Or in other words, retirement. Yep, its true some folk dread the day it suddenly springs upon them, feeling lack of structure or goals will impact on their mental wellbeing. Whereas others can’t wait to stand down the despised alarm clock, sleep in and explore their dreams.

In reality losing your sense of purpose is a common challenge, and one that I am struggling with. For our golden years I had dreams of hubby and I travelling the country in our touring caravan, discovering the many parts of the UK that up to now have eluded us. Structure, future planning and specific goals are something that I crave, I need to find an objective, build a schedule, rather than dwell on how much money we don’t actually have. Hubby and I were both matched when it came to lack of financial planning for our future, we both concentrated fully on our young brood while making sure their childhood memories were happy, for me this was particularly important. Unfortunately, our organising didn’t include our life-style transition.

Four years ago, we moved from Scotland back to England, I had no idea how much I would miss Scotland, whilst experiencing ‘empty nest syndrome’, losing my way and suffering the occasional bout of depression. A recent epiphany highlighted the exact feelings I had been undergoing and in a light bulb moment came the flash of inspiration that I clearly needed. Realising what had been causing all these mixed emotions meant I now need to focus and motivate my mojo. Any weight I had managed to lose has now been found safe and well, back to the drawing board on that one.

I have read some retirees find their relationships struggle with emotional irritation and frustration at being cooped up together 24/7 and even loving couples may want to throttle each other, but to alleviate any fears you may have, hubby is alive and thriving (although he may differ with my description).

It seems retirement only applies to work, not to the rest of your life. So onward and upwards as they say, learn to re-adjust. I’m certainly trying – no doubt hubby will attest to that. Goodbye tension, hello pension.