Let's retire, he said...

And then he said: “Let’s retire! Let’s travel!”

And I laughed, a very nervous laugh. I thought he was joking, but I reeeaaally wanted to do that, although I was s… scared! We talked, and then we talked some more, we planned, and then we scrapped everything, re-planned, added up the financial figures, and even fought and cried a bit. There were so many things to consider.

We have two amazing children. Our daughter was a student in her second year at university and our son was in Matric, his final year at school, and would hopefully also start studying in 2020. Would they cope without us?

We both had careers that we loved and a business that we ran together. Would we cope financially if we only depended on our latent income?

But somehow we put a plan together. We would wait for our daughter to turn 21 early in 2020 and then travel through South Africa first, so that we are not too far away from the kids. We decided to buy an older caravan, as cheap as possible, which would make our accommodation affordable. And we would convert our house into two separate units – and we would move into the granny flat! At least that would give the two students a place to do their laundry over weekends, and we would have a bed to sleep in between trips. (And of course, financially it would help to make our dream possible!)

And at the end of 2019, I did it. I applied for early retirement and in March 2020, just as Covid-19 hit South Africa, I finished my career as a teacher. Lockdown slammed the brakes on our plans, but it gave us the chance to convert the house. I did not know retiring would be such hard work. I sorted, packed, and threw out. Andre knocked down and built up. We cleaned up and we landscaped. And finally, we found tenants for the main house, whilst we moved into the granny flat.