View Full Version : 60 days to retirement (not that I'm counting). (OK I'm counting)
(that's working days, not calendar days)
For those of you who have retired, what kinds of things happened when you retired? Did you take a trip, have a party, just kick back and indulge in a hobby or do nothing? What were your first 3 months like and what kinds of emotions did you feel?
This is going to be the first time I've had a guilt free summer off since high school. I've had some years of unemployment/self employment, but I felt guilty if I took time to enjoy because I should have been looking for other work.
I may at some point engage is some unrelated to my current job self employment or seasonal part time employment, but not for a while.
I retired in 2001 after 31 years teaching. I spent time visiting my parents when my dad was ill/dying. that was the main reason to retire early. My husband was a teacher, too, so our first trip was in Sept. 2001 so we would be ON VACATION for the first week of school. We were on Prince Edward Island on Sept. 11- I was glad to not be at school with a classroom full of 4th graders. The first summer as a retiree 2002 ( 2001 just felt like a regular summer) I tried to get the house in order, we did some clearing out of my husband's father's house.....Now I am writing picture books mainly due to The Artist's Way and Simple Abundance books. I have not regretted one minute of being retired. We travel- have 2 time shares so we try to find places we want to drive to....We've been able to go to weddings, funerals and visit people. I feel lucky we are both healthy. That was my worry. Have a great time anticipating the next three months and try not to worry.
We have been retired for over 11 years. My husband had a friend get him involved with Habitat for Humanity and two other groups doing good work. He gets a lot of physical activity, mental stimulation and social contacts from these volunteer organizations. Otherwise, he would probably be dead because of eating, no exercise and sitting behind a tv/computer all day.
I enjoy my time with exercise and my quilting and other crafts.
Big thing is now we do not have to go out on Saturday or bad weather days. We shop during the week with the other grey hairs and women with little kids. It is much more peaceful. I do much less shopping and driving and really enjoy home.
I did not technically retire when I left my day job almost 7 years ago, but I've found my experience then had much in common with other retirees from there: retirement felt like a loooooong vacation for a while.
DW and I did take a long-weekend trip somewhere outstate but otherwise there wasn't much fanfare to my leaving because the plan was to run my own business -- a transition, not sitting-on-the-porch-whittling retirement. But I needed some time away from my day job to recuperate from the burnout. I spent most of the first three months doing nothing much of consequence -- I kept the house clean, cooked dinner, chased down some long-overdue "honey-do" list items, ... all that felt more like a long vacation than The New Normal. Only after those months were up did I feel like cranking up the business in earnest. Now that the business is closed, I'm still doing essentially what I was doing then: I still run the household and do almost all the errands, I spend time with the grandchildren we didn't have then, and I do a lot of volunteer work.
I am starting to feel the need to accomplish something bigger as DW approaches retirement and takes on more of the household tasks and volunteering, freeing up my time. But I can't yet define what that something bigger is or what I want out of that experience. One driver for us is that we're both barely 60, so we've got a few years of funding our lives before Medicare and some other retirement funds start coming in, so some choices will be made with an eye toward greater income and fewer expenses if we can manage that.
ETA Congratulations on "pushing the button," as they say. The time will pass quickly
Herbgeek: That is so exciting! I've been retired for 15 months now and I have no regrets. The first big change was to start taking that wonderful morning walk with DH every day and not just on weekends. He still works part-time Mon - Fri, so I tried to shift as many chores as possible to weekdays so we could have more free time on the weekends. I also started spending a lot more time with my sister, who is a night nurse with a variable schedule. We go thrifting, do things like make soap and help each other with our home projects. I've had more time to work on the infinite to-do list as Steve mentioned.
I found that I can be more social, because I can spend time with people and still have time alone by myself. It is no longer so much of an either/or proposition. I am quicker to accept social invitations and but concert or theater tickets.
I am now spending a lot more time helping my mom, who has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's. That is a heart-breaker, but I am so glad that I can be there for her.
We are also in our third session of carpentry class and I totally love doing that.
herbgeek,
as others have said, it's going to be your time to decide what you want to do. I'd suggest following your own feelings. If you feel like hanging around home in your pj's for a month, then do it. If you've been itching to do something you couldn't otherwise do, like take a class during the week or start traveling, then go for it.
Three months will go by fast, and you have the rest of your retired life to explore. My point is it's definitely an opportunity to live your days more as you'd like, but there's no rush on figuring that out, and there's no right or wrong way to proceed. Enjoy!
Congratulations, herbgeek!!! How exciting!
I'm like Steve. I'm not really retired, but when I quit my corporate job it felt like retirement. It felt like I had broken the chains of servitude, because, technically I no longer owed anyone anything. No certain amount of hours of work, no mandatory attendance at anything, no Standards of Performance to live up to. No hoping I didn't spend all my PTO on sick days, with only a few paltry days off for fun or vacation or "mental health days." All I owed anyone was a job well done on the project I was working on at the time.
So, how did I react to that on my first day as my own boss? I literally got out of bed and jumped up and down with glee. I'm hoping you feel the same your first day in retirement.
Teacher Terry
3-5-19, 10:10am
We bought a foreclosure and spent 4 months working on the house 10 hours a day before we moved in to make it just how we wanted it. Then we took a month RV trip. Then I was offered a part time teaching job which was a new career for me. Still doing it 6 years later. We take 2 big vacations a year. After having friends die young we want to do things while both of us are healthy.
Wow! That's getting close. Congrats!
I spent those first six months getting our house ready to sell. Ans then the next year or more noving and remodeling our Colorado house. Only in the last few months have I felt retired and thus work8ng on how to spend the days. Oddly, one of my favorite things is leisurely coffee in the morning.
Early congratulations. You sound like you are in my boat. My husband and I are in our first year of retirement and also funding it ourselves until our pension kicks in. We are 59 & 61. First of all, let them throw you a party! We both loved our separate parties and people really showed us warmth and kindness. We traveled to Yosemite in the fall when the tourists were much less and the fall leaves were still on the trees. We also went to Scotland and England and camped a lot. We both have a couple of hobbies we are serious about, and I am being a student teaching supervisor for a local college. (I like still being in education, but with a light, easy schedule) I miss going to the same place every day, but my husband doesn't miss it at all. He was ready to move on with his hobbies: mountain biking and woodworking. I have been reading that a retiree shouldn't just have hobbies that are solitary, so I worry about him and am encouraging him to do some volunteer work where he socializes, but so far so bad. He has some friends, but none that he sees on a regular basis. I read in a retiree book that everyone should have somewhere they go once a week where if you skipped, everyone would miss you! I liked that. Hope that all makes some sense.
Paige: The social thing is something I'm trying to work on myself, The social element is honestly just as much fun as the learning and making components of carpentry class. It's such a great group of people!
iris lilies
3-6-19, 8:56am
I retired four years ago this coming April 1 and I chose that day because it was the beginning of spring. That year was a most glorious beautiful first two weeks in April, weather was perfect.
I purposely made DH, who retired the same time as I did, come with me on exploring adventures, little day trips, to see things that were close by but we hadn’t seen before. We hit the museums around the region and still have not hit them all. One day we went to three museums that started with the letter M – the Moto museum, the miniature museum, and the mosaics museum. That year I kept a record of places we went, and I also increased my attendance at theatrical productions.
I continued some of that into the second year but in the second year I kind of lost my focus and my way. I wasted time sitting around. That was not a good period.
I started to get involved in National Garden Club and it shaped up as an activity that would take time. By the third year I was pretty involved with National Garden Club and I stepped up involvement with other plant societies and am now as busy as I want to be March -August.
The arc of our year in retirement is always about the seasons. I am happily busy during the growing season but I also enjoy the calmness of winter. Plus, my house is so much cleaner during the winter —the dogs are not shedding there, dirt is not being tracked in.
My worst time of year is Septemberr because it is so damned hot here and all of my favorite crops are done. Ideally, I would like to escape for a month in September to a cooler climate up north but havent figured out how to do that, would have to hire people to weed gardens for a month. DH would never leave during September because that is his harvest month.
To me, retirement is what makes aging bearable. Free at last!
Hope yours is wonderful!
I want to take a 4 month around the world cruise when I retire. It will cost $40,000 for the two of us. I’m not sure if that will happen - but we can dream.
Tammy, What a great dream! Start planning now!
Simplemind
3-6-19, 12:07pm
I spent a year thinking about it knowing that it was time to go but also knowing it had become such a part of my identity (both good and bad) that I would have a difficult time of it. I got so much feedback such as don't do it, you will be bored to do it, you can garden and do what ever you want. I knew I would never be bored (I don't understand how anybody with an imagination gets bored) but I also knew that life in the garden would not do it for me. I love a challenge or problem to solve. So I started looking into how I would do that and started dipping my toes in. I also re-established some relationships that had gone on the back burner during the child raising years. I knew that all of the work friendships would most likely fall to the wayside and they ultimately did. I signed up for training for a volunteer job that would keep me in the company of the police/fire community that I was leaving.
It was a surreal feeling for me. It felt just as impossible to leave as it did to stay. I walked away with my box of stuff after my retirement ceremony and reception never to come back. I was done, done, done. It was the first day of June so for the next several months I just chilled and felt the stress melt away. I wrote, I painted, I gardened. Then fate handed me a $%%^ sandwich on the heels of my mom's passing with my dad's dementia, my husbands stroke and heart surgery within months and the need to liquidate my parents properties and take care of my dad who in a vulnerable moment admitted to a second family that he had for decades. Lets just say that I am forever grateful for the 6 months of total me time before I was hit with the avalanche. There is no what I could have done all that I had to do for the last 6 years had I still been trying to hold down a job. Now dad is gone, my husband has mostly recovered, my kid is out on his own and the Trust will finally be settled with this last tax return. We feel like we are retiring for the second time. We want to get out, travel more and enjoy life before the next shoe drops!
Teacher Terry
3-6-19, 1:16pm
SM, talk about the shit hitting the fan. Ugh! All my parents care came while I was still working.
TT, I was working my last year while caring for my mom. She had dementia and in the end, lung cancer. I was not going to be able to leave with all the sick time I had accrued so I used it up for FMLA for her care. I'm thankful I had it because I had no idea how hard things had been for my dad until I stepped in. So I was able to get all my sick time out and leave with all my other time banks full for a nice pay out. I filed for retirement while I was on funeral leave. Her passing gave me the push I needed. All along the last months I had doubts but kept hearing a voice in the back of my head saying "trust". So in spite of feeling nervous about it.... I jumped at the earliest retirement age of 55. Never once have I regretted it even with the lower pension rate. We live very comfortably.
Teacher Terry
3-6-19, 8:08pm
So glad you had the time to spend with your mom. Caring for a spouse when you are old yourself is so tough.
It’s 7 years until I can retire. I have a plan to have our house paid off right about that time - and that’s our only debt. I will have a pension.
So ... I think it’s doable. But I don’t spend money like that. But I want to do it! And I think we can afford it.
It’s gonna be hard for me to accept that I can spend money in retirement ... it’s a change from most of my life.
Teacher Terry
3-6-19, 9:59pm
I love cruising but it seems like a long time. Maybe take a 2 week cruise to see if you can handle that long. Of course I cannot be gone from my dogs longer than 2 weeks:)). My husband could go for that long. I probably could if I could bring the babies.
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