From 2013, a report on my first year of retirement…

Another year older…

My Countdown To An Event app – which is now functioning as a Countup – tells me that, as of 2 p.m. European Summer Time on September 27th, I have been retired for exactly one year. Not that I’d forgotten.

It’s interesting to compare my daily timetable now with what it looked like twelve months ago, back when I bestrode the hard-driving, high-octane  world of investment management like a colossus.

This is the way it used to be:

• 06:45. Alarm goes off.
• 08:00. Arrive at office. Have coffee brought to me. Log in to computer. Check latest finance-related news. Count new emails (72). Delete useless emails (72).
• 09:00. Do some work. Review performance of existing investments. Analyse potential new investments. Confirm portfolio is not broken, so doesn’t need fixing.
• 12:00. Attend daily departmental meeting. Have nothing useful to say, so say nothing. Wish others would follow this example.
• 12:30. Lunch in staff restaurant, followed by tea back in office. Read company press releases recycled as original sell-side research. Play Angry Birds.
• 14:00. Do some more work. Attend meetings, mostly characterised by crushing tedium and utter pointlessness. Have nothing useful to say, so say nothing. Wish others would follow this example.
• 16:00. Go home.

But now things are a little different:

• 06:45. Zzzz
• 08:00(ish) Make tea. Drink two cups in bed. Open iPad. Check WordPress Reader and Twitter timeline. Count new emails (4). Delete useless emails (4).
• 09:00. Get up (probably). Do something interesting. Kick around ideas for new blog post. Think about new photography project.
• 12:00 Lunch at kitchen table.
• 12:30 Tea in rocking chair. Read book or magazine..
• 14:00 Do something else interesting. Go for walk in the countryside. Listen to Grateful Dead. Continue online photography course.
• 16:00 Am already home.

Love it.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday 26 September 2025