Retirement. How do you like it?

[up148]

6 days, 3 hours, 54 minutes and 25 seconds to retirement................but, who's counting.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You'll be amazed at how little free time you really have in 7 days,

[E7]

It ain't time yet! Get back to work!!!!!

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I think we all reach a point in life wherein we have had enough of a particular obligation and commitment.

It's not that we have been defeated. We are simply ready for something new, something different.

Yet, once I was retired from several decades of teaching, my friends, several former students , and family offered the observation that I seemed like I was in mourning , over the loss of something precious to me.

Yet, I had reached a point where I had had enough, even though I was at the absolute top of my abilities. In fact, parents used to meet with my principals to make sure their 9th or 11th Grade children would be in my classes.

The adventure ahead of me, then, as a newly retired person, was something at which I had had no experience. So I just opened myself up and let my new life flow along .

One edifying moment of epiphany, early in my retirement process, occurred while I was driving to the supermarket - rushing there, though I had nothing else in particular to do, and certainly not to get to a classroom. At a traffic-light, I looked in the rearview mirror and said, aloud, to myself, "What are you doing?"
I never let myself rush, or be rushed, anywhere again.

You see, I had to learn new skills for a new life . That's my point in sharing these thoughts with you here.

[up148]

I like that Murph!

I'm catching myself already slowing down and behaving better on the road.

[up148]

It ain't time yet! Get back to work!!!!!

Thanks Rich!

One advantage of being the former owner (son owns now) no one looking over my shoulder to tell you anything. You are your worst critic and drive yourself as hard as anyone else. Son and daughter called mom and dad "work nazi's", but it's amazing how their opinion has changed in the past 2 years and will change more.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I like that Murph!

I'm catching myself already slowing down and behaving better on the road.

Thanks a lot for that feedback. I hesitated saying so much in reply but you have always been such a pleasant voice on this forum I thought I'd pay you the respect of at least offering my perspective.
Murph

[rogruth]

Very well said, Murph. And I also agree with the post by Rufus.
When I retired after 42 years of teaching I went right to a related part time job with a Savannah music store.
So at least to me I was still doing something useful that I enjoyed and it was still working with kids as I had done for most of my life.
I even got paid a little. I did this for 18 years. Because of eye problems I had to give this up 2 years ago. Now I feel that I am not
doing anything useful. I do not mean for this to be maudlin but I really have nothing to do now except irritate my wife.
IMHO retirees need to find something to do and have fun. Some seem to be very happy just doing trips, partying, etc.
That did/does not work for me.

[up148]

I heard so many comments like what Rufus said and hope that is me. I've also heard a few stories as you mention Roger. We are moving a week after retirement, back to the KCMO area and I have plenty to do on the house, which fortunately I love. Plus I have my retirement car to work on and a yard that needs landscaping, so I'm really looking forward to doing what I want for a change.

We are homebodies and never traveled much. We make our home our castle and stay there. I have a sister-in-law who can't sit still and she and husband are always traveling and a sister almost the same way. I don't get it, but if it makes them happy then good. I can't stand the drive back and forth between OKC and KC, so I'm not about to subject myself to highway traffic and truckers if I don't need too. Cruising around locally in the old car or seeing sights in KC we haven't seen in decades will be fun.

2 weeks ago we were up there inspecting work being done on the house and we drove thought some older areas of eastern KC after driving to an industrialized area to pick out paint and stains. On the way back to the house we drove through areas we hadn't seen in 30-40-50 years and it was interesting, but sad too. These were never great areas and haven't gone ghetto or anything, but you'll see a nice 100 years old house and then 2 pigs and then another nice house and then more trash. It was an old Italian area and even though the houses were older back then, they were really taken care of......not now.....neighborhood really sliding. Main drags look pretty much the same, with some building torn down and the old burger joints and greasy spoons replaced with mexican and asian hole-in-the-walls establishments. Tough area back then when I was young and just as tough looking now. But, it brought back great memories of HS and driving around with buddies exploring the "Big City", which was a big deal for a bunch of small town kids at the time. Life was full of possibilities and we wanted to see as much as we could.

BH

[Rufus T. Firefly]

IMHO retirees need to find something to do and have fun. Some seem to be very happy just doing trips, partying, etc.

Those that do not find something to do, do not last very long.

[up148]

IMHO retirees need to find something to do and have fun. Some seem to be very happy just doing trips, partying, etc.

Those that do not find something to do, do not last very long.

Certainly the way I think about it.

[v8vega]

What a dumb question, you don't have to work!
I retired at 62, I was a machinist and my boss didn't want me to retire so I worked part time the 1st year. The last few years I was always terribly tired after work. I didn't hate work but sure fell into retirement easily.

[up148]

It was more rhetorical to get some comments vega and I did. Obviously being retired sounds like heaven to me and way better than the alternative. Right now I can't even get my head around it as it is so foreign to the lifestyle we've been living.

[healey36]

IMHO retirees need to find something to do and have fun. Some seem to be very happy just doing trips, partying, etc.

Those that do not find something to do, do not last very long.

Bingo...I've been retired for four years this past May and I can't say there's been many outright boring days. If anything, I'm falling behind. I helped some folks set up a business a couple years ago and I've been helping with the admin stuff...just takes just a few hours per week. Then there's the house which, despite my best efforts, is gradually falling in around me. The Sprite sits in the back of the garage, rarely seeing the light of day, and the layout hasn't been touched in at least a year, both for lack of time. Got a project I'm working on with Sarge...hopefully when that wraps up I'll have some more time...but I doubt it, as there'll be more. When you retire, the key is to be able to envision a full day, every day. The guys I know that said maybe they'd travel a bit, maybe visit their children, maybe play golf two or three times per week...they're struggling. They miss the structure of work, and that's deadly.

That said, my health is still good, my spouse and siblings are still around, and the balance sheet is clean. If/when those things change, then I imagine it's a bit of a reset.

[Mitch]

I'll be 69 in November and I'm still working. It gets harder every day. It's all I can do to lift 4 of those 275/60R/20 truck tires back up on the truck when it's on the hoist, and some vehicles come in with those huge oversize 8 and 10 ply tires and steel wheels on their trucks and Jeeps, and I can't get them back on. Rather than get one of the young bucks to lift them for me, I just let the vehicle down to ground level and get them on with the aid of a pry bar. Don't want to bother anybody else. 30 years ago, I could lift those 12.50/15/38s on steel wheels right back on no problem. And I hate workin' on engines any more, especially truck engines 'cause they put the engine so far back it's damn near in the cab, and it's a real pain leanin' way out pullin' the heads on a Hemi with the hood latch chewin' on one's groin. But, I'm still far enough in debt that I can't quit, so it seems the only way I'm leavin' the dealership will be on a gurney out to the ambulance to take me to the morgue. Life sucks, and then you die!