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Ask Sherry: What’s my retirement age, and how do I childproof my place?

You asked, and I am answering every Friday once I have enough questions!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DKFg6SD0Kmb_0U5yb4OTNfkvfmsf5dWxJJbZTzUtH7M/edit

At what age do you think you would like to retire (not work professionally at all)?

65? 60? 50?

I have no idea to be honest.

I will keep working until I think it is no longer interesting and it tires me. But I can’t do this until I have enough money, and I have to save a TON OF MONEY because I am so young that I would need to be able to pay for a good 60+ more years, and that means a few million at least.

In my line of work, you start to get tired around the age of 45 to 50.

I suspect that is when I may also, get tired of all the client BS and work politics BS that happens AT EVERY SINGLE CLIENT, and stop working.

This means, I need to save a lot, right? Right.

But at least, at 45 to 50, I will need less money saved to retire, only about 40+ years of savings rather than (right now), 60+ years.

And at what age would you consider semi-retirement (part-time work) – if you did?

Now. I am already doing it in a way.

I have been working half my career for about 10 years. I do this thing where I work at a client, then take a break. Work, then break. Work then break.

Instead of doing part-time work where I only do 2-3 days a week, I have been taking longer stretches off in between full-time contracts and not taking vacations during them at all (vacations = no pay).

As I get older, if there was an option for part-time, I’d do it even now. I’d be fine with 3 days a week at a client, and have 4 days all to myself.

I think you sometime mentioned that you bought some furniture bumpers or edge protector items for your child. I’m interested in what child protection items you have in your house (for inspiration).

We bought these Safety First door magnetic lock things. You need a magnetic key to unlock the drawers and to open the cupboards, where we keep cleaning supplies or sharp knives.

My partner put little bright stickers where the magnet is exactly located, so that we aren’t using the key, running it over the cupboard or drawer in the general spot, frustratedly trying to find where to unlock it.

We bought those general foam guards as you mentioned, but also these bumper corner guards because general foam guards won’t hug a corner properly.

Other than that, nothing else kid-wise.

We don’t have little door gates for the kitchen, and we don’t have stairs, so we didn’t buy any gates for the top of the stairs (babies are very adventurous and fast), but if you have stairs, I’d highly recommend getting a baby gate.

What we do with our items is we also don’t leave anything out. Any laundry stuff that is not behind a cupboard with a magnetic lock, we put in big clear, labelled boxes and they are on a shelf as you can see below. You can tour my house here.

We also didn’t do toilet seat locks or anything, but if your kid is feisty, I would consider it. Mine never went near the bathroom to flush anything down or to wreak havoc on toilet paper, but it happens apparently.

We also removed all the door locks so that he wouldn’t accidentally lock himself in and then panic and not know how to get out..

And we sleep on the floor on a futon so we have zero fear of him falling off or pushing us off.

Radiators, anything hot, we are very strict to keep him far away as they do warm up, and when there is an adult in the kitchen cooking or slicing things, the other one steers Little Bun away from the kitchen, and plays defence or removes him completely from the home (we go to the park when my partner cooks because Little Bun loves being in the kitchen).

We also don’t leave plastic bags out (obviously), or anything sharp he can reach. You’d be surprised how often you forget about this, and you do it without thinking because you’re used to being an adult.

Nothing on the floor is slippery or able to be slippery — rugs, and the like, all have thin rubber mats like these no-slip shelf drawer liners underneath (the kind you buy from kitchen stores to stop utensils from sliding).

We do it so that when Little Bun barrels through the home and runs on top of the mats, they don’t slide and send him crashing into wall or window.

Glass and recycling, anything sharp, is kept in the laundry room (door is always closed) so that he can’t reach in, take out something and smash it, or cut himself. Otherwise, our regular recycling and garbage is out in the open in the kitchen.

Hope that helps! I am racking my brain right now thinking of what else we do… But those are the main points.

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