The great day comes

So you’ve taken the plunge, bitten the bullet and exercised every other cliché you can think of. You decided to retire two years ago, told your partners and have spent the last 24 months handing over your knowhow, your clients and your management functions. Your partners have replaced you with a young paralegal and have booked the local bistro for your farewell dinner.

Maybe your aim is to get out of bed at 9 am, read the paper, eat a leisurely but hearty breakfast, then nine holes of golf before a light lunch with only half a bottle of wine, and so on …

But most of us will prefer to be more active than simply pushing a trolley of golf clubs about.

Hanging around

You may have fixed up a spell as a consultant with your former partners. If so, I hope you’ve made it clear what you will be doing (as well, of course, as what you will be paid for doing it). But don’t clog the place up. Remember, you are no longer a boss; you are a bossee.

Don’t be subversive and say repeatedly (and boringly) “That’s not how we did it in my day.” Be supportive of the firm and stick to what you have agreed to do as a consultant, no more and no less.

Being competitive

If your dissolution agreement allows it, you may have plans to join another firm, perhaps taking a few of your favourite clients with you. I’m assuming you have the consent of your former partners. If not, you’re beyond my help.

But working for a competitor (or on your own) does not give you a licence to slag off your former firm. Remember that they are what they are, in part, because of you. There’s no call to be anything but gentlemanly about these matters.

Quitting the law

You may imagine that, without you, the firm will fall apart. This is a delusion. If your former partners are wise, they will, eventually, be better off without you. Don’t feel that you have to maintain your skills – the inevitable recall is not in the least inevitable.

If, like me, you’ve decided that it’s not worth boning up on the Tenements Bill, and if, again like me, you’ve decided that you want to forget all the accumulated legal nonsense buzzing around your brain, you will have to find ways of making a clean break from the law.

If you haven’t already got extra strings to your bow, get busy with the bow-stringing. Re-training as a plumber may not be sensible (although an apprentice plumber is better paid than most law trainees). But there must be a small business or a charity which could use your abilities or train you in new, useful skills. Accept the challenge and keep your mind active.

Mens sana in corpore sano

And keep your body active, too. Give up smoking, cut down on the booze, set yourself a reasonable diet (one you are likely to stick to) and a regular fitness regime of walking, cycling, swimming or whatever you enjoy most.

The fitter you get now, the more likely you are to live longer and to enjoy yourself throughout your lengthy old age.

And financial health too

It’s worth counting your pennies to estimate whether you can spend recklessly or stingily. Consider delaying taking your pension as long as possible, and choose a time when annuities are offering a better return than at present. This is not just a question of short-term interest rates, but long-term ones too.

The pensions regime is changing in 2006. So take advice from someone who knows – which excludes me. I really have to recommend expert advice for this enormous decision.

What you do with your money is equally important. A spending plan is always a good idea. Estimate what you are likely to spend in future (based on what you have spent in the past, projecting that forward) and see what damage your plans will have caused to your cash reserves in five years’ time.

But, even if the answer is depressing, don’t let that change your views on retirement. You’ve decided to go, so go.

Recently, I gave some of this advice to a friend. When I telephoned him a few days later to suggest a meeting, he couldn’t meet me because he was going sailing. He explained that he was just following my advice, and he sounded really happy about it.

I’m not suggesting you follow all of my advice. Choose the bits which appeal to you and make sense in your own, special circumstances. But, if you’ve decided to retire, plan it properly, make the most of it and enjoy the next stage of your life.