Retirement isn't it amazing that even paradise can get routine

[Roll]

Retired the end of July 2013. Now it's January of 2015 and I can barely recall what I've done other than go to sleep on August 1 2013 and wake up this morning on Jan 8th, 2015. Anyone else have these thoughts?

Retirement was outstanding and still is but the glow I'm sure I had for the first 6 months has now worn off and it's life as usual the only difference is that I don't have to drive to a job where someone else dictates my activities. My wife now dictates my activities except for the occasion when I grumble a bit.

I think I work just as hard, stay just a busy (maybe busier), and still get frustrated with poor service. Oh, and I thought I would certainly slow down, (I've had probably 30 speeding tickets over my 65 year life) but I haven't. I still want to get there before the folks driving beside me on the interstate. (For the record I do not speed in the coach but the cars are another matter.)

It's not been a wasted 18 months, not at all, but as busy as I've been I can't say I did anything of real consequence. I've painted, pulled down wall paper, picked up my granddaughter from daycare many afternoons, repaired things and done upgrades to the coach and house. I'm not sitting on the couch all day but I do like a nap once in a while.

Wife would like me to get a job but why? We live comfortably and don't lack for the things we want, so the only purpose in getting a job would be to get me out of the house on a regular basis. I could do some traveling in the coach but its not the same without your mate and she doesn't want me to travel without her which I understand. She is still working which is what happens when you marry a young gal.

Anyway sorry for the unilateral off topic discussion; I'll stop now before I start pouring nonsense onto the keyboard and it spills out all over your monitor.

Happy New Year to my friends here on the Coachmen Forum.

Gary (and Cindy though she has not read this)

[bikendan]

i found your post very interesting.

i officially retired Dec. 30, 2014 but i had been off on worker's comp, since the middle of July.
during that time, we sold our house and moved to another state. i had to stay with my sister during my physical therapy but would take time to head back up to our new location, where the DW was living.
going back and forth was a huge hassle.

so, i'm finally facing what my retirement will be like. like you, i could get a job but we are blessed in that i don't have to.
we have 5 acres that is beginning to look like a lot of work to live on and not sure if that and our house being two stories, are things we will want as we grow older.

so, both of us haven't had time to really look at what retirement will be like for us and what our day to day life will be like.
we hope to have a better idea during 2015.

[sidney]

I totally understand where you're coming from. I need change in my life. It doesn't need to be earth shattering just something different from the regular routine.

Retirement is a huge change... The freedom is great... But after a while your day becomes routine just like when employed. The "newness" fades away. For me something "new" needs to be on the near horizon. But as I get older less things and experiences are new to me... It becomes... "been there, done that".

Different is good.

[Wiscampsin]

Like camping, retirement a lifestyle that you have to get accustomed to. I retired at 58. That was 4 years ago. The wierd thing is I don't know how I got everything done when I was working. The honey do list continues to stay the same, seems like just when I finish one job another is added. I have 'learned' to sleep in a little later, no real reason to get up at 5:30 anymore. I have assumed some household duties like grocery shopping which I don't really mind a bit. I was in line once and a lady with 3 kids had a couple items in her cart. I told her to go ahead of me. She asked if I was sure and I told her "I'm retired so I'm never in a hurry anymore" which made both her and the cashier laugh. The nice thing is that I can spend alot more time at our seasonal site. Once DW retires we'll get back to travelling.

[reliefman]

I retired on Jan.1 2012,I was 54.For the first 9 months it was great,then it got old.I still play hockey twice a week so I get to see my buddies,and I was lucky to land a job where I can work only on days I want to.Just before christmas I told my boss I was going to Florida for 3 months,and that is where I am now.When I get home I'll call him and resume my part-time job.

[Rivnut]

I retired in 2003. bought in a semi gated community, 18K acres,500 residents, small fee for the association, took up chairman of parks and trails for 8 years. That will keep you from sleeping too late, Was fun but gave it to a younger person, spend more time on trips now like Miami Christmas each year, visit Columbus, OH to see the other son, then my fishing trips like Brule, WI and this year White river in AR. Yellowstone river one day!. Get out there and see the country. I'm so bored between trips. Wife got some of her bucket list done last year on 10 state tour of the West.
"On the road again"

[aspengirl]

I retired the end of June, 2013, at age 58, after a 39 year career that I absolutely loved. It was a decision I didn't take lightly, and the first few months were quite an adjustment. I missed my work, and missed the wonderful people with whom I worked. It was almost like a mourning period for me. I wasn't emotionally prepared at all! My husband retired the end of November, 2013 and we left the end of December for a two-month trip to Texas. That trip was just what we needed to help us both adjust to this new chapter in our life together.

Just as Wiscampsin said, we don't know how we got everything done when we worked. We are catching up on things that were somewhat neglected, and we've taken time to travel, taken more time to spend with our families and friends, and just enjoyed the freedom to do what we want, when we want. We both have hobbies that we didn't have much time for before. Life is great, as is retirement!

It is hard for me to imagine not being retired!!

[Wilky]

Originally Posted by Wiscampsin

Like camping, retirement a lifestyle that you have to get accustomed to. I retired at 58.The wierd thing is I don't know how I got everything done when I was working. The honey do list continues to stay the same, seems like just when I finish one job another is added. I have 'learned' to sleep in a little later, no real reason to get up at 5:30 anymore. .

I agree been retired 16 years still am busy just if it doesn't get done today there is always tomorrow.

[GlacierGus]

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I am retiring April 1st of this year at age 66 3/4. I try not to work Fridays anymore so over the New Year's holiday I had 4 1/2 days off. I got bored and spent too much time watching TV (although this time of year the football games are great). I thought "what the heck am I going to do when I retire"? It must be a real challenge to find things to do that keep you active and interested every day. RVing will certainly occupy more of my time but in Minnesota the RV season is shorter. It was interesting to read these comments.

[DDC]

I love it, and while I hate Caterpillar for forcing me into it by buying a very good manufacturer of locomotives in Ontario just to close it down I don't regret taking my early retirement that put me back on GM's retirement page, it's been over three years now and as most say 'where does the time go because I'm always on the go' I don't think I would like to go and work for anyone now as I have become to used to controlling my own time.

[elind]

I'm working at getting to my retirement. At the end of August 2012 I left my route sales work of 36 years. 12-14 hrs/day was killing me but I wasn't to stop working yet. So I started to drive school bus 2 hours twice a day since my wife was still working full time. The wife is done working now because of an disabling injury at work. Now I'm ready to calling it quits with an exception of call in busing. The new plan now is to pack up the 5er and head to Arizona. A dream finally coming together after a lifetime of waiting.

[F and E Damp]

I retired from my engineering job at Boeing a few weeks short of my 58th birthday. I was tired of the excessive overseas travel required and couldn't get management's attention to switch me to a job without the travel. The last 12 months before I bagged it, I'd been out of the country for 29 weeks, and none of the trips were longer than 10 days. Unfortunately they were mainly to the Islamic world (Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei). I had over 600,000 frequent flier miles on maybe 12 different airlines.

After a couple of years getting my breath back and moving about 70 miles north of Boeing, I decided to try a completely different job and hired on with our county transit agency as a fixed-route coach driver. The change of job worked the change of attitude and I was able to retire for keeps after about 2 years with the buses.

I've now been "properly" retired for about 9 years. Unfortunately, we've had to come to the conclusion that we really can't afford the RV lifestyle and we sold our Georgetown 325 in early December. We hadn't used it at all in 2014 and had only done 6000 miles in the previous three years since we bought it.

Since the town where we live is a significant tourist destination, I guess we can be thankful to live somewhere that people pay good money to visit!

Incidentally, DDC, we're ex-pats too, from England (Leyland, Lancs.). We emigrated in 1968 to join Boeing.

[dblr]

I retired after 37 years at UPS at age 55, the wife works in the school district so we do travel all summer long. I work seasonally at both Amazon & UPS just thru the Christmas rush, gets me out of the house & funds our summer adventure, the rest of the time is spent catching up on the projects at home and trust me if I get bored the wife FINDS things to keep me busy!!!!!!!!!!

[southernsky]

I retired Oct 2010 at the age of 55 and haven't looked back. We take two long trips, a month or so a year, and many small one. "Sometimes my wife will ask me what am I going to do today and I tell her nothing, she tells me I did that yesterday. I just tell her I didn't finish".
Enjoy your golden years and the fruit of your labor, life is short.

[Pipeman]

I retired at 56 years old. It's going on 13 years now. I miss the job I did for 35 years to this day. I also miss the people I worked with. The day I retired about 500 pounds seemed to lift off my back due to the position I held and the people I was responsible for. I've often said to my wife of 45 years that it seems as tho' it never happened. Now we babysit two of our grand children full time(our choice). When we go camping we will take our youngest grand child, as the other one is in school, and his perents will join us for their long weekend. Our long weekends are at the least 10 days long. No sense packing up for a measly 4 days weekend . We do manage to take almost 3 month trips out west to see the rest of our family every other summer. We dry camp in the Rockies with our other two kids and their families for a few weeks and then move up to where they live and mainly reconnected with our other grand children. We've been very lucky to be able to do what we do and health wise we've been kind of lucky there as well, although we do have those aches and pains that people seem to get when they reach the so called "Golden Years". I found that you have to be mentally prepared to retire and hopefully be prepared monetarily as well. I found when I first retired, I read a lot. I filled up cardboard boxes with books that I read. Gave them away and then filled up more. I am able to read pretty fast and can read a fair sized book in a day...if I have nothing else to do. Early in my career I worked a part time job as well as my full time job because the wages I made in my full time job weren't a whole lot but I loved that job from the first day until the last. Later on as wages got better I didn't work part time any more. We started camping when our youngest was out of diapers. That was almost 37 years ago. Our three children have gotten trailers of their own and they camp as well. We all dry camp a lot. Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Good luck to all and stay safe.

[GOTTOYS]

I've been retired for 8 years. There is nothing about working that I miss. Absolutely nothing. I was born to do this..If I had known it was going to be this good I would have never worked.

[twiggw]

Thanks for the insight. I'm retiring Oct 1 of this year. I been working from home for the past 7 years due to state budget cuts so you might say I've been practicing retirement. My job requires on-call and a fair amount of in-state travel. I'm ready. We sold our Class A and we're replacing it with a 300x12 XLR and a Silverado 2500 diesel. Can't wait.

[Edmund]

We retired in 1995, went full-timing and haven't looked back. Would not change a thing. We are now in an RV CO-OP west of San Antonio and RV about 6 months/year. If you are getting bored get a good hobby. I remembered how much fun I had making plastic model planes as a kid so I have taken it up again. After I get too many I give them to local kids. There are lots of volunteer positions that are fulfilling. There is no record of someone saying on their deathbed, "I wish I had worked longer!" Good luck.

[richard rv]

Hi folks. Got to put my 2 cents in. Lol . in sept 2012, I came down with both forms of pneumonia and almost died because of this. This ended a 40 year career that I loved and lost. After 7 weeks in the hospital (9)days in a coma, I was released to go home. What I didn't know was this " bug "had all but destroyed my lungs and my career.

Retirement was not in my mind at all until now. I know how every day is the same . if my wife didn't tell me what day it was I wouldn't know . I could still drive, so she talked me into buying a motorhome. I haven't looked back. Ya'll can read into what I am trying to convey. Retirement ain't so bad.

[RubyDually]

Interesting thread...

I retired in June 2014 after a long career on the railroad as a Locomotive Engineer... Huge adjustment at first going from working around the clock over birthdays, holidays including Christmas to zero hours...

I get to sleep in my own bed every night now without the phone ringing at 01:00 AM. I can make appointments without the fear of not making them because I had to work. Being on call had its disadvantages!

The wife is still working so to keep busy I took on a part time job as a school bus driver... I forgot how much I liked kids plus the presents they gave me at Christmas really made my year!