What's Good About Being Retired?

"What's Good About Being Retired?"

Well, you no longer have earned income. Instead, you have more time to spend money. If you like to travel, you will be taking long long expensive trips because you have so much time. If you do not care to travel, look at all the people here "blowing dough" because they have nothing else better to do.

You will not have health insurance coverage from your employer. You will have to learn what ACA is about, and all the things about subsidy and stuff.

You no longer have the challenge of your old job, and the satisfaction of solving a problem that they put in front of you to earn your keep. You have to go find problems of your own to solve, like fixing up your home, repairing your deck, building your own solar system, etc... And instead of making money, doing your own problems that you create costs money. Hah!

Every day is the same. Well, not quite as you still need to know if it's weekday or weekend, so that you can avoid the shopping crowd during the weekend, and to avoid rush hour. But it takes some effort to remember if it's Wednesday or Thursday, for example. Related to that is you no longer look forward to Friday as the last work day of the week. You do not savor your weekends, and lose the appreciation for holidays.

Every day is the same. Umm, I said that already.
 
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We live in a mega-employment bubble, so there is literally no weekday downtime on the roads...cars and trucks are hustling by 4:30 a.m., and the rush goes on all day. As a consequence, we often go grocery shopping on Saturday when the stores open, since there is less traffic than on weekday mornings.

NW-Bound said:
"


Every day is the same. Well, not quite as you still need to know if it's weekday or weekend, so that you can avoid the shopping crowd during the weekend, and to avoid rush hour.
Click to expand...
 
I believe there are 3 kinds of (working) people out there (post age 50):
1. Those who love their job/work and receive many positives in return: riches, benefits, social interaction, positive feedback, etc.
2. Those who are miserable at their job/work and hate it: oppressive bosses, loss of dignity, physical and/or mental stress.
3. Those who really are in the middle-not in love, not miserable.

Personally, I was a 1 for two decades, a 2 for one decade and a 3 for a few years. The 2 was due to a run of mean spirited bosses (6 years) and a drop in the economy during the great recession (depression?). I kept hoping for a return to 1 status, but finally threw in the towel at age 62. I play with my hobby business and am very, very happy.

Usually, when this question of "when to retire" comes up in the forum, and finances are not a concern, we are dealing with a 1 type. Just my opinion....
 
Scuba said:
For me, freedom is the big gain. In addition to avoiding the horrible So CA rush hour traffic and the alarm clock, it’s great to be able to take long trips (6 weeks, a month, 3 months plus several shorter trips in the last 18 months). Best of all for me is doing what I want to every day.
Click to expand...

+1. Love the flexibility also.
 
I don't travel 55,000 miles by car visiting customers, we go to some of the same places, but for a vacation not selling. I still stop in on former customers just to say hello now and then as most were very nice people. I volunteer a little, but mostly work on the house which I like and in good weather fly fish. A little upland bird hunting in the fall, but mostly it's getting out in the woods. Retirement is relaxing for sure. I wave goodbye to my wife on the two days a week she works. When she arrives home I have dinner ready to go, as I love to cook. Life is good.
 
Thank you again for the input, everyone. Retirement is unknown territory to me, so it feels good to hear from people who are living there. "Come on in, the water is fine" is a good message. Hopefully other people who are like me (hesitating about letting go of a job/paycheck) can find some food for thought here, too.

I especially resonate with all the introverts here who have talked about how you get to choose how much socializing you do, and with whom. That's a big one I didn't think about.

I really like hearing about the freedom of retirement, too. That's a huge deal. In a way, I'm embarrassed at myself for hesitating to pull the plug, because I've always valued freedom, and I've worked hard to get to the point where I can retire. I shake my head at myself, for wanting to cling to a job/paycheck rather than grab that freedom.

Maybe it's fear of the unknown. If so, the thread helps to make things a little more known. Retirement can feel enticing, but also a bit like an abstraction or a dream, for people who aren't there yet. It's good to hear from people who inhabit the unknown country.
 
It is great staying up all night watching old movies and sleeping half the day. You can always take an afternoon nap.

It is great taking more vacations and branching out to places we never had time to see.

It's even great spending too much time online.
 
If I liked my job enough that I had to search for reasons to retire I would keep working. Lots of people work happily well into their 70s. More power to them.
 
RobbieB said:
I get money for nothin' and chicks for free!
Click to expand...

LOL! I'm not interested in getting more money but the chicks for free is something I'm very interested in. LOL Do you have any advise/tricks for that? LOL
 
It's a huge "life-change-transition" event, like leaving the home you grew up in, and getting married, and having a child. Of course there are things you are giving up, in exchange for getting some things that, presumably, you value.

In my case, after running my own dental practice for 40 years, what I gave up was a nice paycheck, some social status, satisfaction of fixing broken things, and interaction with staff and patients, among some other things.
Among the things I gained were not having to worry about accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixing broken equipment, bitchy patients who do nothing to help themselves and want to blame me and my staff for everything in their lives that is messed up, HAVING to be in the office at 7:30 AM, calling the guy who was supposed to snow plow the lot BEFORE 7:30 AM, having to spend winters in Upstate NY,,,etc etc etc.

My point is, make a list of the positives that you are leaving behind. Acknowledge them, accept them, and consider yourself lucky for having had them in your work experience. Also, acknowledge the stressors you'll be happier without. Those things are on the "work" side of the ledger.
On the retirement side of the ledger make a list of the positives (naps, freedom to travel, etc etc),

My advice to those about to retire is don't expect every moment to feel like the first day of a 2 week vacation. You may find yourself at loose ends, feeling like you "should be doing something". It's OK to do nothing. It's even OK, and natural to feel "bored" at times.
When we work, our mentality during down time is to maximize it, because we know soon enough we'll have to go back to work. In retirement you learn that it's OK, to just........
R-E-L-A-X.....
 
Doing things when I want , not having a boss on my AZZ . getting to wear athletic shorts and T shirts most all the time


Have to do better at exercise and taking care of health.
 
I just finished writing up an 9-page list of reasons to retire. There's over a hundred items on there. I also have a list of reasons to continue to work, although it's only a bit over 1 page long.

Hmm. Choices, choices... :)
 
Think of all the Dilbert cartoons that have applied/apply to your situation at work.

NONE of those will apply in retirement. :dance:

omni
 
HadEnuff said:
It's a huge "life-change-transition" event, like leaving the home you grew up in, and getting married, and having a child. Of course there are things you are giving up, in exchange for getting some things that, presumably, you value.

In my case, after running my own dental practice for 40 years, what I gave up was a nice paycheck, some social status, satisfaction of fixing broken things, and interaction with staff and patients, among some other things.
Among the things I gained were not having to worry about accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixing broken equipment, bitchy patients who do nothing to help themselves and want to blame me and my staff for everything in their lives that is messed up, HAVING to be in the office at 7:30 AM, calling the guy who was supposed to snow plow the lot BEFORE 7:30 AM, having to spend winters in Upstate NY,,,etc etc etc.

My point is, make a list of the positives that you are leaving behind. Acknowledge them, accept them, and consider yourself lucky for having had them in your work experience. Also, acknowledge the stressors you'll be happier without. Those things are on the "work" side of the ledger.
On the retirement side of the ledger make a list of the positives (naps, freedom to travel, etc etc),

My advice to those about to retire is don't expect every moment to feel like the first day of a 2 week vacation. You may find yourself at loose ends, feeling like you "should be doing something". It's OK to do nothing. It's even OK, and natural to feel "bored" at times.
When we work, our mentality during down time is to maximize it, because we know soon enough we'll have to go back to work. In retirement you learn that it's OK, to just........
R-E-L-A-X.....
Click to expand...

I love this quote as it's so true for me.
"When we work, our mentality during down time is to maximize it, because we know soon enough we'll have to go back to work. In retirement you learn that it's OK, to just........
R-E-L-A-X....."
 
Top reasons given so far seem to be:

1. Master of my own time and/or no more alarm clock
2. No commute
3. No office politics or crappy bosses
4. Ability to take naps
5. Freedom to travel whenever without worrying about vacation time.

As a small business owner that works from home, I've got #1 through #4 covered. Vacation time is a little tricky--it's hard to take more than one week off at a time, I just get too far behind in my work.

The flip side to #1 and #2 is that when the phone rings while you are still in bed, say it's 8:30 am, you're already at work and that phone needs to be answered.

I'm starting to look at relocating after I retire, but the more I analyze my work situation the less I feel a need to retire. I'm finally earning decent money and after 30 years the job has gotten pretty easy. Many weeks I can get most of the work for the week done in 30 hours or so and can have Fridays off.

Any other work from home business owners want to chime in with what you gained after you retired?
 
omni550 said:
Think of all the Dilbert cartoons that have applied/apply to your situation at work.

NONE of those will apply in retirement. :dance:

omni
Click to expand...

I really enjoy reading Dilbert now and remembering how real it was for so many years.
 
Qs Laptop said:
Top reasons given so far seem to be:

1. Master of my own time and/or no more alarm clock
2. No commute
3. No office politics or crappy bosses
4. Ability to take naps
5. Freedom to travel whenever without worrying about vacation time.
Click to expand...

I think you may have overlooked the many comments about avoiding STRESS -- work-related and/or commute-related.

Stress is HUGE and can literally be a killer.

omni
 
ER Eddie said:
Not trying to be provocative with that title, just trying to get a little support in shifting my mindset. Maybe others will benefit from the discussion, too, if they're having similar issues.

My issue is that, as I approach retirement (in about 8 months), my mind focuses on the things I will be losing -- mainly, a paycheck, and also some social connections. Having a job and paycheck are a source of security that I've never been without (at least as an adult), so it feels a little scary to let them go.

My real problem is that I am more focused on what I'm losing by retiring than on what I'm gaining. That may be because I spent years encouraging myself to focus on the good things about the job, in order to keep myself going. But now that focus is holding me back, and I need to shift. I need to stop focusing on what I'm giving up and focus more on what I'll be gaining.

So, help me out. Let's talk about what is good about being retired.
Click to expand...


Why not add some more things that you'll be "losing" by retiring


- You'll lose that wonderful commute to & from work five days a week
- You'll surely miss work-related stress.
- Oh, and being on call 8-12 hours a day, 5 days a week for 48 to 50 weeks a year.
- Dealing with some people who make you want to claw out your eyeballs just because they're your work colleagues or customers.
... this list could go on and on..
 
Having control of my time.
Far less traffic to deal with.
Less stress and better sleep.
Much more freedom to pursue my interests.
 
Being in full control of your time. I second that. Life just becomes more flexible and on your own terms each day. Lots of time for exercise or travel. You can still have a paycheck. You just need to pay yourself on a regular basis.
 
Al in Ohio said:
You can still have a paycheck. You just need to pay yourself on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Yeah, W2R mentioned that, too -- paying yourself a 'salary' monthly or a lump sum at the beginning of the year. I like that idea. I'll get a paycheck from me. I can be my own boss and my own employee. My job is to be retired and do whatever I want to do. Maybe if I do good, I'll give myself a bonus.
 
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