Everyone has their idea of the perfect retirement. Mine was to retire around 68. I would tool around the country part of the year with my Travel Trailer. I would read, write, and pursue my nerdy hobbies that I never had time to do. And never totally retiring was the path I had already chosen, so a part time job, business or maybe some consulting would also be in the picture. Nothing fancy, but there was a plan.
Well, as they say the best laid plans never turn out as planned. Two big things happened. This article is about them and how I am still learning to adapt to the unexpected changes.
My career had almost reached its end. I was 64 and had reached as far as my career was going to go. It was an all too typical story. I started out in banking and then moved to banking software at a small fast-growing company where things were great. Small company is then gobbled up by a big company that proceeds to keep getting bigger and bigger by gobbling up more companies, getting rid of half the staff and cutting to the bone. I actually did well in the crazy environment. As a manager I worked with some great people. We stayed together for a long time and managed to keep things tolerable in our own little world. But the writing was on the wall. When the big company offered several months’ severance for anyone over 60 that would agree to leave I took the offer. I was grateful that I could set my retirement date for several months out which meant that by the time the severance ended I would be full retirement age for Social Security.
So that was unplanned change number one. I retired earlier than planned. My financial situation wasn’t ideal, but I was pretty sure I could pick up some good paying part time income with some combination of part time jobs, part time consulting, or maybe a side hustle or two.
My retirement date was 5/1/20. We all know what happened around March – my second big unplanned event – the Great Pandemic of 2020! That last six weeks of my job were spent managing my team from home. My retirement party was a Zoom affair. It was great, but not exactly as everyone expected! As I write this in the fall of 2020 the world is still grappling with the pandemic. Many places are closed, and we are afraid to go anyway. Face masks and social distancing is the new normal. The economy sucks. Everyone is hoping for a vaccine and for things to return to normal. My guess is it will take some time, probably more than everyone thinks.
So how are we adapting to all this?
The cross-country trips have been delayed. I know some people have gone anyway, especially those with RVs. But I don’t think that is for us, at least not yet. Many things are still closed, but most importantly I just don’t see how to avoid a lot of people contact, and this is especially important since we are in the high-risk category.
Our getaway spot has been some land we own in the Pennsylvania countryside. We have our travel trailer parked there, rather than cruising around the country. I’m writing this from the trailer on a beautiful Sunday morning looking out at green and sunshine. The weather is perfect right now, but it is not always that way. A good part of the summer it was unusually hot and humid. The trailer is airconditioned but who wants to sit in a metal tube all day without venturing outside. I’ll just enjoy the day. Probably taking one day at a time is a good plan during a pandemic.
Everyone has certain things they miss while adapting to the pandemic. For some it is eating out at restaurants. For others it is not being able to go to large gatherings like concerts and sporting events. My wife and I miss going out to the local diner for breakfast. We planned on doing that regularly, and retirement meant we could go whenever we wanted, including during the week. While we’re not major shoppers we miss browsing at the bookstore whenever we wanted. Of course, we’ve adapted by going during senior hours, it just means getting around earlier in the day. Have you noticed senior hours are always early? I guess they assume all the seniors get up at 5AM so they can grocery shop at 6AM! Again, I’m not seriously complaining, we have lots of food, which is better than some of our fellow citizens.
I have been able to enjoy my hobbies. I’ve been busy writing, playing around with computers (my love for decades,) building some websites, and generally doing things I always wanted to have time to do. When not away my usual routine is personal and dog chores first thing in the morning, followed by a couple hours of “work”, which right now is writing and building websites. The middle of the day I try to reserve for “fun.” That might mean reading, watching old sci fi movies, or just fiddling. Around 3PM or so I usually fix myself some good coffee and do a couple hours more work. So I’m not really complaining, it’s not a bad life, just not as varied as I hoped.
The financial situation looks kind of murky right now. At the beginning of the pandemic stocks crashed, along with retirement accounts. That was a scary way to start a retirement. Things have recovered somewhat as of when I am writing this, but the future is very uncertain. Small businesses are not doing well and so many people are unemployed. It must have a long term effect and probably won’t be good. I had planned to take some time off before trying to earn any income, so we’ll have to see how that goes. I started writing about retirement about 7 years ago. As a side benefit of writing those articles I thought through lots of possibilities. That has been a good thing as we all learn to adapt. I will continue writing and hope it provides benefits to others and myself!
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