Entering semi-retirement

[Markola]

Good to hear! Do you think you enjoy your work more now? If so, why do you think that is? I'm wondering if not needing the job lets you appreciate it more or if maybe you've shaved it down to just the parts that are meaningful or enjoyable for you.

I expect that we'll both enjoy and find more meaning in our work since we should be doing the things we want to do and not the stuff that we had to do. We'll see how it goes.

For me, it’s been an experimentation with consulting vs. being an employee. Consulting is more of a teaching posture, and I’ve learned the frustrations with that include people who may or may not listen to you.

But mostly it’s given me much free time, including the ability to do remotely the little work I do. That’s number 1.

Number 2 is, I remain active in my profession and my network, and am confident I could get a good full time j*b again if I needed to if TS really HTF somehow. So I sleep better keeping a toe in the pool.

DW changed professions altogether and it hasn’t been as lucrative, naturally, but she really needed a whole new kind of gig. She found one she can also do remotely, part time.

Our two gigs let us do “work-cations” wherever we want to be. We spent last month in Palm Springs, for example, and December in Savannah, for example. So remote/part-time are key qualities for us.

Everyone is different and YMMV. Good luck navigating your own semiretirement! It works for us.