Out of the harness!!

Posted by: boxer

Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 08:01

Whooppee....After three months of hard graft, I finally became a retired person, last night!
With the aid of four solicitors and three accountants, we finally got signatures on all the bits of paper: No kidding, the papers completely filled one side of a 20ft long conference table and took an hour and a half to complete.
I've sold my business to two managers who have worked for me for 15 years, so it's a pretty happy outcome. We were relieved to find that it's not like weddings, we didn't have to kiss each other after, just go for a celebration pint, or two.
I think that for the next week, I'll stare at the ceiling and then get to work on the model railway.
Posted by: andym

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 08:10

Congrats Godfrey! I thought you were going to carry on until December?
Posted by: julf

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 08:23

Quote:
Whooppee....After three months of hard graft, I finally became a retired person, last night!

Congrats!!!
Quote:
I think that for the next week, I'll stare at the ceiling and then get to work on the model railway.

When I went into semi-retirement from the corporate world (still do independent consulting/advisory work, but had it with the corporate threadmill), I spent the first few days finally playing with the Lego robotics set...
Posted by: boxer

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 09:22

Quote:
I thought you were going to carry on until December?

"The three months of hard graft" is the clue, I got to a point a few weeks back where I'd had enough, the finance people(Those guys chew bullets)were threatening not to underwrite it, so I said OK, I'll reduce the lump sum and you can pay the balance in instalments, but in return: All the guarantees come out of my side of the contract - and I walk on the day we sign.
So my only commitment is to give help, support and advice, because, in the unlikely event that it goes pear shape, I lose some of my money.
Posted by: julf

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 09:32

Quote:
All the guarantees come out of my side of the contract - and I walk on the day we sign.

Ahh. Excellent. That always makes it so much nicer and cleaner! (I lost part of my settlement money when the guys went down 5 months after I left, and I lost a heck of a lot in options and shares that became worthless. Too bad the Amsterdam Stock Exchange doesn't print share certificates on paper anymore - would have been fun to use them as wallpaper in the loo...)
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 13:25

Congrats! Must be a great feeling.

Given your new status, you might want to update the "Occupation" field in your profile with something like "N/A" or maybe "Model Railroad Construction Engineer."
Posted by: Dignan

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 13:31

Quote:
Given your new status, you might want to update the "Occupation" field in your profile with something like "N/A" or maybe "Model Railroad Construction Engineer."

Or, given his arrangement, it sounds like he could just swap his Occupation and Hobbies

Congrats!
Posted by: tahir

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 14:48

Congratulations
Posted by: Cris

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 16:30

Well done Godfrey !!! Wow that took some doing !!!

Remind me never to start my own company

Where is the model railway going to go ???

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: boxer

Re: Out of the harness!! - 08/03/2005 16:58

Quote:
Where is the model railway going to go ???

In bits all round the house, if it's anything like computers, hi-fi, or any of my other enterprises.
I think that I may start round the sitting room floor on Friday, as long as the Boxers don't attack!
Posted by: SteveH

Re: Out of the harness!! - 09/03/2005 08:19

Well done!

Sounds like you'll be just as busy in 'retirement' as you were in work. Probably a good thing though . ...

Cheers,
Steve
Posted by: boxer

Re: Out of the harness!! - 09/03/2005 09:02

I'm not feeling so good about it this morning: I've seen the solicitors and accountants bills: what have those guys been doing!
But thanks for all the goodwill.
Posted by: boxer

Re: Out of the harness!! - 09/03/2005 12:33

Now maybe I'm naive, or maybe it's just that you only do this once in life, but I didn't realise that the buyer's solicitors give the sellers solicitors your money, and then deduct their fees and the accountants fees before sending it to your Bank: so, if you want to get your hands on your money, you have to accept the two estimates, rather than haggle or withold - a very cosy arrangement.
Having said which, the solicitors fees were very reasonable and I felt that they had played very square with me, whilst the accountants are, to my mind, really over the top: And, from everything everyone told me, I expected the reverse to be the case.