Ronstar
Moderator Emeritus
IIRC, I bought a kayak, a new computer and a bunch of woodworking tools and camera stuff near my retirement date.
You might want to talk with Hermit about that. He has had lots of maintenance issues with his.
DW and I retired three years apart, so when I retired we didn’t do anything special. After she retired, we did a two week Celebrity cruise out of Southampton to the Baltic countries, followed by a week in London. We splurged for a suite on the ship and an upscale hotel in London. It was a wonderful trip, and St. Petersburg was fabulous. We loved all the ports except we didn’t get off in Germany because it was pouring rain that day, the only bad weather day.
But it sure did feel weird blowin' the dough like that!
...I suddenly realized my BS bucket was full and left the company a week later).
No Big celebration unless you count taking two overseas vacations in one year a celebration. In the year following my retirement I visited both Turkey and Bulgaria.
Both were very interesting, but Turkey stood out as one of the best trips I have done. The Turkish people are wonderful, the country's history very interesting, the food great and the culture enjoyable different. I enjoyed everything about the trip, even being woken at 5:00 AM by the call to prayer.
I RE'd involuntarily as my company was sold and I was part of the redundant team.
We flew from our Paris digs to spend two months at a cliffside rental in Hawaii.
It was January and it was more of a "FU!...I'm on a beach tanning in 80 degrees and I hear you're digging through a foot of snow at HQ in Boston" sort of move. I had to be in contact after my departure for transition issues so I made sure they knew where I was; "Sorry I missed the call, I was in the pool"
We didn't worry about the cost; three years pay for severance.
I was going to say, there is no "had to be in contact" if you're ready to FIRE, but I'm guessing the three years of severance was dependent on your transitioning the new person/people in, so it sounds very worth it! Nicely done!