Is Retirement All It's Cracked Up To Be?

It's been nearly 2 years since been retired, but things are finally starting to open up recently and I believe I will have most of my dental/medical needs covered, so planning some adventures in August and September.

Who knew I would have painful knees, once I started feeling this body I had been ignoring while I was working?
Who knew Covid would shut everything down, just when I was recovering from knee surgery and starting packing for a 700 mile move? Who knew the new community would have wildfire smoke for 2 months?

Life is what it is and I can only roll with it, one day at a time.
 

I think retirement can be like getting a job that you have no experience in. You've heard what to expect but since the reality is you will be getting "on the job training" it's either what you hoped for or an unpleasant surprise.

Then there is the "job" that is prepared for. You've researched the "job" and decide to try to be successful. But like most jobs there are unforeseen obstacles to overcome. You either succeed or fail.

All in all either way it's what a person makes of the time during this transition to the reality that this is the last "job" you will ever have. So enjoy whatever there is to enjoy while you can.

Having prepared with 26 successful years into the "job" I can say it is all it's cracked up to be.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
The effects of that shot should last you a while. I know when I got cortisone for my knee, it lasted me longer than expected. I got a second shot and when I knew that was about to wear off I had an epiphany...well sort of. I'd read about additives and food allergies that can exacerbate the problems with arthritis. I had read about it in a book by Gary Null, PHD. At the time I was using about two packs of Hawaiian Punch sugar free grape drink mix. Something just told me to discontinue using and drink green tea instead. Within 24 hours, my symptoms, which was mostly stiffness not pain, disappeared. I've been drinking one or two mugs of green tea ever since and that was several years ago. I very, very rarely get arthritis pains and just recently have noticed a little stiffness has returned if I sit too long.

Just recently my DIL and I were talking about pain management because she suffers with joint and other pains (she has Fibromyalgia) when she pointed out that the drink mix I was using probably had aspartame in it. I used to be hooked on that stuff but it proved to be bad news. She just told me today about a procedure that was suggested for her other knee (she had a knee replacement in one last year). The nerves in the area where there's pain are cauterized. This procedure sounds like what was done to me to cure my atrial fibrillation 5-1/2 years ago. The areas that were "misfiring" were cauterized. I haven't had an attack since. I don't know if cauterization would be practical for your situation though.
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I'm calling the ortho tomorrow and am going to push for more testing. I want to make sure that arthritis is what's actually causing my acute pain. Something just doesn't seem to sit right in my mind with that diagnosis, along with my best friend, and along with another couple I know quite well who all think this should be looked into further.

If it continues to progress as it has, I will be a complete invalid in a few months.

I have an appt with an accupuncturist on the 19th -- a very good buddy says she helped his 92 year-old mother with arthritic pain.
 

Old Dummy said:
I'm calling the ortho tomorrow and am going to push for more testing. I want to make sure that arthritis is what's actually causing my acute pain. Something just doesn't seem to sit right in my mind with that diagnosis, along with my best friend, and along with another couple I know quite well who all think this should be looked into further.

If it continues to progress as it has, I will be a complete invalid in a few months.

I have an appt with an accupuncturist on the 19th -- a very good buddy says she helped his 92 year-old mother with arthritic pain.
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"If it continues to progress as it has, I will be a complete invalid in a few months." Well I certainly hope it does not progress to that point OD! Have you gotten a second (or third) opinion. I haven't read through this entire thread (it's kinda long), so forgive me if you've already answered that question for someone else.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
"If it continues to progress as it has, I will be a complete invalid in a few months." Well I certainly hope it does not progress to that point OD! Have you gotten a second (or third) opinion. I haven't read through this entire thread (it's kinda long), so forgive me if you've already answered that question for someone else.
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Not a 2nd from another ortho, but my primary seems to agree with the ortho about everything. I was at some friend's house this afternoon and she is pushing me (and has before) to get more testing. So far all I've had is X-rays which do show arthritic joints, and a blood test which showed nothing unusual but did rule out rheumatoid arthritis.

My point is, okay the X-ray shows the arthritic joints, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that is the source of my pain. She is pushing me to get either ultrasound or MRI to see if anything is funny with soft tissue, which of course doesn't show up on an X-ray.
 
SeaBreeze said:
Personally, I think it is. I looked forward to it all my working life, and wanted to retire early enough to get some relaxation in before my days were up on this earth. Too many people I know delayed their retirement, and found themselves too old and sickly to enjoy themselves. One person who I worked with passed on shortly after retirement. I hear many stories of people actually dying in the workplace of age-related illness or accident.

I live a simple life, always have. To me, just being able to live my days without having to set alarms, drive to work in snow blizzards at 5am, and deal with working for 'the man', punching the time-clock, 10 minute breaks, and deal with all the aggravations of the workplace is a blessing. For years before I retired, I thought about the day that I could say goodbye to the daily grind.

Retirement is what it's cracked up to be, and I deserve every minute of it! How about you??
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My father was a workaholic and he owned a business his whole life. That business changed a few times, but he was always a business owner. He put off retirement until he could barely walk and was in a lot of pain. He always talked about retiring and traveling. It was most definitely too late for him to have any kind of a "fun" retirement. I do not remember how long it was but he passed away in a matter of months after he retired. I am not a workaholic and never wanted to be tied down owning a business. I did hard physical work my whole life and was afraid I could never retire. This is my second day of retirement and so many people said I will get bored. That may or may not be true, but I worked 53 year and 41 at my last job. I was broke for a good part of that time and walking away from this job is freedom I never thought I would have in time to still be in reasonably good physical shape. Even if I get bored the last thing in the world I would ever do is walk back into that old job. I have never been in prison, but it often felt that way. Bosses that feel superior to all the workers, you always get criticized no matter how good you do the job. Because of the virus we were all on part time and the paychecks were terrible. I feel I was not retiring, but escaping. And I will never regret that!
 
chrislind2 said:
My father was a workaholic and he owned a business his whole life. That business changed a few times, but he was always a business owner. He put off retirement until he could barely walk and was in a lot of pain. He always talked about retiring and traveling. It was most definitely too late for him to have any kind of a "fun" retirement. I do not remember how long it was but he passed away in a matter of months after he retired. I am not a workaholic and never wanted to be tied down owning a business. I did hard physical work my whole life and was afraid I could never retire. This is my second day of retirement and so many people said I will get bored. That may or may not be true, but I worked 53 year and 41 at my last job. I was broke for a good part of that time and walking away from this job is freedom I never thought I would have in time to still be in reasonably good physical shape. Even if I get bored the last thing in the world I would ever do is walk back into that old job. I have never been in prison, but it often felt that way. Bosses that feel superior to all the workers, you always get criticized no matter how good you do the job. Because of the virus we were all on part time and the paychecks were terrible. I feel I was not retiring, but escaping. And I will never regret that!
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Good for you...life and way too short to not take the time to enjoy it if you can. Your time now is golden. My hub and I retired from owning a business 5 years ago and never looked back. It will take some time for you to actually be abile to realize you don't have to go to work - took us a year or so. I'm sure you will also truly enjoy this "time in the sun" as we call it. Frankly, don't know where we found the time to work. Welcome to the forum and hope you like us guys, too. Living the dream!
 
chrislind2 said:
My father was a workaholic and he owned a business his whole life. That business changed a few times, but he was always a business owner. He put off retirement until he could barely walk and was in a lot of pain. He always talked about retiring and traveling. It was most definitely too late for him to have any kind of a "fun" retirement. I do not remember how long it was but he passed away in a matter of months after he retired. I am not a workaholic and never wanted to be tied down owning a business. I did hard physical work my whole life and was afraid I could never retire. This is my second day of retirement and so many people said I will get bored. That may or may not be true, but I worked 53 year and 41 at my last job. I was broke for a good part of that time and walking away from this job is freedom I never thought I would have in time to still be in reasonably good physical shape. Even if I get bored the last thing in the world I would ever do is walk back into that old job. I have never been in prison, but it often felt that way. Bosses that feel superior to all the workers, you always get criticized no matter how good you do the job. Because of the virus we were all on part time and the paychecks were terrible. I feel I was not retiring, but escaping. And I will never regret that!
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Great post, my condolences for the loss of your father. Very sad he didn't get to have some enjoyment after retiring, a story too often told. :(
 
Old Dummy said:
I’ve never understood many people’s obsession with travel, and with the assumption that every one wants to do it when they retire.

It interests me not in the least. Aside from that, I like the known comforts of home. But whatever.
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i traveled, mostly within the US a great deal when younger, mostly BK (before Kids) and i enjoyed it greatly. But, as with my 'wild oats', i got mostly got it out of my system BK, tho there are a few places on bucket list if i could every afford it. i've lived in my current home 9yrs and traveled only to visit my sons out of state.
 
I retired from my full-time job in 2015 but have continued to work part-time in a contracting capacity. The extra income pays for some needed home repairs and an occasional vacation. I am thinking about stopping working altogether later next year.
 
When my kids started school I decided to get a job....The first one was working in a school system in the morning when the kids were coming
into the school....After a while a man came up to me to ask my name....He said He saw me every morning to get the kids in to the
entered the school..The very nice man asked me if I can work in the school....Of course I said yes....He brought me in school and asked many
questions....My first thing I told him before I had my children I worked as a Secretary since I did in High School....He told me he needed
a Secretary....I got the job.....I worked in that school and I did work in the New school in a High School....in our Town....
I worked their for 25 years....My husband retired a year before me....He worked in New York City, many many years....
Now our two children are married with their children....We travel to another home in another state....in the winter....
 
Old Dummy said:
Not a 2nd from another ortho, but my primary seems to agree with the ortho about everything. I was at some friend's house this afternoon and she is pushing me (and has before) to get more testing. So far all I've had is X-rays which do show arthritic joints, and a blood test which showed nothing unusual but did rule out rheumatoid arthritis.

My point is, okay the X-ray shows the arthritic joints, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that is the source of my pain. She is pushing me to get either ultrasound or MRI to see if anything is funny with soft tissue, which of course doesn't show up on an X-ray.
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mmmMMMmmm Lipitor made a cripple out of me and when I stopped taking it it took months before I came good.
 
I have been retired in Australia for 16 years. We use investments to pay the bills and we get the aged pension to live on. We had done most of our travelling before retiring, visiting with our sons who were working overseas and a motor-home trip all around Australia (plus more).

It has all gone swimmingly except for 2011 Brisbane floods when we went under and I rebuilt from a shell.

I play lawn bowls and there are plenty of mates to talk to. Bowls gives me competition, company and light exercise and access to a lot of retirees who do different stuff other than play bowls. I do art, and I write, my latest caper is "Yarnetry" telling yarns with poetry but not really poetry: I do Free Verse. click on this link https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wsxcO5AYv72gVcNCBAMykveRu6xd68oj9YHg6AhFC1Q/edit?usp=sharing
 
SeaBreeze said:
Personally, I think it is. I looked forward to it all my working life, and wanted to retire early enough to get some relaxation in before my days were up on this earth. Too many people I know delayed their retirement, and found themselves too old and sickly to enjoy themselves. One person who I worked with passed on shortly after retirement. I hear many stories of people actually dying in the workplace of age-related illness or accident.

I live a simple life, always have. To me, just being able to live my days without having to set alarms, drive to work in snow blizzards at 5am, and deal with working for 'the man', punching the time-clock, 10 minute breaks, and deal with all the aggravations of the workplace is a blessing. For years before I retired, I thought about the day that I could say goodbye to the daily grind.

Retirement is what it's cracked up to be, and I deserve every minute of it! How about you??
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I Have another 9 years before i get state pension , and my work was getting unbearable , so one day i said "enough is enough" i took out all of my works pension , a tax free lump sum and a monthly payment and handed my notice in !! after 23 years ... I have to live on only half the money i was getting in my wages has i have to make the lump sum last me for 9 years ,so that means , no holidays , or new cars etc etc ..i am not married , have no family and no mortgage or rent to pay ,and no debts ..So here i am Free from the 5 am starts , Free from being told what to do every damn minute of the day ,Free from all the stress and worry ,Free from having to work outside in all the bad weather and i feel much better for it ..people have actually told me how much better i look now .
 
I was with my employer for 20 years and was 62 when they let half the company go due to Covid. I was at the executive level within the company. I always put the max 6% into my 401k, but my biggest fear was that I would have to retire before I was ready, mainly because my mother is in a very expensive assisted living facility and I pay for it. However, when Covid began (like so many) I started to re-examine my priorities in life so when I received the news I was okay with it. We sat down, eked out a budget and realized we would be okay. We don't buy nearly as much as we did when I was working and there is nothing we need.

My company actually did me a favor by eliminating my position and making me realize how much less stress I now have in my life and how much I appreciate my freedom to spend my time as I want. For me, retirement definitely has been All It's Cracked Up to Be... and more.
 
I retired young fourteen years ago knowing I would have to work part time to live the lifestyle I was accustomed to living. Never looked back.
 
Elina said:
I Have another 9 years before i get state pension , and my work was getting unbearable , so one day i said "enough is enough" i took out all of my works pension , a tax free lump sum and a monthly payment and handed my notice in !! after 23 years ... I have to live on only half the money i was getting in my wages has i have to make the lump sum last me for 9 years ,so that means , no holidays , or new cars etc etc ..i am not married , have no family and no mortgage or rent to pay ,and no debts ..So here i am Free from the 5 am starts , Free from being told what to do every damn minute of the day ,Free from all the stress and worry ,Free from having to work outside in all the bad weather and i feel much better for it ..people have actually told me how much better i look now .
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So happy for you. Don't it feel great to be free of the stress? Many of my retired friends told me I would live longer and be healthier and after 1 1/2 years of retirement I believe it!
 
Well, here I am seven years later than the first time I posted on this thread. The first time I "retired" was in 1990. Since then I've retired four more times. I have a job again and work three days a week. When I leave this one, it'll be six times. I just can't seem to sit still for long :D As my mother used to say "I'll be a long time dead", and I still like being out among the lights and people.
 
@Old Dummy, I'm with you. Travel isn't at the bottom of my to-do list; it isn't there at all. I've traveled enough for a couple of lifetimes, usually for work, and my idea of comfort is sleeping in my own bed. When there are far away places with strange sounding names, I can check with that travel expert, Mr. Google, and read all about the culture, see pictures... It doesn't cost a cent, and I don't have to pack/unpack...you know, all the other annoyances associated with travel.

I think I was born minus the travel gene ;)
 
Retirement is all it's cracked up to be and more for me! Love it, love it, love it!

And I am not doing to much in the way of exotic travel. Just putzing around at home for the most part. This week I think I put in about 25 hours working around the house, yard, and garden. All my firewood for next year is done and it is not even November! What I really like is that I have time to "properly" take care of things around the house. But traveling a bit is in the works this winter too.
 

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