Just 6 weeks ago, I reflected that 2016 hadn’t been as bad as some previous years.
Sadly the start to 2017 has been a nightmare. But I am trying to stay positive.
As many people know, one way to cope with stress is to breathe deeply, and count slowly.
Following this reasoning, I created the chart above which allows me to count down the months until I can claim my state pension.
In fact I could possibly retire a few months before that. The single red figure in April 2025 is the date that our mortgage will be paid off – and that is less than 100 months away!
It’s a long count but if I just keep calm and remember to breathe…. two…three…, I think I can count down from 107.
Resources
If you would like to do something similar:
- You can calculate the number of days between different events here:
- You can find out your State Pension Age here
Keep calm!
February 12, 2017 at 10:48 pm |
This is both depressing and utterly wonderful. Although I confess both retirement and paying off our mortgage are so unimaginably far in the future as to be akin to man exploring the stars.
March 9, 2017 at 10:43 pm |
The morbid fear down under is that having paid off the mortgage already, the now frantic savings to ensure a lifestyle sufficient to carry on with hobbies and post work opportunities fills the minds of most Kiwis. The scary thing is, now that I am drawing the pension, should I stop……when should I stop,…..shall I just work myself unto death? Bayes may help…..but then frequently he doesn’t……sigh…
Then there is the wifey thing who will no doubt suggest that I shouldn’t be around the house. Can we “work” together after all these years separated by “work”? How long before we kill each other or at least figure one of us should be dead.
March 11, 2017 at 10:12 pm |
Lovely to hear from you Ross. Of course the ‘death bit’ is inevitable. Whether its good or bad is just a matter of timing.
Good luck and best wishes to you and your ‘wifey thing’:-)
December 3, 2017 at 11:32 pm |
[…] I can collect my state retirement pension in just 97 months. […]
October 26, 2018 at 12:56 pm |
[…] unhappiness at work is nothing new. Regular readers may remember my article on ‘Coping by Counting‘ back in February 2017 where I extolled the virtue of counting down the time to retirement […]