Well now I have gone and done it!!

[Plantaholic]

Interesting, not serious Zizi. It is good to hear you are planning the future. When is your OH retiring?

[ZIZI]

Plant our plan was previously that I would retire at 60 at which time he would be 65 however all that changed with the rising of the pension age for women - don't get me started!

Our current plan is 2021 which if you say it fast doesn't seem so long away. As I say I am planning a small business where I can please myself how much work I do and when. He on the other hand feels that he might go part time when the time comes. There are two reasons for that thinking one is that apart from gardening he is not that bothered about anything else (unless you count endless cooking, property, gardening, antiques programmes on TV) and the other thing is that working part time will maintain his priority on the free tickets which probably sounds selfish however it saves us thousands on holidays i.e. The fare to Barbados has cost us just under £300 ( club class if available) and that would cost thousands is we had to pay for it. Plus he will be getting two free tickets each a year from next year.

If things work out right I will drop down to three days this time next year. We will see, with the mess my company is in at the moment anything can happen......

[Plantaholic]

All sounds well planned Zizi,

[Daisy]

Zizi - as Plant says, it's interesting, and we are all pleased you are going to cut your working hours - I don't want to nag (but I will). You have been overworking for years and eventually it could catch up with you physically and emotionally. Starting up a little business sounds ideal. I know I definitely needed an interest when I left teaching. I wanted something that was flexible and completely different, and the right door opened at the right time for me. I hope it does for you, too.

And around the time I gave up commercial photography GRU happened, which is very satisfying for me and Gem and keeps the little grey cells ticking over. You're never too old to learn something new, and we are still learning!!

[ZIZI]

To be honest Daisy I think the catching up (on me) started to happen earlier this year which is why I had to make some decisions once I stopped being a cry baby. I did say a few years ago I would never become self employed again but this is not going to be a full blown "let's make as much money as possible" business. Speaking to husband the decision is that it is for a top up of the pension funds also to enable us to still do holidays etc, and for me to do when I feel I want to, not for me to knock myself out trying to build an empire. We will see what happens but right now I feel I have made the right decision especially as husband is so supportive. The more I talk about it the more keen I am to get started but I need to do a train the trainer course first and I cannot see that happening for a couple of months.

[Daisy]

Zizi - I can see you've done a lot of thinking, and the kind of business you're planning sounds perfect in terms of time, effort and hours. If you haven't got huge earnings targets to achieve it's wonderful being self-employed, and it sounds as though you've pitched it just right in terms of commitment. I look froward to hearing more about it as your plans develop.