I think that’s the key to a healthy retirement. Move it or lose it, and that includes your mind. Retirement is still far away for me, but I’ve already decided that, when the time approaches, I’m definitely going to have an action plan in place.
My uncle is retired, and he decided to take up chess again because he felt he was slipping mentally. He said that, when he first started, he “couldn’t see anything” when he was looking at the board. After a year or more, he has gotten a lot of his skills back. Sure, he’ll never be what he was in his twenties, but that’s not the point.
We live in wooded suburbs, where there are lots of trees. I’ve been taking them down for years, but at 62 I’m starting to think maybe I’ll put the chainsaw and come-along to rest (give them away or sell them cheap) and let someone else do the work. I could probably still cut them down (I have two ready to go right now), but I also don’t want to deal with bucking them and either cutting up or getting rid of the wood.
I retired in 2019 and have done a lot to improve the house and grounds, but now we’re talking about really getting the house in shape and then downsizing. It’s an antique, and it has some structural problems I can’t fix. Hire someone, or let the buyer deal with it? We haven’t decided yet…
Yup. And it helps if you enjoy it. Cribbage and Darts are good too. It’s a discovery really, after years together, we are learning more about how each other thinks.
I’m a spatial thinker (better at chess)
My wife is more numbers (better at cribbage)
I may be a bit better at darts. But there are two reasons for that I think. I’ve been a target shooter since I was 11. I can put that relax calm on myself. And I’m a lot taller, my reach alone puts me closer to the board.
We also bought a Yamaha electric piano. This is partly for my cousin who has played from a very young age. She can play when she visits. We are trying to learn to play, but not doing very well. It’s quite the learning experience.
Yeah, while I still have 6 hammers, and 100 screwdrivers (literally, I counted when we moved), I finally started hiring people to help.
Well, for instance, house cleaners. And we have hired a company to spray for weeds. We have a company coming to give us ideas on zero scaping. We should get rid of about half of our grass.
That last bit about zero scaping is hard for me. I’ve worked for three irrigation companies, one of which I created and owned. But I’ve had enough.
I really just piddle around… reading, walking, cooking in my tiny kitchen, writing, web surfing. I’m a widow with no children and no siblings. No one on this earth expects anything of me and I am obligated to no one. I am 100% off duty. There is nothing weighing on my shoulders and I can honestly say I don’t have a care in the world. (Fortunately I’m financially okay. It would be a whole different ball game if that were not the case.) Yeah, sometimes I feel a bit unmoored, but most of the time, I’m on the edge of euphoric. Here at The Home there are lots of activities, but I eschew most of them. In September I’ll have been here three years. At that time, I’ll post an update to my earlier tales of Moving to the Home.
I was able to take early retirement after shuffling papers for the US Government for 30 years. My late wife and I had been living in a huge house in Chicago, and with my pension I wasn’t going to be able to keep it up, so I downsized and moved down to Chapel Hill NC. Rented a condo for a year and a half before buying a house, and most of what I took with me was my books, DVD and CD collections, and miscellaneous junk. I had thought about getting a part time job just to have something to do, but the Borders near my new home wasn’t hiring. I spent most of my time catching up on my reading and watching my DVDs. I had planned on doing some traveling, but in recent years my health started making that difficult.
During the past few years I’ve been considering the possibility that I might have to move to some sort of senior living facility, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen. Just in case I’ve started downsizing my libraries and decluttering, since I know that if I do have to relocate I probably won’t have room for all my stuff.
Coolio.
My wife feels she’s not doing enough. I think it’s the absence of the 8-5 grind work (she actually had some 80 hour weeks for months, it was insane). But we both do a lot. She walks the dogs for about an hour or two a day for instance. We are starting a garden. We both mow the yard, depending on who has the time. She recently did the back, I did the front the next day. My Wife plays pickle ball a couple of times a week (I’m learning to play). And then we play 2 or 3 games of chess a day.
Yesterday we went out to a nice late lunch. Best tomato soup I have ever had, I make my own, hence the garden.
It’s really nice not answering to anyone but yourself. Oh, I still get up at 4am, I doubt I’ll break that habit. But I don’t care.
I retired early from a job I loved but whose overlords used the opportunity presented by COVID to make it unfeasible to stay (hours frozen at a level not qualifying for health insurance). My lovely wife calculated how much I needed to earn to make retirement possible. I worked part-time for a couple of years after that to hit my target.
Since leaving my full-time job and later retiring fully, I’ve written three books, so there are trade-offs. We have to be frugal to make it work, but we’re living in a community we like and when I do pick up a quick job that pays very little, it’s for my own pleasure and the people around me are appreciative rather than hostile.
COVID sort of saved my ass. I’m/was a programmer. There was NO reason for me to go into work. I could do everything right from home. Online meetings are better for me since I’m about 40% deaf. I can use CC.
Then we got a new ‘Grand’ boss. He asked everyone if they want to come to the office or work from home. Many chose a sort of hybrid situation. I just worked from home. It surprised me that anyone wanted to go into work (some of them just wanted to get away from their kids). I suspect that’s because of my hearing issues, social situations are really stressful for me, more than two people and I won’t understand what anyone is saying. Heck, one on one is hard.
We are loving retirement. I retired in Sept 2020, she retired spring 2017.
We have both had some health challenges but we are mostly OK. We go to the gym most mornings. We are both quilters, so our sewing machines are getting good use. Also the hunt for the perfect fabric is ongoing.
As do we. I do the exercise thing three days a week, and occasionally go to a lunch outing, but the rest of it is what I equate with dying a slow mental death: bingo, knitting, men’s club, jigsaws and the like. I’d rather read or do internet stuff.
The rent here is high, but so was the cost of home upkeep. Taxes, utilities, a gardener to keep the weeds at bay and trim things. And then there were the expensive repair items, like roofing, exterior painting and structural repairs. The last repair was $25K to fix the sewer drain. I don’t miss worrying about what’s going to crap out next.
Luckily, I can still drive without endangering everyone around me, so we have that freedom that a lot of people here don’t have.
I can’t agree with this strongly enough. Zion Canyon alone is unbelievable even with the insane present day overcrowding. An enormous area centered on the Four Corners region of the US is impossible to describe.
I retired 3 years ago after 42 years at my last job and 8 years at the one before. I have a nice spacious office in the basement, and a big shop next to it. And a smallish barn with my tractor and other fun stuff in it. I’m having the best time.
As for the OP, there are a lot of threads started by people retiring soon, which cover a lot of this ground.
As for me, if by retiring people mean not working for money anymore, I did that 10 years ago. If it means not having any demands on my time from the outside, not yet. I spent the last weekend going to meetings involving the writing group I’m president of, am running a board meeting today, and generally spend a lot of time on it.
My wife has a book due this Friday, which I’m proof reading. I’m trying to sell mine. We wrote one together a few years ago. I have an idea for one I’m going to pitch to our editor when I have time. And I have a column to write every two months.
There is so much out there to do in the community.
My last day of work was Friday, 12/30/2016. Next 2 days were the weekend, followed by the New Year’s holiday, celebrated on Monday, 1/2/2017. The next day, Tuesday, was the first day that I was officially not working. It took me about an hour to adjust to that feeling, and I haven’t looked back since.
My wife retired several months later. She keeps busy with her lovely flower garden and indoor projects. I keep busy by doing very little, and I’m getting quite good at it.
