As one of the many people today who have decided to retire early from their full‐time day job and intend taking this opportunity to explore other avenues of experience rather than just putting their feet up and degenerating, it was interesting to see what The Good Non‐Retirement Guide had to offer me. Its author, Rosemary Brown OBE, is the founder and managing director of Enterprise Dynamics, whose Retirement Division offers advisory services including courses, surveys and seminars on retirement issues.
Of course, as a basis for retirement you need financial security and the first part of the Guide addresses this concern in its first six chapters. These cover money in general, pensions, tax, investment, and financial advisers. Detailed guidance is given on how you may safeguard your money against inflation, and on managing occupational and personal pensions whether you are in full or part‐time work, and whether you are married, separated, divorced or widowed. Among the thousands of pieces of information given are signing on for the jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) to ensure continued national insurance contributions; additional benefits to which you may be entitled; how to protect and defer your state pension; and the numerous considerations concerning both occupational and private pensions. Among the many and varied things I learned was that I could receive a tax‐free rental of up to £4,250 from letting out rooms in my home, and that, should I decide to retire abroad, I might be requested to deposit a sum of money with particular governments to cover me against repatriation costs. These financial chapters conclude with a “budget planner” of five forms to fill in about your income and expenditure and estimated savings (e.g. bought lunches) and additional outgoings (e.g. heating and lighting) on retirement. Whether you choose to fill them in or not, they help you address the issues.
A substantial chapter on the diverse factors concerning your home follows ‐ where to live on retirement, from staying put to taking to the road in a mobile home; tips on reducing your energy bill; renting out your home; improvement and repair; and making your home more practical are given among many others.
The rest of the book deals largely with how you might choose to occupy your days. A chapter on “Leisure” provides an A‐Z listing of all kinds of activities and associations for both the able‐bodied and disabled from clay pigeon shooting to participating in the “Dark Horse Venture”. The chapter on “Holidays” offers numerous sporting, creative and sedentary ideas for couples and singles; alternatively, you can earn money by looking after the homes of others and discover new areas of the country.
“No one is immortal” as the title of the final chapter reminds us in giving practical advice on making a will and dealing with the arrangements of someone’s death, the latter assisted by two very useful flowcharts from the Which? publication What to do When Someone Dies. Though very important, the focus of this book is on the living, and, after perusal, I certainly wished I had started to read these guides on an annual basis at least five years ago in preparation for the years to come! This need to plan well ahead for retirement is stressed in the introduction. For example, people with personal pensions and other money purchase schemes are alerted to the fact that they will need to invest more since the abolition of dividend tax credit from all pension funds since last July. A “Stop Press” page updates the reader on recent financial budget changes and new benefit up‐ratings.
Each chapter is clearly organised with emboldened sub‐headings which also appear at the top of the right‐hand pages for ease of information retrieval; the book abounds with references to books, directories, associations and government pamphlets and leaflets for further information; and it includes a subject index of 19 pages. There was only one
organisation, LETS, the community bartering system brought to my attention recently, which I failed to find here. However, the Guide does not claim to be comprehensive. It relies on hundreds of people who give their time to provide information. In the author’s words: “If there are some uncertainties (there always are), it is also a fact that retirement has never had so much to offer. No generation has ever enjoyed as many opportunities and choices ‐ so much so, that it has required major editing to prevent this year’s Guide from becoming its normal size”.
The annual Good Non‐Retirement Guide is so full of up‐to‐date facts and ideas, and is so clearly organised as a reference book that it should form an essential part of any public reference library. It is also an ideal present to give anyone contemplating retirement or about to do so.
