Whelp! Got the official notice, despite expressing my wish to do an encore for another year the company has deemed that my working life ends on the first of April 2027.
Should nothing come up then I’m officially too old to work, too young to die.
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I can totally empathise given what my OH endured last year.
He’s being admitted to the hospital day clinic in early August to be prepared for a phased return, it’s been suggested half a day a week at first as part of his rehabilitation. When he was really struggling with his head injury he said he wanted to retire, but now he wants to see if he’s still capable. His current contract runs to November and his boss has already applied for another year to keep the door open.
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@Cherub, this is great news! He has good incentive now; much better than letting him go, he will now have work to strive for. Best wishes.
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@Slammer, please don’t succumb to this defeatist idea. You have talent, and you need to pursue it. Plenty of people continue to work at their passions after the rat race. I’m still working at mid-70s, and probably will until I die.
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He feels if he doesn’t go back to work he will always have an element of doubt in the back of his mind as to whether he was capable or not.
Last year was total 
he had all the messing about over being told to retire, ended up having something like 6 months off and his dad died (hard as he had a difficult relationship with both parents but was there when his dad died). This year started off great, then February happened and it all went west again.
Slammer, don’t give up. My best friend in London is still working p/t as a front of house art gallery manager at the age of 84. He’s also an actor who’s just had a bit part in a production at the New Vic. He just refuses to give up and I love him to bits for it as he’s so full of life and cheerful 
My brother gave up when he retired at 59 due to applying for redundancy. He’s now 75, pathetic and like an old man in his 90s, he’s even bought a very unnecessary walking stick. I get really mad at him.
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Must be a joke!
Respect
I gave up at 71.
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I don’t do it because I have to, I do it because I love to.
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My next door neighbour in Scotland was a surveyor with his own company, he retired at 70. This was always OH’s plan, retiring at 70 then maybe doing a couple of days mentoring a week.
I have just finished all available Lexmark tech courses in under two weeks with the hope of having something to wave around to a potential employer and have gotten in contact with Lexmark to potentially offer tech courses under their umbrella.
They have made some vaguely positive noises, so that maybe a thing.
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No, just business.
I got the Rentenbescheid this week…
•••drumroll•••
1085€ before taxes, after tax 920€ (around)!
But this is just the German pension and I havnt got any information from my contributions out of Denmark, Switzerland and Malta.
I am trying to collect all the necessary papers and numbers but it is a ..tedious.. affair indeed.
Worked all my life for duck all and a kick in the goolies.
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That is around the same as my English State Pension that I worked all my life for - or alteratively described as paid the maximum payments.
Can help with the Swiss one, did it last year. You need to find the office that handled it at your last job and then fill out an online application. They want to know the exact months you were in Switzerland. Do it 3 months before your planned pension, otherwise you may not get it on time. Not get it on time is not losing any, you just get paid all together later.
I did send it to the wrong office and they were really nice, forwarded it to the correct one. Got it on time, CHF 1785, this year 13 times, double in December for the first time. I had 41 years and 10 months of contribution thanks to my wife who still works, 2 years and 2 months too less for the maximum AHV and they took out 13.6% because I retired two years early (but I make more every year in the stock market, so I took the 13.6% reduction). The full rent you get only after contributing for 45 years… 
Since Slammer will be applying from abroad I think it will be slightly different for him.
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Thanks Cubanpete, sadly it is a bit more difficult than that.
But I’m working on it.
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This is the correct office
As far as I have nanaged to gather is that the German pension office takes care of things, still working out the bits and bats though.
You can do both.
Ask the German office to organise your pension and in parallel only ask the Swiss office to provide a statement of your account.
Sounds like a plan.
I actually want to do another year. I"m not ready to retire mentally and I can’t come to terms with the notion that all my accumulated knowledge amd skills will come to naught.
I’ll be useless with fading skills subject to requirement and I am having trouble accepting the idea of retiring.