upon retirement how long did it take you to "settle down"? (retired, vacation)

[retiringat50]

and find out what you were going to do with your time?
what your new hobbies will be, etc?

[Lake.Lady]

My husband and I retired 4 years ago at age 50 and new what we wanted to do. We entered into it "settled down". We have an RV and a houseboat and that's what we like doing. We love it!

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by retiringat50

and find out what you were going to do with your time?
what your new hobbies will be, etc?

I thought I knew.

Right now (week of Christmas through January 31) I'm in the biggest down time since I retired in March. Town/area activities which go on Spring - Christmas really revved up between October 1 and Christmas but have petered out right now. My classes are out of session until the beginning of February. It's too cold (for me) to go fishing. Scenic outdoor photography (a hobby) in this region is minimally appealing after Fall foliage and before Spring and that photography also feeds into another computer-related hobby which has also been impacted. Have been very happy with retirement active life but right now I'm bored. I'm posting too much and playing computer games and this was only the first full week. I'm into reading and I'm into the Presidential campaign but not for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'm thinking, for the period between Christmas and February 1, I need a game plan for next year. I'd travel to do my hobbies but I don't enjoy flying and we're talking January. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of things to do right now but they aren't the things I enjoy. So to answer your question, I've discovered it's not quite 100% settled yet and I didn't realize a 6 week gap, with only sporadic enjoyable things to do, would feel like an eternity in retirement simply because 6 weeks in retirement is not the same as 6 weekends in non-retirement.

[mrschilicook]

Settle down? That's an interesting question. For us, it was more, realize we weren't on vacation and that took about two years. For the first two years we traveled ALOT, ate out (ALOT), played golf (husband), went to spa's (me), and generally did all of the things we would have done on a two week vacation. Then we realized we needed to rethink the plan because "this" was the rest of our lives.

We've been retired now for about 5 years. We still travel (motorhome) but we plan 2-3 month long trips rather than three 2-3 month trips. Husband still plays golf but only once a every couple of weeks. I still go to the spa, but only once in a while. We both joined a recreational complex and we exercise, play tennis, etc. As far as daily routine...we do what the mood strikes us. We may do something we may do nothing.
However, I do agree that January/February are the most boring months. It's harder to get motivated to go outside when it's cold. So we generally use that time to complete indoor projects that had been neglected (often that means cleaning something). We also research and plan the next couple of trips. We may also jump on a plane and head out to visit friends if the boredom becomes overwhelming.

But in general, I think it took us about a year to find our groove...after we got "off" vacation.