What does it look like on the other side?

[Cap_Scarlet]

We're getting close to the leap now. All of my exit contracts are in place and awaiting my signature which means that on 30th June this year I will leap into the unknow at age 52 for a (hopefully) long and fulfilling retirement.

But is there really a plan? I have some sketches in my head but nothing which look a little bit like the following:

November, December, January and March are home time reserved for skiing and other wintersports.

February is our month in the sun away from the ski crowds (next year - our first retirement year - is South Pacific and New Zealand).

April/May is about visiting relatives in our homeland (the UK)

June/ July and August - we are at home again enjoying the summer (hiking and biking)

September/ October we're off again back to the homeland.

In between there will be hobbies like blogging, cooking, poker and (maybe) not much else!

So my question is this......how much did your plan for retirement play out in reality? What didn't you expect?

 

[REWahoo]

Way too much planning going on in my opinion.

You don't need to schedule every waking moment for the rest of your life. Take some time to decompress and learn to just "be". I promise you it will be time well spent.

 

[GravitySucks]

The few plans I made have not actually happened. Life gets in the way even when retired.
Not saying it's been a bad run, just the bike trips and moving didn't happen as other things have taken place instead.

 

[MRG]

My plan consisted of getting out of Megacorp. Relax it's a process, you'll be fine.

 

[Aerides]

That schedule looks like work!

I would not plan anything further - things you may think you want to do in retirement may no longer be what you want. Give yourself the first year to chill and just relax, and then figure it out as you go.

 

[pb4uski]

We just let things come to us... and they did. An aunt on the other side of the country died so it was a good time to visit relatives for the memorial service and spend a couple weeks enjoying southern California... then, since we are that far west anyway, let's skip out to Hawaii for a couple weeks.... etc., etc., etc.

Just go with the flow.

 

[travelover]

You don't have to write work plans / progress reports anymore . Embrace it.

 

[Rustic23]

REWahoo +1!!!

OK, plan a trip, or maybe a celebration dinner, but sit back and enjoy the smile on you face when you know you have nothing you have to do! So why create something, there will be plenty of time to do that. Well, if you ever get around to it. Heck, retirement is busy enough!

 

[W2R]

Way too much planning going on in my opinion.

+1000000

You don't need to schedule every waking moment for the rest of your life. Take some time to decompress and learn to just "be". I promise you it will be time well spent.

It takes time to de-stress. Cut yourself some slack! Relax and learn how to enjoy all the free time that retirement offers us.

So my question is this......how much did your plan for retirement play out in reality? What didn't you expect?

None of it played out, other than going to the gym more often. Despite that it all turned out better than I could possibly have imagined. As for what I didn't expect - - I thought I would need to accomplish things to feel like a worthwhile person. Surprisingly, that no longer seems necessary now that I am fully retired.

 

[CaptTom]

I'm going to be a contrarian here. This isn't day-by-day scheduling. Planning things out by season strikes just the right balance.

Starting the day I retired, I went cruising for 3 months over the Summer, got back and did some deferred household chores for a month or two in the Fall, then dug into renovating my kitchen over the Winter when inside work was more comfortable. With Spring here I'm back in maintenance mode for a while, with no more plans for the summer than to enjoy some more cruising. We're tossing around the idea of a trip we've wanted to take in late Fall.

None of that planning feels like work. It feels exactly like I'd thought retirement would be.

 

[ejman]

Ah, the seasons of man. There is a season for doing and a season for being...

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I don't plan by the season because we don't really have four seasons where we live. But I also like to plan to have events to look forward to. In our case it is usually more along the lines of a day at the beach in Santa Cruz, a day gold panning, meeting friends for lunch or concert tickets.

We moved to where we live in large part from looking at the activities section of the local newspaper. So we moved years ago and now we don't have to work and don't have to spend our weekends on kid activities like soccer games and helping with science projects. We can just do what we want each day. If I had to rate our retirement I would say far exceeded expectations.

We thought we would downsize and do more travel but I guess our house hunting trips turned more into there's no place like home. I get Facebook feeds from all the local music venues, parks, wineries, theater groups and whatever else we like and a lot of our events get planned around that.

 

[Doribe]

My one year anniversary was on May 1,2017. Goal 1: take a long RV trip visiting Civil War sites with DH. check Goal 2: Travel to Japan using miles to fly 1st class. check. Goal 3: declutter house. in process. Goal 4: get in shape/lose weight. in process

So far so good.

 

[Ronstar]

I agree with others - way way too much planning. Your plans will get increasingly less detailed as you go through retirement.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Every day is a Saturday.

 

[street]

I can speak for myself but planning isn't in my thought processes any more. I wake and do things that need to get done but no planning is necessary any more.

 

[ponyboy]

As great as it is to early retire...the bottom line is when you get to that point...or the "other side" as you put it...you're on the home stretch of your life span. Not being a downer...thats just reality.

I tell people to enjoy everyday. Whether you're working or not...doesnt matter. Its great to have a goal and retire early...just remember as of now we have a finite amount of time. Make the most of it.

 

[brett]

When I retired early I had three things in mind, but only one for certain plan.

The first was to sell our large home and downsize. This was the first thing we did. It took about seven months to get it ready for sale and to get rid of all the items that we did not need.

The second was to do some travelling. This is the second thing we did-for seven months. We left when the house was sold...put everything in storage for nine months.

The third was to downsize and buy an new home when we returned. Four and a half years later we are doing that. But we changed our preferences. We rented. Real estate here was on a downward trend, equity market was going up. We had some dumb luck. Big surprise was that after seven months of travel and four years in a rental our housing wants changed.

Fourth was that I planned to do some part time consulting. Never happened.
I was very happy to walk away. Besides, after travelling for seven months and enjoying it we decided to keep doing it, but for 2-3 months at a time, twice per year.

Fifth, it seems like overnight our priorities changed for accumulation to experiences. Travel encouraged us to completely change our eating habits and health. We feel much better than we ever did, get more exercise. Instead of trading up to a newer vehicle on retirement, we kept the newer of the two and gave away the older second vehicle. Never missed it for a moment.

We became much more flexible after retirement. When we travel we often only book hotels a day, two, or three in advance. Last short trip was Mexico. Spotted a last minute AI travel offer. Called DW (she was having coffee with a friend) and voila, we were in Mexico five days later. Did the same for Thailand. Spotted some great airfare in early Jan a few years ago, it was cold where we live, and ten days later we were on our way to Thailand for a month...with only a carry on bag each and two nights of hotels booked. More frequently our question to each other is why not instead of why or we can't do that.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We also ended up getting a dog in retirement and he was not in our initial plans. The other day I got a couple of winery passports in the mail and I spent an hour or two marking all the ones that were pet friendly so he can come with us. So things have detoured quite a bit from our initial plans but were happy with how they turned out.

 

[brett]

Other misc. changes that either occurred by osmosis or we intiated them:

-we completely re-evaluated our financial advisors, quit our bank, moved all of our investments. Four years later...less fees, better results, better service.

-we reviewed our charitable donations to a view of giving to those organizations that we supported AND that had the highest effeciency in terms or results or in terms of money going where it should go. We had some surprises, some disappointments when we looked closer (I know my way around financials)

-we become much more laissez faire and liberal in our outlook toward many things. We discovered that for us life was too short spend the rest of our lives being concerned about what others thought, did, practiced, whatever. That in itself changed our outlook substantially and has moved me away from certain institutions. We are very much live and let live, less judgmental, and more accepting of others. This just seemed to happen to us over the course a two or three years.

-we have an even greater appreciation of education, change, and the challenges of youth. Looking back, we realize that we although we worked very hard we lived at the right time when it was easier to move forward, accumulate financial assets, and enhance our respective education and work experiences. Made us realize how very shallow the promises and proclamations of our elected politicians really are.

 

[ttvjef]

I haven't made to the the other side yet however it's coming up fast. Personally, I like having some what of a plan, otherwise I wouldn't get much of anything accomplished. It sounds like you are planning a couple multi month trips during your first year of retirement; that may be a little bit too much so soon. I would like to first decompress for a few months to find out just what it is I really want to do first. However in my case, my spouse will not be retired until a years or more after me, so I'm going to pass some of my ER time figuring out a couple of bucket list activities and trips that we both want to do.
I like the idea of letting things come to you, but I know myself, and I need to set a couple goals up or I'm afraid the time would slip by.
Enjoy your ER.

 

[cooch96]

I'm going to be a contrarian here. This isn't day-by-day scheduling. Planning things out by season strikes just the right balance.

Starting the day I retired, I went cruising for 3 months over the Summer, got back and did some deferred household chores for a month or two in the Fall, then dug into renovating my kitchen over the Winter when inside work was more comfortable. With Spring here I'm back in maintenance mode for a while, with no more plans for the summer than to enjoy some more cruising. We're tossing around the idea of a trip we've wanted to take in late Fall.

None of that planning feels like work. It feels exactly like I'd thought retirement would be.

+1.

 

[brett]

There is one plan that we made and we have kept. It is to never, ever go shopping on a weekend, on Friday nights, or at any other busy period. For anything.

Followed it so much that I shop mostly on line, DW is about 1/3 of the way there.

 

[TrophyWife]

Looks like a great plan to me. I always do better when I have a loose plan

 

[Cap_Scarlet]

Many thanks for all the responses and I take the point about too much planning but honestly planning is one of the things I like to do. Particularly when it comes to a lenghthy holiday, I like to have most things mapped out.

But I definitely take the point...

Actually one of my first goals is to grow a beard. After 30 years of being clean shaven its time.