First Name: Peter
Gender: Male
Age: 80 or older
Children: No
Highest school level: None of the above
Social background: Completed Year 12 at Holy Cross College. Attended Macquarie University studying Accounting.
Worked in Accounts for Telstra for 40 years.
Career: Worked my entire career with Telstra in Accounts. Did many different tasks including debt collection, enquiries, disputes and negotiation.
Retirement plans: Already wholly retired
Forced into retirement: Yes
Retirement preparation: Retirement came one year earlier than expected as the result of redundancy. I was well prepared for retirement, as I have been researching and writing 19th century history articles and books – part time – for many years.
Describe typical day: Arise at 8ish am. Watch the news to see what’s happening in the world. Visit my 93-year old mother to make sure she is doing well. Have lunch with her and attend to any immediate needs. Spend most afternoons writing or researching via the internet.
Look forward to retirement: Yes
Expectations: Write and publish as much as I can over the next 10 – 20 years. (Or however long I have left.)
Hobbies: Yes, see above.
Continue to work: No
Retraining: N/A
What would you change about second career: Nothing. I love what I am doing now – researching and writing and publishing history articles and books full time.
Encounter ageism: Was often seen to be a nuisance to management as I has seen it all and seen many “changes” fail previously. Telstra was more interested in employing young staff or off-shoring jobs as they received no “push-back” from those staff on previously failed initiatives.
Did you relocate: No
Live near family: Yes
Advice for others: Plan well financially and make sure you have hobbies, or goals to achieve to give your retirement some structure and purpose.
Share your story with us: https://thesilverlife.com/to-retire-or-not-to-retire/