On Retirement
Oct. 23rd, 2010 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rickpsOver the last year or so I’ve been struggling to focus on the subject of retirement. There’s a part of me that has never accepted the concept of a non-working life. Perhaps it’s a ghostly reminder of my father’s depression era mantra that “you should be happy that you have a job”. Retirement (and apologies to my friends happily in retirement now) is for old people, dammit! There’s also the conundrum of being retired and having the time to do all those things you can’t do now BUT, not having an income, being unable to afford such things.
Could I really survive with tons of free time? You have to understand that when I’m on vacation, I tend to go stir crazy after two weeks. I need to be productive, even if it’s pushing papers from one side of my desk to the other. What about part time? Well, my field doesn’t lend itself to such things, certainly not in my current assignment.
On the other side of the coin, I’m tired of the work grind. There’s a painful sameness about each day and a remarkable lack of ‘new’ in what I do. Am I going, one day, to keel over at my desk and alert the world that I’m gone from the stack of “you’re late submitting….” Emails? It’s an answer, that’s for sure.
We’ll also push aside considerations of whether or not I can afford to retire. Other than the observation that it sounds amazingly silly that retirement should have such a profound economic impact.
So, the circle of thoughts goes round and round with seemingly no end in sight. There’s got to be something funny in all of this...
Could I really survive with tons of free time? You have to understand that when I’m on vacation, I tend to go stir crazy after two weeks. I need to be productive, even if it’s pushing papers from one side of my desk to the other. What about part time? Well, my field doesn’t lend itself to such things, certainly not in my current assignment.
On the other side of the coin, I’m tired of the work grind. There’s a painful sameness about each day and a remarkable lack of ‘new’ in what I do. Am I going, one day, to keel over at my desk and alert the world that I’m gone from the stack of “you’re late submitting….” Emails? It’s an answer, that’s for sure.
We’ll also push aside considerations of whether or not I can afford to retire. Other than the observation that it sounds amazingly silly that retirement should have such a profound economic impact.
So, the circle of thoughts goes round and round with seemingly no end in sight. There’s got to be something funny in all of this...
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 11:35 pm (UTC)In my case, I enjoyed a few months off, but then decided to re-train in massage therapy - not because I expect to build a career in that field, but because the course looked interesting, and it meshed with other interests, like my mid-life career in nursing.
The key here is that you can do something fun and interesting if you don't need to actually live off the income from it. That's my definition of retirement. I don't think many people will in the future opt for reading a library book from their rocker on the front porch...
If you can, go for it!
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Date: 2010-10-24 02:08 am (UTC)travelled, went to museums when the crowds were smaller, starbears every day, shopping and cooking, I really enjoy cooking. You always meet new folks and share interests. It's the best thing since sliced bread! (Of course I'm not old
enough to remember the invention of sliced bread , but oh well!)