Retirement: what I miss about work
Roger (Mr. Peril) over on Contains Moderate Peril wrote about the things he misses in retirement from his work experience. Much of what Roger had to say felt consistent with…
My interrupted life
Everyone in the modern world deals with constant distractions. But one of the benefits I expected from retirement was the concept of being able to focus on a task, or…
Over one year as a retiree
I retired on May 31, 2024. That means over a year has passed and I am still happy with the decision. Irene and I have had some tough times during the past year that I’ll touch on in this post. But the absence of the pressures of work has made it a lot easier to bounce back.
But my post-retirement lifestyle is not the active and adventurous, check-off-your-bucket-list thrill that most retirement advisors seem to recommend. And I guess I’m here to say that, for me at least, that is perfectly okay.
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Spending time
My days since retirement have been very relaxed. I don’t fret too much about what I do or do not do, I enjoy an afternoon nap most days, and I wake up around 8:00 am if I feel like it. I rarely feel rushed. “Mañana” is my favourite word.
But I think I have recently hit a new peak of ‘doing nothing’ behaviour. For the past week or so I’ve spent the bulk of the sunny spring days we’ve had sitting on our deck. Sometimes I feel bad about this, considering it ‘wasted’ time, but I think I need to start thinking of it as time well spent.
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Steady as We Go: Cancer, Retirement, and Making the Most of Every Moment
I went into some detail early in 2024 regarding Irene’s cancer diagnosis and how the treatment had progressed to that point. Back then we were still figuring out our ‘new normal’, and although the outcomes were positive it was still a very uncomfortable situation.
Not much has changed medically since January but I thought it was appropriate to give an update on how our life with cancer is progressing.
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Retirement: Looking back at the work
My career came to an end on Friday, May 31, 2024. That’s when my retirement became ‘official’.
I am feeling pretty good about no longer being a contributing member of society here in the first week of June. It feels very good to have no thoughts in my head about what needs to be done for work next week.
But I am also feeling a bit thoughtful about the past 40 years or so when I spent 40 to 80 hours a week (130 hours a couple of times) working. I’m turning that reflection into this summary post on my blog.
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The sunset of life
Things I want to do when I retire…
I’m still a few years away from retiring, but the years pass fast- and I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Retirement scares some people. What will they do, they wonder, when every day isn’t filled with the job that currently occupies their time? How will they define their value in the world? Some of these folks retire, then pass away a year or two later. Or sit in their house, watching sitcoms and gradually wasting away.
I don’t think I’m really like that. I’ve had things I want to do, things I want to learn and experiment with, for decades. Not to make money or ‘prove’ myself: that’s what a job is for in my mind, I guess. Just things that interest me, that likely produce little obvious value. I’ve even tried to work time for these into my life pre-retirement, but have never been able to balance them with my job.
So what’s on my list? Glad you asked…
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