Different Strokes for Different Folks!

I'm so glad its Friday and the working week will soon be done.

Its been an interesting week. Two more colleagues have left and they couldn't be more different!

One I've worked with on an off in different organisations for the last 20 years. He's a real bully and for the last few years made myself and my colleagues life at work very unpleasant.

 He rang a colleague yesterday and really was awful to her as a parting phone call. I'm so glad that he is gone for good! Financially he always has an expensive car, lives pretty lavishly and has owed money all over the place. He constantly brags about money and his possessions. He's left for another job & is moving away thank goodness.

Then on the other hand theres my other colleague Jack, who also left. We've worked together, not closely, for about 15 years. Our first meeting we had an argument actually but over the years we formed a good working relationship.

Jack would often call in to my office for a chat and in recent years our chats turned to retirement. It was lovely to see him feeling so good about his retirement! In the last year or so he's joined a few groups, taken up some new hobbies and started volunteering. He's going be OK financially, a paid off house, frugal habits and has saved and planned for retirement, so will not need the pension. He was happy to share some advice for me as he knows my plan to retire in three years.

Whats interesting is that Jacks income has always been much lower than the bullies, much lower. But one has saved and planned, the other is a spendthrift. One lives life within his means, the other - above it. They are both a similar age, one retiring, one says he will be working for years.

I expect I'll see more colleagues & friends leaving this year, partly due to their age and partly due to work changes. More often there are conversations about finances and retirement plans at work and its always interesting to see everyones different approaches and plans.

While I've been writing its started raining here - lovely steady rain - just what we need at the moment!

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery". 

Charles Dickens