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The best advice I can give is don't retire from something, retire to something. If you don't stay mentally and physically active, you will quickly decline into senility and disability. Use it or lose it.
I'm not arguing. You are probably more correct than incorrect where most people are concerned. But I want it known that I retired FROM almost everything life was, and retired TO.... nothing but a white page to be filled in later.
It has worked out fantastically. Everything I always wanted my life to be since childhood. Over-arching statements or "philosophies of life" like "Don't retire from something, retire to something" sound like "Buying a house is your best investment." "Everybody needs a '(fill in the blank.)' You need more life insurance. In short if you want to retire and have the money, then that is what you should do. It doesn't have to be over-complicated, going on yet another goose chase for something like when you were working.
Probably comes down to the "personality type" issue.
As I've said many times when the subject comes up, the one thing I really enjoy is the end of forced association. That and the rolling over for more sleep on a snowy morning, and hearing my neighbors cars starting. But that one thing sticks in my mind more than any other facet of retirement, from one's school days forward to the age of gray hair, we suffer the angst of dealing with other people, and we really had little say in the matter, it is forced, it's the only term that comes to mind when I knew that I couldn't leave the job--school--neighborhood--whatever. Having your time be something that you fill without regard for what others think is definitely liberating.
Procrastination !! I've become a big fan. If I don't feel like doing it today.....it can wait til tomorrow.
I can say tomorrow in many different languages. Manana. Domani. Demain. Zaftra
The Romance Languages were easy. The Russian was difficult to master, but I'll keep working on it Tomorrow.
I retired from a high stress job. The first year I spent getting my new home to exactly how I like it. Then I was bored. I found that I needed some structure to my life to be happy. Now I have something planned for almost everyday. Working out, golf, meeting friends for lunches or dinners. There's nothing that I can't cancel if I want too, but I really like getting up knowing what I'm going to be doing that day.
I've been retired for 9 years now. Working friends ask me, "What did you do over the weekend?" "Weekend?" I say. "I can't remember -- all the days are the same to me."
Seems like a good place to jump in. I remember one vacation period that was like that.....and I did forget to put out the garbage bin. I didn't know it until I was driving out for my dance lesson.
Now, I am not trying to knock anyone down but looking at things here, it seems like there are worlds in retirement that would make me run screaming from the room. So is there one aspect in did "you" fear before only to find out that "you" were wrong?
As it is, my immediate boss, my director, even my broker ask me when I am going to retire and my basic response is, "Retirement? That's for old people!". Even though I am in my mid 50s, my mind still thinks in my late 20s.
So one of the questions is, if your mind thinks like that, how did it change when you did retire? Did it change?
One of the things that I think causes me to think like this is that I am in a job that pays the bills but doesn't tire me out so I can do the fun things I like to do. Sort of a working playgirl. So if one was in a job like that, how did retirement change that?
I know about the anxiety and depression as the clock turns around for I feel that starting at noon on Sunday, at the latest, around 1600 on a weekday. Given my mid schedule life, I wonder what life will feel like in the day light. Will it be like the old man cartoon where "all of life's normal courses" were re-directed by TV advertising, he turns off the TV, walks outside to the sun light and the birds only for Death to appear and say, "Time's up"? I certainly HOPE NOT! for I have been active and a contributor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LesLucid
For me, it’s quiet time in the morning with my wife and kitties knowing that I DO NOT HAVE TO DO anything. I always used to kind of dread when I finished my morning coffee and there was no more option to delay, I HAD TO get started on my work day. No pressure quiet time in the mornings is really nice. I retired in 2012.
That may be a problem around here. The launch sequence includes prepping "the kittens" for the night especially in giving them their treats. You can tell when they are expecting that.....and how upset they are when there are breaks in the schedule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by upnorthretiree
Best thing? Not setting an alarm. I’m still, after seven years, enjoying the feeling of being well rested, after years of too little sleep.
..........
Now the flip side. Some new aches and pains. Surprise, getting older can hurt! Thus interrupting the reading every day to exercise for damage control. Greatly miss some friends and relatives who have departed this earth, but that’s something we all have to figure out to deal with. Mine is to incorporate. When I hear music one friend would like, I send out a thought, this one’s for you, X. A rainy day, remember a relative who loved rainy days, this one’s for you, Y. We can bring our friendly ghosts with us into the present and future in a good way.
The other month when I complained of my aches, my dance teacher (or was it my dive boss?) noted that growing old was not for sissies. But that does bring up another point, be it my dance teacher or dive boss, of when we do things for fun that still requires us to do a schedule. We do it willingly, of course, but it is a commitment that we can't just say, "Oh, I don't want to do that any more!" or the water is TOO COLD and we don't want to. We have our developed work ethic and we carry through to the end of the assignment, be it teaching divers or doing the performance I have worked on for months.
Does retirement interfere with that aspect of life?
Does being well rested become its own couch potato? That is one of my things in that my dream world is very addictive and I can spend a day asleep easily.
Further reading into the other posts, I have to wonder if those others worked the same way all their lives. Up to around 30, I was the dedicated girl in service to her country. After my time in the service, I started doing more of the stuff I wanted to do, such as studying marine biology, being a dancer, becoming an actress. All that working playgirl stuff. If one was living their life already somewhat free, did it change for the not so best after the R point?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell
The best advice I can give is don't retire from something, retire to something. If you don't stay mentally and physically active, you will quickly decline into senility and disability. Use it or lose it.
Love this for it seems to say what I have been saying.
The best advice I can give is don't retire from something, retire to something. If you don't stay mentally and physically active, you will quickly decline into senility and disability. Use it or lose it.
I totally agree with this.
First I am sorry to read so many people seemed to hate their jobs. I did not hate mine. It wore me out but I had a great many years where I felt I was accomplishing something, making a contribution to society and getting paid to be able to support myself and my family.
When I did retire I had a list of things I wanted to do, see, learn and accomplish. My wife and I began retirement by selling the house and taking off full time in an RV. We saw lots of special places and devoted a great deal of effort into learning to do photography. Since then we have settled again and have a whole lot more things to interest. We still travel. I spent the last 3 days driving from the East coast and am currently in the Badlands NP. More photography, more travel.
This September will be 10 years for me. Freedom! Retirement is as good as I always thought it would be. Bored? Never. There are still books to be read!
Lots of great comments on this thread... this was one of the best.
If you know how to read, what's your excuse for being bored??
What day is it? Don’t care. What time is it? Don’t care. Stay up until dawn, sleep to noon, still alive.
Went from the corporate machine to nothing. On my Outlook calendar, the endless conference calls disappeared. Literally the only things left on my calendar were reminders to roll the trash and recycle buckets to the street.
Two years, almost starting to get bored. How long did it take you to get over it?
I like your story.
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