A Week In The Life of A Retiree (beach, weather, moving)

[LauraC]

If you are already retired, describe a typical week for you (unhampered by severe weather conditions). The purpose is to show people who are not retired yet how many different ways (from each other) that we spend our time and to show there is no stereotypical retiree.

[leorah]

A typical week:
Monday: Ride recumbent bike 11 miles, throw in a load of laundry, play with/walk the dogs. Answer email for volunteer organization. Work in jewelry studio. After dinner, spend time with husband (not retired yet) and play on the computer for an hour.
Tuesday: Ride recumbent bike 11 miles, play with/walk dogs. Answer email for volunteer organization. Work in garden/do lawn work. Do booking for singer-songwriter friend. Check investments. Spend evening with husband and dogs.
Wednesday: Ride 11 miles. Play with/walk dogs, do house chores. Answer email for volunteer organization. Grocery shop, run errands. Volunteer for dog rescue group. Go out to dinner with husband and once every two months attend theatrical event
Thursday: Ride 11 miles. Answer email for volunteer organization. Play with/walk dogs. Work in jewelry studio. Out to dinner with friends if husband doesn't play tennis.
Friday: Ride 11 miles. Play with/walk dogs. Volunteer for dog rescue group. House chores. Work in jewelry studio in afternoon. Prepare for evening Religious services.
Saturday: Religious services followed by lunch with friends. Spend day with husband and friends. Attend musical or theatrical performance in evening.
Sunday: Leisurely lunch with husband. Exercise outdoors with dogs and husband. Visit museums and art galleries. Once a month attend board meeting of volunteer organization and dog rescue group. Once a month breakfast meeting with singer/songwriter to discuss bookings and performance schedule.

Whew, makes me tired just thinking of it! I'm busier now than when I was working!

[Steve Bagu]

Leorah: You sure have many activities on your schedule. I am a 76 yr old senior (widowed many yrs). I am alone, yes but probably not as much as your husband is. On your list of activities????, you have your dogs rated #2 & #3 and your husband near the bottom of the list as to priority, Your #1 is the bike ride. SAD, I have been widowed 34 years as my wife died of CANCER at the age of 43. Respect your husband more as he will not be around forever. Stefhen

[normie]

I think she was listing what she did each day in chronological order, not in order of importance.

I'm having the same experience. I've now been retired one month. I've always had plenty to do, but at first it was a matter of coming up with activities. Now the activities seem to find me!

For example, about a week ago my friend called me to tell me the sad details of what had happened with her job and how she was considering moving with her teenaged daughter to a town about 2 hours from me. Now back in my working days I would have talked with her for an hour or two, offered my sympathy, and that would have been it.

But now I have time for an adventure! Tappahannock (the town she might move to) is within driving distance so I made a little excursion. Met with a realtor, went around the town, had a fine old time. And I've been entertaining myself all week doing research on this town and findings out all about a corner of Virginia I knew very little about.

I have a group of friends who meet every day to walk (or exercise in the gym if the weather is bad). The more we walk and talk, the more other activities seem to just seem to come up. I've started completing some projects around the house, too. You know what? Everytime you finish a project you see ten more things that could also use a little spruce.

The only challenge with retirement is that I try to be very careful not to spend a lot of money. But so far I've been able to find very inexpensive ways to be thoroughly entertained.

[bebette]

Steve:

If you reread leorah's post you will see that she mentioned in the first listing that her husband is not retired. All of her daily activities are while he is at work and her evenings are all set aside for spending time with her #1 love - her husband! She is keeping busy during the day so he doesn't come home to a wife that is totally bored out of her mind!

My husband and I will be retiring to East TN in 57 days and I anticipate us doing many more things together because we will finally have the time! We love to travel and have already started planning many places to visit in the months following retirement. However, we also look forward to becoming involved in the community by volunteering in areas that interest us individually!

Leorah: I'm totally impressed with you doing 11 miles a day on your recumbent bike. I thought I was doing good with 3 miles a day on my treadmill, but you give me the incentive to 'kick it up a notch'. We plan to purchase a recumbent bike when we move so that hubby can exercise with me. One can be on the treadmill and one on the bike - then switch. YOU GO GIRL!!!

Looking forward to hearing how others are spending their days now that they are retired. Almost everyone that I have talked to seems to be busier now than when they worked for a paycheck!!

[Fat Freddy]

Is a recumbent bike one of those stationary machines where you pedal and pedal and never really get anywhere?

That sounds like a day in the Working World.

[AliceT]

I am semi retired but didn't work a single day in 2007. I am also semi-disabled with a respiratory problem. My days are similar, as are my weeks.
I got to bed when I am tired and wake up when I feel rested.
I play on the computer way too much.
Once a week I go through my mail, open it and pay bills.
Once a week, I go to Wal-Mart for groceries and necessities.
Once a week, I check the local market for meats on sale.
Daily, I play with my dogs and change the water/food in my parakeet's cage.
I have no carpets as vacuuming is too strenuous an activity for me. Sweeping can be done on a weekly basis.

Two or three times a day, I add medicine to a nebulizer and give myself a breathing treatment.

I have a gym in my home am able to exercise on that on a daily basis. I'll never look like Chuck Norris, but that isn't the goal.

Once a week, I make a loaf of bread worth of sanwiches which will be my lunch during the week. Some things never change - I like ham sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly. They are cheap and easy to make and I like the convenience of just reaching into the fridge and getting one as the urge hits me.

Most mornings, I start a pot of coffee. Then I add ingredients to a crockpot that will be my hot supper. Evenings are spent reclining in front of the tv and watching a movie or two or programs until I can't keep my eyes open and then I go to bed.

Twice a week, I try a new main dish recipe. Every other month, I cook a turkey. Every other day, I try a cookie recipe. On really cold nights, I bake every night.

[LauraC]

My typical week usually involves waking up when the sun comes up and getting on the computer to read e-mail, the news on Google, my news alerts, the daily and 10 day weather forecast and the Townhall.com columnists. I read and post to City Data forums (4 different forums).

On the days of the week I have classes, I go to my classes. I take 5 per semester but they don't run the entire semester and some are over before others start within the semester. Classes start this week for this semester and I will be taking a classes on US foreign policy decisions, local law enforcement, photojournalism, East Tennessee nature along with nonfiction discussion book group. I signed up for an all-day trip to the national laboratory this semester and usually do one trip a semester with the school. This one just happens to be nearby.

On days when I don't have a class, I usually make a photography trip at least twice a week, dictated by weather conditions, and when that happens I'm outdoors for about 4 - 8 hours per day. The day after a photography trip, I work on those photos with photo modification software while listening to talk radio streaming in on my computer.

I go to the supermarket 2 - 3 times per week. Visits to other stores are sporadic and short.

At 5PM, 6PM, 8PM and 9PM, I watch cable TV news opinion shows and read the newspaper and/or the book for my book group that meets once per month, while those shows are on. I usually eat dinner when I'm hungry, not according to any schedule. I sometimes watch a movie at 10 and go to bed when I'm tired. If not, I'll get on my computer and play games, do research, see what people have been talking about all day, write to my friends in other states, pay bills or shop.

I rarely go out after dark except to attend photography club meetings or to go to an outdoor concert in the summer or to attend some rare one-time evening town event.

In the Spring, Summer and Fall and around Christmas, there are events/fairs/festivals every week within a 45 minute drive in my area so at that time of year, it's something different every week that I will do, usually on a weekend (because that's when these types of things are held). Since I'm fairly new to the area, I like to try different things and drive. In the summer/spring, I'll fish in the early AM maybe once or twice a week.

I have no set schedule for laundry or cleaning. I seem to be going to different doctors a lot lately. After I'm here for a year, I'll volunteer for annual town events. Right now, I'm attending those events for the first time.

[Steve Bagu]

Did read that Leorah's husband was not yet retired. Still stand by my limited observastion.QUOTE "Sun exercise outdoors with DOGS and HUSBAND" Should be with HUSBAND and dogs in that order. Also," Out to dinner with friends IF!!! HUSBAND DOESN'T PLAY TENNIS. How quaint!!. Different wardrobe is needed to play tennis or to go out for dinner. They don't work hand in hand. I am not snooty or anything just an obervation into someones schedules and PRIORITY. I have two large dogs, father and son and they do not need me for play time as they have romp around each other. Stefhen

[leorah]

Well, if I had known that my relationship with my husband would be judged by the order in which I listed him in my post I would have taken much more care in how I phrased what I wrote!

Beachbette and Normie, thanks for jumping to my defense!

And Steve, my current husband knows he ALWAYS comes first. We've been together ten terrific years. I was widowed at 47 when my late husband died in my arms of an undiagnosed cardiac arrhythmia, so I completely understand how important it is to make every day count with the people you love.

And to clarify, my husband and I can't go out to dinner with our closest friends on the nights my husband chooses to play tennis. I encourage him to play as much tennis as he wants, because he loves the game so much and it's great exercise.