One biggest "surprise" in retirement

[David1961]

For the folks here who have already retired, what was the one (or more) thing that happened after you retired that surprised you the most or you did not expect? Can be related to any area of your life (finances, health, family, hobbies, personal growth, etc) and can be positive, negative, or neutral.

 

[ducky911]

positive...I don't know where I found the time to go to work.

negative ...I gained weight.....I have started to work on that now.

 

[marko]

After 30+ years of go-go-go 75 hour weeks and non-stop international travel, running a mega-corp, I was mostly surprised (as was DW and all our friends) that I didn't get 'itchy' after a few months. DW told me later that she was terrified that I'd go nuts, but...no.

Seven-plus years and counting. No itch!

 

[Alan]

I think the biggest surprise for us is that there were no surprises. Getting on for 3 years now and we are doing everything we hoped to do, and loving it. Life after w*rk is wonderful for us, so far.

 

[Onward]

The biggest suprise has been the difference between how I expected to spend my days, and how I am actually spending them. It's hard to anticipate what will come along and pique your interest.

 

[ksr]

I think the biggest surprise for me has been how low my federal and state income tax bill is now.

 

[travelover]

I was surprised at how little I missed working. Initially I thought that I'd work part time to "keep busy". Ha!

 

[bbbamI]

Positive....We've been pulling funds out of our portfolio since March, 2009 and the portfolio is higher now than it was when DH retired. Our financial plan is working.

Negative...DH was diagnosed with cancer in December, 2010..

Summary...We're grateful we were able to retire early. Life is fleeting.

 

[W2R]

Biggest surprise: that despite my preconceptions, I had no idea what time of day was most natural for me to sleep. I am still working on that.

Another surprise: how long it takes to completely de-stress and kick back.

 

[marko]

Biggest surprise: that despite my preconceptions, I had no idea what time of day was most natural for me to sleep. I am still working on that.

Another surprise: how long it takes to completely de-stress and kick back.

Took me almost 2 years to 'come down' off of that Type A lifestyle. Used to sleep about four hours...now I can log in 8 (if I don't have to get up in the middle of the night! )

 

[omni550]

Retired 5.5 years ago. It's all good.

Used to sleep 5.5 hrs (alarm went off at 4:30am) and was always tired. Now sleep until 7-7:30 am (and wake up whenever I open my eyes). Everyone always comments on how well-rested and stress-free I appear.

I have a very unstructured life but I find that I am never bored. I read, spend a lot of time online, meet friends for lunch or dinner, have joined a bunch of meetup.com groups (going dining, hiking, kayaking, etc. with them).

I make time for exercise (walk 4 miles at least 3 times a week, etc.) so I simply feel much better than when I was working.

I travel fairly frequently, sometimes for a few days and sometimes for 3 weeks or more. I love the time flexibility that retirement affords.

One slight negative: a long-term (16+ years) relationship ended a few years into retirement, so I've had to rediscover life as a singleton. It was a bit lonely early-on, but I actually love spending time alone now.

omni

 

[Mulligan]

After a couple of years in ER, with occasional PT work, I noticed these surprises. 1) thought I would sleep better, but I don't, even though I am stress free. I guess the 8 hours (or even 5) of solid nonstop sleep are forever gone. 2) I enjoy a daily routine, unless traveling. I am not a happy camper if I cant start the day very slow with coffee and news on paper. 3) I save money better in retirement than I did working. I hope it doesn't degenerate into hoarding!

 

[Ronstar]

I'll be watching this thread. I'm pulling the plug jan 1, and I don't want surprises. My problem is that I find that when I'm away from home, I have a hard time keeping occupied all day. At home, woodworking and home projects keep me busy all day on my days off work. I need to find a way to avoid the need to keep busy. I don't want to be surprised by a void that work was filling

 

[jebmke]

I was surprised how easy it is to lose track of which day of the week it is. Friends gave me a day clock -- now I use it frequently because I can never remember what day it is.

 

[ohyes]

Only been retired a few months, but i thought (pre-retirement) that i wanted one planned activity for most days so i would not be idle. WRONG! WAY-WRONG. So many things come up, i cherish the days that are simply enjoying the day at home with no plans. I cannot fathom adding in anything else.

What should not have been un-expected, but still made me gasp: group health insurance is going up $200/month. That was a bit too soon for my liking.

 

[RAE]

I guess the only surprise for me is how easy it is to fill my days in retirement (I've been retired for 2 yrs, 8 months). I've always had a lot of hobbies and interests, so I knew I wouldn't be bored in retirement, but it seems like the days go by now and I don't even have enough time to accomplish what I planned to accomplish that day or that week. But hey, that's the great thing about retirement.........if you don't get to it today, you can always do it tomorrow.

 

[freebird5825]

5 yrs 5 months years FIREd

Positive...initially, I was surprised at how long it took me to chill out as a person. I always felt like I was supposed to be somewhere, doing something. This forum helped me get over that. I laugh when some of the email calendar reminders (things to do) pop up, residues from the first few years of FIRE. DELETE key!

Negative...emotional stuff. When I FIREd, I was 1.5 years into a start-over-again-after-widowhood relationship that did not pan out. My first 3 years of retirement were marred by all that nonsense. My voluntary unemployment caused some assumptions about external situations that I did not want to be subjected to.

Now it's smooth sailing.

 

[Speculator]

What surprised me the most was discovering how my sense of self-esteem was tied to an awareness of my "doing" something, rather than having "done" something.

 

[Milton]

Interesting thread, thanks for starting it.

 

[REattempt]

How long it is taking to "relax." One year anniversary and I'm still only 50% relaxed or comfortable.

I know you only asked for THE most surprising aspect, but other thing that is equally surprising is how the time get sucked up with activities and there is so much more to do...

 

[scrabbler1]

Retired nearly 4 years. I was working only 2 days a week before I ERed so it was not a big change to my daily lifestyle. The only surprise in those 4 years was the huge increase in the premiums of the original HI policy I bought in 2009. The premium went up 20% in 2010 and 25% more in 2011, for a 50% total increase compared to 2009. At that rate of increase, I'd be paying $10k a month by the time I turned 60! So I switched to a much less broad policy and cut my premiums until I can get one of those policies through the PPACA exchanges.

 

[ejman]

I guess the biggest surprise is the increase in libido. I just didn't realize to what extent work and stress interfere with that aspect of one's life. I retired at 52, 62 now and its getting better all the time.

 

[megacorp-firee]

Retired July 2007, biggest surprise was how stressed I was w*rking and did not realize until I FIREd. Nicest surprise is that it just gets better every day.

 

[Moscyn]

Biggest surprise - I managed to lose weight on my own! When I was working. I recall paying a sum of money to a slimming agency to do the magic which did not work. JUst exercise, good nutrition and home cooking does it perfectly. Have kept my weight loss for 6 months now and am confident I can maintain that loss.

 

[Sue J]

DH is the retired one here. The positive surprises have been how he hasn't gotten bored. He's learned to putter and play. He's stuck to a nice exercise routine that he enjoys. He thought he'd miss all his people interactions but finds he's liking not having them.

Income vs expenses has worked out better than expected. He still runs out of his monthly pocket money but that's just part of who he is and I doubt that will change. Ever.

On the negative side is the issue of health insurance. I've posted about this before. It's subsidized coverage through his pension plan and they are making changes that will cost us an additional $400/month in 2013 (no option for low cost/high deductible, we will all have to be on the high cost/low deductible plan) and then in 2014 they will no longer offer any coverage for spouses. We knew the plan could change and that it would probably cost more every year but we could not have forseen these drastic changes.

We are both still very happy that he's retired.