Ken’s steaming ahead in retirement – with a little help from In Retirement Services

04/06/2008

Ken and Linda Townsend have just celebrated 40 years living in the same home – by releasing enough equity in the house to really make the most of their retirement years.

The couple moved into the terraced house in Swindon in 1968 and have been hugely happy there ever since. “It’s a lovely, friendly part of the town,” he says, “and we’ve been delighted to raise our family here. Now I’m retired I can really enjoy my gardening – and indulge my passion for steam engines with a whole room made over to my mementoes.”

The love of steam goes back to the work that kept Ken employed from 1958 through to when the world-famous rail engineering works in Swindon closed down in 1986. “Those were wonderful times,” he says, “I was an engineering fitter and turner on some great engines – including the very last mainline steam locomotive built in Britain, ‘The Evening Star’.”

Ken spent the next 15 years installing double glazing, before taking early retirement. These days he still works part time, helping his son to establish his car valeting business, and Linda too has a small part time job. “Unfortunately, like many people, I only have a small private pension,” he says. “So the prospect of having a financial buffer in our retirement years seemed very attractive.

“The bills are going up all the time, but the pension doesn’t seem to keep pace!

“We approached In Retirement Services and I have to say the whole process was incredibly smooth – faultless in fact. The £18,000 we raised is only a small part of the house’s value, but it will make a very big difference to us. In fact we’re looking forward to spending part of it on going to Canada – something we’ve always wanted to do.

“And to think we only paid £2,240 for the house to begin with!

“My father was always moving from farm to farm when I was a boy, and so I’ve loved living in the same house all these years – and with equity release we still can still carry on doing that – and enjoy our retirement in comfort. Equity release with In Retirement Services? I can’t recommend it highly enough.”

For a copy of the free Mature Times Guide to Equity Release, produced in association with In Retirement Services, click onto the link below.