Are You Ready for Retirement?
It’s easy to recall the hectic days of your working years and I have great sympathy for the many people I see battling the commute, the endless hours and the struggle to balance work and life. When you ask any one of those people who are still in the throes of the battle called work, the answer will be a resounding “YES!” that is shouted from the rooftops. But strangely enough, some of those same people will find themselves frustrated and bored when retirement finally comes. So, I ask you, are you ready for retirement? Once that endless treadmill of long hours, project deadlines and frustrating decisions by upper management are gone, so is your adrenalin to fight those battles. Suddenly, you’re staring at a blank calendar and a phone that doesn’t ring and while it may seem like heaven for a while, the amount of free time that you have in retirement is something you have to deal with. Many people plan the financial details of their life carefully but they overlook the fact that there will be eight, ten or even twelve hours a day that used to be taken up by work and commuting to work that need to be filled with more than just a round of golf every day. Golf is great and so is hiking, fishing and swimming but at some point, you need to have a little more purpose in your retirement or you’ll start questioning if retirement is everything it’s cracked up to be. I’m happy to say retirement has exceeded all of my expectations, but I approached this time of my life as I try to do with all important matters: I planned out what I would be doing with my time as carefully as I planned my investment strategy. Did I stick to the plane? No! But the fact that I had one made the adjustments easy and everything turned even better than I had hoped.
Are you ready for retirement?
The question deserves serious consideration.
I’ll be completely honest. I didn’t like my job. I was well paid and did well by almost any measure you can think of but, if you asked me if I was happy with what I did for a living, my answer would be no and, to this day, I’m not sure how I could have changed that. I had no idea what I wanted to do and still couldn’t give you a good answer to that question if I had to do it all over again. Lawyer, college professor, writer, journalist or motivational speaker could all be candidates for employment, but I couldn’t do any one of those things forever. The most appealing part of retirement was that I could do a little bit of almost all of those things whenever I wanted and I wouldn’t have to answer to anyone. Our first three months of retirement were all taken care of because we packed our car as if we were going off to college and spent our first winter traveling through the warmer parts of this great country we live in. I journeyed from the east coast of Florida to the Texas gulf as if I were gathering material for a travel guide because, in the back of my mind, that was a possibility for my post-working career. This had been the plan for a while and, when anyone asked me, “are you ready for retirement?”, my positive response was based on this vision. I would dabble in writing and see what happened. We had such a great time our first winter, that we made the southwest and California coast our target for the next winter and I busied myself by gathering information and taking lots of pictures for travel articles and books that I was planning. The next winter, Covid changed the world and we became shut-ins like everybody else.
You can plan as much as you want, but you’ll see reality impacting your strategy in ways you can never predict. Dwight D. Eisenhower knew this all to well when he said that battleplans are useless, but planning is essential. The planning process allows you to look at all the possibilities and prepare for any contingencies. I knew what I wanted to do when I retired. When someone asked “are you ready for retirement?”, I had a list of writing projects that I wanted to do, trips that I wanted to take and an endless list of books that I wanted to read. When we found ourselves captive for a year, some of our plans needed to change a bit. My wife took up woodworking and gardening as hobbies so that didn’t have to change too much. In fact, we took her fresh herbs and worked it into the activity that we did together – cooking. Since there were no restaurants to go to, we tried out new recipes and have upgraded our culinary skills in the process. My travel book got transformed into this website and it is more enriching than I had ever imagined. The best part is that I can write about almost anything and, since I have so much trouble deciding what I want to do from one day to the next, that’s perfect for me. The one constant is the writing. I’ve enjoyed the process more than I ever thought I would. Are you ready for retirement? The question is a serious one, and I think experimenting with hobbies and other activities is an important part of formulating an answer. Take some time to recall all of the activities that you used to enjoy and the ones you thought about but never did. We know a few people who have discovered painting and sketching in their later years. Everyone has a creative side even if they haven’t found it yet or deny that it exists. Trust me, it’s there and it’s worth looking for. If you can’t think of anything, go out and volunteer at a hospital, church or with some non-profit organization. The work is fulfilling and you just might find a new way to spend your day. Life is what you make it and it’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
Thanks for visiting. If you like what you see here, please tell your friends. If you haven’t done so already, be sure you take The Self Discovery Challenge for Retirement! It’s designed to help you make the most of this wonderful time of your life. You’re never too old to discover something new about yourself!
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