Retirement Now What?

[rayinpenn]

On it surface this is what 36 plus years at one firm looks like - moved to their new home. Oh there where a few heavy acrylic service awards that I tossed but because I’ve worked out of a number offices, I adopted a king of office minimalism. For us oldsters It’s all the rage- it kind of statement- “I’m ready to go”. You’ll note: My excel books are a few generations old as the firm was always a generation or two behind. Those books have a special place in my heart as they were essentially the tools of my trade and served me well.


Big corporations have always been the target of much hatred - with good reason but, I have to be honest Chase/JPMorgan was always good to me. I like to say I worked during the golden age of benefits. Sadly that has all changed. Seems like a contest now who can give the least. We are savers but now the burden of building of ‘the pile’ has shifted fully to my younger colleagues shoulders - I cant help but worry about how many will do the right thing.

I kept my head down and survived countless RIFs (Reduction In Force). Technical aptitude helped: I took every course that I could. I used every idle moment to learn new skills. I don’t think that is likely to change in retirement. I think Dick Van Dyke advised “keep moving” and thats what intend on doing.

The thing is I have a sense of a few things Id like to do and I’ve started a few but I don’t have an absolute plan. (Should I be worried?) For One you know those Viking Cruises with all the Greys dancing.. I think I’d like to be one. Two might be figuring out where to live. I’ve vowed to get busy after Christmas.

 

[Jerry1]

Congratulations. You’ll do fine without a plan. Take that cruise and decompress and the path forward will come to naturally. It might not (will not) happen in the time between Christmas and New Years, but by next year, you’ll be doing fine. It takes time. Enjoy the journey.

 

[JoeWras]

Four months in and a very fuzzy plan is emerging. We feel no rush. Enjoying it as it comes.

 

[Souschef]

Ray,
I still have my Excel book. I still use Excel in many ways. I used to do statistical analysis for a food bank, and loved using pivot tables.
Next month will be 10 years for me.
I am always on the lookout for opportunities to give back to the community. My most recent gig was repairing walkers and wheelchairs at a Hospice.
Good luck in your retirement.

 

[braumeister]

those Viking Cruises with all the Greys dancing. I think I’d like to be one.

Be sure to get on the right one.

 

[Bamaman]

Ray: Congratulations on your next episode in life. I too am still using Office 2007 on DVD so I don't have to purchase it yearly.

Don't worry at all about what to do daily. Life starts again, and you'll find plenty to do. Sorry your PA weather is a little rough this time of the year.

We are always looking for the next cruise or the next cheap flight somewhere--and it's nice to have something to look forward to. We don't consider those Viking river cruises as we can take two or three trips for the price of one European river cruise.

Now if I can keep my wife from going on cruises with her girlfriends--like next week. Oh, well it'll be a vacation of sorts for my 7 year old granddaughter and me.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Ray, relax and enjoy. We don’t take river cruises for the same reason as BM. We do love ocean cruises.

 

[pacergal]

Your plan will evolve in time. For now, relax and enjoy the fruits of your years of labor!
My "plan" has changed several times over the last two years, and that's OK with me, I don't report to anyone except DH now .
Have a wonderful holiday season.

 

[Red Badger]

Congrats Ray!!!

I too had the good fortune to work for a fairly ethical company (and was well treated for the most part).

Spend some time in the moment and just decompress. As General Ike said many years ago, "Plans are useless; planning is essential."

 

[W2R]

Congratulations, Ray! So, have you worked your last day yet?

When I was a new retiree, priority #1 for me was to relax and completely de-stress. That task took months to years to complete. Consistent with that objective, and because I didn't quite know what to do with myself, I went to the gym for a couple of hours on most of those early days of retirement. Just remember your local gym isn't going anywhere and is always there if you need or want something constructive to do and a reason to get out of the house.

At some point it occurred to me (like a light bulb over the head of a cartoon character) that there is no requirement to have anything specific planned for any particular day.

You'll be fine! Enjoy your new freedom as a retired person - - it's wonderful IMO.

 

[youbet]

Four months in and a very fuzzy plan is emerging. We feel no rush. Enjoying it as it comes.

12.5 years in and not even a hint of a fuzzy plan emerging. Enjoyed it a lot though........

From the Great Recession to the following wonderful bull run, from feeling great to DW's struggle with cancer and my miscellaneous aging issues, from continued wonderful long term friendships to having 3 very close friends die, from what we expected to what we didn't fathom, it's been quite a ride! But following a predetermined plan that's held steady over the course has defintiely not been part of it!

Other than a base foundation for investments and other financial matters, don't work too hard at developing a plan, even a fuzzy plan. Work on how you will enjoy your precious time and how you can and will be flexible as life takes twists and turns you never even came close to anticipating.

Just MHO.

 

[easysurfer]

Congrats!

I still can't part with some of the great books that served me well, thought I've hung it up about a decade ago.

 

[rayinpenn]

Congratulations, Ray! So, have you worked your last day yet?

So I need to logon one more time...
1. Enter my time into a system so I get paid for unused vacation time
2. Run 3 last queries and send the results out. Less than an hours work.

 

[RAE]

It's fine to have a plan (of sorts), but just realize that it will almost certainly evolve over time. Life happens, priorities can change, etc., but as long as you have the right attitude, you will enjoy it all.

Dick Van Dyke is now 93 years old, and still doing okay, as far as I know. His advice to "keep moving" is spot on. Staying active as you get older, and remaining enthusiastic about life (and learning new things) are important, at least for me.

 

[W2R]

So I need to logon one more time...
1. Enter my time into a system so I get paid for unused vacation time
2. Run 3 last queries and send the results out. Less than an hours work.

How exciting! Honestly I am so happy for you.

 

[W2R]

Congrats!

I still can't part with some of the great books that served me well, thought I've hung it up about a decade ago.

I am in my 10th year of retirement now too, and recently I started thinking about getting rid of my engineering books and other reference books.

I really haven't looked at them in ages, and it would be one less thing to have to deal with when I'm older and feebler, if/when I need to move into assisted living at some stage.

Most of my reading is either online or on my Kindle these days. Paper books just aren't part of my life as much as they once were.

 

[OnIslandTime]

At Megacorp everything revolved around making a plan, providing status for the plan, being grilled about the plan, tweaking the plan and working like a crazy person to meet the plan.



Since retiring (5/31), we've been busy...weddings, purging, fixing up our house to sell (we're doing some and contractors are doing some). I'm sooooo looking forward to not having to have a plan. I want to get to our FL house and do nothing for about 6 months besides walking the beach, riding my bike, swimming, sitting by the pool, reading, drinking tea and sleeping. Only then might I even think about doing something "structured" like a yoga class or a pottery class or a volunteer job...maybe, maybe not.


I may well become bored without having anything that I have to do, but I'm willing to worry about that when/if it happens.


Live well!

 

[Scuba]

Congratulations Ray! Enjoy your freedom. I agree with others that it’s best to let retirement come to you rather than trying to plan too much.

 

[Which Roger]

Congrats and enjoy your retirement. I also went through a long phase where my megacorp wasn't what it had been "back in the day". Probably the best thing that ever happened to me, since that made it very, very easy to walk away and never look back.

 

[FireFool]

Agree with not needing a plan, to just revel in letting retirement activities emerge and evolve. I left ALL of my reference books behind, actually many just got pitched, but I had moved out of being a technical doer into a management role many a year before, so I got past the sentimentality of having those book while still working. As an aside the community college I take a yoga class at makes available Office 365 for "free" to their students like myself - I also get gym access included (all for the cost of a single credit hour, and once I turn 60 that credit hour will be free). Now that you're free of the mega-corp you can get onto the most current software (although for my simplistic stuff I've just moved to Google Sheets and Docs).

 

[jollystomper]

Ray, could not help but compare your "36 years bookshelf view" with my "39 years bookshelf view"... while probably the last 8-10 years I tended to use more online sources and PDFs, all of these were helpful at one point or another... and sometimes I needed a solid book in front of me to learn or figure things out. But, nothing having a plan is still a good plan, that is how I have been operating so far, with no worries.

 

[brett]

Congrats. I too feel privileged to have worked for a great employer with first rate benefits and compensation. It has all changed now. A whole new ball game in my former industry-IT (vendor side of the business). The employees behind us will figure it out and be successful in their own way.

Be in no hurry to plan and do not feel that you have to. We are much more spontaneous than we were in our working lives. This is a luxury. Enjoy it. We leave in three weeks for two months in SE Asia and Australia. We have our first four nights booked and our last few. Everything in between will work itself out as we travel. We view it as one of the joys of retirement.

Enjoy. Just do your own thing in your own time.

 

[Dreamer]

Congrats and enjoy your freedom. I love days where I don’t have anything planned. I also love it when opportunity comes and I am able to say sure I will do it.