Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I thought I'd be lounging in the back yard, drinking Margaritas every afternoon. Turn out I was tired of them after drinking just a couple. I did plan on hooking up with an off road group. I actually made contact here on CD with someone and it turns out he hooked up with the best group in the area. Half the group are retired LE, which was a perfect fit for me. My wife has gotten totally involved with the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. But I do find I'm even busier now that I'm retired.
Our retirement is certainly not what I had hoped it would be when I was younger. Due to circumstances not all of which were beyond our control. We are very badly off now. Husband with Parkinson's was basically forced into retirement last October.
in the past few years I have seen the writing on the wall and I bought a Cheap house in a depressed area for us to retire to, which we now have. bought the house 5 years ago. Now our other home on Cape Cod is in foreclosure and lots of debt.
Our income has dropped by 75% I see bankruptcy in our near future.
So any dreams I had years ago of retiring to Bon Aire or living on a boat etc. have long since gone out the window and our health now would not have worked for those things anyway.
Another thread got me thinking....... Is your retirement the way you thought it would be?
Are you doing the things you talked about and how has it affected your marriage?
Is it better than you though? Are you bored? Are you getting on each other's nerves? Is it better than you thought?
Are you healthier, or are you letting yourself go?
It is pretty much how we thought it would be.
We are doing what we had planned to do. Though we had no idea of the social groups we would find here.
We are not bored.
Health; We knew that as we age there would be health issues, but we had no idea what those issues would be. So they are still unexpected when they happen.
My Dw has had 5 heart attacks, and she has had her hysteria removed.
I am having a long struggle with bursitis and then cancer.
Our retirement is not what we planned. Medical issues (Alz) has stopped social events, traveling, volunteer work, etc. My husband has started daily adult day care and I will try to find some activities soon. The health issue is always the unknown factor. He was diagnosed early and steps were taken financially to handle the future. Will we be bankrupt in the future? Probably but I am not concerned about it for a few years.
Due to being unemployed, had used all of my UI benefits from pervious job, not being able to find a job that I really wanted and in my experience area (Purchasing/Inventory Management), wife and I decided that I should take my SS/Early Retirement at 62 yrs. old. I keep pretty busy in our apartment keeping it clean, doing laundry, dishes and such. I do a number of things on our computer that keeps me busy as well. Don't do much outside during the winter months here........lately it's been too darn cold, even here in northeastern Florida! Spring and Summer can be totally different.
Wife still works a full-time job and considers herself pretty lucky, since she is now 68. What can I say, the lady really likes to work (most of the time). There are times, especially during the winter months here, that she can get somewhat bored on the weekends.
So, with me retired and her still working, obviously we aren't doing some things, especially during the Spring/Summer months that we'd do if we were both retired. But we do fine. She absolutely loves it that I take care of most of the cleaning, do laundry and cook.
So nice most people posting are happy with their retirement. I was fortunate enough to father a child early in my second marriage while in my mid 50s.. That threw out all my retirement plans . I now work at a job I enjoy (but could not afford to live on the earnings) because I can not stand sitting around.
I retired early (52) and everything went along as planned -- some travel, part-time job I liked, house paid off, hobbies, etc. but my wife and best friend died seven years into retirement. Everything stopped until I figured out what the future would be like. I decided I could do this on my own so I moved west to NM (low COL, lots to do, great weather) bought a smaller house with some land and everything is hunky-dory but now a few health issues (Statin drug reaction and arthritis) are getting in the way of me doing all the hiking and fly fishing I want to do. Some of my interests have changed. I do some volunteer work. Within a few limitations things are going along as expected.
Is your retirement the way you thought it would be? Yes.
Are you doing the things you talked about and how has it affected your marriage? Yes. Very positively since my husband had always wanted me to retire to be more relaxed, and to spend more time with him.
Is it better than you though? It is exactly what I thought. Are you bored? I have never been bored in my life working or retired. Are you getting on each other's nerves? No way jose! We are having a lot of fun working together on home projects. It's interesting that the same question was raised by several of our older, female friends both retired and near retirement.
Are you healthier, or are you letting yourself go?No difference from when I was working with the exception that we are eating a lot better (have more time to cook 'gourmet' meals). Why would anyone let themselves 'go' in retirement especially in terms of health and fitness??? If anything, one has more time to take care of oneself in retirement.
I don't think I ever really thought about retirement. I had some things happen over the course of several years that were very challenging to me and just putting one foot in front of the other was pretty much all I had on my mind.
Lost a good job in 1993 by making the mistake of moving out of state with the promise of a job with same company I was working for that never materialized. Relationship with son and his family that went sour.
Returned to home base hoping to get a job, went through temporary jobs at $7/hour that were a joke, how do you pay rent, car pymt., utilities, phone, medical insurance, etc. on that kind of money. Took classes to reinvent myself, better but not great job with more money. Then along came yet another downsize in job and another search for work started. By this time I was 64. Saving for retirement wasn't thought about, putting food on the table and paying my rent were more important. Did find a part time job for 3 years and then had to leave due to a need for eye surgery.
No thoughts of getting another job for a long time due to the eye problems I had (still have). Started to collect SS at 64, again I needed to live. I had a small pension with company that I needed to start collecting in 1994 which froze the amount to very low due to the time I started taking it).
While I had medical insurance, I still had some high co-payments to make pre- and post-surgery, then a steady run of followup doctor appointments. Still see that eye doc, but not so frequently, now maybe every 3-4 months, more if problems.
If I ever had thoughts of retirement, I think I might have liked to have a husband. Good relationship with kids (have not for long time).
Lonely, sometimes depressed, I thank God for the wonderful friends I have in my life.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
