What did you do in your first month?

I posted previously about hiking and camping with grandkids. Still in my first month, just scheduled a 3 week trip to Thailand .
 
Lost my alarm clock and slept in. Every...single...day!!
 
I unplugged the alarm clock and stowed it somewhere - I have no idea where it is now :). Then I went through all my clothes and donated several dozen suits, slacks, and blouses to an organization that provides clothes to women to wear to interviews, etc. Then I re-did my closet: installed lots of shelves for folded clothes and reduced the space for hung-up clothes, since I now live in t-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, and athletic pants. Then I backslid and took on too many consultings jobs (all remote so the wardrobe was okay, but I felt like I was w*rking again). Took me almost 2 years to extricate myself from the consulting.

Now I spend every morning gloriously reading and drinking tea on the porch, then hiking in the woods or lifting weights, then rediscovering my love for creating botanical art and/or cooking and/or teaching myself Japanese woodworking techniques and/or making spreadsheets to track financial stuff and/or visiting new breweries with friends and/or helping my parents out in their new independent living patio home. It’s a wonderful life!
 
I slept. A lot! I was pretty burnt out. Honestly my first two months or so of retirement were pretty stressful. Converting my retirement accounts to IRAs. I found more taxing than I had imagined to actually implement my plan when it became a reality instead of a hypothetical.
I did find find the energy to declutter my house and rid of most of my work clothes, clean and organize the garage etc.. Spent more time with family.
I’m feeling good now. I started going back to the gym. I’m eating much healthier. I started taking golf lessons again and I’m getting the house ready to sell so I can move into a kind of house I’ve always dreamed of having. Nothing fancy but nice.
I would never consider going back to work doing what I did but there is a volunteer opportunity I may pursue.
I’m very fortunate. Life is good.
 
First month of retirement was the month I started back to university to complete my degree. Totally different schedule from working. A couple weeks later, another division of the company I retired from asked me to come back as a contractor.
 
First month retired

I’m pretty sure I just went with the flow of each day so I just did what I decided as the days went along. I was busy helping out my elderly aunt the free time allowed me to be quite attentive- that first month was April-May 2018. I grabbed an on-call Job June went months w/o a shift then did a 16hr weekend.
I can’t even describe it as part-time hours are so minimal. Benefit? Great discount on hotel stays 😊 BonVoy -some shifts are 6hrs -off now until Nov.

My elderly aunt died and I was trustee of her estate that kept me real busy!

I’m 14mos (ER@51) now and picked up work when I want as my volunteer gigs are sort of annual Salvation Army - land use zoning- I’m averaging 16hr week.

Some pure retirees say your un-retired if you work too many hours I concur but
I’m feeling pretty good about saying I’m retired do what I want SW airline tics
10x a year so far - that’s a lot of travel trips😂😂😂 Plan a lot of trips!
 
I went on my first ever photography workshop. 3 days in Hocking Hills Ohio.
 
Retired since 1-1-19. First couple of months, like several others, I slept a lot--like 12 hours a day. The last year of work was a marathon and I barely limped over the finish line. My child brought home a vicious cold that had me in bed for 2-3 weeks in February and March. We took some college visits Spring Break and spent two weeks in Europe in June. I'm still keeping weird hours. I feel a little guilty that I'm not more productive, but maybe in the next 4-5 months I'll get a routine.
 
Tiny Kingdom said:
Retired since 1-1-19. First couple of months, like several others, I slept a lot--like 12 hours a day. The last year of work was a marathon and I barely limped over the finish line. My child brought home a vicious cold that had me in bed for 2-3 weeks in February and March. We took some college visits Spring Break and spent two weeks in Europe in June. I'm still keeping weird hours. I feel a little guilty that I'm not more productive, but maybe in the next 4-5 months I'll get a routine.
Click to expand...



I slept a ton too at first, still do in fact half a decade into retirement. Took a couple of years to really chill out too. I admire the folks that adjusted within 6 months. Well, I guess I’m a slow learner, but all’s great now.
 
As I retired in the fall, I hit some of the local fall events in the area. Other than that, I don't recall doing much. That was 14 years ago. YMMV
 
Two days after I retired, we were on a plane for a 14 day trip in South America. When we got back, we planned for 6 more trips the same year
 
Just finished my first month of retirement. I was a little concerned that I would get bored or feel a nagging sense that I wasn't accomplishing anything, so one of the first things I did was make a To Do list. So far, I haven't needed the list because plenty of things to do came up each day -sometimes too many things!

DH and I went to Oregon for a week for some windsurfing, did a couple kayak trips around here, and have been biking to the beach several times a week. I've been a regular gym-goer since my 20s, but have been getting enough exercise outdoors, so I've been skipping the gym.

I took care of some backlogged medical, financial, and domestic issues for my mom, did some baking, and cleaned some nooks and crannies around the house that had been neglected for awhile. DH and I got the plane tickets and lodging set up for our first trip to Europe next May.

I thought I'd miss my job and coworkers, but though I still think fondly of them from time to time, I don't miss going to work, nor do I feel guilty about not working. Rather, every day feels like a Saturday or Sunday. And if it feels like a Sunday I revel in the fact that I don't have to go to work the next morning!
 
I slept in a lot and goofed off, playing video games, watching movies, etc. Now that it's been 8 months, I'm getting energetic and really diving into my hobbies, doing long-waited projects on the house, cooking more meals, and doing some "life planning" such as updating our wills, making a bucket list, holding "safety" meetings with my wife (we do things like learn how to tell a heart attack from a stroke in case one of us has one, discuss escape plans if there is a fire or intruder, and so on).
 
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