On Retiring, Uncategorized

So, How’s Retirement Going?

I’ve been asked this a lot lately. The truth is, I’m still working 4 days a week and I don’t consider myself retired until I don’t have to go in anymore. But my life is so different now that I’m not working full time.

I”m going into work at nine or so and I’m out of there by lunch. My afternoons are all mine and my mornings are no longer rushed. Its wonderful. When people ask though, its hard to convey just how wonderful not being in a hurry anymore is. They keep asking what I’m DOING, and it doesn’t sound all that exciting. It isn’t exciting, but it is SO much less stressful.

I used to be the only person at the office who was capable of helping clients with certain things. Now, I’m not. If I’m not there (and I’m not there a lot) someone else can do it. Very very few of my clients had my cell phone number, but one of them had it and called me on it regularly. The last time he called me (on my day off with my family at the river) I just declined it. There was someone at the office who could help him with whatever the emergency of the day was.

I’ve never been all that good at mornings, and now I don’t have to pretend. I used to rush around trying to get the kids ready and me ready and do a load of dishes or laundry before I left for work so the house wouldn’t be such a disaster when I got home. I like reading in the morning, and I’ve discovered that I love puttering around the garden in my jammies and garden clogs with a cup of coffee. I pick a few weeds, pick a few vegetables and muse on whether the perfect place for a plant is its current location.

My garden looks glorious. I like cottage style gardens which is a good thing as I have a lamentable habit of sticking plants wherever there is room, and wanting to move them the next year. Unfortunately, the time that you notice that they are in the wrong location (summer) is exactly they worst time to move them. By the time its a good time to move them (fall), I don’t have time to do it, or I have forgotten which and where the plants are that I wanted to move. This year, I have actually marked the plants that need to be moved and taken photographs. I started a garden journal with plans of where they need to go, and I have a reminder in my calendar so I don’t forget to do it.

For the first time ever, I’m doing a mid-summer re-plant of the garden. Certain crops (cucumbers, squash and tomatoes) just quit in the unbelievable heat and humidity of a deep south summer. I had heard of people replanting them mid summer, but I’d never done it. It is too hot to be in the garden anytime except early in the morning and nearly dark. That is the only time to do ANY outside chore here in June, July, and August, and I never seemed to have time to do it. I am going to do it tomorrow- I’ll let you know the results soon.

I have been better at keeping up with the bounty of my garden. This year when faced with an avalanche of tomatoes that ripened all at once, I didn’t give them all away (only some) or let them go bad on the vine. I borrowed my neighbor’s dehydrator and sliced and dried them. You can’t make sun-dried tomatoes here because the humidity is too high, but the dehydrator ones taste every bit as good. The experiment with squash chips wasn’t quite as successful, but I’ll try it again with a few modifications.

Some days if I have something to do in the afternoon, I go to the gym before work. It is blessedly empty at 7am. If I don’t go in the morning, I get a workout in before lunch. I am working out more than I managed to before retirement and I’m enjoying leisurely workouts. I no longer have to cut workouts short to get dinner on the table at a decent hour. I also don’t have to bunch chores together in order to get everything done. I don’t like going to the grocery store in gym clothes after a workout and I don’t have to do it anymore.

I’m enjoying cooking more, as I have plenty of time to decide what to cook and plenty of time to do it in. I’d like to claim that my house is cleaner, but it probably isn’t. I’m happier about doing household chores though- probably because I’m not trying to cram them in before work or do them after work when I’m tired.

I’m visiting more- my parents live only about an hour and a half from me now, and I’m going to see them this weekend. I’ll probably stay a day or two, and its close enough I can even go mid-week if they need me. I have a neighbor who likes to have coffee occasionally. Probably half of our attempts to get together were unsuccessful due to scheduling- either her work schedule or mine. We get together more often now because we can.

While this all sounds boring to people who ask me what I’m doing in retirement, its exactly what a book I recently read on happiness prescribes. Am I happier? I am.

7 thoughts on “So, How’s Retirement Going?”

    1. Thanks. Thanks to COVID it hasn’t gone at all according to plan, and it’s changing quickly. I hope I can keep my balance going forward.

  1. I think I may have mentioned before how your posts remind me of my own experiences. Perhaps the part when people ask how early retirement is going and what I do to not get bored, and I half find that I’m trying to justify myself, when I really don’t need to. That’s because so much of the pleasure is in the little things that sound inconsequential or boring when said out loud, but actually make all the difference. One of my favourite occupations is having time to think about all kinds of different things (probably I had time before, but I either didn’t do it or it didn’t feel the same). I think these small things, such as those that you describe in your post, add up to a feeling of contentment, again, maybe that doesn’t sound so exciting, but it’s a lovely way to be.
    Four years into my early retirement, I’m still learning about it. I have a (lighthearted) tug of war between being active/having projects and enjoying relaxing. I haven’t quite got it figured out yet, but I enjoy trying and also enjoy thinking/wondering about what my next steps should be. It beats the heck out of thinking about balance sheets and income statements, that much I do know!šŸ˜€

    1. I’m so glad you’re still enjoying yourself. Since I’m analytical too and we had similar jobs (I think) it makes me hopeful I’ll continue to enjoy my path as well. I’m looking forward to hearing about your adventures in the UK!

  2. I love “not being in a hurry anymore” too. In fact, I think it is the greatest gift that money can buy you. Forget fancy trips and pricey toys. I just want to wake up slower. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to get to business eventually. I just don’t want to do it moments after I first open my eyes. Your semi-retirement sounds absolutely boring and peaceful in the most magical way!

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