Oh, great point. I’ve been thinking about what kind of volunteer work I might do when I hang 'em up next year but I’m just so damn tired of having obligations. I don’t know where I could be of any use at all with my kind of attitude.
I retired 19 months ago, having spent a couple of years fading away. The way I see it: all the things you always wanted to do, now you have the chance to do them. So get on with it! Cram as much in as you can, while you can.
You know retired people say: “I don’t know how I ever found the time to work” - well, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Enjoy!
j
Raising a glass to your decision! Retirement is one of those things where you will know when you are ready.
62 and change. I originally planned for 55, and began writing a document/journal about retirement plans and what I wanted to do back in 2006. To be frank, my beliefs and plans back then were wildly different from today. I still have the journal and have added to it over the years. It runs 30+ pages now.
Excellent point, thank you. I plan to avoid anything that has a schedule. Milestones are over for now.
Read your thread – hoping yours goes well also. Yes, it’s nice with no alarm now.
Thanks again everyone for the well-wishes. When I left, I told my coworkers I felt an obligation to them to be as lazy and relaxed as possible. And that I would not let them down. 
I’m having the happiest time of my life since I retired. Enjoy!
Here’s why.
Since I retired, I have learned to play Sleepwalk on the lap steel guitar. I have watched youtube videos and learned to construct and wire a solar generator for my solar panel for power outages. I’ve learned to play more things on the guitar than I did in the previous fifty years. I have watched countless movies and read countless books and taken a bunch of road trips.
I never had time for any of that when I was getting up every morning to go someplace I didn’t want to go, spend the day with people I didn’t want to spend time with, and do something I didn’t want to do, just so I could keep the boss/owner in booze and nice cars and his wife in opioids and ninety dollar jeans.
Retirement is heaven.
ETA: Oh, and I built a banjo from a kit. That was great fun.
Enjoy the time pullin. Leave the stress to the rest of us.
Enjoy!
There are few feelings better than making your own decisions that effect your life path. You decided when to retire-you did good! 
It is a change though. It will take some getting used to. You will go through a period when you decide that you can do that (whatever that is at the moment) now or later-so you choose later. Eventually you will realize that you are your own boss and as always, now is almost always better than later. But you are your own boss and you can take your time learning that lesson. Enjoy!
We deliver Meals on Wheels every other week, but that’s it. About a year after I retired, I thought I’d try working for the 2010 census, because of my interest in genealogy. It didn’t take long to start getting that old feeling of dread about having to submit reports, etc. I backed out after the first phase of canvassing was done, especially because they started making noises about me being a district supervisor.
My wife is the opposite; she enjoys doing museum tours and setting up trips/presentations for the Native American Arts Council. I’d be a basket case in no time.
I’m getting there. My life is complicated though, I just can’t walk away. I have an apartment to renovate and sublet and a small business to unwind. But I’ll be there before the end of the year.
Was that a paid gig, or was that more of a volunteer thing. . . ?
I might consider it in a few decades when I move out to the sticks, and could do the rural thing.
Tripler
I could do the rural mail delivery thing too, I guess.
I retired a few years ago at 63 after 42 years of work, seriously considered an offer to have me come back on contract for a major project, but ultimately turned it down and have never regretted it. I don’t wake up to an alarm clock every day, and am enjoying the extra time for my hobbies and friends, and just relaxing. My hobbies keep me somewhat structured, so I can usually remember what day of the week it is.
It’s a paid gig, somewhere between $15-$19, depending on what you’re doing for them. I didn’t need the job, and told them to give it to someone who was out of work. Remember, this was not long after the economy collapsed. But the reality was that I didn’t want the headaches of chasing down reports from other census takers.
Enjoy your retirement and congrats for making it - seen too many folk not get to collect on a well deserved rest.
To de-zombify…
You’re pullin me. Really? Trying to back that thing up?
Holy. (Just learning to back up a truck and trailer was enough for this hombre.)
Enjoy, retired 7 years now and best decision I have ever made. Back pain gone, knee pain gone. My only regret is that I didn’t adopt some kind pf physical exercise program I stayed busy all the time and thought that was good enough. I had a rough year and didn’t stay busy and I can really feel a loss of strength and stamina.
Thank you again everyone.
Since it’s been 2 months now and the thread is resurrected, I’ll mention some odd things I found about retirement. These are just random, and in no order.
I’m not as gung-ho about travel as I was while working. Apparently, travel was a form of escapism from cubicle-life, and I planned trips to get away from everything. Now life is so stress free and relaxed that I don’t daydream about vacations anymore. I no longer want to escape from my life because I’m on vacation permanently. It’s a huge change.
If I’m sitting on the back deck with a cup of coffee at 7:30 in the morning, I can hear the roar of traffic a few miles away on the main road. I didn’t know you could hear this because I was always with them in my car. It’s not every day, but if it’s quiet I can hear it. It took me a bit to figure out what the noise was.
I’m starting to hate weekends already. I try to ensure I can stay home because everything’s crowded and busy. I do my errands on weekdays. Sometimes I go fishing and I’m literally the only boat on the lake. Before on weekends, I had to carefully navigate all the traffic to find a cove that was relatively empty. Now I have the place to myself and can enjoy actual peace and quiet.
I didn’t realize just how much of my time was consumed by work and preparations for work. Adding shopping, cleaners, prepping lunch, laundry, commuting and everything else – it’s way way more than 40 hours of your time. The amount of free time I have now is amazing. Example: I still occasionally use my old lunchbox from when heading out (it’s insulated and I put cold water bottles in it). The strap tore last weekend and my first thought was: “I need to get to the store and get another one before Monday.” Then I chuckled at myself. Pre retirement, this would have meant a trip to the store, now I can just ignore it.
I had a somewhat similar revelation. Long cruises were very appealing because I had no Internet access, and thus could really get away from work. Now that isn’t a factor at all, since my connectivity is my choice.
Vacations now are to go somewhere, not to get away from somewhere. And I don’t have to worry about work piled up when I get back.