Things to do after early retirement?
Comments
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melanzana, thanks for the encouragement.
I can see how overcommitment can be a danger. My list of stuff is definitely not all going to be addressed in the first week, but it's easy to imagine it becoming a bunch of unfulfilled goals rather than optional fun activities. I'm actually a very practised and polished procrastinator already, so maybe that will help stave off the threat!
I'm also pretty happy with my own company -- very little of what I plan requires accompaniment -- but some serious self-reflection has led me to the realization that if left entirely to my own devices I have a tendency to not push enough 'good' stress into my life. For me, a bit of framework at least will definitely keep things from sinking into lassitude. I'll certainly keep your comment in mind, though, and fully intend to smell the roses at every available opportunity. Loved the festina lente reference :-)
moneyistooshorttomention, I hear you on that.
I certainly don't plan for illness if I can avoid it. I currently do yoga classes with people literally half my age, and am better at it than most of them too. Now, a lot of that is simply because I've been doing it longer. But I fully intend to go to general fitness and other classes and try to stave off the ones aimed at 'older' folk until I can no longer cope with the general ones.
I've seen enough good friends die early from illness to know that staying healthy by whatever means possible is going to be key to making the most of what I hope will run for 1/3 of my life. I suspect I'm actually somewhat "in denial" about my age just now, but hey-ho, whatever works, eh?!0 -
I retired at 55 ( 5 years ago ) . It took me a whole year to de stress and during that period of time I moved into a narrowboat. I wasn't really bored but I got the opportunity to volunteer as a lock keeper on the Thames.
I was happy and was chilling into my new unusual lifestyle but unfortunately my daughter died just before Xmas 2012. I became unable to sit around doing nothing so I started delivering leaflets. I am sure I was paying them for the opportunity to deliver their leaflets but it gave me a reason to get out of bed. This continued through to spring when I went back to volunteering.
I loved the opportunity so much that I asked if I could volunteer for more than my one day a week and it was suggested that I should apply for a job.
Now I have been paid to work with boats and it has saved my sanity.
Although I may have had the opportunity to have a permanent job over winter I decided to take a four month break in Spain and I have been here for a couple of weeks in a white walled Andalucian village in Southern Spain.
What I am tring to say is that preparation for retirement is all well and good but things change. Life is too short to fix everything.
I recommend moving onto a narrowboat for decluttering
but do try and enjoy more than just routine.
Do what works for you and be prepared to go with / against the flow.
Paul0 -
Paul, that's quite a story. Thank you for sharing it. I'm really enjoying reading the feedback I'm receiving here; it's all so useful and relevant.
Funnily enough, I was thinking idly just yesterday about the practicality of living on a narrowboat. The town I live in currently is smack dab on the Grand Union canal, and a tow-path walk or cycle past the moored boats, day-tripper boaters, and fishermen and up to a picnic spot is a regular outing for us. Narrowboat life definitely appeals. I could easily shrink my life down to fit that -- with a laptop and the internet, these days you have access to all the television, radio, books, films, music and entertainment you can handle. (I have a strong suspicion my other half could not shrink her life quite so easily. Our attic still contains her O-level course notes 'just in case'. Parting with this much stuff would I think be impossible for her. No harm in trying, though!)
Your sojourn in Andalucia sounds fabulous. Precisely the sort of thing I hope to be able to do, and in that part of the world too! The ability to do things like this is much of why I'm inclined not to drop down to part-time work (something I've discussed with my employer) as a slower transition towards retirement, but rather to stop entirely, cold-turkey style, and make a clean break. At some point the chance to do what you are doing now will come up, perhaps at short notice, and I would not want to miss it for anything.
Buenas noches, y gracias por el mensaje :-)0 -
Right, routine. A definite biggie. Thanks nargleblast for the further thoughts.
At the moment I'm anticipating structuring the day/week around gym classes and swimming pool times. Centring on this will be a "threefer" -- staying fit, getting out of the house, and a framework around which to place other things. And some social contact too, so that's a "fourfer" I guess.
As for targets, acknowledged. But I'm also trying to take care to avoid goals that can be reached, because then what?! Most stuff I want to do has, intentionally, no definite end-point. For example 'travel widely' rather than 'visit <name of four countries here>'. I suspect that even 'learn Spanish' might never end. I want to reach the point where I can read Isabel Allende and Cervantes novels in their native language. Perhaps quite a stretch, but I have decades, and the internet is a great resource for learning languages. Or more or less anything.
Current affairs is a tricky one. I took a conscious decision nearly a decade ago to not watch any television news or take a newspaper (not even the freebie at the train station in the mornings!). The daily diet of alarmist nonsense, screaming headlines, and general prattling about 'celebrities' of whom I have never heard and about whom I care not at all, even in so-called 'quality' newspapers, pegged my outrage-ometer at eleven, and this became a curse that spiralled toward depression and anxiety. I am genuinely much more balanced emotionally without constant news exposure. I do scan Google News daily or so, and pick out any articles that interest. That and three-minute radio news bulletins on BBC 6 Music are as much as I want or need. BBC TV News 24 is my idea of hell!
Actually, I don't own a television at all now, and haven't for, again, nearly a decade, so lounging around the house staring glassy-eyed at daytime programming is probably not going to become a default behaviour. That's not to say I don't consume any media -- I may be an expert on where the UK's (legal!) internet video-on-demand services are found! -- just that it's rather something I consume on my own terms and very selectively.
In a way I'd like to 'try out' retirement for a month or two before diving in (both metaphorically and literally!). Bit impractical for me, though. I guess you are doing it through being on sick leave, but I'll assume that wasn't planned! Hope you recover soon.
Bit off post here. You say you don't have a tv. A mate of mine moved into his new flat about 5 years ago & has never had a tv. However, the grief & harrassment he gets off the the tv licencing people is outrageous. They just don't believe him. I keep telling him to let them take him to court & counter sue them for harrassment.0 -
I retired nearly a year ago, and I find it best not to have a particular routine.
I spent the best part of 40 years with a routine when I was working, I want to try and get away from all that now.
I get up when it suits me, which can be anywhere between 8am and 10 am. Housework gets done, but I've been careful not to make a certain day housework day. I don't want to become one of those people who can't do something at short notice because the ironing is always done on that day.
I've found it better not to have a huge list of leisure activities that need to be fitted in. Time goes remarkably quickly each day, and if you are not careful you are up running around from one thing to another. Sometimes, you don't need to do anything - it's sometimes enough just to 'be'. You don'thave to feel guilty about doing nothing, you're retired, so it's allowed.
We do lots of walking, have days out, have some fantastic holidays booked, read, do jigsaws, work on our family trees. We've never been bored once, and the days fly past.Early retired - 18th December 2014
If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough0 -
Nargleblast wrote: »As well as "future proofing" your home, I think the key to a good retirement is having a routine. I don't hit retirement age for a few years yet, but am on sick leave at present, having just had my appendix out, and I try to have a routine in my day. Get up at a reasonable time, not at crack of sparrers but not late. Build in a trip out during the day, a bit of hobby time, a bit of housework, bit of rest time etc. Plan various different things during the week. Set yourself a target to learn new things and keep up with current affairs. Nothing ages people faster than hibernating at home and doing nothing.
I feel your pain re your OH - I am married to the world's fattest squirrel.
And I think exactly the opposite. Most of us spent our working lives dictated to by routine - throwing it out is one of the joys of retirement.0 -
Well - as regards routine - I mean to put just a tiny bit in (ie slotting in housework - bar something more interesting coming up). After all - its not as if I have much housework to do:)
I was going to do some this afternoon - honest yer Honour. But, in the event, and members of a dance group I'm in have recently seen me doing some solo off the cuff dancing - and that was me told in no uncertain terms that I obviously had no excuse not to do solo dance routines in front of an audience in future_pale_:whistle:
So this afternoon consisted of me going "Gulp....:eek:" and scanning YouTube for ideas, followed by more "Gulp....:eek:" and scanning of YouTube again.
Well - I've got the beginnings of an idea in my mind now then....and its going to take some working on. That will be some of my unused "gaps" of time filled for a while then...:cool:
I can tell my strength and stamina aren't what they were - so that will be more "gaps" of time filled then - in working on getting that back to normal.
Its all too easy to get a bit lazy when you retire if you don't watch it I do know...
My muscles do feel noticeably weaker than they used to - and I'm hoping it wont take that much time to get them sorted out and then a bit of regular exercising of them all regularly to keep them all sorted out.0 -
I've got 24 days left until my early retirement kicks in! ��
I don't intend doing much at all for the first year - I'm going to look after me - so decent food, exercise, friends and family get togethers and holidays etc.
I'm a great 'potterer' and all the house type jobs will get done that way, and if something better comes up I'll be doing that instead!
I intend to review everything this time next year and see if I need to change anything.:mad: :j:D:beer::eek::A:p:rotfl::cool::):(:T0 -
missbiggles1 wrote: »And I think exactly the opposite. Most of us spent our working lives dictated to by routine - throwing it out is one of the joys of retirement.
I agree that when you spend your whole working life governed by the clock then retirement is a welcome break from that. However, I have heard of people who after a lifetime of hard work just stopped completely. They were either severely depressed or dead after a few months, because their work was such a huge part of their lives.
Work itself gives you one reason to get up every morning, and when you retire you need to find a different source of motivation to replace it.When I speak about having a routine, I don't for one minute believe every minute of the day should be regimented - as others have said, you get enough of that when you are at work. I just think it is equally important to have some rough idea of what you are going to do with your time to fill that gap. My father retired 17 years ago after being in full time work, doing shifts for 50 years. He has managed to have a relaxing retirement, keeping himself occupied, but at his own pace, according to his own timetable - he says he wonders how he ever found time to go to work! He is definitely going to be my role model when I reach that stage.One life - your life - live it!0 -
Yes, that one :-) This is exactly what I fear. Well okay, maybe fear is too strong a word. But I'm aware that sinking into torpor is, for me at least, a danger. It may also be something that I'm just naturally more predisposed towards than other people; perhaps a personality thing. Whatever its cause, though, I want to be sure to head it off. What I'm particularly after is the sense of moving to something at least as much as moving away from something.Nargleblast wrote: »... However, I have heard of people who after a lifetime of hard work just stopped completely. They were either severely depressed or dead after a few months ...
Like you I'm not aiming to plan every single minute. And I definitely want to make sure than anything spontaneous that comes up can be gripped with both hands. I guess that what I'm aiming to framework here (can framework be used as a verb?) is the time where something spontaneous is not happening. That is, some default behaviour I can slip into with little thought but which isn't entirely empty.
That said, Goldiegirl's reminder to just 'be' is not only quite right, but also perfectly put, and I intend a good chunk of that too. I've been learning to meditate, which is the quintessential essence of 'be'ing!.
All of these responses are really useful, and so much appreciated.0
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