Retirement

The company I retired from is planning some retirement seminars for those nearing retirement age. This is a revival of a program they had several years ago. The goal is to prepare people that are ready or soon will be for retirement. They will have speakers on Social Security, Medicare, financial planning and other bits of useful information. But, this time they want some retirees to come and speak about their retirement experience. They made a big mistake. They asked me.

Folks, I can tell you a million things about retirement. The first being that no matter what you think it will be like, you’re wrong.

Sure you have all the time you want to do what you want, when you want. But, you also have all the time you don’t want, to do the things you don’t want to do. You never get a day off and there is no calling in sick.

Retirement is not like being at work. It also is not like taking a two week vacation. It’s kinda like unemployment, except you can’t draw unemployment checks.

The most important advise I can think of for anyone planning to retire is, find a social circle. Humans are social animals. Most people want to quit working, at least in part, to get away from people. You will soon discover that when there are not people around, you don’t know what to do.

Naturally, it is easy to say, "I’m going to spend more time with my family." Have you ever thought, your family may not want to spend more time with you? Unless they are retired, they don’t have any more time than you did when you worked. If your spouse is retired or never worked, it is going to be a culture shock. Some woman said, "You get twice as much husband and half as much money."

Oh, I could go on for hours about retirement. But, I can go on for hours about almost anything. The trick is to find what makes you happy. Remember, wether you realize it or not, humans like to feel a sense of worth. It’s easy to lose that feeling if you are not careful.

I know I have worth. I shop, mop, vacuum, run errands and fix stuff.

And I write this dumb blog.

PMO
©2011