What do you cherish most

N

NoOneGetsIt

Recycles dryer sheets
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When you are pre-retirement or are not yet cognizant of what is important in life you may think you cherish things. Curious what POST retirement you cherish most....anxious to know what to look forward to:)
 
I always say that I'm the luckiest person in the world......I have my health, my family and my net worth. So, I say I've won.......and, everyone that has their health, family and enough net worth are also the luckiest people in the world....that's what I cherish.
 
NoOneGetsIt said:
When you are pre-retirement or are not yet cognizant of what is important in life you may think you cherish things. Curious what POST retirement you cherish most....anxious to know what to look forward to:)
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love going to the park on a wed. and riding my bike.
love going to the park and hiking.
love being with the grand children.
love going to the beach and on a Tues. morning in April and just hanging out
love planning all our vacations and actually going on them
love the freedom on not sitting in a cube and wondering if the clock stopped
 
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REWahoo said:
I cherish exactly the same things after retiring that I did prior to retirement - I just have a lot more time to do so.
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+1

If I were to add something, I guess it would be that I cherish the fact that I made it out alive.

R
 
I cherish my DW and Children and that pretty much does it...the rest of it is just stuff. Pre-retirement, but very close to the other side :)
 
Today it is playing pattycake with a certain little someone (an example of my recent efforts to live in the moment and keep things in perspective).
 
Rambler said:
If I were to add something, I guess it would be that I cherish the fact that I made it out alive.
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Kinda morbid, but I see yer point. Not just for obvious OTJ threats (e.g. police, firemen, AK crab fishermen), but health effects of ongoing stress (e.g. high BP, heart disease, etc.).
 
I cherish the freedom.

Specifically..

..freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want (even if it is just sitting around, taking a walk, or sitting in the cafe with a coffee and a good book)

..freedom to do all the things I had been putting off for so many years because I didn't have the time

..freedom from work-related pressure and stress

..freedom from people I don't respect telling me to do things I'm not interested in

..freedom from meaningless career and reward games and dealing with corporate bureaucracy

It is an unbelievable feeling and, while it would be great at times to have a little more money to spend, ultimately the only limitation is my own imagination and initiative.
 
I was walking for exercise the other day in the little park near the Allegheny River near my home, briskly walking along, head down, bent on getting in a good walk when it suddenly occurred to me WHY am I rushing so:confused:?? I slowed down a bit and looked around and had a truly sobering moment that YES this is why I retired...to ENJOY my free time, not have to worry about being somewhere, and how nice it was to just be outside in the afternoon on a sunny brisk Spring day.

I've only been out of prison since January 4th 2013 so I am still getting used to it.
 
Lcountz said:
I was walking for exercise the other day in the little park near the Allegheny River near my home, briskly walking along, head down, bent on getting in a good walk when it suddenly occurred to me WHY am I rushing so:confused:?? I slowed down a bit and looked around and had a truly sobering moment that YES this is why I retired...to ENJOY my free time, not have to worry about being somewhere, and how nice it was to just be outside in the afternoon on a sunny brisk Spring day.

I've only been out of prison since January 4th 2013 so I am still getting used to it.
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I can't wait to be in your situation! !!
 
truenorth418 said:
I cherish the freedom.

Specifically..

..freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want (even if it is just sitting around, taking a walk, or sitting in the cafe with a coffee and a good book)

..freedom to do all the things I had been putting off for so many years because I didn't have the time

..freedom from work-related pressure and stress

..freedom from people I don't respect telling me to do things I'm not interested in

..freedom from meaningless career and reward games and dealing with corporate bureaucracy

It is an unbelievable feeling and, while it would be great at times to have a little more money to spend, ultimately the only limitation is my own imagination and initiative.
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Amen.

I was thinking earlier that retirement is the only time in your life, aside from childhood, when you are truly free. The rest of the time, you are either in school, doing what society or parents want you to do, or in the job world, doing what the business and administrators want you to do.

Freedom indeed. I haven't reached retirement yet, but I have a little whiteboard on which I sketch one-word descriptions of what I'm working towards. It's a long list with things like "nature," "wisdom," and "authenticity" on it, but the word "freedom" tops the list.

Freedom from and freedom to. Amen.
 
Always been time with family, travelling and doing things. That hasn't changed. Just no longer restricted by work schedules.
 
Already been said but, FREEDOM. Living life with whom I want when I want and at my own pace is priceless. I just wish I could slow time down - I want this experience to last forever.
I got free at 49 and will be 57 this August.....seems like a pleasant blink in time not 7 years....:dance:
 
One thing I'd never considered while working, but occurred to me some months after I'd left, is that when you ER (or R, for that matter I suppose), you get your thoughts back. This is related to the "freedom" thing.

While still working, it's amazing to think about how much of your day is given to thoughts related to work: you do it in the morning when you have your coffee and breakfast (and maybe answering work email that accumulated overnight), you do it in the shower getting ready, you hop in the car and do it during your commute. Then you land at your place of work, and you really do it... including lunch sometimes. Do it during travel for work trips, and so on. Some people even do it while they're sleeping :(. I remember one beautiful early summer weekend while still employed, I was outside doing yardwork and I realized "hey! It's Saturday and sunny! Why are you thinking about that work stuff?".

The Beatles expressed it well in the bridge to the song "A Day In The Life", the part that begins "Woke up, fell out of bed..."

Anyway, after a while, you find all this space in your mind reappearing once all the work things begin to leave. Then you have your thoughts back, and you can focus on all the other great things (family/friends, travel, favorite projects/hobbies, etc) that people have mentioned and that ER clears the way for.

There's a famous Zen koan that says it another way:

The master stopped pouring and smiled at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind."
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Your teacup is full (Empty your cup) | Bengt's Notes
 
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steelyman said:
One thing I'd never considered while working, but occurred to me some months after I'd left, is that when you ER (or R, for that matter I suppose), you get your thoughts back. This is related to the "freedom" thing.

While still working, it's amazing to think about how much of your day is given to thoughts related to work: [....]
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Very true. Work issues are usually the first thing I think about when I wake from sleep, and they pop up periodically in the evenings after work, some days more than others, depending on the level of crisis/problems. Some people are successful in leaving their work-related thoughts at work, but I've never been able to do that. I can leave my work at work -- I don't bring works tasks home -- but I can't shut off the work-related thoughts, especially if something stressful is going on.

Even when I take a week off, it takes a couple of days for the work thoughts to fade, and then they reappear during the last day before I go back. I'm looking forward to having them disappear for good. As you say, that should clear out some real estate in my head.
 
Redbugdave said:
Nords posted a great essay on how much of your day is given to thoughts related to work. I have it bookmarked and reread it occasionally to put things back into perspective. Here it is:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f30/the-fog-of-work-42328.html
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Thanks, that was worth reading. "All action takes place … in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are." That's a good way to encapsulate how the petty concerns of the work world get amplified and magnified in our heads into something bigger than they are. I was thinking for the upteenth time yesterday that I want a mental life that is BIGGER than this -- deeper and wider in scope than this constant focus on the work world. But when work occupies so much of the brainpan, it's not so easy.

That is one of the main reasons I'm looking forward to retirement. I want to "get my thoughts back," as steelyman so aptly put it.
 
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