Retirement Rebel: One woman, one motorhome, one great big adventure

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Camarados puts people in charge of their own solutions through Mutual Aid – helping people who are not necessarily friends to self-organise to support each other through tough times. The main focus right now for the movement is to see communities set up Public Living rooms – a place to go on a tough day or when you’re lonely to help others and get connection and purpose. I only turned 50 in February 2019, and like most people, simple getting this far through the pandemic feels quite an achievement! Digital Reads A Curse For True Love : the thrilling final book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series That is always a hard question as my mistakes have brought me to where I am now as much (if not more) than my good choices. I wish I had learned guitar as a child because it is so much harder to start from scratch now – I am struggling with that, although the band I am in is very supportive. Approaching retirement and frustrated with her job, Siobhan Daniels made a BIG decision: to start living life on her own terms. Rather than hiding from life’s challenges, she bought a motorhome and drove off to find them.

In 2019, Siobhan Daniels found herself in the driving seat of a motorhome, about to rev into retirement and a brand new adventure. Maff’s best story though is setting up a homeless shelter in the World’s biggest building for Christmas, the millennium dome, for charity Crisis. The second myth is that in retirement, you’ll have enough money. This is also untrue. When you retire at 65, you could go on to live another 30 years. How will you fund retirement? And finally, probably the most important myth to bust is that retirement will make you happy and healthy. The statistics actually reveal a significant increase in depression, illness, loneliness and social disengagement in retirement.

Reformed criminal and drug addict Steve was so kind and generous to share his story and if anything spoken about on this episode resonates with your situation, please speak to a friend, colleague, your GP, Reach Out For Mental Health, Samaritans, MIND, Calm, SOBS or just google suicidal feelings An unconventional retirement wasn’t always on the cards for Siobhan. After working as a nurse for 9 years, in the 1980s she decided to retrain as a journalist after hearing an advert for a trainee reporters’ scheme run by the BBC. This opportunity led to a successful career as a reporter, presenter and producer on various programmes across regional BBC radio and TV. Maff has also worked front line and ran the largest homeless services in the country for The Salvation Army as well as being CEO of award winning organization “People Can” which used asset based methods across homelessness, criminal justice, domestic violence and addiction services. Mental Health Nurse John-Barry Waldron is our guest on this week's Reach Out PodcastJohn-Barry works in a secure hospital, supporting people experiencing mental illness and helping them return home to their communities.He's also capturing the stories of staff and patients through the On The Ward Podcast which you can also get wherever you get your podcasts.Also in the conversation - We discuss access to mental health services, and how stigma still bring issues for patients and their families. A must read message of hope for those suffering with, or affected by, the pain of addiction. - Chris

The granny shift is a tender point for the over-60s with a yearning to self-actualise through travel, says Anne Hardy, a sociologist who studies later-life “snowbirds” (sun-seeking van and motorhome nomads). “Women who choose this lifestyle are often judged harshly by their own children and by society,” she says. “They are construed as being somehow selfish for leaving their grandchildren.”I followed these steps and now, in my mid-sixties, I can honestly say that I live with more purpose and passion than I thought possible. So, whether you are close to retirement age, or a while off, take time to think about how you plan to live in later life, because, as Cicero said, “Old age is the crown of life, our play’s last act.” Rather than hiding from life's challenges, she bought a motorhome and drove off to find them. Retirement Rebel is Siobhan's honest and uplifting story of how one woman stepped off the merry-go-round of life, slowed down and started enjoying the journey. Camerados is a new social movement of people going through tough times who through mutual aid want people to get the two essentials: Connection and Purpose. This book gave me a lot of ideas to help me get ready for my retirement. Things that I had not considered before. Coming of age in the late-1970s – an era of power cuts, refuse strikes and a prevailing mood of social disquiet – the punk generation was defined by DIY fun and a rejection of authority. This was a sub-generation distinct from the 1940s and 50s baby boomers who came of age in a shiny new postwar social contract, complete with the promise of full employment.

I do some voluntary work with the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK, supporting their social media campaign for 15 minutes a day. I also hope to work with the students in Southampton University. I have just been appointed a Professor of Practice there and I hope to be able to use my experience to inspire the next generation. In this blog, George Jerjian – mindset mentor, coach and author – shares his journey to becoming a ‘Retirement Rebel’ and tells us why his passion and purpose is to inspire people entering retirement to do the same.I spent years worrying what other people thought and now I just want to be loud and take up space and be totally myself,” she says. She sees a similar sentiment in many women in her age group, for whom the confidence of later life is combining with a desire to set boundaries around one’s time and efforts, whether that’s rejecting grandparental childcare or being the go-to event caterer out of a materfamilias sense of duty. “We’re exiting relationships that no longer serve us, we’re saying no to things we don’t want to do; we’re cutting people out of our lives who don’t make us feel good,” she adds. “There’s a new mood and that mood is about grabbing life by the wotsits.” I don’t really know anyone my age who thinks that they will be able to fully retire any time soon,” Cutter says. Having spent her youth in squats across west London, Cutter and some of her old punk friends often talk about returning to communal living. “It’s not for everyone as you have to be flexible and sociable and God knows loads of us get fixed in our ways as we age,” she laughs. But living an uptight, ever-decreasing later life is everything Cutter wants to avoid.

What are your aspirations for retirement – how would you like to see the way the world thinks about life over 50 change? Get a free weekly friendship call. We'll match you with one of our volunteers. Our service is flexible to suit the different needs of everyone who takes part. How do your thoughts on retirement differ from most people – in other words, what makes you a retirement rebel?

It wasn’t all sitting in doorways drinking lager with a dog on a string’: Mark Jordan. Photograph: Perou/The Observer One thing I have done for the last few years is to give talks to community groups (mostly Women’s Institute branches) about positive change in the world. With all the bad news we see, it is easy to forget how much safer and healthier we are than in the past and that this trend is still improving. But from her late 40s onwards, challenges – both personal and professional – began to emerge and Siobhan grew disillusioned. “As I was approaching 50, my daughter went off to university,” says Siobhan. “I’d been a single mum for years, and I started bragging to everyone that it was going to be ‘party time’! But it wasn’t that at all – I was quite miserable.” By putting retirement in perspective, and by taking off our rose-tinted spectacles and stopping the delusion that retirement is a wonderful place to be, we can then understand that this is life’s last call to discover and implement our purpose and our legacy, before the final curtain comes down. Assimilate a new understanding of your mind It’s about an attitude, thinking for yourself and not accepting authority’: Frank Cutter. Photograph: Perou/The Observer