About to retire

[jambo101]

Yes Want2retire I have discovered the "Life after FIRE" section.At first i took the section heading literally and wondered just how many people had their house burn down to merit a whole section in a forum pertaining to retirement.

Martha i am active on a dozen other forums and this is the only one where nobody posts their location,Cant believe its a privacy issue as an unscrupulous person wont be doing much with the fact that i live in Montreal.
I'm thinking that no one knows about the "user cp" and how to "edit profile" within.

 

[Martha]

You are probably right. We used to have different forum software and migrated over here. People who already were posters would have to go out of there way to add their location.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I turn into a slug, burrowing into the couch with an endless stream of novels and a dog on my lap. Especially in the wintertime.

Martha, this sounds productive to me! Then I would join a bookclub or class and it would be w*rk.

 

[RetireeRobert]

As i am weeks away from retiring i would like to get on some forums that address the psychological aspects of retirement so i can talk to people about what to do what to avoid etc.this is a great forum but doesnt really have a place for these kind of questions..Would appreciate any links to other retirement forums...Thanks

You are wondering about "adjusting" to retirement.

I can only relate my own experience. I spent a career planning for my early retirement, and I retired in my early 50's a few years ago.

It took me about 2 hours to adjust to being retired. I tell that to folks, and they laugh, but it is pretty much true. I never had any "work withdrawal" symptoms, or anything like that.

I am a retired CPA, and I suppose the one accomodation I made to keeping my "pre-retirement" identity was to keep my CPA license active for a few years. I just recently put it on inactive status with the Board of Accountancy.

My nickname here is the same one I use for lunchgroups and other forums I am in---RetireeRobert. To me, that IS my identity now. I had no long, drawn-out adjustment period getting used to retirement.

But, as I said, I can only relate my own experience. I am me, and you are you. I suppose, if I can draw some lesson, or at least fact, from my experience, it is that I planned/thought/wanted retirement for more than just a few months. Maybe that is why I had/needed no long adjustment period when I actually retired.

You ask an interesting question, and I am interested in seeing what others have to say.

 

[RetireeRobert]

I should add a bit about just what I "did do" after I retired. Some may consider these activities to have been part of a "psychological adjustment", which I just previously posted I didn't really have (in my opinion and way of thinking).

Within a few months I joined 24-Hour Fitness, started exercising 3 days a week, started eating healthier, and lost 25 pounds in 3 months. I dropped my blood pressure which had been creeping up around high borderline, dropped my tri-glyceride and cholesterol readings, and generally felt more pepped up physically. Sex took on a renewed luster as well!

For the first year I slept until my body woke up. I did not get up to an alarm clock.

After the first year, I started getting up to an alarm again to take the kids to school. My wife and I have been chauffering the kids ever since, whether to school, orchestra practices, church activities, or over to their friend's houses.

I took a more active hands on attitude to my investments. For years while I worked I had let many of my investments just sit in passive mutual funds. I spent several months deciding how I wanted to restructure my portfolio (with all the research attendant to such) and then got it slowly restructured (keeping in mind tax implications and timing).

I slowly developed a retiree lunch group to meet for lunch every other month. This of co-workers from over the years. I became a defacto email list keeper as I developed an email list for luncheon reminders, and this list then became a way to update everyone on people news about our co-workers/retirees.

I started myself on a self-improvement project to read some of the classic literature I never had time to do while working or never got around to when I was young and in high school and college. Discovered some very entertaining reads which also left me thinking long after I finished reading them. (The Bridge of San Luis Rey--Thornton Wilder. For Whom the Bells Toll--Hemingway. East of Eden--John Steinbeck. Angle of Repose--Wallace Stegner. Etc).

So, your question---how to "adjust", what to do, what to avoid when retiring----I hope my own experience has been slightly illuminating and helpful.

 

[jambo101]

Very helpful..

 

[RetireeRobert]

Very helpful..

So, how close to the magic day are you now?

And what are your thoughts as you have pondered things the last few weeks?

Anything(s) high on your priority list once you retire?