I've been retired 8.5 years and my first thoughts were travel and learning more about my religion (Catholic), but finances and covid took care of that. If someone had told me that I would be going to Israel, taking Bible Study classes and Great Books classes, I would have said they were totally crazy. You have to be able to see what you actually want to do -- and now I am busier now than I was when I was working. I DO miss the work and my former colleagues, but I don't miss the politics........................
I'll take the middle position, President Nixon and Debra J. Saunders are both right. Sitting around all day will get incredibly boring within a day or two. Ideally, retirement means creating one's own schedule, every day, and actually having choices regarding what one plans to do with their day.
People definitely deserve to retire the way they want to. I know people who work odd jobs after official retirement just for the socialization. Others join organizations for that purpose. I look forward to reading even more than I do now and spending time crafting and improving my skills on guitar. And then there are others who live a quieter life and just truly live leisurely. It's individual choice and best to not judge - I would think that overall, the unhappiest people are those who are busy judging others and the involved in other people's business more than their own.
Debra - If I understand it correctly, I agree with your sentence about “people who put their families before their careers,” being able to find purpose in retirement without a greater “purpose”.
My father was a workaholic who died at in the office at age 53 of a massive heart attack. He was a former newspaperman who never took a vacation because he used to say, “if they can do without you for two weeks, they can do without you”. What did that get him?
Probably in reaction to that, I decided to put my family ahead of my work career. Don’t get me wrong: I worked long and hard for over 50 years. I cared about the quality of my work, I cared about the people who I mentored, and I cared about my products and my company competing and winning in the marketplace.
But I always remembered that the purpose of my work was to be able to provide for my family, to save money to pay for college for both sons and to fund comfortable retirement for my wife and me.
I wasn’t a doctor. I was never saving lives. I’m sure I would’ve felt differently if that had been the case.
My father-in-law, who is a doctor, is going strong at age 92, can’t understand how I retired at age 66. Then again, he WAS saving lives as a world-renowned head and neck cancer surgeon. Now he finds purpose sharing his knowledge and experience with the next generation. I don’t know what he would do without that purpose still in his life.
I think he was trying to do the right thing by his family. I think growing up in the depression Without a father, who had joined the Merchant Marine, and with his mother and her mother raising him, he had a lot of insecurity about income, even though he did pretty well in his day.
Of course, the five packs of Marlboros a day did not help!
I am retired. Happy to have leisure time to listen to classical music and read every day. every day i listen to podcasts every day i do chess problems and then study Greek. my goal is to read Homer and Xenophon and Epictetus. Just finished Cicero On Old Age in dust language version also read WSJ. Commentary and baseball digest plus e books on my nook. take time for long phone calls with my sister who is 78. she lives 100 miles away and visits several times a year. she was very kind to me when i was little i like to talk to her about our parents. We don’t agree politically she loved Biden and i think he was catastrophic but we respect each other. don’t travel much but have a houseful of cats. enjoy olympics and old movies love baseball and listen to games on the radio in the park or on the patio my health is c+ but i am ok have 4 grandchildren and see them a few times a year
I was involuntarily ushered into retirement last Wednesday. I’d been preparing so it turned out to be a good day. I never really “moved in” when it came to my workspace. I don’t recall ever really leaving anything at work worth returning for. It was my way of reminding myself I’m just earning money. My desk was never an extension of my home or myself. I didn’t hate my work but I don’t think it defined me. I hope not. I feel I can now choose how I will be remembered. Or at least I can separate what I did to earn money vs who I am as a person. Maybe that’s too lofty. I think one of the major negatives or our culture is the work ethic. We learn to be useful and productive before, and oftentimes instead of, learning to live.
I've been retired 8.5 years and my first thoughts were travel and learning more about my religion (Catholic), but finances and covid took care of that. If someone had told me that I would be going to Israel, taking Bible Study classes and Great Books classes, I would have said they were totally crazy. You have to be able to see what you actually want to do -- and now I am busier now than I was when I was working. I DO miss the work and my former colleagues, but I don't miss the politics........................
I'll take the middle position, President Nixon and Debra J. Saunders are both right. Sitting around all day will get incredibly boring within a day or two. Ideally, retirement means creating one's own schedule, every day, and actually having choices regarding what one plans to do with their day.
People definitely deserve to retire the way they want to. I know people who work odd jobs after official retirement just for the socialization. Others join organizations for that purpose. I look forward to reading even more than I do now and spending time crafting and improving my skills on guitar. And then there are others who live a quieter life and just truly live leisurely. It's individual choice and best to not judge - I would think that overall, the unhappiest people are those who are busy judging others and the involved in other people's business more than their own.
PS- love the poster!
Hi Deb, love the piece and particularly the poster. I did not realize that when you retired you would join the 1917 Soviet Revolution!
I was laid off, and it turned me into a Bolshevik.
Debra - If I understand it correctly, I agree with your sentence about “people who put their families before their careers,” being able to find purpose in retirement without a greater “purpose”.
My father was a workaholic who died at in the office at age 53 of a massive heart attack. He was a former newspaperman who never took a vacation because he used to say, “if they can do without you for two weeks, they can do without you”. What did that get him?
Probably in reaction to that, I decided to put my family ahead of my work career. Don’t get me wrong: I worked long and hard for over 50 years. I cared about the quality of my work, I cared about the people who I mentored, and I cared about my products and my company competing and winning in the marketplace.
But I always remembered that the purpose of my work was to be able to provide for my family, to save money to pay for college for both sons and to fund comfortable retirement for my wife and me.
I wasn’t a doctor. I was never saving lives. I’m sure I would’ve felt differently if that had been the case.
My father-in-law, who is a doctor, is going strong at age 92, can’t understand how I retired at age 66. Then again, he WAS saving lives as a world-renowned head and neck cancer surgeon. Now he finds purpose sharing his knowledge and experience with the next generation. I don’t know what he would do without that purpose still in his life.
Well, Cary, your father set an example -- of how not to. So sad he missed watching your family form and grow.
I think he was trying to do the right thing by his family. I think growing up in the depression Without a father, who had joined the Merchant Marine, and with his mother and her mother raising him, he had a lot of insecurity about income, even though he did pretty well in his day.
Of course, the five packs of Marlboros a day did not help!
I am glad you added that, Cary. Our generation had many advantages that our parents did not enjoy.
Jeff seems a good friend!
I am retired. Happy to have leisure time to listen to classical music and read every day. every day i listen to podcasts every day i do chess problems and then study Greek. my goal is to read Homer and Xenophon and Epictetus. Just finished Cicero On Old Age in dust language version also read WSJ. Commentary and baseball digest plus e books on my nook. take time for long phone calls with my sister who is 78. she lives 100 miles away and visits several times a year. she was very kind to me when i was little i like to talk to her about our parents. We don’t agree politically she loved Biden and i think he was catastrophic but we respect each other. don’t travel much but have a houseful of cats. enjoy olympics and old movies love baseball and listen to games on the radio in the park or on the patio my health is c+ but i am ok have 4 grandchildren and see them a few times a year
Nice. Appreciating what we have and what is around us.
I was involuntarily ushered into retirement last Wednesday. I’d been preparing so it turned out to be a good day. I never really “moved in” when it came to my workspace. I don’t recall ever really leaving anything at work worth returning for. It was my way of reminding myself I’m just earning money. My desk was never an extension of my home or myself. I didn’t hate my work but I don’t think it defined me. I hope not. I feel I can now choose how I will be remembered. Or at least I can separate what I did to earn money vs who I am as a person. Maybe that’s too lofty. I think one of the major negatives or our culture is the work ethic. We learn to be useful and productive before, and oftentimes instead of, learning to live.
Good for you, Solomon. You know who you are and what you want.
Finally! I wish that for everyone, whatever it may be.