I had a friend at work who fell down the stairs and broke her leg. The doctor prescribed three months of recovery at home. Not a simple change for anyone – limited mobility and no working. Ever the Pollyanna, I told her it was a practice for retirement – she was over 60 and resisting any nudges to consider early retirement. I think it was because she wasn’t sure what she would do. And there was the fact that her husband worked from home. They hadn’t been together all day except for weekends and vacations since they were first married.
Turned out the broken leg was the catalyst she needed. She returned from the recovery, worked a few weeks and permanently retired. And ever since, she and her husband have collaborated on his work. Happily. I saw her the other day; she looks twenty years younger. Retirement is good for the wrinkles.
I think that’s what we all need. A practice at retirement. Holidays/vacation don’t count. No need for a medical emergency to instigate it. Take three months to be at home with some income and not involved in work at all. Cut off. Left to your own resources to fill your time. Because I believe time is the greatest change in retirement.
When we are learning something new, we often take lessons and then go home and practice until the next lesson the next week. I think there is something to that idea, especially with retirement. I think that retirement deserves to have a practice period so you can feel what it feels like to wake up and have 10 hours to fill day after day. Potentially for many years. Filling days with meaningful things to do is a prime requirement for happy retirement. And, given that life expectance is for another 22 years after 65, that’s a lot of time to fill.
I practiced retiring. When my mom passed away, I realized I didn’t have to prove anything to her anymore (another story for somewhere else). I also finally realized I didn’t need to work in an environment where the values didn’t reflect my own (also another story for somewhere else). So I went home, counted my pennies, figured I could manage a few months out of work and resigned.
That few months lasted fifteen and the only thing that drove me back to work was the acceptance that I didn’t have enough financially to retire in the manner I wanted.
Taking those fifteen months off was the best thing I ever did. Besides helping me realize about how much I would need to finance the lifestyle I wanted, it made me acknowledge that there was a time element to retirement I had to plan for. And there was a tradeoff – retire earlier and have less money or do fewer big adventures (whatever “fewer” means) or work longer and have more bucks to do more with.
The million dollar question is ‘How much is enough?’. But by practicing retirement, I got a better idea of how much money I needed to for what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go.
And so, with the practice done, and a plan in my head, I went back to the work world. That included the commute, the endless meetings, the frustration of working for forward movement and making only baby steps, until I lined my ducks up. And then, one day, I phoned the bank to ask for the penalty to pay out my mortgage. When I heard it was $506, I said pay it off, and I resigned. Retired permanently, convincing myself that with no debt I could manage just fine.
Most of us have to live with a smaller paycheck in retirement. That is unless we have a nest egg tucked away. There are many books dedicated to retirement finances. There are also countless financial planners and retirement planners who will work with you to grow, manage, understand, plan the money side of retirement. Financial planning is best understood and put into practice in your thirties to have some fun money for retirement. Government resources are fairly limited.
But the time change is by far a bigger hurdle for a successful retirement. And there is little written about it.
The time you have to manage in retirement is likely more time to yourself than you had when you were a teenager. And now, much wiser, what are the possibilities you could fill it with? Perhaps not with crazy teenager stuff but hopefully with creative stuff, bucket list stuff, projects you’ve always wanted to do.
When I retired, a friend gave me Ernie J. Zelinki’s book How to Retire Wild, Happy and Free! It was one of the first books I read (and also recommended reading for pre-retirees). It was my first guidebook. The subtitle is Retirement wisdom that you won’t get from your financial advisor. That say it all.
The book implies that there is another life after work that can be as engrossing, challenging, enthralling and nourishing as work life may have been. With the bonus of being on your own agenda. It is rather inspirational.
With drink in hand and a sunny deck, I spend a few hours with the book. And continue to refer to it today.
2020
I wonder how those planning on retiring are doing with their plan.s Did COVID prod them to start retirement now?
While COVID limited my travel plans for the year, it allowed me to stay home and focus on projects around the house that I planned to do someday.
It has changed the frequency that I visit my family – from more often at first, when we could, because we could – to very little now that we can’t. That’s what I miss most right now.
But I am glad I am retired now during the pandemic. It has made being home a lot easier than I would have been able to manage. It has also allowed me to focus on big projects – like writing a book. Check out my posts on writing for more on that.
