mountainsoft
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
My wife's last day of work was April 28, 2023. While I am technically still self employed, I haven't done any real work since then other than answering a few emails and taking care of some finances. Despite that, I still have a few hundred dollars trickle in each month, which helps provide a little play money for dinners or activities.
Today marks 4 months since we retired, and so far it has gone very well. With no alarm to jolt us out of bed each day, we go to bed whenever we want (usually 9:30pm) and get up whenever we want (usually 7am). I have been working from home for several years, so I already have a basic morning routine that really hasn't changed much now that we're retired. My wife is still struggling a bit to try and develop a daily routine. Our afternoons are generally open to take care of errands or do whatever we want.
I think our biggest surprise has been how busy we are. It seems we need to do something almost every day, whether that's grocery shopping, tending to our mother's, helping family, or doing projects around the house. We often say to each other "how did we ever have time to work".
I'm hoping things will settle down a big once the weather turns cold and wet again. I have a long back log of photos to label, home videos to edit, and other miscellaneous projects.
I thought finances would be our biggest concern once we retired, but we really haven't given it much thought. We are still living off our personal savings account until my wife starts receiving her pension at the end of September. We have spent a bit more than usual over the last four months, but most of the extra was for one time home projects or vacations. I had planned for extra spending the first five years anyway, so we're still well within that allowance. We still have about 2-3 years of expenses in our savings account, then another 3-4 years in 5% CD's in my Roth IRA. That basically gives us guaranteed income until we start taking social security, at which point SS and my wife's pension will more than cover our expenses. The remainder of our retirement accounts are in S&P 500 that can continue to grow until we need it for something.
We had a few hurdles setting up health insurance initially. Because we basically have no income for five months, we are currently on medicaid, but we'll have to go through the health insurance thing again in October after my wife's pension starts, and will probably go on an ACA (Obamacare) plan at that time.
We took one week long road trip through Idaho last month, and are planning another week long trip through northern California in November. We also did a few overnight getaways locally in May. We really enjoyed them all, but I don't see us doing many other getaways until next summer.
I wasn't sure how our relationship would change once we retired and were spending every day together. Overall it has been great, no issues. One unfortunate change has been a decline in intimacy. This really surprised me, as I expected things to get better without the stresses and distractions of work life. Even something as simple as the 15-20 minute cuddling we used to do each morning before starting our days has diminished. My wife tends to sleep later than me, and she gets annoyed if I wake her up to cuddle. I don't want to lay there awake for another 30-60 minutes, so I usually just get up and let her rest. Once we're both up, there just never seems to be a good time during the day to be intimate. I often feel like I gained a room mate but lost a lover. So that's probably the biggest relationship area to work through in our new normal.
My wife has also been much more involved with friends and family than I expected. She's not the type to say no to anything, so she agrees to most things anyone asks her to do. I wouldn't mind except many of those agreements mean I am obligated to help out with family projects. And I have a difficult time saying no to my wife.
She had big plans to work on crafts after she retired, but so far has struggled to find direction and motivation to keep working on individual projects. I'm sure these are just growing pains and she'll eventually figure out a system that works for her.
She has taken on more home duties like dishes and cooking than I expected. I was usually always the one to take care of these things so it was a surprising, though not unwelcome, change.
Anyway, four months in and we're doing well. Most of the things I worried about have been non-issues, and the things we are struggling with most are things I didn't really think about. In any case, neither of us have any regrets and are loving retirement.
Today marks 4 months since we retired, and so far it has gone very well. With no alarm to jolt us out of bed each day, we go to bed whenever we want (usually 9:30pm) and get up whenever we want (usually 7am). I have been working from home for several years, so I already have a basic morning routine that really hasn't changed much now that we're retired. My wife is still struggling a bit to try and develop a daily routine. Our afternoons are generally open to take care of errands or do whatever we want.
I think our biggest surprise has been how busy we are. It seems we need to do something almost every day, whether that's grocery shopping, tending to our mother's, helping family, or doing projects around the house. We often say to each other "how did we ever have time to work".
I'm hoping things will settle down a big once the weather turns cold and wet again. I have a long back log of photos to label, home videos to edit, and other miscellaneous projects.I thought finances would be our biggest concern once we retired, but we really haven't given it much thought. We are still living off our personal savings account until my wife starts receiving her pension at the end of September. We have spent a bit more than usual over the last four months, but most of the extra was for one time home projects or vacations. I had planned for extra spending the first five years anyway, so we're still well within that allowance. We still have about 2-3 years of expenses in our savings account, then another 3-4 years in 5% CD's in my Roth IRA. That basically gives us guaranteed income until we start taking social security, at which point SS and my wife's pension will more than cover our expenses. The remainder of our retirement accounts are in S&P 500 that can continue to grow until we need it for something.
We had a few hurdles setting up health insurance initially. Because we basically have no income for five months, we are currently on medicaid, but we'll have to go through the health insurance thing again in October after my wife's pension starts, and will probably go on an ACA (Obamacare) plan at that time.
We took one week long road trip through Idaho last month, and are planning another week long trip through northern California in November. We also did a few overnight getaways locally in May. We really enjoyed them all, but I don't see us doing many other getaways until next summer.
I wasn't sure how our relationship would change once we retired and were spending every day together. Overall it has been great, no issues. One unfortunate change has been a decline in intimacy. This really surprised me, as I expected things to get better without the stresses and distractions of work life. Even something as simple as the 15-20 minute cuddling we used to do each morning before starting our days has diminished. My wife tends to sleep later than me, and she gets annoyed if I wake her up to cuddle. I don't want to lay there awake for another 30-60 minutes, so I usually just get up and let her rest. Once we're both up, there just never seems to be a good time during the day to be intimate. I often feel like I gained a room mate but lost a lover. So that's probably the biggest relationship area to work through in our new normal.
My wife has also been much more involved with friends and family than I expected. She's not the type to say no to anything, so she agrees to most things anyone asks her to do. I wouldn't mind except many of those agreements mean I am obligated to help out with family projects. And I have a difficult time saying no to my wife.
She had big plans to work on crafts after she retired, but so far has struggled to find direction and motivation to keep working on individual projects. I'm sure these are just growing pains and she'll eventually figure out a system that works for her.
She has taken on more home duties like dishes and cooking than I expected. I was usually always the one to take care of these things so it was a surprising, though not unwelcome, change.
Anyway, four months in and we're doing well. Most of the things I worried about have been non-issues, and the things we are struggling with most are things I didn't really think about. In any case, neither of us have any regrets and are loving retirement.
