Recently retired and ready for new adventures.

Diane8 said:
Hello everyone
This is my first post. I have retired this week after 41 years working. At first I thought I was too young to retire but as 60 approached I realised I no-longer enjoyed working and because I was financially able to retire I decided it was time to call it a day. There are only so many "strategy" meetings I eagerly wanted to miss, so I did!
I love the outdoors and being out with my dog, I am creative and very health conscious, although I am partial to a wine (or 2). I live in a pretty village and enjoy village life.

So how did anyone else find their first few weeks of retirement - does it take a lot of adjustment?
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Sorry I can't help you. Not that I don't want to but I retired 22 years ago and can't remember what happened. I think I started on my 8.5 month backpacking trip around the world. My advice is "get moving." The years fly by and they wait for no one. Don't fall into that "Someday I will.............." Instead, say "Right now, I am............."
 

Timewise 60+ said:
I retired in 2013! We had planned on retiring in 2016, but my employer moved out of the area I live in, and I did not want to relocate, so I took early retirement at 63. I had enough money saved to retire early, and I was able to put off starting my Social Security until I reached 66.

I am a person who has always had a lot of things I wanted to do, most of which, I have done some of, during my life, but never had ample time to do it as well as I wanted. Let me name a few on that list...learn to play a banjo, improve how I play a guitar, travel with my wife to the many international countries I have traveled to for business purposes (e.g., Japan, China, England, Sweden, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, etc.), Remodel our upstairs, put in a lap pool, Run our Golden Retrievers in Field Trials, start oil painting again, build a model wooden sailing ship for our mantel...

Having this list has kept me from day one busy! That's a good thing. During the first year or so I focused on home and getting myself going on guitar and banjo, as that is very relaxing and has gone well. I also did much of the upstairs, but when Covid hit, we had to stop. During the major Covid all I really had was my music and started oil painting as I had the supplies stored away. We did run our youngest Golden in some hunt tests and will run him more this Spring to get his MH title. I am still painting, but the travel has to wait until the airlines and Europe get opened up more. That may take a long while...

My wife participates in much of this, but she has her own passions also. She is an avid gardener and cook! She is amazing at both...unfortunately, she is also a professional shopper, if you know what I mean? After over 52 years, she hasn't broken the bank yet...

So bottom line is having a long list of things you love to do is a good plan. Have your finances set with budget in hand? I like it so I spend minimal time managing finances, but still know what I have and no worries about it. That takes some time to get to this point. Getting new appliances, or a pool right now with the shortages and logistics issues makes this impossible to do well. So we put that all off until later this year...we hope.

Good luck
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Thank you, I’m fortunate that my husband still works he is 6 years younger than me and has a great career which he loves, so I can still shop 😉.
I am very thankful that it is post Covid I can’t imagine what it would be like during Covid. Banjo sounds interesting! As for a pool we only have a small garden and we don’t really get the weather to enjoy it but nice idea. I hope you get to travel more, we did Borneo just before lockdown and it was amazing x
 
Alligatorob said:
Welcome Diane and congrats on retirement!


Mine has been a bit different, I am a consulting engineer and I began my retirement about 5 years ago. Slowly cutting back on clients and accepting new assignments. At this point I am about 90% retired but still finishing up a couple of small things.

For me it has taken a little adjustment, but not a lot. It is new to have free time with fewer obligations. New but nice, I am sure you will adjust.

Hope to be hearing more from and about you!
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Thank you, I probably have to adjust as had a very busy career and not logging onto my work computer seems surreal. However this is my new career and I am going to give it my full attention! 😃
 
Welcome to your retirement. My former employer eliminated my position that forced me into retirement.
 
Hi Diane,8 welcome congrats on your retirement
I took early retirement 11 yrs ago, worked 27 yrs at local hosptial 3 days/wk as a pharm tech. My job was delivering narcs to all nursing units.It was alot of walking,bending, paper work,was burnt out. I was able to do so financially,otherwise I think I'd probably still be the ' drug pusher' as my brother kidingly called me I have no regrets
On my 2 days off before&after I retired was already volunteering at 2 different orgs
The 1st yr it took me 6-8 months not to get up at 5:30 the days I had to be at work. I had a hard time saying'NO' to people when they learned I had retired could use my help
The wonderful thing about being retired,you make your own schedule do the things you want to do without worrying about being late for work,punching in/out with time clock Sue
 
jujube said:
I dove head first into retirement at 62 and have been wallowing in the sheer joy of it like a pig in some particularly fine mud ever since. Never looked back.

You're either suited to retirement or you're not..... I hope you will find that you're supremely suited.....
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I get this feeling that our generation was the very lucky one because many of us worked for companies or places that had a decent pension so that we could retire. Now, it is a different world. Except for those evil, crooked CEOs that are ripping off their companies for millions and millions, the average employee is doing part time, contract or full time with no pension. Many young people realize that they will have to work all their lives and not retire. I wish them the best of luck because they are going to need it.
 
After a 50 year working life I decided I had had enough of it. Wife was still happy in her career in the University world. Within a few months, I was approached by my Wife, asking if I could do some voice overs on a teaching video for the Nursing School at U of T. I said sure, knowing that over the years I had done lots of such work. Guess what ? That opened up a whole new experience for me. Now I get requests from various University departments to do video narration on a regular basis. I have joined ACTRA the union, so I don't run into problems with production companies. I get union scale per hour in the studio. My current big project is narrating a hour long history about Canada's role in WW2 . I also still get calls from a guy who I used to do skip tracing for in the past. He owns a small car leasing company that deals in high end exotic cars. He calls me to find cars that are not being paid for. Usually if you find the person, the car will be near by. Most of that involves computer searches from home. Once I have a solid location, his tow truck guy goes out and takes it back. When you lease something you never own it. JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
After a 50 year working life I decided I had had enough of it. Wife was still happy in her career in the University world. Within a few months, I was approached by my Wife, asking if I could do some voice overs on a teaching video for the Nursing School at U of T. I said sure, knowing that over the years I had done lots of such work. Guess what ? That opened up a whole new experience for me. Now I get requests from various University departments to do video narration on a regular basis. I have joined ACTRA the union, so I don't run into problems with production companies. I get union scale per hour in the studio. My current big project is narrating a hour long history about Canada's role in WW2 . I also still get calls from a guy who I used to do skip tracing for in the past. He owns a small car leasing company that deals in high end exotic cars. He calls me to find cars that are not being paid for. Usually if you find the person, the car will be near by. Most of that involves computer searches from home. Once I have a solid location, his tow truck guy goes out and takes it back. When you lease something you never own it. JimB.
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Jim, you remind me of something I knew before I retired. Retirement does not mean you stop working. What you do is stop doing what you do not love doing and find something you absolutely love doing, many times this provide income for many years!
 
Diane8 said:
Thank you, I’m fortunate that my husband still works he is 6 years younger than me and has a great career which he loves, so I can still shop 😉.
I am very thankful that it is post Covid I can’t imagine what it would be like during Covid. Banjo sounds interesting! As for a pool we only have a small garden and we don’t really get the weather to enjoy it but nice idea. I hope you get to travel more, we did Borneo just before lockdown and it was amazing x
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Skip the pool and go for a hot tub! Good for cold weather 'warm ups' and other ailments! SMILE
 
Timewise 60+ said:
Jim, you remind me of something I knew before I retired. Retirement does not mean you stop working. What you do is stop doing what you do not love doing and find something you absolutely love doing, many times this provide income for many years!
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You are right. My voice over work is scheduled weeks ahead of time, and most of it is done at a studio less than 3 miles from my house. Not a hardship at all. I get my lines sent to me by email so I can practice and do my " cuts " with pencil to underline certain words or phrase that need to be pushed or softened. I can do a number of "ethnic accents " if required, too. JimB.
 

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