WestUniversity
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2017
- Messages
- 717
This December marks the 2nd anniversary of my retirement. I started to write a rather lengthy recap but soon realized it just wasn’t necessary. Simply stated, retirement has been fantastic. Years of extensive planning have paid off greatly. After two years of retirement, which have included routine annual expenses, extensive travel, significant home improvements, one really huge expenditure, and even a pandemic, we are still worth much more now than when I retired. There are a lot of things that are more important now than before retirement and conversely a lot of things that are less important.
In the “more important” category, the top things I would place there would be my faith, my family and my time. In my stress filled life before retirement, each of those was either slighted, taken for granted, or mismanaged in some way. My living now is much more intentional and balanced. DW said she could not believe the change in me and how quickly it came about. While I realize that I potentially have 25 more years on this earth it’s also abundantly clear that it could pass by in a flash, and that it will require intentionality on my part to spend whatever time there is left wisely.
One of the side effects of making the most of that time, and one of the first things in the “less important” category, has been time spent on social media, in fact media in general.
Facebook, gone.
Twitter, gone.
And in the interest of full disclosure, time spent here, mostly gone. I still check in periodically, mainly to see the posts from Car Guy on the Thursday joke thread. There is also the occasional thread that catches my eye. Aside from that, many other things now occupy my time.
I also spend less time stressing about finances. We have continued to live as we always have, well below our means. We don’t scrimp or sacrifice in the least, but we also don’t chase after the latest do-dads or the big shiny objects either. I continue to take care of the fundamentals of prudent, conservative investment management and there continues to be more than we really need… so much so that we’ve significantly stepped up our charitable giving.
Also, in the less important category, trying to impress or seeking the approval of others… and I’m not even sure I have framed that one correctly. So much of my working life was the constant conscious effort to project the best image, to achieve the highest level of advancement, to maximize the end results. Now I volunteer several days a week for a local faith-based ministry. I’m also much more involved in our church and our local and overseas missions efforts, including travel to those countries and giving to and serving in those communities. My “first world problems” look very different and very small through the lens of a third world country. I don’t care whether people are impressed with or approve of anything in my life. I simply focus on trying to do what I feel called to do.
I’m not sure what the future holds but I feel more equipped to take it on and to make the most of it than ever before. Blessings to all in 2021!
In the “more important” category, the top things I would place there would be my faith, my family and my time. In my stress filled life before retirement, each of those was either slighted, taken for granted, or mismanaged in some way. My living now is much more intentional and balanced. DW said she could not believe the change in me and how quickly it came about. While I realize that I potentially have 25 more years on this earth it’s also abundantly clear that it could pass by in a flash, and that it will require intentionality on my part to spend whatever time there is left wisely.
One of the side effects of making the most of that time, and one of the first things in the “less important” category, has been time spent on social media, in fact media in general.
Facebook, gone.
Twitter, gone.
And in the interest of full disclosure, time spent here, mostly gone. I still check in periodically, mainly to see the posts from Car Guy on the Thursday joke thread. There is also the occasional thread that catches my eye. Aside from that, many other things now occupy my time.
I also spend less time stressing about finances. We have continued to live as we always have, well below our means. We don’t scrimp or sacrifice in the least, but we also don’t chase after the latest do-dads or the big shiny objects either. I continue to take care of the fundamentals of prudent, conservative investment management and there continues to be more than we really need… so much so that we’ve significantly stepped up our charitable giving.
Also, in the less important category, trying to impress or seeking the approval of others… and I’m not even sure I have framed that one correctly. So much of my working life was the constant conscious effort to project the best image, to achieve the highest level of advancement, to maximize the end results. Now I volunteer several days a week for a local faith-based ministry. I’m also much more involved in our church and our local and overseas missions efforts, including travel to those countries and giving to and serving in those communities. My “first world problems” look very different and very small through the lens of a third world country. I don’t care whether people are impressed with or approve of anything in my life. I simply focus on trying to do what I feel called to do.
I’m not sure what the future holds but I feel more equipped to take it on and to make the most of it than ever before. Blessings to all in 2021!
