Former teacher and semi-retired business owner Barry Crossland feels fortunate in a comfortable retirement
I am of the fortunate generation and I know how lucky I am. My greatest concern is for young people who face a bleaker future with student debt and housing costs, and a third of my net income – £8,000 a year – goes to support my two eldest grandchildren through university. My son-in-law keeps a spreadsheet to ensure that all five grandchildren benefit equally over the years. A friend, when they heard of this, commented on all those students who don’t have wealthy relatives to help them, and I was struck because I don’t think of myself as wealthy, though I suppose I have more than many. I see it as “comfortably off”.
For 20-odd years I was a chemistry teacher in secondary schools, then in the early 1990s there was a policy of replacing older teachers with cheaper younger ones, and I was given early retirement at 53. My teaching and state pensions total £24,700 before tax, and I earn £5,800 a year gross from a small business I run. I was approached in the 1990s by the local authority and invited to help maintain school swimming pools. When that ended, I set up my own company and spend around 25 hours a month doing the same maintenance work.
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