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I did, and it was a leap of faith at the time. I also had all the spread sheets and figured we could just get by. I retired at 58 but my wife continued to work. But being retired and home alone was no fun. At 59 I went back to work full time for another two years. I retired for good at 62, and my wife had retired about 9 months earlier. We also had relocated about 50 miles and downsized to a small ranch on 1/3 of an acre of fenced yard. After we relocated we had and still have no credit cards and no debt.
We're retired for 10+ years. Finances turned out to be a non-issue. Neither one of us wanted to work after retirement and we didn't have to. We don't travel, go to restaurants often, go to concerts, etc. We eat at home, enjoy playing with the dog, watching TV, going for walks, talking on the phone and occasionally visiting or hosting friends and relatives. My wife likes to cook and garden and I have a bunch of hobbies I do at home. We spend a lot less now than we did when we were both working, but we have everything we want.
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Originally Posted by jmp61616
I figure I can retire in about 18 months. I have all the spreadsheets, all the figures. It will be a leap of faith leaving my job but I decided I don't want to spend the time I have left working a job that I have grown stagnant in. Thinking about retirement, I realized I don't want another job, even a part time one. I don't want new responsibilities, new co-workers, new BS from management. I want to remove myself from the workforce, my working life to be over. Did you feel this way when you retired?
I think you were smart and wise to cancel out of the transcribing from home, brightdoglover. Sounds like a good decision! Don't feel failed.
It's also good not to do things that bring up thoughts about past unsatisfactory factors on jobs. I have some of those same thoughts that whenever they pop into my mind, I immediately start counting or immediately shift my mind to other things, as I really dislike thinking those thoughts about past workplace happenings.
Thank you, Matisse. I had no idea that two such disparate jobs (and needs for same) would collide like that. Need a good night's sleep to forget about it but your kind words are helpful.
Brightdoglover and Matisse, I admire both of your attitudes! And I don’t find that failure is relevant or useful as a word to use here. We’re going to try out different things in retirement. Finding that they aren’t a good fit isn’t failure, it’s just shrugging your shoulders and moving on. When I was working, I fit in short bursts of piano practice whenever I could. Always thought that when I retired, I could finally have those long hours at the piano I craved. Came to find out, I have no application, discipline or even desire for extensive practice. That doesn’t make me a failed pianist, it just makes me an even more appreciative audience of those who are pianists.
Who knows what other self discoveries are in store for all of us. It’ll be fun finding out.
I know so many people who thought they would write/draw/etc when they had time. I admired those who decided that it wasn't a plan but a daydream. One lifelong journalist used his retirement to start that novel, wrote a few chapters and said he realized he had no idea how to write a novel! I'm talking about people who might or might not have blazing talent, but who expected to do the process, and didn't.
I'm gonna get up in the morning (or thereabouts) and go the gym and appreciate the support around dropping the transcribing. Hey, I'm this tough person. I don't get anxiety! I can bull my way through anything if I have to!
The trick has been learning where I have to and where I should stop banging my head on the wall. It's a skill in itself, one I thought I'd learned already.
After retiring I took a seasonal job for 3 years. I worked full time for 6 months and then played for 6 months. It helped the income and I still had half the year that was totally mine. I wanted nothing to do with part time, a few hours a day all year long job.
The joy of retirement is that your time is all yours.
Seasonal is the greatest. That was my job the last 10 years of my working life. Had 6 months off to play around on unemployment. I knew I'd never be able to work full-time again. Luckily, when that ended, we retired. And I want NOTHING to do with any kind of job, again!
Just cancelled out of the transcription from home I was doing. Most unfortunately, it was bringing me a lot of anxiety (irrational) related to other misfortunate in my former work life. Also, I didn't see myself getting to a point where I could make any money worth the large amount of time. I found I was dreading each day that I had committed to working. It made no sense, as I am not an anxious person, but this was a special case. So I politely bowed out and burned my bridges as far as I know, asking to be severed technologically. I expect to feel very relieved soon. Right now I just feel failed. Again, irrational.
I might like to do volunteer work from home for PBS (where I'd worked from home before in the past). It's going over the voice-to-text messy captions on PBS shows so they can be archived in decent shape. No audio transcription, and work much appreciated.
A confluence of irrational fears of the past with probably irrational fears of not working for money now. I mean, I don't need a paid job, from home or anywhere. This anxiety of being punished/tormented by management and therefore failure to earn money is a lot more powerful than I thought. This is not what I planned for retirement attitude!
Good for you, getting rid of another source of stress! However, I caution you about PBS. We did "volunteer" work for them---printing thousands of brochures at material cost only---and they shafted us. Much as I love their programming. Just sayin'...
Being a fellow horse-person, I could see THIS being quite rewarding! Except the horse-diaper part.
Somebody's gotta do it! Anyway, they're little. It's like a big dog.
To see pics of the littles, go to mighty mini horse therapy program. Lots of pics of the little beauties.
Last edited by brightdoglover; 02-05-2019 at 10:21 AM..
Good for you, getting rid of another source of stress! However, I caution you about PBS. We did "volunteer" work for them---printing thousands of brochures at material cost only---and they shafted us. Much as I love their programming. Just sayin'...
I worked for WGBH-TV before I worked as an RN, and then did editing/proofing from home later in life. No shafting involved. The programs to be archived are both WGBH and others, so that's where the PBS part comes from. The volunteering was recommended to me by a lifelong friend who makes films for NOVA and other science stuff, so I think I'm in the good. She would not steer me wrong. Sorry you had a bad experience with PBS, that shouldn't have happened.
I also now support Rocky Mountain PBS, my local station, although it's not local down the street the way WGBH was!
I got up today, kind of shaken from the massive anxiety and stress I felt yesterday. There's a surprise in retirement, for sure. I am glad to have put down the paid transcription and left in a professional way and did ask to be completely severed electronically. The owner tried to talk me out of it but even if I gained confidence and did as well as she (finally) said I was doing, I know I'd never be fast enough to justify the time it would take me to do the right job and earn a few bucks. I much prefer to put my time into PBS archives and will do so when I feel like. I started on a Rocky Mountain PBS show already, since WGBH has people interested and volunteering, whereas RMPBS is a lot smaller.
Reiterate I am taken aback by my own anxiety. I am NOT given to anxiety and thought I was this tough resilient person. Maybe I was just more numb before. I seem to be feeling stuff more intensely than while working. This should be a good thing overall but is certainly a surprise.
I worked for 50 years, starting at age 15
I have not worked now for 5 years
Not working is much better
Work is a four letter word
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