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View Poll Results: Did you have a "real" life before retirement?
Yes 43 78.18%
No 12 21.82%
Voters: 55. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 03-09-2015, 10:35 AM
 
Location: Chicago area
18,748 posts, read 11,730,080 times
Reputation: 64084

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There is a life before retirement for me Escort Rider. I'm a bit of a workaholic and I enjoy my coworkers immensely. We roller skate with the sexy seniors before I go to work on Friday mornings for two hours. Sometimes I'll work a double shift from 3pm until 730am the next morning after skating. There's skiing , ice skating and long walks in the snow with my dogs. We ride our bikes 14 miles before I go to work in the summer and sometimes twice a week. I love my night rides after midnight for an hour or two. There's gardening, visiting with friends, sleep over's with three high octane shorties. We go to plays, concerts, movies, and we just did a sky diving simulation in a giant wind tunnel. That was so much fun. There are so many places I have left to see but working gets in the way of travel for me right now. John retired nearly two years ago at 56. I can retire any time I want too but I'm just not ready. Money really does make my world go around and for some reason I just can't stop making it. It's more of a sport to me. I hope the transition between being a workaholic and retirement goes smooth for me. My workplace is changing so fast it may be sooner then later. For those of you who say that you have no energy just get up and move a little more each day. Being physically fit plays a big role in how good you feel physically and mentally.
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Old 03-09-2015, 10:58 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,277 posts, read 61,039,203 times
Reputation: 30165
I had a very limited social life when I was working. My career required me to spend most of each year deployed. When I was not deployed I was usually in rotating shift-work. I left that I missed out on a lot of our children's lives.

At different homes that we have owned, I remember starting a lot of gardens. But it never worked out for me to harvest from any of them.

Now everything is different; the children are gone, I get to actually eat from our gardening, and I have gotten active socially and I serve on board of a couple agencies.

Obviously I 'lived' when I was working. But this time is a much better standard of living.
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Old 03-09-2015, 11:08 AM
 
685 posts, read 716,651 times
Reputation: 1010
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
Two posters gave me the idea for starting this thread, Stevek64 and Luzianne. In TuborgP's thread "Is there life after retirement?", Luzianne posted the following:

"My question is: Is there life BEFORE retirement? Real life? I don't think so, at least not for everyone. We slave away 40+ hours a week and after that we are too tired to do anything that we would LIKE to do - or at least I am. I'm 57 and I WISH I could retire now. I am trying to find something part time or prn so I can still work, but not full time."

I am so sorry that Luzianne is "too tired to do anything" after her working hours. However, I didn't usually feel that way. I pursued several hobbies, and pursued them intensely, while still working. In addition, I read, travelled a bit, saw interesting films, etc. Of course I wasn't raising children, so both my energy and my free time outside of the workplace were greater.

So as the OP, I will answer YES, I definitely had a "real" life before retirement, which included my work. Work is part of life, not separate from it. I always find it very sad when people post that they only started to live after retiring. Now that doesn't mean I wasn't glad to retire. One can be happy working and ALSO be happy retired.
It depended on what I was doing outside of home. In the last ten years of my working life then in the last five years when I commuted on trains and subways, I was braindead when I came home. I could barely watch t.v. Sometimes, I'd grab a salad (hour dependent) and eat it on the train. That was dinner so I could crash and burn at home.

Weekends ... we got out and saw Broadway/off Broadway shows and had a little life after my chores were done. By the end of work, I was too tired to go to NYC on the weekends or do much. My days went from getting up 5:30-6 am and returning home by 8ish pm. Then I was in bed by 9.

I have more of a life now.
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Old 03-09-2015, 11:30 AM
 
Location: delaware
698 posts, read 1,048,544 times
Reputation: 2438
i worked for almost 40 years as a social worker, my husband as a teacher, but i would have to say that my jobs supported my/our lifestyle. i did a lot of consulting work in the last ten years i worked so my time was a little more flexible, but my husband's teaching job was always very time consuming, even though he tried to make it less so.

during my working years, i also was always involved in music, having had extensive vocal training early on, and usually sang in several church choirs as a paid soloist. generally i enjoyed the music, liked the camaraderie, and liked the extra money, although i think i would have done some of it for free. as a matter of fact i did, a few years after i retired.

we chose not to have children but raised my husband's youngest sister, 17 years younger, from the time she was almost 8. so, a lot of those early years involved the activities in which she was involved.

i always wrote creatively, as an avocation, and during the working years, continued to do so, although it was more sporadic, doing occasional magazine articles every so often.i did keep a journal during much of that time.

we also renovated several houses over a period of twenty years, and this was a focus for my husband and me, for many years. we enjoyed scouting out houses, planning the work to be done, and carrying out the plans.

we had a fairly active social life, particularly in my late thirties to late forties, with a group of friends who got together often, entertaining in each others' homes, eating out, movies, concerts, etc. we also had season's tickets to live theater and enjoyed going to matinees usually, and then, out to dinner.

both my husband and i felt that our life together was primary and work/career was necessary to fund our life, but was secondary in interest and significance.

catsy girl
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Old 03-09-2015, 11:32 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,864 posts, read 30,967,773 times
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I think that I have a real life right now and that my job doesn't dominate my life. Work is a part of my life, but even when I am at work, I am also pursuing other interests to the extent I'm able.
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Old 03-09-2015, 11:59 AM
 
554 posts, read 741,901 times
Reputation: 1042
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevek64 View Post
I think enjoying what one does in their work/job life is certainly a great thing and some people find this element in their job. However, I think the job itself is only part of the picture as some people may not be happy working because of other job related factors that are just as important as the job itself in my book:

- hard to get along with coworkers(2 sides to every story of course!)
- the stress of being downsized no matter how good some one it at a job, how hard they work, or how much they may love their job
- stress of long commutes

<Snip!>

And I'd also like to mention that I believe retirement and the work life don't have to be considered mutually exclusive for one can have a hobby/passion/talent they pursue in "retirement" as a "job" and earn a few $ with it if they choose, setting their own time schedule of course, and I think that can still be defined as retirement. Or make no money and just donate their time to a cause or whatever. If the bs gets thick/it isn't fun anymore? Easy to move on as one isn't relying on that paycheck to earn their living.
Have to agree with 'stevek64' on this ... While not-yet retired, I've had career positions that allowed me to pursue hobby interests to the point that the hobby nearly became another way to make a living! As it happened, it turned-out to be a durn-good way to make a part-time living, and see a whole lot of Country.
I was a Country Music musician, traveling with a band on weekends, and occasionally during the week. It wasn't a gold mine, but it did help contribute to the Family's welfare. And, the people I met, the locations we played music at, and the beautiful scenery we got to appreciate, were just some of the many benefits realized during that time in my life.
Now ... once we retire, I hope to be able to return to a slowed-down, lesser-travel, version of that lifestyle, that will once-again contribute to our traveling, meeting people, and seeing various parts of the Country ... All-the-while playing Music, which is one of the primary enjoyments of my life ... Why not continue it, for as long as I'm physically able?

Like Momma said: "Everyone's different" ... YMMV ... TC
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Old 03-09-2015, 12:26 PM
 
Location: Nebraska
2,234 posts, read 3,302,374 times
Reputation: 6681
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
Do you mind sharing what you did? Six and seven-day weeks at 10-12 hour days is draconian. When I had that schedule for a couple of weeks at a time I thought it was a tough go. I would say you are tougher than I.
I was a Project/ product/manufacturing/welding/ trainer/ engineer for a telecommunication company. The hours I worked were not mandatory, they were self imposed. I went through 3 workforce reductions over a 30 years period when the engineering universe was reduced by 80-90%. On one occasion we went from 60 engineers down to 8. This can make a person paranoid so I decided that I would make myself irreplaceable. It worked, I got my 30 in and retired. I made some good money so I'm happily I did it.

This allowed me to retire with full benefits and service pension at age 47 (yes I started when I was 17) . Towards the end, I was having stress induced medical problems and knew it was time.
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Old 03-09-2015, 12:53 PM
 
Location: Sierra Nevada Land, CA
9,455 posts, read 12,487,140 times
Reputation: 16449
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewToCA View Post
Sometimes you have a job where that type of response isn't possible, so you just kind of suck it up and "compartmentalize" the problem.
I would not ever accept such a job.
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Old 03-09-2015, 01:58 PM
 
Location: SoCal desert
8,091 posts, read 15,378,557 times
Reputation: 15036
Sure, I had a "real" life before retirement - and work always got in the way.
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Old 03-09-2015, 03:00 PM
 
21,630 posts, read 12,679,017 times
Reputation: 36462
I think it also depends on how much you like -- or dislike -- your job. If you're hating what you're doing eight hours a day, you're pretty much worn out by the time you get home... That probably means collapsing in front of the TV, some snacking, then early to bed. You don't come home "energized" after a day of drudgery or even after a grueling commute to and from a job you DO enjoy. It also takes time (at least for me) to get into the groove of an activity; for instance, I'll devote a weekend day to hiking, kayaking, a day trip, cleaning the house, emptying the garage, working on a hobby or project, but I won't bother if all I have is a few hours of daylight left. So, no; I don't think people who work a full-time job have much of a "life" most work days. After all, that's why it's called FULL-TIME. However, traditionally we accepted that as the price we had to pay to be responsible adult citizens and looked forward to retirement. Increasingly, young people seem to think they should be allowed to play all their lives and let someone else pay their bills (parents or taxpayers). I get where they're coming from, but it'll be interesting to see where this trend takes society. Maybe that should be yet another thread.
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