Talking About Retirement

Retirement is coming up soon. A little over a month now and I will be retired, whatever being retired means.

To some of my friends, it is shocking that I would retire. To some of my friends, it is even more shocking that we would head out in a motorcoach for months on end in retirement.

As news of my retirement went out to my company, I received lots of congratulations and pretty much the same two questions: 1) What are your plans? and 2) What will you do next?

To me, once the financial planning is done, the tougher part of getting ready for retirement is dealing with the following questions:

• How much structure will I need in my day-to-day life to feel comfortable?
• How important is it that I be validated for what I do in retirement?
• How important is it that I be paid?
• Is there something that I am sufficiently passionate about that I would be willing to invest significant time and energy in it in retirement? If so, what steps do I need to take to make this a reality? What obstacles should I anticipate?

I’ve thought through these questions and I do not have answers for all of them. Frankly, I’ve had so much structure and so many demands on my time over the years that I really want to have a bit of a break from it all and not commit to anything too soon.

Although feeling mostly excited about our future, I do have days where I am frightened about the change.

A bit of a roller coaster ride for sure especially as the last few weeks at work are at hand.