My dream retirement would possibly kill me

[Gams]

The strangest thing about retirement is people are always asking me, “What do you DOOOO all day?” I’m not the first person to retire and I have no problem entertaining myself so I don’t get it. Even my dad asked me that and he’s been retired for over 20 years so I said, “Well, what do YOU DOOO all day?”

[LAC]

A work friend retired this past year, moved south and bought a condo on the ocean where she walks for miles on the beach every day. This was her long time dream and I am so happy she has been able to make it come true, but I am also so jealous - I want to walk on the beach every day!

DH is retiring in the next two to four years, and I'm kicking around the idea of retiring in five years. I had a pretty good daily workout routine when I worked part-time, which fell all to pieces when I went full time. I'd like to get back to that when I retire (I'd like to get back to it now, but my job is stressful and I am exhausted). I am also looking forward to more time to play golf with DH and maybe joining the women's league that I don't have time for now. And if there is a way we can swing it, I'd like to spend more than 1 week a year walking on the beach!

[Gams]

I hope everyone’s retirement dreams come true! ❤️

[hdw]

Hearing your stories make I want to retire...

DH wants to retire in 4 years. I thought I might in 5 years, but now I think I should retire with him. I was SAHM for 16 years; I'm back working since 2014. I enjoy my job, and my collegue are great, so I hate to let that go. I hope I'll stay busy and active in my retirement years just like you guys...

[Usia]

I've been somewhat "retired" for a year now, but I continue to work as a consultant at least couple of days a week. I find that I am a lot more consistent with my workouts when I'm crunched for time and have a structure in my day. Meaning, on those days when I have to go to work. That's when I know I have to get up early, work out and be out of the house by a certain time. When I have a whole day to myself with no actual schedule, that's when I get lazy and tend to skip my workouts. On those days I read, do research and spend too much of my time on internet.

I have plans to travel but can't do it right now or leave the house for any length of time because my beloved cat Basil who is 17+ years old can't be, and doesn't like to be left alone in the house. One day I will travel and fulfill more or my "retirement" dreams, but not yet.

I'm not necessarily enamored of retirement and the "freedom" it allows, and it may be because I've mostly had an extremely flexible schedule since 2005 and I've never felt like I had to "punch a clock" anywhere just to live my life. I've been lucky.

Anyway, that's my "retirement" story.

[yogapam]

I’ve been retired for almost 6 years and haven’t looked back. I keep busy traveling, working out & spending time with my grandchildren.

When I retired, I was teaching yoga once a week (I stroked YTT off my bucket list almost 10 years ago) and I still sub occasionally for a friend. I wanted to learn something new so I have completed two levels of Essentrics training and am working on the third. I have a small studio space in my house, holds up to 4 students, that I now share with one of my students who just finished Essentrics level 1. My studio is my little sanctuary and I often spend up to two hours a day doing Essentrics, barre, low impact cardio, rebounding, and practicing yoga.

My DH and I always wanted to travel when we retired. He is a retired airline pilot so we have great travel benefits. We decided to put our home on a home exchange website and as I write this we are in France enjoying our 15th exchange. It has made travel very affordable. We’ve been to France four times, Hawaii twice, Italy, Switzerland, the Caribbean, Ireland, the UK, and a few places here in Canada.

We have a house in a rural area and small condo in the city (Victoria BC) where our son & family live. We are done with the drive back & forth & plan to move to the city permanently next year. Our condo is near downtown so we can walk everywhere. I love walking to barre & yoga classes when I’m there.

I was also working part time when I retired so it wasn’t as big an adjustment for me as I’ve seen for some who go from long hours to nothing.

So that’s my story, sorry if I’m too wordy!

[Taramisu]

I look forward to retirement, but that is years away yet. While getting older isn't fun one good thing about aging is that I am now closer to retirement than not. I think after spending so many years working you just want to be done with it at some point, at least that is how I feel. I am also really tired of commuting as well. I recently took a new role which I think was a good move so far, it's not any closer to home which I think I may come to regret at some point. I guess we will see.

I have my eyes set on 60 which is 14 years away. Either I will retire fully, or I will go down to part time for a few years and ease into it which honestly might be the better way to do it. I guess we will see how I am feel at that point.

[Carol K]

I'm 62 and I work fulltime, but 3 days a week, I work from home. I work out after work every weekday and in the mornings on Saturday. I do the FIRM and/or BeMax streaming workouts. I'm planning on working until I'm 70, because I enjoy my job (medical coder) and my husband hates his. So I want him to be able to retire first, even though he's a year and a half younger. The only way my workouts would change after I retire, is that I probably would work out in the morning every day.

[FirmDancer]

Originally Posted by Taramisu

I have my eyes set on 60 which is 14 years away. Either I will retire fully, or I will go down to part time for a few years and ease into it which honestly might be the better way to do it. I guess we will see how I am feel at that point.

If this is an option, I highly recommend it. I "retired" at age 59 - actually, I had the option of a very generous severance package so I took it. For 2-3 years, I hobbled together part-time jobs. I was VERY lucky, I had several offers for part-time jobs. I think I ended up working 60 hours a week for one year with various jobs! But one of them evolved into being permanent part-time: I work 30 hours in 4 days and have full medical benefits. It's perfect for easing into retirement! I'm able to really focus on my finances and curbing expenses. I'm finding out what I really like to do so that when I fully retire, I can jump right into my favorite things. One of the most important things I'm doing, is building friendships outside my work circle. I'm joining different groups and Meetups and I'm actually volunteering a few hours a month at a place where I really like the people. That way, when my job friendships come to an end, I'll have other people in my social circle.

[nyskier]

I have been retired for some time. Luckily, there is a very vibrant art community here in So Florida, so I spend lots of time painting and taking a watercolor class. I do more workouts than when I was working, but the real added benefit is I get to swim almost every day (unless we have thunderstorms or something worse). I love swimming!