On retiring, what new things did you start...

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lovetravellingoz

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At 57, retirement while not yet for myself is not far away. As such for those of you have retired I would be interested in what new things that have have entered into? With the extra time available what have you chosen to spend it on?
 
A very good and wise friend told me many years ago to plan your retirement early, and not just the financial aspects. Plan what you want have, as when you get there you will have it ready for you that you don't consume funds and time.

So with his advice in the back of my head, we completed all the renovations of the home, wine cellar is full (1550 wine, 101 single malt), all hobbies underway as almost completed the "n" gauge train shed, and of course a very healthy balance of airline and hotel points. And about 3 years away to start to enjoy.
 
Hubby retired last year at 56.

He has his monthly men chasing waterfalls photography group, swims daily (up to 40 laps in an hour now), flexibility strength classes every week, Friday breakfast with the guys burger meet, bought a bike and uses it, plus the usual scuba, walking, guitar and writing music, working on his photos etc. Oh, and he's started weekly piano lessons. Planning on building new house or moving in 3-5yrs.

He's actually quite busy most days, hard to fit a day job in with all the things he's doing.

Strange consequence is being engaged by the old fogies group who sit outside the local shop/PO box. He's trying to avoid it but made eye contact with them so they try to get him to join them for a nag.
 
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3 weeks after retiring I was back at work.Spend ~40% of the year working,50% travelling.
Absolutely love it.
My brother did the same in Feb. He didn’t call it retirement, although he is 66. His wife, a few years younger, won’t let him retire. Anyway he posted on LinkedIn on the day he left work and within a week had a contract for 25 hours a week that he can do at home. He works in IT. The company based in Ireland don’t poach currently employed people who use their software so he was fair game once he left.

MrP will never retire. I think he will be like Drron and Rooflyer. He’s an author too and you can always write books (if that’s what you do). Sadly his plans of playing golf went down the toilet when he broke his elbow a few years ago in a work injury. He hasn’t really replaced that with anything yet as his favourite sporting activities other than some gym work require a functioning arm and he’s not a swimmer or runner.
 
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The planets aligned and I quit at 55.
My peers were 50/50; those in employment were green, those with their own businesses were ambivalent.
Most intended to keep trading as they knew nothing else and were very much their own masters.

A close family has built and sold several businesses, it's their life, they are awash with wealth but it is unimportant.
They sit and chat about having to be somewhere early tomorrow and needing do this or that….. I will have none of it.
My neighbour is almost the same, big money business sale , lasted a month sitting around , went out and started another.

The (mostly management level) employees who were green saw retirement as escaping from jail, sadly the grass was
generally not greener and many faded away.
You soon get sick of playing golf 7 days a week……or sitting up the front for that matter.

I had a game plan which I executed.
I had a lot of fun, many challenges and regret not a second of it.
Approaching my dotage I am content to travel less , adventure less , and care for and enjoy my little "kingdom"….

Wealth and time do not combine to make a "magic key" to happiness……it needs something else..

herewith endeth the sermon…..
 
What I have found amongst my ageing peer group is that there is a tendency for employed people to retire and then return to the work force as self employed people or contractors. So they join us self employed people. In that sense they are lucky assuming they have some skills. They’ve had the benefit of the entitlements of being employed, had enough Super to consider retirement, and then go on to work some more. I do give them the glare if they start to complain they don’t get sick leave or annual leave and also have to submit the usual ATO documents.
 
Couldn't be happier, I consider myself to be a "self starter" anyway, so even after I decided to retire the list of things to do gets ever longer by the day.

I used to cook before even though we used to eat out a lot at quite a variety of restaurants here in Canberra, but I cook a lot more now and I've told I'm pretty good at it. I like experimenting, it's a shame that my better half has a shellfish allergy. If I ever develop that, shoot me!

Obviously travel is of great importance, too many places, not enough time.

Still haven't fixed all my cars, but there is a fair amount of inertia involved with that. One good thing about being in this position is if I don't want to do something around the house, we can afford to pay someone to do it.
 
Do you need to start anything new on retirement?

Golf 3-4 days/week and being involved more with my daughter would be more than enough.

Countdown on.
 
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I retired at 53 and had a list of things I was going to do (e.g. mastering Photoshop). I never got around to doing any of them.

I did join the Badger & Blade site (Badger & Blade ) and mastered wet shaving again, something I hadn't been able to do for three decades. Then we bought a new place and I had to learn chainsawing (safely), brush-cutting and hedging. And more recently I joined AFF and learned about FF points. And that's about it.

The sad part is that while watching some work colleagues easily adapt to retirement like me, others do not do so well and are unhappy, despite no financial issues. The difference is that those with problems suffer from the irrational notion that in order to be worthwhile, they must be doing something worthwhile. Thus when not doing something "worthwhile", they have feelings of worthlessness.

I've had numerous discussions like, "How come you are suffering from the Protestant Work Ethic ...... you aren't even Protestant?".

I have even had similar discussions in Italy, where people invariably ask me what I do all day, and are surprised when I unashamedly say "Nothing", as many of them too are into the only-being-worthwhile-by-doing-worthwhile-things business.

Very sad when people could be happy, but irrationally choose to feel worthless and unhappy instead.
Regards,
Renato
 
15 months to go (at most) until I cease full time work...I'll be just 58 then (but already arranged to be immediately reemployed on a casual basis)

Don't think I'm a candidate for full retirement... but am looking forward to having more time for other activities.

Have my sport - which I am a dedicated competitor in...and that won't change..I'll just have more chance to train and compete.

Have already started to learn to weld..partly because I just want to after a working life of paper shuffling and then driving... and partly so I can assist with maintenance of our sporting facitlities/equipment...

Looking forward to working less than the current 45 hours a week....
 
3 weeks after retiring I was back at work.Spend ~40% of the year working,50% travelling.
Absolutely love it.


I have not yet "retired", but I now have 4+ months on holidays/travelling each year and do not work full-time for most of the rest of the year. So I am kind of semi-retired now.

Wife was full-time till late last year. But has now joined me in my business with the same 4+ months on holidays/travelling each year, but works less hours than me.

And yes it is a good balance for us now. When exactly we make that 4 months into permanent is unknown, but is nominally in 3 years at present.
 
I will say to the newly retire or plan to soon - be understanding to your spouse or partner and their home schedule. It took a good 4 weeks of my husband being underfoot and in my way because he was screwing up my schedule.

He would have a shower, without considering that he was delaying me leaving for work. He would be in the kitchen, in my way, while Im trying to have breakfast, do laundry ect. Then he would phone my office at 4pm, asking when I would be home :rolleyes:

Early morning was MY time in the house and suddenly he was there. All the time. Which is why he now goes swimming every day approx 5.45/6am :)
 
Jealous+++. I'm nearly there age wise, but financiailly won't be able to retire at thai age :(
I’m well past that age and can’t see it but I am planning things like renovating house for sale and downsizing.
 
I think it's quite important, prior to retirement, to consider and apply for whatever CCs may be required in future years.

While I do agree with this. I was intending this thread to be on more lifestyle factors rather than on financial or FF tips etc.

ie. New hobbies, going back to Uni, working at a charity or voluntary group to be involved with, writing books etc etc..

I am really interested in what people are doing as this might spark some ideas for my wife and I...as well as other AFFers. Travel is an obvios one for AFF-ers and so I am especially interested in the non-Travel ideas as there are already many threads on travel at AFF.



For retirement for my Dad it was easy. He had long had a passion for all things mechanical and especially Veteran, Vintage and Classic Cars. So on retirement he just dialed things up a few more notches
  • While he had raced in the past he regained his CAMS racing licence (which he still has at 86) and started actively racing in the Historic Racing Circuit which he still does
  • He had always been active in Car Clubs, and not only kept that up, but also started two new Car Clubs from scratch
  • Tinkererd around in his two 12 sq car sheds.
His main problem now is simply that many of his mates have died off.
 
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