Your morning routine in retirement ...did it change?

[Souschef]

As hard as I try, I usually cannot sleep late. The one time I did recently. DW looked in to see if I was breathing.
I usually get up first, make the coffee, then check my e-mails and er, of course.
When DW arises, I get her coffee and we watch the morning news and/or Morning Joe that we TVR.
After getting dressed, I put up the umbrella on our south facing porch, and read for a couple of hours. My view is of a 2000 foot mountain a few miles away, and the planes from our local airport, a half mile away
Life is good

 

[aja8888]

7:00 am, walk dog then go to meet ROMEOs until 10:00 am. After that, it's up for grabs.

 

[Winemaker]

Unless I have to go somewhere with DM or DW, no alarm set. But I am up after 7 hours of sleep, no matter where I am, or what I've done the day before.

 

[Dash man]

I still set my alarm. I don’t typically need it and shut it off before DW wakes up. But I go to Mass every morning and don’t want to miss it. It’s a good way to start the day, and I can get other things done early. But I often take a nap in the afternoon.

 

[kcowan]

I use the iPhone alarm for travel days in unfamiliar places.

 

[misshathaway]

It's still the same morning routine - go swim at 5. But the difference is that when I open the door of the club to go home I have the whole day ahead of me to do whatever I want. It's been more than 2 years and the joy of that moment still hits me every day.

 

[CoolRich59]

The biggest change for me is that I’m getting up earlier in retirement than I did when w@rking.

I used to drag myself out of bed at 6am to get ready and get to the office by 8. Now, as cheesy as it sounds, i jump out of bed at 5am.

It’s true though. I have so many things i want to do that I dont want to waste any part of the day.

 

[dvalley]

I'm envious reading this and day dreaming about my own retirement days (10yrs aways) from my 4x4 cubicle.

 

[Scuba]

I used to get up around 5:45 because of my long commute, so I went to bed around 10:30-11. Now that I’ve ER’d, I find myself going to sleep anytime between 11 pm-2 am depending on what I’m doing, and I sleep until I wake up - no alarm unless I have to get up for an early appointment, which almost never happens. Our dog has adjusted because we now take him out around midnight-1 am instead of a couple of hours earlier when we were working.

One of the joys of ER for me is not having a firm schedule. I love having a lot I CAN do, but not much I HAVE TO do.

 

[athena53]

I'm envious reading this and day dreaming about my own retirement days (10yrs aways) from my 4x4 cubicle.

It's good motivation, isn't it?

I started to realize that I was feeling a bit jealous as people I'd worked with over the years retired. I loved my work for the most part, but the idea of not having to set an alarm clock or pretend to be fascinated with PowerPoint slides really made me want to keep saving so that I had a life beyond work. One friend retired at 57 and said I should be able to as well- except that her last two jobs had been very high-power and high-pressure (this likely lucrative) and her husband had worked for IBM for a few decades. Not my situation at all.

I ended up retiring at 61- not super-early, but I've never looked back.

 

[kcowan]

Our good friend retired to PV MX in 1992. He spent 5 years selling real estate but otherwise spent his time playing tennis, riding his bike and playing poker. He also loved watching war movies. He died April 14th so had a good 20 years. RIP Bob.

 

[Ally]

I'm not a morning person, so I still set an alarm for 8:00, or I would sleep till 10: 30 or so. I like to excercise at about 9-9:30, so I get up to the alarm. It's not as annoying getting up for something I want to do.

 

[beowulf]

After having to get up at about 6 AM for over 56 years (including college and high school), I sleep until I wake up, which means somewhere between 9 and 10:30. No more going to sleep by 10 or 11 PM. Generally between 1 and 2 AM. I try to never make appointments for anything before 11 AM. I'm retired and have no reason to get up early, so I stay up later and wake up later. Some of my friends can't break the early morning wake up routine. Each to his or her own. As to routines, I have none. It's very liberating to just go with the flow.

 

[rodi]

I set an alarm... because I enjoy walking the dog at the beach with friends... and we all need to show up around the same time... And because I have school age teenagers that need to be rousted in the morning.

But I tend to wake up before the alarm goes off.

My routine - wake up and turn on the coffee pot. Get dressed, wake the kids (if a school day). 3 days a week - drive the kids to school then head straight to the Y to swim a mile. Home by 8:45am. 2 days a week, drive the kids to a carpool buddy - then head straight to the beach with the dog for a 2.5 mile walk. Weekends - dog and I straight to the beach for the 2.5 mile walk.

On beach walk days I try to also do the elliptical for 30 minutes before I shower and get ready for the day. I'm too tired to do that on days I swim.

By 9:30am or so I'm ready to be a lazy bum retiree.

 

[whaleknives]

 

[RobbieB]

Get up whenever, shower and dress, coffee and internet, home improvement projects and off to lunch.

 

[calico1597]

I used to start my job at 6am. Now I'm usually up 7-8, coffee and the Today show until 9. Kills me to be anywhere before 10am. I usually read in bed until around 11pm.

 

[street]

Up at 5:30 make a joe, internet and decide what to do for the day. I go hiking in the back country, fishing, hunting, go to the ranch or do things around the house or yard. I do have a few meeting I need to attend each month but that is about all the scheduling I need to do. I play it by ear and go the direction the wind blows.