As a recent retiree, I am amazed
at just how quickly my change in wardrobe style has become more normal to me
than my previous office attire was. My
normal daily attire is now t-shirts and tennis shoes with the stretchiest jeans I can find. It wasn’t until I had to get “dressed up” one
day that I realized how much I love wearing t-shirts and tennis shoes, and just
how comfortable they are.
I am only two months into my new
world of retirement and still trying to figure out how to navigate this
wonderful adventure. The most frequent
question I heard from co-workers, friends and family before I retired was, “So,
what are you going to do after you retire?”
And even now, people ask me what I’m doing since retirement – in other
words, how am I spending my time? And I
have to admit that those questions were always at the top of my list, right
along with wondering if we can make it financially without my income. I have to say that I am staying busy with a
variety of activities, so my hope for this blog is to share some of the
interesting ways I am spending my time, new things I am learning, and to maybe
help other people along the way in their retirement journey.
During the years leading up to
the decision of when to retire, my thoughts were to leave the workforce at the
end of the year I turned 62. I knew that I would be able to draw Social Security
at that point if needed, and I felt that I would be ready to retire. The year I turned 62 just happened to be
2020, and we all know what happened that year…..COVID-19. The pandemic turned our world upside down and
changed the workplace, possibly permanently.
For a while, my workplace had more people working from home than
actually in the office. But due to the
nature of my job, I was one of the few who was never sent home to work and
remained in the office. So retirement
was put on the back burner and I had to re-evaluate when would be the best time
to end my career.
After much thought and prayer, I
made the decision to retire at the end of 2022. I gave my boss a one year notice
at the end of December 2021, and I worked through December of 2022. I felt
complete peace about my decision and never wavered as I finished my last year
of being employed.
It is good to make plans and have
goals for how we want to spend retirement, but sometimes life-changing events
will happen and it can rock our world.
And it happened to me. I will
save that story for next time…
Hi Kathy, Thank you very much for your visit and comment. You will find retirement is wonderful. I can't believe I've been retired since 2004. The years really fly by. Welcome to the blogging world.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm excited about so many new opportunites.
DeleteWelcome to the world of ‘however did I find time to go to work’. Don’t stress over what to do - just do it - or don’t do it - it’ll get done sometime! I’ve been at it for quite a few years now and find the things that didn’t/don’t get done weren’t that important after all😊
ReplyDeleteOh I came over from Kay’s blog
Thank you for checking out my blog. Look forward to reading more of yours!
DeleteWelcome! I'm looking forward to reading about your journey.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I am enjoying the journey so far :-)
DeleteWelcome to the world of blogging. Retirement is a good time to start documenting your journey. And I agree with you about t-shirts and tennis shoes....most comfortable 'uniform' out there.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the warm welcome and for checking out my blog! After reading a couple of your posts, I look forward to following yours also. And I'm so sorry for your loss, and wish I'd been able to read your caregiving posts a few years ago when I was helping with my parents.
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