January marks five years of publishing Retirement Confidential. In honor of this anniversary, I suffered through pages and pages of old posts to cull some of my more cogent thoughts about life after work. I hope you enjoy the recap.
Thank you for making it all possible. Happy New Year!
- In large part, retirement is about making it to the finish line and doing whatever you can get away with.
- Many retirees are probably unemployable. Not that we’re uppity, but our bullshit meters are pegged. Oh, and our inside voice is now our outside voice.
- While big retirement goals typically require planning, preparation and commitment, in the art of the slack, it’s important to set a low bar for the routines of daily life.
- I got my first Social Security payment this month. That was fun. While I don’t miss work, I do like to be on the receiving end of money.
- As a childless couple, we want to spend our principal … just not all at once. I like the idea of “die broke.” However, I would like to avoid being alive and broke.
- We add layers and layers of accommodations and behaviors to earn a living, and we start to believe that’s who we really are. Retirement is a journey toward freeing ourselves from expectations and accepting we don’t have to be more than we are.
- One thing I’ve learned in retirement is there’s something to be said for wishful thinking. I have been on both sides of the attitude spectrum, and nothing good ever happened when I thought the glass was half-empty.
- I woke up the other morning thinking, “I should get a job.” I used to like people. Maybe I could learn to like them again.
- Retirement can be the opportunity to discover or re-discover who you are when nobody is watching.
- What if we don’t need to continuously improve ourselves? Here’s a radical thought. What if being content is what it actually means to reach our full potential? What if being alive is our greatest accomplishment?
- I’ve had weird retirement dreams lately. I’m working at my old job but wondering why there isn’t more money in my bank account. Did they forget to pay me? Then I realize I wasn’t working at all and haven’t had a job in years. I wake up happy.
- Illness definitely affected my professional timetable. My first bout of cancer woke me up to get serious about work, and my second bout woke me up to get serious about life.
- In the grand scheme of things, I haven’t accomplished much. I consider making enough money to retire my greatest achievement.
- Retirement can be an unbelievable opportunity to pursue nothing – and that is everything.
- I’m not one to document goals, accomplishments or disappointments. If I wanted to do all that, I would be working.
- I never get sick of retirement. Even when I read the news, and it’s all horrible and depressing, I think, well, at least I get to sleep in.
- On multiple occasions, my boss said I couldn’t take vacation. I think she just got nervous when the flock wasn’t there. When I retired, I had more than 30 days of vacation paid to me because I never got to use it. Yo, girlfriend, guess who’s on vacation now?
- In many ways, it would have been easier to keep working. At least you get paid to avoid self-reflection.
- Once you have enough to get by without a job, time becomes more important than money or stuff.
- Waking up without an alarm is one of the greatest joys retirement brings. I waited my whole life for this.