I've been retired for almost one year now

[bearfan454]

I am very much enjoying it. I'm busier now than when I worked. I have ranch upkeep, the garden, and home stuff. I can honestly say cooking, cleaning, laundry and dishes are a full time job by themselves.

[safeinOhio]

1. Thing about retirement...

You never get a day off.

[bearfan454]

7. You're not kidding

Never

[Ohiogal]

2. When my husband retired from teaching

He said he didn’t know how he ever had time to work!

Especially if you have a house .... it’s always something. Inside and out.

[Polly Hennessey]

3. I love my retirement.

Every day is near perfect. I have my books, my dogs, the garden, leisurely meals, my time is mine. Don’t miss the stress of other people.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. Having 7 Saturdays each week is pretty cool!

[calguy]

5. June 30 was the second anniversary of my last day at work

Have to say..... It's been nice. With 10 acres to play with there's always something that can be done but very little that absolutely has to get done. I don't have a ton of money but don't need very much. Life is good.

[srobertss]

6. Retirement happiness surprised me

I dealt with depression when I was young and thought I would have to be very careful to structure my time well when I retired. Instead I was surprised to feel like a new person. It was like all these parts of me I expended on the people in my job (which I really liked and still volunteer with) swirled together and returned to me. It’s been six years now and I’m still marveling at my luck, though I have to keep myself from expending too much on the political situation.

[Siwsan]

8. Retiring, when I did, was one of the smartest things I've ever done

It's been 4 years, now, and I haven't had one single second of regret. Whatever years I have left, I have because I retired and walked away from a stressful, hostile, corporate work environment. I had planned on working another 3 to 5 years but my work situation became untenable. After I lost my sister and my mom, that made me stop and re-evaluate my priorities. I retired on my very first day of eligibility.

I'd always been a 'saver', received a modest inheritance, which I invested, and am a VERY low maintenance individual. I garden, read, do a little traveling, make LOTS of plans - some I carry out, some I haven't quite gotten around to, yet. My niece and her new husband are moving back to Michigan, and plan on starting their family so, hopefully, my life is going to start getting even more fun, interesting and fulfilling.

[kstewart33]

13. Your life sounds wonderful. Good for you!

[demosincebirth]

9. I do well doing nothing. Is that a positive or a negative?

[srobertss]

16. People always ask me what I'm doing with my time

I half apologetically, half proudly say, “nothing”. Of course “nothing” includes gardening, cooking, knitting, etc. But a lot of people wonder why I don’t travel more. I used to be a good traveler and thought I would do a lot when I retired, but now it feels like a waste of time. In the words of Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks, “All the news we hear is full of grief for the future. But the real news inside us is there’s no news at all.” I’m spending my time paying attention to the real news inside me. That takes a lot of nothing.

[SunSeeker]

19. I thought I'd want to travel more too, but I don't.

When I was working, I constantly wanted to travel. But now I realize that was because my job made me feel so trapped and claustrophobic. Now that I'm retired, I don't have that "I gotta get out of here" feeling any more.

[Bradshaw3]

32. Right there with you two

There are still places I want to go before I go - for good - but don't feel much motivation to do it right now. Maybe because I travelled a lot when I worked (probably for the same reason you listed) and feel like I have done and seen a lot.

Same with retirement; don't feel the need to do a lot, just happy walking my dog in the mountains and visiting friends. I have volunteered at a nature center. All those things that seemed so important when I worked seem awfully small nowadays.

[SunSeeker]

36. Yes, the best is just hanging out with folks you love in local spots you love.

[Nay]

37. That's interesting, because I always thought I'd want to travel more, too. But I'm

perfectly happy staying home. I no longer want to deal with people (had to do that all my working years!) regularly, or deal with the stress of travel. We did see most of the US and 3 or 4 overseas countries, and that's been enough for me.

And as far as US travel goes, most of the US is so similar that travel doesn't do much for me here, except for the natural areas. And we've been to 90% of them, so . . .

[Mr.Bill]

10. I've been retired about seven years.

We downsized our housing and moved into a senior mobile home park, something I thought I would never do, but I'm very happy with it and it's really cheap. We are not wealthy, but we get the bills paid and have a nice new compact car. I took on the tasks of dishwashing, laundry and watering the small garden.

It's an older mobile home, so repairs and upkeep have to be done. It was a fixer when we bought it, but we installed a complete new kitchen because we both love to cook and we updated other things as well.

I volunteer at the hospital where my wife used to work. It's very interesting how working for no pay (something else I never thought I'd do) because when you take money out of the equation it leaves just the simple act of working. No worrying about the next raise, or getting laid off, etc. I just go to work and make people feel a little more comfortable in the surgery waiting room. It's easy to do.

[MLAA]

21. Thank you!

I’ve spent the last week at a hospital with my husband. His single bypass surgery went well and he will be released tomorrow. The volunteers at the waiting room area were so helpful, but the biggest gift they gave was a smile every time I walked by. It really helped. I thanked them and now I wanted to thank you!

[Mr.Bill]

23. The pleasure is all mine.

Well, except for the fact that I have to be there at 5:30 am. But I only do it one or two days a week and I'm usually home by noon. Although we don't get paid, we get invited to all employee events, like the Christmas party and the summer BBQ and we also eat free in the cafeteria. The hospital treats us very well and I can't walk down a hallway there without being thanked by someone.

My motivation to work in this area was that between all the medical issues my mother and wife have been through, I have spent a lot of time in that waiting room and others and I know what people are going through. For some it's a pretty routine thing because they've been there so many times, but for some it's the most stressful day in their life. And you're right, a smile goes a long way.

[OMGWTF]

11. After working my arse off in the corporate world for 35 years and raising a family,

I was so happy to put "homemaker" on my income tax return ten years ago when I lost my job in the Great Republican Recession of 2008. Taking care of my home, family, friends, and community are the best job I've ever had.

[BHDem53]

12. It's six years for me after

36 years on the railroad. Thanks to the union I was able to retire at sixty years old and the railroad continued to pay for my health insurance to my 65th birthday. Railroad Retirement is paying me almost as much as I was making on a straight time paycheck. And I no longer have to get up on Monday at three in the morning to drive somewhere to work. Go Bears!

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. 30 days to go for me

Looking forward to having enough time...to do whatever I want.

[extvbroadcaster]

15. Looking forward to it

I used to never think about retirement. Now I do a lot. One or two more years. I started to really pay attention to my pension about 7 years ago. The company put everyone in a 401k a few years ago but older workers could stay in the pension, so I did.

[marble falls]

17. My wife's been after me retire like her. I told her she's not retired, she's just working for free.

[SunSeeker]

18. Yep, retirement doesn't mean sitting around. Be sure to guard your time in retirement.

All the things you've been putting off doing in your home are now things you have time to do. But be careful. Once people realize you're retired, they won't respect your time as much, and will expect you to do stuff for them all day long, as if your time is now limitless. You didn't retire to be someone's gopher. You worked your ass off your whole adult life so you could do what YOU want in retirement. You deserve it. Remember that and be careful about committing your time to any person/organization unless it is truly making you happy to do it.

You only have so many really good years of health left, where you can travel and do physically demanding stuff. Don't squander it doing other people's chores. Do stuff YOU want to do. If what you want is to work in your garden, then go for it. But if not, hire a gardener and free yourself to do other stuff. I'm telling you this because I wish someone had told me that when I retired.

[mike_c]

20. me too!

Congratulations for your retirement! I retired on Aug 17 2018, but I'm only semi-retired in that I can still work one semester a year if I want to, and the extra money makes me want to. So I'm getting ready to go back to work from mid-August until mid-December. But the last seven months have been great!

[MLAA]

22. My biggest accomplishment since I retired was spending time exercising to get really fit.

The rest of the time is just doing whatever I feel like and asking people is today Tuesday? Or what is the date today?

[bearfan454]

24. Me and my 14 year old dog go for walks every day

She was my Mom's dog till last October. Now she's my baby Daisy. My Mom spoiled her to the point of her not knowing she was a dog. She had her own single bed, her own couch, and my Mom cooked for her all the time. But me and her are getting healthier every day on our walks.

[MLAA]

38. Daisy sounds like a very lucky girl!

[trof]

25. It's been 20 years.

I quit gainful employment in 1999.
I still like it.

[demosincebirth]

39. Same here

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. The best part of it is when you wake up early in the morning, look outside and see

that it's snowing like crazy, and you just go back to bed because you don't have to get up and drive to work in the snow. The down side is that people think that because you are retired you have nothing to do, so if you are involved in any sort of volunteer organization you will be taken advantage of if you don't say "no" pretty often. I have become very good at saying No.

[doc03]

27. I have been retired for 10 years now, the best job I ever had. You have to keep busy. The worst

thing you can do is start hanging out with other retirees that do nothing but watch Fox and complain. So far this year I have put over 1000 miles on my bicycle, when the weather doesn't co-operate I go to the gym, go to concerts, travel and go fishing any time I want. I to wonder how the hell I ever had time to work. I thank god I had a good paying union job with a defined benefit pension. I wonder what the next generation will do, work till they die?

[LakeArenal]

28. We are three years in and loving it.

His family can’t believe he doesn’t have a part tome job. Mine has always thought I as an underachiever anyway.

People say have a good day. I reply everyday is a good day, but thanks!

The worst day of retirement has been better than the best day working!!

[spooky3]

29. I loved reading this thread and I look forward to the day when I can join you!!! Nt

[marigold20]

30. Nine years and loving it

One of the best things about retirement is the ability to do things during the week - no waiting for the weekend and hoping for good weather. We are heading out tomorrow for some camping now that the weather has improved. We'll canoe every day, bike and stare at the water. Can't wait!

[Runningdawg]

31. Somedays I wonder how

I ever got anything done at home working 80 hours a week. I was on call 3/4 days I wasn't working, it's been over 10 years for me and I can finally relax at the salon, knowing my pager won't go off in the middle of a cut. I STILL can't manage more than a few hours of sleep in a row, though overall, I do get more sleep.

[Bradshaw3]

33. When I was a young longhair all I wanted was to not work, get high and listen to music

Now I'm retired, can use pot legally and have a compiled a pretty good music collection over the years. So at 65 I'm finally getting to do full-time what I dreamed of (and did in spurts) back in the late 60s and early 70s. I retired at 62 and glad I did. I don't have as much as others but also not worrying about all the stupid shit you have to when you are working (and I had a job I enjoyed).

[Golden Raisin]

34. Three years this summer and totally enjoying retirement.

Retired from a huge corporation and do not miss the tremendous stress, nor the commute (via NYC subway). When people inquire I say, "I'm a professional bum." Or, "I have no problem with doing nothing." Worked my ass off for 45 years (not counting summer jobs in high school and college.) Now it's time to relax and time for me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. I have never understood people who

retire from a job and then get another one because they're "bored". That's a strong indication the person has zero happening with them outside of a job. Which is sad.

Oh, I understand going back to work because you need or want the money. But bored? There are books to read. Movies to watch. Walks to take. Friends to visit.

Personally, I've never had a job that was better than not working. I ceased gainful employment about five years ago, and even though I wouldn't mind having more money, I have enough to pay my bills and do some traveling, so I'm quite happy. Plus, I have never been one to get up early in the morning. I generally sleep until 9 am or so, and just love it.