Retirement is a journey not an event

Dr Mary McGraw, Retired Consultant

IT IS NEVER too early to start on the retirement journey. I began mine with the birth of my children, soon after my appointment as a consultant. Money is the boring part, but I wanted to calculate just how early I could afford to retire, calculating when my children would no longer need financial support.

I spent many enjoyable years in training roles at the College, standing down as VP for Training and Assessment a year before retirement. What do you want to achieve in your professional life? You are probably only ever going to retire when you think you have done those things.

Many of us would like to retire gradually, perhaps giving up the on-call or going half time. This was not possible for me, but relinquishing the College work and just doing my clinical job did feel like going part time and enabled me to wind down gradually. Ask yourself: “what do I love about the job of being a paediatrician?” Is it the clinical work, the great variety of people we meet every day, or the academic stimulation of always learning? Plan for activities that will replace those things. But remember, serendipity can trump no end of planning.

Fate led me to the door of Bristol University and enrolling for an MA in English Literature. I certainly got academic stimulation and met lots of new and interesting people. Instead of adorning my “lean and slippered pantaloons”, I became rejuvenated. Many of us in retirement wonder how we ever managed to find time to work.

Retirement is to be celebrated, never feared.