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I started thinking about this with regard to the "getting more irritable" thread. In years past, I had plans of what I might do in life before retirement and all of those things have either happened or the plans changed. It doesn't help that my job is almost certainly slowly going away; not quickly enough for me to be too concerned but it means it is turning into support of old work for the most part and probably will be for the next few years. We may downsize before retirement but I am not looking forward to that at all; it needs to be done but will likely result in substantial stress. So I am getting that "prison sentence" feeling I have heard others speak of but had hoped to avoid myself. I am in pretty good shape for retirement and if things don't change I should be able to have enough to enjoy myself. I just wish it were not such a rut leading to it.
I started thinking about this with regard to the "getting more irritable" thread. In years past, I had plans of what I might do in life before retirement and all of those things have either happened or the plans changed. It doesn't help that my job is almost certainly slowly going away; not quickly enough for me to be too concerned but it means it is turning into support of old work for the most part and probably will be for the next few years. We may downsize before retirement but I am not looking forward to that at all; it needs to be done but will likely result in substantial stress. So I am getting that "prison sentence" feeling I have heard others speak of but had hoped to avoid myself. I am in pretty good shape for retirement and if things don't change I should be able to have enough to enjoy myself. I just wish it were not such a rut leading to it.
Chill! Chill! From all I can gather from your postings you are healthy of mind and ready.
If you are ready, why don't you find something else to do?
About half my current pay is for being here a long time and being able to answer questions no one else can. I have looked around and made some inquiries. the job market is great, but I would likely have to take a cut of over 40%. I have some crazy expenses with kids and tuitions for the next 3-5 years.
That's the problem; I am ready and I feel like being done with what is going on now.
Yup, yup and yup. So what to do. Capture your future retirement years in artifacts now. Gonna move/downsize and you may decide downsizing is not really wise. Think about various living scenarios and visit sites in person and on line. Get brochures and pictures and start to plan that retirement home with artifacts of what it may be like and contain. Even flooring research and get pictures of your dream floors etc etc. These are things you can look at on line or while in your chair and vision what your home will be like. Picture your yard, vision your yard. Vision your retirement. Perhaps a favorite picture of where you would like your home to be located can be made a screen saver. My screen saver while working and our house was being built in NC was of the lot and house in various stages of construction. My retirement was timed with it being done like to the day. Even now I am visioning the next stage and researching what options there will be and what we need to do now to be ready to take advantage of. Don't just slide into retirement. Embrace and vision what your lifestyle will be like. Beach time? Take a picture now. Travel gather post cards from different places and write yourself as if in the future and save it to think about now. You can in your mind begin to enjoy your retirement now as your only limitation is your ability to conceptualize and you seem pretty good at that! We are about to head out for a vacation out of the country and we have traveled there before and yes it is a past and current memory but it also was a vision prior to retirement.
About half my current pay is for being here a long time and being able to answer questions no one else can. I have looked around and made some inquiries. the job market is great, but I would likely have to take a cut of over 40%. I have some crazy expenses with kids and tuitions for the next 3-5 years.
If the kids are in college out of town, explore the possibilities of retiring in that state or region and begin to research and price things out when you visit etc. We did and that's one of the reasons we ended up in NC. That and travelling here for youth athletic tournaments.
You mentioned downsizing. You really could start now - think of it as a new project to look forward to. Once you get started with the decluttering, it can actually turn into a relief. Try cleaning out just one closet and take stuff to Goodwill or call Amvets or Salvation Army. It's like a weight lifts off you. When I was doing it, every bag I dropped at my local Goodwill became a relief, and felt like a major step toward getting to my eventual move. I was actually DOING SOMETHING rather than just planning.
Lots of good decluttering tips on the CD General Moving and Real Estate forums. As you go through your "stuff" keep a couple of nice memory boxes handy so you have a place to save the mementos of life. I used sturdy paper-covered boxes from stores like Marshals, HomeGoods and Michaels.
I started my planning and doing about 5 years before I retired.
Thought about what I wanted to do after retirement and so took advantage of an NCLB program to get a teacher certification fully paid. So I enrolled back in college and went in the evenings so I could be finished by the time I retired.
Also started venturing out on weekends to find that next home as Austin taxes and COL were hitting the stratosphere being the hot city to move to.
And I also started downsizing the "stuff" in the house.
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