Regularly readers of our blog will know that we both early retired from teaching last year at the age of 51. It was a decision that we did not take lightly and to make life even more exciting we decided we would also sell our house in Cheshire that we had lived in for 22 years and relocate to a renovation project in the Yorkshire Dales! Add to that, we were only 51, so we would have to wait over 3 years before we can access our teachers pension!
We are astounded by the fact it is exactly a year this week since the end of term and Richard was emptying his office. Time seems to have literally flown! When we sat down to plan writing this blog and recording a celebratory YouTube Vlog we can’t quite believe how much we have packed into just just 12 months.
Over the next couple of weeks, we thought we would share some of the highlights, challenges and surprises that we have had along the way, especially if early retirement is something you may be thinking about.
We have genuinely loved and embraced everything that retired life has to offer. It has been hectic at times, especially with the house renovations. It has opened our eyes to the freedoms of travel and our bucket list of places we want to visit just keeps growing and so far, it has been everything and more than we had dreamt and hoped for.
Highlights of our first year of early retirement
Freedom of Time
The biggest impact we have found on our lives in the last year is the freedom of time.
When we were working as teachers, we knew we were privileged to have more holidays than most jobs and with a young family, we felt we used that time wisely creating memories and experiences for us and our children to cherish.
However, once we were back at school, in term time, our jobs were all encompassing and we would spend most nights planning, marking and preparing for the next week. We were preoccupied starting from Sunday lunch time, thinking about what we needed to get done. Before we knew it, it was Friday night and we had hardly communicated with each other all week. Richard used to say that he was often present physically but not mentally. This past year, we have enjoyed the quality time that we get to spend together doing things that we love, but more importantly not thinking about work stuff.
Another freedom of time is that we can just get on with life and do the things that we love. We have travelled extensively, occasionally feeling guilt that it is in a school week. We revelled in being out of the country on the first day of term in September! When we are at home, we enjoy deciding each morning what we might like to do. With the Dales on our doorstep, we have been making the most of the great outdoors, cycling and hiking.
Now that we have finished the cottage renovations, we are enjoying having time to catch up with family and friends. We go and stay at my mums regularly and we are able to tag along on lots of little holidays with various people- skiing with the kids and visiting Phoenix with mum and my sisters family.
Quality time is something we feel that you cannot put a price on so we will continue to make the most of it and live each day as if it could be our last!
Relocating to the Yorkshire Dales
As I mentioned earlier, we did not take the easy early retirement option. We have always loved the Dales and it had always been our go to place to escape to in the van on a weekend, so when we saw the opportunity to relocate there, we embraced it wholeheartedly and have never regretted it.
We were not looking for a renovation project but as soon as we drove through the village on a wet and windy day and stepped foot in our house, we knew we could make it our forever home. It has not been without its challenges, but we wake up every morning and still smile to ourselves that we live in such a beautiful house in a gorgeous location. There is so much to explore from our doorstep and we are only an hour from Ambleside and less than 2 hours to the Scottish border.
Embracing the freedom to travel
We called our blog and YouTube channel ‘Early Retirement Wanderlust’ because we have developed a real thirst for travel ever since we bought our VW campervan.
The freedom to travel further and for longer was a big drive in our decision to retire even earlier than originally planned (we were aiming for 55!). So we make no apologise for the amount of time we have spent on the road. The more we have travelled and talked with fellow travellers, the bigger our bucket list has got. How can we still feel like we don’t have enough time to go to all the places we want to explore!!!
We were shocked when we sat and made a list of all our travels since last July. It does help that we were houseless for 14 weeks and living in the van! The van means we can travel and explore on a very modest budget, particularly mid week and away from tourist hotspots as we can use free park-ups to keep the costs down.
Travel highlights this year have been:
2 weeks touring around Pembrokeshire and the Gower Peninsula last July.
A week on the East Yorkshire coast complete with Cali the van dog!
3 weeks in the French Alps and travelling back through the Burgundy wine region.
A week on the Isle of Mull and the Scottish highlands.
Over 2 weeks on the Outer Hebrides when I refused to come home until we were about to complete on the house sale.
2 weeks house sitting in the Lake District in December.
2 weeks skiing in France (one of those in our VW campervan!)
4 fabulous weeks in Arizona and Utah visiting mum and exploring the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Sedona, Page and Pheonix.
A few short trips to the Lakes bagging Wainrights.
5 nights exploring the Yorkshire Coast and searching for Puffins.
5 Weeks in Northern Spain and driving up the French Atlantic coast
Health and Stress Levels
One thing that we have both noticed is how much better we are sleeping. I have always been pretty good at getting in 8 hrs sleep, my problem was probably that I would find it hard to get to sleep with my mind wandering and worrying about if I had everything prepped for the next day. Richard was always an early riser and would wake in the night finding it hard to get back to sleep.
Both of us have slipped into a routine of going to bed early, reading to get to sleep and getting in around 9-10 hours. When we are travelling we sleep even more as we are often asleep by 9pm!
We both wear Garmin watches which probably give us too much information but I have noticed my average resting heart rate has gone down from mid 60’s to mid 50’s.
We are both more physically active. Richard was an avid CrossFitter and has had to give that up as there is no gym close to us and we now have the great outdoors as our playing field. We love hiking and getting out into the Dales and the Lakes as much as possible and we have started cycling again which we have not done regularly for many years.
Love of Learning
We started off writing the Blog and recording YouTube Vlogs as a way of keeping ourselves busy and also so we could learn new skills in the digital world. We have had to learn how to set up our own website and Richard has done an amazing job learning how to be a film maker, director and video editor! It has taken him many hours of patience and research but it is something that he has found extremely rewarding. Our YouTube channel is growing more rapidly than we had ever imagined and it was with some bemusement that we were greeted on a campsite by people that had watched all our Vlogs, telling the campsite owner we were famous!! We are really happy to have built a community of like minded followers, many of whom are on a similar journey to ourselves and will share some of their experiences with us.
Richard has been learning French using Duolingo. He has been known to walk a mile and climb a hill in search of signal so he doesn’t lose 166 day streak!
We have loved the challenge of doing some of the renovations ourselves. My main criteria was that we were only allowed to tackle something that would not lead to the house falling down, burning down or spouting a leak. We have learnt how to mitre joints and did all the new skirting downstairs (we also learnt that decorators caulk covers most minor blemishes!)
We built a cupboard upstairs to house the new hot water tank, which included making a working door. I have watched lots of YouTube tutorials on curtain making and am so proud of the fully lined floor length curtains in the lounge, not so successful are the roman blinds I have made for the kitchen! They fit perfectly but do not pull up, oh well, back to the drawing board on that one, but I will find a solution!
Escape to the Country
Back in April, when we were near completing the cottage renovations, we were approached by the BBC to ask if we were interested in doing a short clip for an episode of ‘Escape to the Country’. What was originally due to be a short, self filmed, 2 minute clip ended up with a film crew and Nikki Chapman coming to the cottage for three hours and a walk around the village with the film crew and many bemused locals! We have no idea when it will be aired but it was certainly an experience never to forget!
Ultimate Freedom
Reflecting back on the past year, we have thoroughly loved the fact that we have our ultimate freedom and to coin a phrase from a very wise lady (Richard’s mum)
‘we can do what we want, when want’
We have no-one but ourselves to answer to. We do not have to fit into work time constraints or professional expectations. We don’t need to make plans months in advance, we just fit around other people. We can travel as much as we like, governed mainly by the weather. Our house is mortgage free so we know we will always have a roof over our head, it is a great base for us and a place we hope our family will make the most of in our absence. We can be as impulsive as we like and we are loving it.
Obviously there have been some challenges along the way and many things that have surprised us that we will share with you in our blog next week. For now we are just celebrating and embracing the fact that we have had a whole year of Early Retirement and loved every minute.
