendrix and Peaches, who are six and three; we learn as much from them as they do from us.
Like I did, most people have an outdated view of retirement, but since leaving full-time work, JC and I are busier than ever. I have plenty of friends who are equally keen to change perceptions around getting older – former teachers who write for community newsletters, and musicians who are continuing to pursue their passion into their 60s.
I’ve realised that retirement doesn’t have to fit a certain timeframe or expectation, especially if you have the freedom to choose what it looks like. To enjoy a retirement like ours means looking down the line and realising that, yes, you are going to get old one day, so you shouldn’t put off planning for the future.
We understand that the money we made from our house could work harder, so we’re going to sit down with M&G, which has been dealing in savings and investments for more than 170 years, to make sure we can comfortably carry on doing what we’re doing. We’re living the life of Riley at the moment, but you never know what’s around the corner. We don’t need loads of money to get by, but it’s important to feel secure.
Once you start thinking of retirement as “freedom”, it takes on a whole new aspect. And if you want to squeeze the most out of that time, it’s important to unpack your finances and look at how to make your money work for you, whichever stage of life you’re at. Then you can get on with enjoying your retirement – not with a pair of slippers, but with a new lease of life.
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