Is being a slacker a problem in ER?

[Goonie]

Before ER I used to scramble to keep up with yardwork. In ER I've been able to sit back, decide what yardwork I want to do when I'm 80 years old (not much), and redesign the yard accordingly. Instead of "Prune the bougainvillea this weekend" it's been "How can we stop having to prune these so often?" We're using half the water, mulching a whole lot more, no more fertilizer, doing more ground cover, and moving plants to better places. Sounds very Zen but it's also a lot less work......

......Anyone can work their assets off. Being a slacker is a lot more challenging than it looks.

Same here! I've been designing & redesigning the gardens and landscape.....many times by trial & error.....to get things so they'll be pretty much self-sufficient and self-maintaining. Like I plant mostly native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees....being native to this region & area, they've survived & thrived on their own for hundreds or even thousands of years, so if I neglect them, they'll still be just as content & happy as ever...maybe even more so!!!

Also, over the past several years, and continuing still, I'm slowly but surely eliminating high maintenance cr*p like lawn space! Ya gotta cut it, ya gotta water it, ya gotta fertilize it, ya gotta weed it....BOVINE POOP!!! I ain't into that!!! I'm into natural stuff...like native prairies! Lots of grasses (not of the 'lawn' variety!) and wild flowers!!! They're LOW-maintenance to NO-maintenance! I like that!

I don't rake leaves either. I either mulch 'em in place, and let 'em replenish the nutrients in the soil, or else I mulch 'em and put 'em on my compost pile!

Every year I have less & less to do in the gardens and the landscape...and more & more time to sit and enjoy it....and enjoy all of the critters, creepy crawlies, & insects that thrive in their natural settings......I especially love the big ol' bumble bees...they are so cooool!!!

I figure by the time I'm in my 80's (or 90's), I'll be sitting out in the gardens, covered in vines and moss, and be slowly composting back into the earth!

 

[Khan]

Same here! I've been designing & redesigning the gardens and landscape.....many times by trial & error.....to get things so they'll be pretty much self-sufficient and self-maintaining. Like I plant mostly native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees....being native to this region & area, they've survived & thrived on their own for hundreds or even thousands of years, so if I neglect them, they'll still be just as content & happy as ever...maybe even more so!!!

Also, over the past several years, and continuing still, I'm slowly but surely eliminating high maintenance cr*p like lawn space! Ya gotta cut it, ya gotta water it, ya gotta fertilize it, ya gotta weed it....BOVINE POOP!!! I ain't into that!!! I'm into natural stuff...like native prairies! Lots of grasses (not of the 'lawn' variety!) and wild flowers!!! They're LOW-maintenance to NO-maintenance! I like that!

I don't rake leaves either. I either mulch 'em in place, and let 'em replenish the nutrients in the soil, or else I mulch 'em and put 'em on my compost pile!

Every year I have less & less to do in the gardens and the landscape...and more & more time to sit and enjoy it....and enjoy all of the critters, creepy crawlies, & insects that thrive in their natural settings......I especially love the big ol' bumble bees...they are so cooool!!!

I figure by the time I'm in my 80's (or 90's), I'll be sitting out in the gardens, covered in vines and moss, and be slowly composting back into the earth!

Sounds about right.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here in the AZ desert, I would just become a desiccated mummy.

 

[kyounge1956]

(snip)
It sounds like you see your choices as:
- Stay at work where you can make optimal use of your money and (your employer's) time.

No, even though I have a good job and good working conditions I am burned out on working full time. I am itching to "downshift" and work no more than part time, at something I could do well even half-asleep.

- ER and work hard to finish your list, even if you're not enthused about it. In other words, working for yourself without pay.

<sigh> You make it sound so dreary. Basically, I'm just not an enthusiastic person about much of anything. I have never been one of these high-achieving, self-starting, Type-A personalities. I like to be able to look back on an accomplishment, it's getting up the motivation to do things so I have them to look back at that I find difficult.

- ER and screw off, but feel guilty.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I procrastinate, that's what it is. I don't know if I will ever be able to overcome that bad habit. I am like the dog on the porch in that old story—he howls because he is lying on a spike, but he doesn't get up and move because it doesn't hurt *that* bad.

A fourth choice might be to compare your post-ER priorities to your pre-ER priorities. You might also want to take a look at your deadlines-- in my case weeks moved into months and opened up more time for leisure/unplanned opportunities. (snip)

It is leisure activities, and flat-out inactivity swallowing up everything else that I am worried about.

It helps if you have a spouse, partner, or exercise buddy who expects you to be present at a certain time/place to be doing something with them. Nothing succeeds like peer pressure.(snip)

I bet it would. At never-married and fifty-plus, a spouse or partner is probably not in the cards (which is fine by me), but maybe I can find someone to bug me about these things in a nice way, and I will bug them about theirs if asked to do so. A mutual instigation society, that's what I need to find. Is there any such thing?

 

[Alan]

I

bet it would. At never-married and fifty-plus, a spouse or partner is probably not in the cards (which is fine by me), but maybe I can find someone to bug me about these things in a nice way, and I will bug them about theirs if asked to do so. A mutual instigation society, that's what I need to find. Is there any such thing?

We had a neighbor who was 72 and a widower, kids living in different cities, and all his old friends gone. We got to know him pretty well and he definitely needed some other activities to fill his time. DW gave him a copy of the latest circular listing all the current community college offerings and talked about the spanish classes she was taking - extremely inexpensive for seniors. He signed up for one or two classes. It was a great success - met some like-minded folks of a similar age and even started going to senior exercise classes with some of the folks he met.

 

[kyounge1956]

(snip)Before ER I used to scramble to keep up with yardwork. In ER I've been able to sit back, decide what yardwork I want to do when I'm 80 years old (not much), and redesign the yard accordingly. Instead of "Prune the bougainvillea this weekend" it's been "How can we stop having to prune these so often?" We're using half the water, mulching a whole lot more, no more fertilizer, doing more ground cover, and moving plants to better places. Sounds very Zen but it's also a lot less work.

Our first two mango trees grow so tall that they obscure our view. I've planted a couple more mango downhill of them (OK, they planted themselves), I'm keeping them pruned back, and I'm using much less water. Next time I prune the first two mango it'll be with a 14" reciprocating-saw blade, in five more years it'll be with a chainsaw, and in 15 years I'll have someone cut them down. Maybe we'll get some funky end tables out of the trunk wood. (snip)

Same here! I've been designing & redesigning the gardens and landscape.....many times by trial & error.....to get things so they'll be pretty much self-sufficient and self-maintaining. Like I plant mostly native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees....being native to this region & area, they've survived & thrived on their own for hundreds or even thousands of years, so if I neglect them, they'll still be just as content & happy as ever...maybe even more so!!!

Also, over the past several years, and continuing still, I'm slowly but surely eliminating high maintenance cr*p like lawn space! Ya gotta cut it, ya gotta water it, ya gotta fertilize it, ya gotta weed it....BOVINE POOP!!! I ain't into that!!! I'm into natural stuff...like native prairies! Lots of grasses (not of the 'lawn' variety!) and wild flowers!!! They're LOW-maintenance to NO-maintenance! I like that!

I don't rake leaves either. I either mulch 'em in place, and let 'em replenish the nutrients in the soil, or else I mulch 'em and put 'em on my compost pile!

Every year I have less & less to do in the gardens and the landscape...and more & more time to sit and enjoy it....and enjoy all of the critters, creepy crawlies, & insects that thrive in their natural settings......I especially love the big ol' bumble bees...they are so cooool!!!

I figure by the time I'm in my 80's (or 90's), I'll be sitting out in the gardens, covered in vines and moss, and be slowly composting back into the earth!

I am thinking along the same lines. I also plan to consult with an "Aging-in-Place" specialist to make sure I will not be forced out of my house by age/disability. My parents have a house which would be very difficult to adapt to wheelchair accessibility. In the last few years my mom has had heart surgery and my dad has had two joints replaced, which has been a real heads-up for all concerned. If it ever became really impossible for one of them to go up and down stairs, they'd have to move, and that would be a pity, they really love that house. I want to build the house myself, and I'm planning it so I can live in it for the rest of my life. The gardens too. There is a book called The self-sustaining garden : the guide to matrix planting, by Peter Thompson. Basically matrix planting is replicating the way a natural ecosystem works, but with ornamental plants, so they re-seed themselves, smother weeds, and generally look good without a lot of tinkering. Then if you want something to tinker with, you can grow higher-maintenance sorts of plants in containers as an accent. And I plan to use permaculture techniques in growing food.

 

[brewer12345]

If the weather is nice, I am doing things.
If the weather stinks, I'm goofing off inside, usually here.

Interesting to hear someone else say this. While I was unemployed this year, I got something of a taste of what ER would be like (although the part/full time job of networking, interviewing, applying, etc. kind of spoiledthe effect). When the weather was nice, I did tons of stuff: frequent camping trips, hikes, fishing trips, travel, etc. When the weather turned lousy, there was the gym, cooking, and the TV. Makes me really think that when I am finally able to hang up my spurs I may seriously consider spending weeks to months at a time in the winter in a warmer, sunnier climate.

 

[FurBall]

What I love most about retirement is the freedom to be a slacker when you need to and be productive when you feel like it. Sometimes I just need a couple of days of sitting around wasting time on the computer. Other times I feel productive and reupholster something or remake curtains or regrout the bathroom. Mostly we complete any chores by lunch and play in the afternoon.

 

[freebird5825]

Interesting to hear someone else say this. While I was unemployed this year, I got something of a taste of what ER would be like (although the part/full time job of networking, interviewing, applying, etc. kind of spoiledthe effect). When the weather was nice, I did tons of stuff: frequent camping trips, hikes, fishing trips, travel, etc. When the weather turned lousy, there was the gym, cooking, and the TV. Makes me really think that when I am finally able to hang up my spurs I may seriously consider spending weeks to months at a time in the winter in a warmer, sunnier climate.

Cold weather + FIRE has a habit of keeping me inside. Since I NEVER watch TV, I find all sorts of stuff to occupy my time. I turn on my classical music radio station or I load up my acoustic guitar and Enya CDs so the sound is just audible and sets a relaxing tone. I surf, post here, read, do laundry, do emails, plan dinner, make bread, (re)organize rooms, learn something new online from links posted here, etc etc.
If the sun is shining and the temps are reasonable, I go outside and play a little, fill the bird feeder, make a mini snow sculpture, throw snowballs for the dogs, get the mail, shovel off the back deck and jacuzzi, etc.
I make sure I include some light activity every day so my muscles don't atrophy in the chair. I keep the TV off so my brain doesn't atrophy. I intentionally make myself think of things to do.
The day goes by very quickly. You may not need to escape as much as you imagine.

 

[brewer12345]

The day goes by very quickly. You may not need to escape as much as you imagine.

That's a possibility. I really didn't have enough time after the weather got lousy to find out. I have a tendency toward SAD that makes it tough to get moving in the winter, though, so it might actually be a problem. I have a loooonnnggg time before I can find out for sure, I guess.

 

[Nords]

<sigh> You make it sound so dreary. Basically, I'm just not an enthusiastic person about much of anything. I have never been one of these high-achieving, self-starting, Type-A personalities. I like to be able to look back on an accomplishment, it's getting up the motivation to do things so I have them to look back at that I find difficult.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. I procrastinate, that's what it is. I don't know if I will ever be able to overcome that bad habit. I am like the dog on the porch in that old story—he howls because he is lying on a spike, but he doesn't get up and move because it doesn't hurt *that* bad.

The only reason procrastination is considered "bad" is because it's incompatible with "deadlines". In ER you pretty much get to set your own deadlines-- and change 'em all if you're not having fun.

You could think of yourself as highly efficient at establishing priorities before acting instead of running willy-nilly from one project to the next...

A mutual instigation society, that's what I need to find. Is there any such thing?

They meet every weekday morning around 8:30 at the White Plains Beach surf break. There's probably a different chapter in your area.

I've been after our taekwondo instructor to start a geezer martial arts class that meets at 1:30 weekday afternoons. It'd be right after his homeschooler's class and right after my nap, with us heading home before rush hour. Unfortunately he's not sure there are enough of us to make it work.

I am thinking along the same lines. I also plan to consult with an "Aging-in-Place" specialist to make sure I will not be forced out of my house by age/disability.

Another aspect of this "I want to die in my home" attitude is isolation, fear, overwhelming maintenance, and depression. Many elders have done much better once they're in a group/social setting that's brighter and more easily maintained.

Home can be overrated. But I'm part of the "die here" crowd too.

 

[Billy]

Billy and I retired young (age 38) in 1991. We're in our 19th year of retirement now.

We worked so hard when we were self employed that when we retired we decompressed for a long time. It was glorious. I actually read the Sunday morning paper while leisurely drinking my coffee for the first time in a decade. I watched the Discovery channel (what a luxury) and read books from cover to cover. I learned how to water color. Billy learned to play the saxophone. We started traveling - first the Caribbean and Venezuela and then the whole western section of the US in an 5th wheel trailer.

We were so burned out from working...I had no get-up-and-go at all. Eventually balance came back -- I would say a couple of years later.

Now we are very busy with our style of retirement - traveling, volunteering, learning... enjoying life.

I guess I would say give yourself some time to adjust and not be too hard on yourself - but you know yourself better than anyone else does.

Best of everything,

Akaisha
Author, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Im a slacker and I love it. Im amazed how Ive stumbled through life.

 

[haha]

Im a slacker and I love it. Im amazed how Ive stumbled through life.

Me too! I'm embarrassed at how random my life has been. About the only thing I really concentrated on was trying to be a good Dad. I took a shot at good husband, but I guess she graded on the curve and there were harder workers available.

Still, here I am, and with luck here I will be for a good while longer. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Ha

 

[kyounge1956]

I am thinking along the same lines. I also plan to consult with an "Aging-in-Place" specialist to make sure I will not be forced out of my house by age/disability.

(big snip) Another aspect of this "I want to die in my home" attitude is isolation, fear, overwhelming maintenance, and depression. Many elders have done much better once they're in a group/social setting that's brighter and more easily maintained.

Home can be overrated. But I'm part of the "die here" crowd too.

Somehow I missed your comment for two days. If cooking my own meals eventually becomes just too much of an hassle, I might decide to move to someplace that has meals included. Or if I become so frail I'm unable even to go to church on Sundays, to have people come over to my house or even to go online and be in contact with people there, maybe I'd want to move into a more "social" setting. But really, I don't anticipate that I will want to do that. I am an introvert to the core and eager to get out of the "more social" setting of my current townhouse residence to someplace where there is no danger of people having a noisy party on the other side of my living room wall, or of blocking my car in the garage when I want to go out.

What makes the difference to me is choice. If I move because I have decided I'd prefer to live somewhere else, that's one thing and though I don't expect that this will happen, if it does, it does. But it's altogether a different thing to be forced out of a home I do not want to leave due to sheer inability to continue living there, and that's what I want to guard against. I also mean to plan the house so it doesn't require much maintenance. That way it will be possible for me to do it myself longer, and less expensive to hire someone else to do it when & if I'm no longer able to.