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I can't imagine giving myself a grade for doing whatever I want. What's the point? I mean could I do whatever I want better?
Maybe it would have to be broken down into some sort of categories like finances, health, hobbies, level of happiness, etc. Even that would mean that I would either be comparing myself to others, or to some arbitrary standard, which would rate me compared to what? The mean? The median? Some random "perfect" person? Or maybe my own "ideal"?
When I retired, I was done with report cards and performance reviews.
Thank you. I wanted to say this but you said it better than I could.
This is just another one those surveys based on nonsense articles I get so tired of seeing in this forum. Are we retirees so unsure of ourselves we have to keep checking in with our peers to make sure we're doing it right? Now it's grades as in school?
c.
had to take care of mother, mother-in-law, and father-in-law.
wife still working, so most of their care was my responsibility.
it was like leaving a full-time job and taking on another for free.
the grade of c is an improvement, since the FIL and MIL are gone.
if this was posted last year, my grade would have been f.
Key question: Has your enjoyment of life increased? Lessened? Or stayed the same. Why?
Enjoyment has increased dramatically, because I don't have to deal with people on the job anymore-- I only have to deal with people I love and want to be around, which is much more enjoyable.
I give myself an A+ on saving and a B on a tax strategy. Jury still out on my decision to wait till 70 to start SS.
My assessment is similar but I would give myself an A for saving but a B- for investing and the rest the same as caco54. Overall a B+ for retirement. Amost two years into retirement, I am financially secure and able to travel and do other things on my bucket list. My health has improved as I have exercised and shed some pounds but that area still needs improvement. Although I love my freedom and am thankful every day to be retired, I have become much of a hermit/homebody and should get out and socialize more. I am not lonely as I have always been a homebody - I just do not think that it is healthy in the long run to be such a recluse.
I can't imagine giving myself a grade for doing whatever I want. What's the point? I mean could I do whatever I want better?
Maybe it would have to be broken down into some sort of categories like finances, health, hobbies, level of happiness, etc. Even that would mean that I would either be comparing myself to others, or to some arbitrary standard, which would rate me compared to what? The mean? The median? Some random "perfect" person? Or maybe my own "ideal"?
When I retired, I was done with report cards and performance reviews.
Exactly! And what I hated most in performance reviews was when a supervisor said that my review was a little less than I had earned because then I "wouldn't have anything to strive for." ????? So even if we are happy in retirement, should we give ourselves grade here that doesn't truly reflect what we have "earned" so that we could strive for more/better/different? This has nothing to do with being retired per se, but I've achieved inner peace (almost always) because I want what I have...instead of getting what I or anyone else wants (or thinks they want). I guess it is correlated a bit with retirement since I wasn't able to achieve this state when younger and when working because of fatigue, stupid office politics, and so on.
Ratings/grades are for Amazon reviews, not the complexity of people and their lives.
I'm of the opinion that there's no such thing as retirement; you just change what you do. Few of us transition from being productive members of society on Friday to sitting on a couch on Monday watching re-runs of Wheel of Fortune and Hogan's Heroes. Most of us make plans and execute those plans, using the same discipline we learned over the lifetime in the workplace.
I have one friend who takes things to extreme in retirement. He has a 5 year plan, 2 year plan, a 1 year plan, a quarterly plan, and a monthly plan, with goals & objectives & measurement criteria for each.
At the end of the month, quarter, and year, he measures himself, and grades his performance against his plan. He creates a formal PowerPoint presentation, puts on a suit, stands up in front of a full-length mirror, and "presents" to himself just as he used to annually present his division's performance to the CEO back when he was working. Not only does he give himself a letter grade, but he also identifies areas for improvement and an action plan on how he'll do better during the next time period.
My assessment is similar but I would give myself an A for saving but a B- for investing and the rest the same as caco54. Overall a B+ for retirement. Amost two years into retirement, I am financially secure and able to travel and do other things on my bucket list. My health has improved as I have exercised and shed some pounds but that area still needs improvement. Although I love my freedom and am thankful every day to be retired, I have become much of a hermit/homebody and should get out and socialize more. I am not lonely as I have always been a homebody - I just do not think that it is healthy in the long run to be such a recluse.
My husband is like you, but I noticed he’s happier when he gets to socialize with other people.
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