1st 6 Months of Retirement - What to do?

[Shabby]

As I get closer and closer to early retirement (at 48) I started thinking about my 1st 6 months. Obviously I am a big planner so here is what I came up with and am curious as to what some of you did.

Living in Seattle and retiring on Jan 1st would mean it is a great time to get away. I was thinking of heading back to Florida for 3 months to spend time with friends that live there and enjoy sunshine.

Or....

Maybe just a couple weeks in Hawaii visiting friends?

Or....

Dive right into my retirement business (winery) and work on that more?

 

[Walt34]

Decisions, decisions, decisions... it never stops. That's tough!

 

[Major Tom]

If the stress of trying to make these big decisions gets too much for you, you could always go back to work

 

[REWahoo]

My experience says you'll likely end up with a change of plans. Once you've pulled the plug things that seemed to be very important before may lose urgency. You may do things in different order or do something entirely different and unplanned. That's the nice thing about retirement - tremendous flexibility.*



* Unless you are married.

 

[Shabby]

* Unless you are married.

LOL!
Yeah, I guess the thing is, I don't really need to "plan" so much then. That's sort of the whole point of it I guess. Wow, that is going to be a tough mind shift but a great one, once it takes.

 

[W2R]

My experience says you'll likely end up with a change of plans. Once you've pulled the plug things that seemed to be very important before may lose urgency. You may do things in different order or do something entirely different and unplanned. That's the nice thing about retirement - tremendous flexibility.*



* Unless you are married.

Yeah, I thought that within six months after retiring I'd have sold my house and I'd be living in southern Missouri. But wow, this is my 6th year of retirement and I'm still here in New Orleans! Oh well! Guess we didn't want to move as much as we thought.

 

[RockyMtn]

take a few months...get out of the rain. Back to Seattle in the spring.

 

[Fermion]

We just retired in Seattle at the end of March (figured we would work a little bit of 2015 to max 401k, HSA and IRAs). Feb suckered us though, because we had days of 65 and sunny...now it is 48 and raining.

I like the Florida idea for Jan. The problem with staying in Seattle past about May is you then get June, July, August, 70 to 80 degrees, sunshine, light breeze on the ocean, hiking in the mountains and you just don't want to go to 105 degree Florida.

 

[Dash man]

Whichever place helps you decompress.

 

[AndyS]

...heading back to Florida for 3 months to spend time with friends that live there and enjoy sunshine.

Or....

Maybe just a couple weeks in Hawaii visiting friends?

Or....

Dive right into my retirement business (winery) and work on that more?

I vote for A. &/or B.

 

[Looking4Ward]

I'm 10 months in and someone asked me just yesterday: "So what do you do all day?"

My answer: "Anything I want to".

 

[Alan]

We love hills and mountains so after 23 years living and working in South Louisiana and SE Texas, when we retired we immediately went to Colorado for a month, then to England for 3 months and then a month in Canada. For us it was a great way to start retirement.

 

[Meadbh]

As I get closer and closer to early retirement (at 48) I started thinking about my 1st 6 months. Obviously I am a big planner so here is what I came up with and am curious as to what some of you did.

Living in Seattle and retiring on Jan 1st would mean it is a great time to get away. I was thinking of heading back to Florida for 3 months to spend time with friends that live there and enjoy sunshine.

Or....

Maybe just a couple weeks in Hawaii visiting friends?

Or....

Dive right into my retirement business (winery) and work on that more?

I chose option B, a couple of weeks in Hawaii visiting friends. It was wonderful.

 

[tmm99]

My experience says you'll likely end up with a change of plans. Once you've pulled the plug things that seemed to be very important before may lose urgency. You may do things in different order or do something entirely different and unplanned. That's the nice thing about retirement - tremendous flexibility.*







* Unless you are married.

LOL. I like your disclaimer at the end


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[Focus]

My experience says you'll likely end up with a change of plans. Once you've pulled the plug things that seemed to be very important before may lose urgency. You may do things in different order or do something entirely different and unplanned.

I'm now about seven months in and that's been my experience. I compiled a long to-do list before retiring, and I haven't revisited it. There's been no need. I'm never bored, so I haven't had to look for something else to do.

My thread from about a month ago touched on this: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/5-biggest-er-surprises-76016.html

 

[Cobra9777]

I'm now about seven months in and that's been my experience. I compiled a long to-do list before retiring, and I haven't revisited it. There's been no need. I'm never bored, so I haven't had to look for something else to do.

I was the consummate corporate planner in Megacorp days. So naturally, I also compiled a long and detailed to-do list, which was intended to keep me busy for the first few months of ER. Many items were maintenance tasks or home improvements that would each take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I haven't looked at the list in a long time. However, I just checked, and after almost 2 years, I'm about half way through.

Life is no longer dominated by a cycle of setting goals and executing plans. I am SO done with that. I just take every day as it comes and try to live more in the present. I value experiences and relationships more than material things and accomplishments. Periodically updating the retirement spreadsheet appeases my inner planning instinct.

 

[robnplunder]

Dive right into my retirement business (winery) and work on that more?

This is an oxymornic statement. Time to enjoy wine, not working to make one. My 2 cents.

When I retire, I will remove the word "work" from my dictionary.

 

[MBAustin]

Some kind of travel early on seems to be quite common - we went to the beach for the first few days after I retired and then took two cruises within the first 8 months.

Unlike a few others here, I still make to-do lists as I have significant volunteer commitments and need a little nudge to get stuff done around the house. But I don't obsess about putting every last thing on a list as I used to.

 

[MN317]

I retired from megacorp in 2009 and after I submitted my letter of intent to retire they sent me to retirement school. It was a three day class and a lot of the material was about the pension, retiree medical, social security, etc. – but there was a section on “the psychology of retirement” and the instructor talked about the first six months. He said you will have a list of things that you have been waiting/wanting to do, like visit friends and relatives, play a lot of golf, a dream vacation, etc. He said that will last about six months and then you will be bored – you will need to have something to do. As always YMMV, but for me the prediction was very accurate. The short answer – take six months and then do the winery.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

As I get closer and closer to early retirement (at 48) I started thinking about my 1st 6 months. Obviously I am a big planner so here is what I came up with and am curious as to what some of you did.

Living in Seattle and retiring on Jan 1st would mean it is a great time to get away. I was thinking of heading back to Florida for 3 months to spend time with friends that live there and enjoy sunshine.

Or....

Maybe just a couple weeks in Hawaii visiting friends?

Or....

Dive right into my retirement business (winery) and work on that more?

Take some time off before starting any new commitments!

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[Bestwifeever]

You'll know which to do when you get there. A surprise door no. 4 might pop up as well.

 

[Dog]

I too had a long list of "to dos" just in case I would be anxious or bored in retirement.
I'm 8 months retired and honestly have not had a boring day. I rediscovered interests and hobbies that have been on the back burner for the past 38 years. I'm having a ball and DH is very jealous (he retires next June).
I live north of Seattle and was concerned about the winters as well. I joined the mountaineers three years ago and took up snowshoe hiking and Nordic skiing and have found I now look forward to winter. Our mountains are beautiful and very inspiring.

However, DH doesn't enjoy snow, so we will plan some winter trips to SW after he retires. We both enjoy golf.

Somehow...things do fall into place if you keep yourself open to trying new things!

Good luck


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[bclover]

actually the first 6 months I've got covered, it's the 6 YEARS after early retirement I'm concerned about.