Starting Over
I am starting over. Not in life, just on this blog. After I got started weekly writing, we had a big vacation, work got crazy and a lot of travel to and from family kept me distracted all the way up to the end of the year! And the procrastination just grew, it is actually March now. I have decided to recommit to weekly writing, but now my purpose feels different. I feel a shift in how I want to approach this blog. I want this to be a journey in real time. I started by looking at topics I found valuable and was going to share my thoughts on them. As I tried to write article number 3 on how to find a financial planner, it just did not feel organic or what I even wanted to write about that week. So here is a reset. I will not tell you what to expect next week like I did in the beginning, because I do not know what next week will bring. So Happy New Year (or should I say Happy Spring?), and happy new beginnings. Here we go.
My husband and I have been talking a lot about retirement for a while now and during the holidays it was on overdrive. We thought we had a straight path and a solid plan but lately we have been trying on different ideas and concepts of what our life will look like when our work life ends. To give you some details, my husband plans on retiring in 1-2 years and I plan on retiring in 4-5 years from now. We have done the saving, investing, budgeting, meetings with our financial advisor and all signs point to being on track. The questions we are having now is not necessarily financial, but more from a daily lifestyle readiness. My husband plans on doing projects the first year that will keep him very busy, but what about the next 3 or so years before I retire? When we plan out our rhythm in retirement it includes a lot of travel; so what is he going to be filling his day with while I am at work and he is home alone? This is a reality for a lot of couples when one person stays in the work force longer than their spouse. I have seen this be successful and I have seen situations where the retired spouse ends up going back to work because they were unprepared to find purpose during the work week while their spouse was still chasing a paycheck.
My Dad retired young, at 56 1/2, after 38 years of working for the State of Oregon. My Mom worked another 5 or 6 years, and it started out a little rocky. My Dad was one of those "can't sit still" people. So staying home while his wife went to work was a challenge. All the things that kept him busy in the evenings, like working in the garden, doing yard work, spending some time in his work shop; those were all done by noon. He was pretty bored. After about a year he went back part-time as a consultant. He could work 1100 hours a year and still keep his pension. This allowed him to still have more time outside of work than he had before to start learning how to find purpose and stay busy when not at work, more slowly over time instead of so much pressure on finding it right away. When my Mom retired years later he too stepped away from work completely. By this time my Dad had more hobbies, and there were grandkids to watch; which kept them very busy. They spent the next 20 plus years having a very rewarding retirement especially since they had each other for company. But the beginning for my Dad wasn't what he expected so it meant he needed to adjust.
I think this is something to consider if you are the spouse leaving first, or even if you are single and retiring which would mean going from interacting with people 40 hours a week to potentially being home alone all day. Maybe investigate if there is a part-time option to transition into retirement? My sister did this when she reached full-retirement age for social security. She was not quite ready to stop working completely. She was going from working full-time and being a full-time caregiver to her disabled husband, to being home and being more than a full-time caregiver. Working part-time up to the financial limits set by social security to still receive her benefits, allowed her to transition slowly into retirement.
A motivation for some people wanting to retire before the traditional 65 or full retirement age of 67 could be because they want more time to do the things they want to do. It isn’t surprising that even within a couple, the readiness to retire could be at different times. This could be due to gaps in age, different types of careers, or even personality differences. One advantage to this staggered approach is a longer period of time with an income coming into the household and longer to save for complete household retirement. Best of all it just allows each spouse to step away from work when they are ready. My good friend retired at 65 after a long career in pharmaceutical sales. Her job required travel, which meant being away from home all week several weeks a month. Her husband being a little older, retired from being a psychologist 7 or 8 years before her. He really enjoyed having his time to do things around the house even while she was traveling for work. He loves his cars and they both enjoy working around the house. He got his rhythm down to stay busy, and when she retired she was able to quickly find her things as well. Spending time in the garden, doing dog walking, working very part-time for a friend's business, and they went to the gym together each morning. They also look forward to traveling together. And since she likes to travel more than he does, he is happy staying at home while she goes on longer adventures with her friends. Time spent retired alone while she traveled for work made this a comfortable rhythm for him and allowed them to each have the retirement they wanted.
Financially, all of the examples that I cited the individuals made some of their decisions of their timing of when they retired based on finances and some of the decision were made based on when they were ready to leave full-time work. When and how people leave is a very personal choice. For some people, starting something new like a fun part-time job, or a new small business sounds like an adventure while other people might just want to have slow mornings, followed by time doing their hobbies and more time with friends and family. There is no wrong answer, and in most cases the course can be altered easily if you find you made the wrong decision. Leaving that long term career is a big decision that can feel super scary. Starting to imagine what your life and your days might look like when you retire can help you feel excited that you are going to something instead of running from a job that maybe is more stressful and less enjoyable than it once was.
When we look ahead to when we will each step away from our full-time jobs, my husband and I have some shared visions and some individual ones. I want to write more and maybe teach yoga, he wants to mountain bike and spend time doing home projects. We both want to have more time with our kids and grandkids and time to travel and explore this great big world. The secret is trying to find that perfect moment when you have enough money and also have the most healthy time left to do all the things you dream of. Neither staying in the workforce as long as possible or leaving as early as possible is usually the best answer but something personal and more in between. That is why working with a financial planner while dreaming and imagining your future can make sure you are taking all the important components into account when deciding when to go. There can be tax and income implications based on your timing that you might not know about and the number one job of a good financial planner is to help teach you the things you need to know. We all want to make sure we don’t run out of money in retirement, and that is where a professional can make sure you have a statistically high chance of success.
I am definitely looking forward to retirement, and not just because my time will be my own but also because I am excited who I will be in that phase of my life. I want to see just how creative and adventurous I might be and also maybe learn to sit still every once in a while. I want to deepen connections and relationships with family and friends with some of that extra time, and learn more about my husband even after over 3 decades of marriage. The quality of the time in my days is what I am most excited about. But until then I will continue to enjoy being productive, making a difference within my workplace, and experiment during my time away from work exactly what adventures I want to expand on first when retirement actually happens.
As a reminder, I am not a financial expert and this article should not be taken as advice for your situation. I am happy you are here and to share my journey to that next phase life of retiring from full-time work. See you next time!
