Retirement: when you stop working and start living (and travelling!)

Posted on 22 April, 2024

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Retired police officer and bookkeeper, Malcom and Sue Horsup from Colchester in Essex made the decision to retire relatively young at 50 years old and whilst some people want to put their feet up, The Horsups were keen to stay busy and active. They didn’t want to sit back and do nothing so looked for a flexible part time job which would leave them time to travel and spend six months of the year on their boat in France.

Malcolm and Sue started homesitting when they retired in 2013. This animal-loving couple read about Homesitters Limited, the UK’s leading home and pet sitting company, in a magazine and thought homesitting would the ideal way to spend the long winter months in the UK.

Malcolm explained: “On of our biggest passions is to travel and go abroad as much as financially possible. We have a boat in France so during the summer we spend our time there or travelling in other countries and we spend the winter months in the UK home and pet sitting.”

Sue adds: “We’re both very active and wanted something to occupy us in the winter. We didn’t want to be sat twiddling our thumbs.”

Sue and Malcolm’s other great love is dogs. Whilst the couple have never owned a dog together and have always wanted to, they knew they couldn’t commit fully to owning a dog, so they opted for the next best thing – looking after other’s people’s dogs.

Sue explained: “Since becoming homesitters, we get our ‘dog fix’ every winter and all the assignments we do involve looking after dogs. We’ve looked after German Shepherds, Labradors and three Italian Spinoni, one of which who was a former show dog. We have also cared for some elderly and poorly dogs and on one sit, we were having to administer chemotherapy.”

The couple take on around 10 assignments per year and have many regular clients who request them time after time.

Sue comments: “We have one client who won’t go on holiday unless she knows we are available to look after her dogs. We have stayed in some fantastic homes. These have included multi-million-pound mansions with swimming pools and gyms and Grade 1 listed houses dating back to the 12th century, as well as typical family homes.

Malcolm says the role is particularly suitable for retired police men and women because of the trust element that’s needed.

He says, “Being a policeman comes with a high degree of responsibility and trust and it’s the same job requirements needed for home and pet sitting. Clients trust their homes and beloved pets to you, and they need to have faith that you will look after both responsibly.”

Whilst Sue and Malcolm don’t homesit for financial reasons they have experienced some of the other monetary benefits which comes with home and pet sitting. Homesitters carrying out a week’s homesit with no pets, for one hour and 45 minutes of work a day would earn £87 per week. However, the pay rises with each pet.

Normally the average working time per day does not exceed 1.75 hours per day. The amount homesitters can earn will depend on the number of pets involved in the assignment and how long each assignment is. They are also given travel expenses and a weekly food allowance.

Malcolm comments: “As most of our sits are during the colder winter months, we have also noticed slightly lower energy bills which is just another added bonus of home and pet sitting.”

Sue says, “We love every aspect of the job which has made retirement life even more enjoyable and rewarding. We still get to travel as much as we like but also get to be around our favourite animals which allows other people to get away with real peace of mind that their pets are being well looked after.”

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