Retiring FROM vs. Retiring TO.

[Focus]

Not me. I had all sorts of plans for what I would do with my time in retirement. Numerous lists, in different orders depending on how I felt when I made the list. I just passed 9 years retired a couple of months ago, and I'm planning on getting started on those list items any day now.


Don't worry about it. Your days will fill up without any conscious decision on your part.

That was my experience. Made a very long list of everything I wanted to do. Never had to refer back to it.

You might find this previous thread helpful:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/5-biggest-er-surprises-76016.html

 

[DEC-1982]

I retired FROM work 5 months ago. I had a list and still have the same list. I just haven't gotten around to it.

 

[Which Roger]

Yeah, pretty much everybody. It can take a few months of daily naps to recover from years of chronic fatigue.

The #3 worry of ERs, after inflation & healthcare, is "But... what will I DO all day?!?"

Six months later, we all wonder what the heck we were worrying about.

I would instead say "yeah, the majority of people". However, there is a significant minority on this forum (which includes myself) who were bored and unfulfilled in the latter years of their careers, just waiting for the right time to pull the plug and get on with pursuing dreams deferred. No time needed to recover after retiring, and ready to jump right in to pursuing those dreams.

 

[Mulligan]

I retired FROM work 5 months ago. I had a list and still have the same list. I just haven't gotten around to it.

Well if you are like me '82, it will never get done. And in a couple years you will not care about it anymore anyways.


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[REWahoo]

Well if you are like me '82, it will never get done. And in a couple years you will not care about it anymore anyways.

+1

I found my list while cleaning out some old files a while back and had a good laugh.

 

[DEC-1982]

Well if you are like me '82, it will never get done. And in a couple years you will not care about it anymore anyways.


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Well, I am hoping to do at least #3, learn Spanish. There has just been a slight delay in getting started, I hope that's all it is.

 

[JDARNELL]

Thanks, Walt! Credit for inspiring that post goes to E-R.org's JDarnell.

It is amazing that discussion spawned the Fog of Work. A great post. I was up at 0400 this morning and re-read thru it. I then returned back to sleep. Needless to say I dreamed about working and the disfunction that was part of it.

I don't miss my work time at all. In fact I wish I had left before I did at age 45. I spent a lot of time thinking about the emotional impact of ER and in retrospect things worked out just fine. I often think about some great projects I would like to do however I just go with the flow and if it happens it happens.

One of the best parts of ER is taking a nap whenever I need it.

JDARNELL

 

[REWahoo]

One of the best parts of ER is taking a nap whenever I need it.

JDARNELL

+1

Scheduled naps, unscheduled naps, practice naps, even an occasional emergency nap - whatever the variety, the results are always highly satisfying.

 

[MBAustin]

Hmmm, I think I feel a nap coming on...

 

[Danmar]

Anyone else retire exhausted, without big plans, and recover your mojo over time?

I didn't have too much planned when I retired at 56. More travel, get fit, lose weight. That was the start. Things got a little more interesting after a year or two. Took up biking, downhill skiing and that opened up more travel with new friends. I think not having too much of a plan at first is fine but don't settle for the couch and daytime TV.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

If the extremely unlikely event that you find yourself heading down a slippery slope, you could always consult a library copy of Ernie Zelinski's Get-A-Life Tree. I've had a blank copy on my desk for over 13 years but I haven't made the time to work on it...
The Retirement Cafe - Fun Things to Do When You Retire

Hey, Nords, thanks for this link. I had not seen it before (although I know some of the books noted).

It can take a few months of daily naps to recover from years of chronic fatigue.

I have been off the clock for about 9 months now and getting restless. The naps reinvigorated me, I guess, and the time off has been life-giving. (I have lost a lot of weight and regained some vigor.) I am very fortunate in that I thoroughly enjoyed my work most of the time and certainly the world-wide travel that came with it from time to time. There are a few interesting jobs out there that I cannot resist applying for. (Not 'retired' mentally yet I guess. Not 'early' by any means.) I quote an old and dear friend: "Engineering is the most fun a man can have--if he can afford it."

 

[MichaelB]

I'm about to violate the Prime Directive of ER and retire at 55 from my job of 30 years without a well defined set of things to retire to. I have a number of activities I've enjoyed, but most have fallen by the wayside in the last 5-10 years of the grind.

Yesterday I shook my manager's hand, signed the paperwork and pretty much set my year end departure date in stone. When he asked what I was going to do with myself I just said "sleep". For the moment it's all I've got planned.

Anyone else retire exhausted, without big plans, and recover your mojo over time?

<raise hand>

The only thing I wanted to do was quit, then sleep. A year later I made a list of things to do in retirement. Haven't done one thing on the list yet, too busy enjoying life.

 

[Mulligan]

+1



I found my list while cleaning out some old files a while back and had a good laugh.

That wasn't a good post, RE. I was expecting more from you. Like, you blew the dust off of it and became suddenly reinvigorated with intentions to complete the first two items on the list today.


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[REWahoo]

That wasn't a good post, RE.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that...

 

[W2R]

I retired FROM work 5 months ago. I had a list and still have the same list. I just haven't gotten around to it.

During the accumulation phase I made a list of about 2 dozen interests I wanted to pursue after retirement, including growing roses, taking up the piano again, learning Spanish, jogging, and even getting an MBA (for no reason, other than the fact that I know nothing about that sort of thing and think it is interesting). I kept the list on my computer desktop for years but I don't know where it has gone. I could probably retrieve it from backups if I had to.

After my 2009 retirement I did not even start to work on my list. My experience in retirement has been quite the opposite of boredom. There are so many interesting things to do. Retirement has been such fun.

 

[Nords]

I am very fortunate in that I thoroughly enjoyed my work most of the time and certainly the world-wide travel that came with it from time to time. There are a few interesting jobs out there that I cannot resist applying for. (Not 'retired' mentally yet I guess. Not 'early' by any means.) I quote an old and dear friend: "Engineering is the most fun a man can have--if he can afford it."

Contract engineering in exotic destinations sounds like a great way to spend your time!

My issues with working in retirement have been the dissatisfiers and the long-term commitments. You've solved those problems and better yet, you're getting paid to travel...

 

[FreeBear]

I was beat up, tired, thought I was lost. I literally ran away from w*rk.

Took me a while, maybe too long. What I can say is this year has been Awesome! I love this gift we worked so hard for. I'm just glad I made it out alive.

++1

Couldn't have said it any better MRG!

My last drive home from w*rk and our modest celebration afterwards was one one of the best times of my life, matched only by my wedding!

 

[FreeBear]

Anyone else retire exhausted, without big plans, and recover your mojo over time?

Congratulations on your ER stepford!

I ran from w*rk like running from a burning building

Before ER, I read relevant books, made list of reasonable activities, and fantasized about extensive snowbird travel and class-A RV's that wouldn't fit our already strained SWR.

Well, now that I've been ER'd 8 months, I haven't touched my list of "reasonable activities" and I don't even care. My fantasies of a Supersized retirement fell quite painlessly to the budget axe.

Now are main vices are cable TV, DW's homemade chocolate, and ethnic dining. We enjoy Indian and Thai food at least once or twice a week each, a benefit of putting up with a high COL metro area. We spend the rest of our time living the dream: dining with close friends, kayaking big lakes, biking the hills, etc.

So, to answer your question, any guise of big plans has fallen away, and we just are recovering from the rat race while living and loving our lives.

FB

 

[Geld ist Freiheit]

Congrats on getting out of the machine! You give the rest of us serving out our indentured servitude hope for the future.

Del Q summed it up nicely for me. I'm so mentally and emotionally exhausted by the end of the day, I can't see beyond it. I'd like to retire TO something but right now I can't envision would that would be because work is so draining.

30 years of work is plenty. Enjoy life on your terms as your own boss. I suspect a bad day of retirement will still be better than a good day at work.


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[Fedup]

Sleep, exercise, and grow my own food. Travel 1/3 of the time. Playing with the stock market daily or when I see an opportunity should keep me busy, of course only on fun money, not my retirement money. Lots of projects waiting to be done when I'm actually retired. But honestly I can't go to work, not at this job anymore. Commute is killing me. I'm so dead tire everyday dreaming of my retirement.
For me it's 35 years of work, not a slacker but enough is enough.

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[jim584672]

Escaped from the machine a year ago, that is enough for me. No more leaving at 6 am and returning at 6 pm. No more insane work assignments, meetings, dealing with personalities, corporate lingo, micro-managing bosses. Not worried about the TO, it will take care of itself.

 

[HFWR]

In sixty days, I'll be officially FIREd, so we'll see how it goes. After thirty-two years as a lab rat, and another twelve as "miscellaneous", my BS bucket is full, and the numbers work, I hope...

Always been a list maker, and have a mental bucket list, not of "things to accomplish", but free associative stuff that I've always wanted to do, or things that sound interesting. How many items on that list get "done" remains to be seen. But, then, I'm pretty good at slacking too.

Funny thing, now that I've announced my intentions at w*rk, all of a sudden I'm almost irreplaceable. Funny also how that has never been reflected in my salary or raises...

 

[rodi]

I didn't have a set list - although having read here enough, I did have some projects in mind... The ones that involved labor (de-cluttering, painting a few rooms, etc.) are still on the list. The ones that involved some fun (learning Italian) I've started tackling (2 semesters of Italian done, 3rd semester will start in Jan.)

I had a couple of contacts with my former co-workers this week - lunch with one gal, and a Halloween party with a bunch of the others. Turns out that the trigger for my quitting - mandatory travel for 1 week at a time, each month... never happened. And the project I worked on is on hiatus and a funner project (that I wanted to work on) is going full bore... Does this make me want to go back to work. HELL NO.

There are so many books to read, walks to take, websites to browse, recipes to cook, even solitaire games to play.... I'm to busy to go to work.... despite having retired with no "retire to" plan.

 

[petershk]

I have two young kids so if I RE I don't have any concern around how I'll spend time . My concern is if raising kids all day will drive me nuts . Of course in 1 year DD goes to school and DS is 2 years behind. I expect in 4-6 years they won't want to spend much time with me and I'll wish I'd spent more time with them .

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[W2R]

In sixty days, I'll be officially FIREd, so we'll see how it goes. After thirty-two years as a lab rat, and another twelve as "miscellaneous", my BS bucket is full, and the numbers work, I hope...

Always been a list maker, and have a mental bucket list, not of "things to accomplish", but free associative stuff that I've always wanted to do, or things that sound interesting. How many items on that list get "done" remains to be seen. But, then, I'm pretty good at slacking too.

Funny thing, now that I've announced my intentions at w*rk, all of a sudden I'm almost irreplaceable. Funny also how that has never been reflected in my salary or raises...

Hey, congratulations! That is great news and obviously well earned after 32+12 years of work. Oh, by the way, as for the salary and raises... don't be surprised at all if they offer you a raise NOW just to try to keep you from leaving. They may not, depending on how hard it is to find the funding for it, but it does happen.

In my case, I told them to keep their raises and their promotions and their part time consulting and new titles and other enticements because I was outta there. They should have offered me those goodies before I announced my retirement date if they wanted them to have any effect.