Did your retirement lead to a creative explosion?

HMM. Where is 65 "early" retirement?

Don’t do an all or nothing approach. If I get there Inplan on doing about 1/3 of what’s in my head - then possibly move to the 2nd 1/3.

No, OP: Retirement just got rid of the obstacles to my investing more time in the projects I was already involved with. Based on what I've seen with others, if a person doesn't have much going on personally before retirement, that person will quickly run out of things to do after retirement and then increasingly resort to "time-killer" things rather than productive activities. Before retirement, write down a list of things you want to do/expect to do after retirement, and then take a very sober and practical look at each item from a "How long can I sustain doing that?" point of view. Going to random museums twice a week or reading through all of Dickens might turn out to be more tiresome than one might anticipate. On the other hand, taking classes in some focused activity (culinary arts, dance for seniors, horticulture, etc.) or attending events or seminars in something (historical sites tours, art appreciation, etc.) might lead to something engaging in a lasting way and personally enhancing.

Op, I am leading the exact life I expected I would lead during retirement. I retired at 63 and am now 70. It took me about three years to get rid of all the programming I was given in life, to do this or do that in order to be successful and happy... which I never really was while working. I always found the grind of working a struggle, even when I loved my job. After retiring, and getting rid of the bullshit mindset, I now wake in the morning and do whatever comes to me to do.

I live in a 55+ community, so there are plenty of people my own age. We have plenty of activities to keep me involved in whatever interests me. I have gone back to community theater, which I enjoyed in my youth. I have taken up watercolor painting, for which I have a bit it talent. I am involved with some community projects and boards which interest me. I go to the library and read books, everyday. I love cooking and hardly ever eat out, which saves on the budget tremendously. And, if I wanted, there is plenty of company and wonderful people to enjoy. We have beautiful trails in our area where I love to walk my dog everyday. We have pools, sports facilities and every choice of activity i can think of. The main thing I enjoy is having the opportunity to say 'no, I don't want to do that, today'. I have freedom of choice, which I never really felt I had while working.

If you can afford it, I suggest everyone should stop working and retire as soon as possible to enjoy the life we were born to live. That is, unless you love living in the rat race of the modern world. Even then, find peace where you can.

R2 all or nothing kills all progress

R2, I am in an academia, so 65 is considered early retirement. I love my job but I’m increasingly confronted with bullshit, mostly administrative and fundraising bullshit, and I’m ready to quit. I always thought I would work into 80s because “my job is my hobby and my vocation ” but things have gotten quite tiresome in recent years.

R2, I am in American academia, so 65 is considered early retirement. I love my job but I’m increasingly confronted with bullshit, mostly administrative and fundraising bullshit, and I’m ready to quit. I always thought I would work into my 80s because “my job is my hobby and my vocation ” but things have gotten quite tiresome in recent years.

There's always something to do. My friend, who is also retired, said the other day 'how on earth did we manage to grocery shop, clean the house and do laundry while we had full time jobs? Where did we find the time?'. I've done a lot of DIY projects around the house and I've had time to slowly get rid of about 50% of my possessions. Instead of sleeping an average of 5 hours a night I now sleep 8-10. I go to the gym mid morning when it's empty and I take long walks in the park. I wish I could have retired at 40. Enjoy!!!

I have to work 10 more years until age 67 or so. Can’t wait. I intend to be both more lazy and more creative, with the hours regained. Sleep in til 830 and slowly make a nice breakfast etc, that kind of thing.

Trying to stay reasonably healthy so I can actually enjoy those years. It’s so random who gets to and who doesn’t, but I’m hoping.

I retired at 55, for health reasons which have completely resolved now that I’m not being kicked daily by the demands of a job in a highly political environment (think Kremlin-level perfidy). For the first two years, I struggled to figure out what my purpose in life would be. I could afford not to work. I tried to start a business. On March 1, 2020. That went nowhere.

So I started a completely different career, in a field that is very challenging. I learned how to fly a plane. I joined a community of pilots and now have aviation as a part-time career. I work for various political organizations in a volunteer capacity and never take on board positions, just minion work so I don’t start getting sick again. I am now 62.

I garden, cook, talk to my dogs and family, do some work, play on the computer, and generally enjoy being on the sidelines these days. As a function of age, everyone starts to just discount you, so prepare for that ego-crushing experience. On the other hand, you don’t give a shit because you stop caring so much what everyone thinks.

So, don’t fear it. Just have an idea that you want to have a purpose and try and figure out what that is. The great underground army of retired volunteers welcomes you to its ranks.

I was an academic as was my husband: there was a twenty year difference (he’s older). Thirty-five years of TIAA-CREFF and his generosity made it possible for me to retire at 62. I lived teaching and doing scholarship until the last five years (I had been teaching since I started grad school at 21, so a bit over forty years, with four sabbaticals along the way). After the last sabbatical (a year that time), I returned to classrooms where, as a rule, students were welded or wedded to their cellphones and didn’t want or couldn’t do the reading. I put in for phased retirement and retired after the second year. I had plans we would take regular trips to NYC to see lots of theatre and maybe go to London and Paris and also go see relatives. The first year was uneventful, other than COVID shutting everything down, but reading, TCM, and nature walks helped and the freedom was a novelty. I became a little restless and the second year took on a performance project in Zoom format and began a primarily online degree in Jungian psychology.

Meanwhile,, it was becoming apparent that my husband’s cognitive decline was more than the typical vagaries of old age. We had him tested and he fit “mild cognitive impairment,” the earliest stage of dementia (in his case, Alzheimer’s disease, the illness that took his late, sort of ex-wife—they never divorced, we married a year after she died and had been together 19 years, 29 this year). I dropped out of the Jung program, not because of my his Alzheimer’s, but because I had grown discontent with what felt like an expensive version of the worst elements of for profit education). I started a different completely online program in England, which, while I had to be online weekly for 4:30 am classes twice or thrice a week for a year, has proven much more satisfying; I only have the MA paper to finish; because of the need to care for my husband and my own health crisis (a back injury, which is resolving after eight weeks), I had to request an extension until early January. My husband is at a plateau.

After a “Come to Jesus “ phone conversation with his siblings with his siblings, I decided to bring in help three afternoons a week. Mondays, he is looked after by a gifted artist who has an extraordinary gift for using art to bring out what seems buried inside. They color, paint, play with the tarot for imaginable stimulation (not predictive New Age, but as creative stimulation); Tuesdays his sister takes him for lunch and they Zoom with his brother and son. Thursdays, one of our hair stylists whom we gave gone to for ten years (his husband is my husband’s stylist) is finishing an LPN and has experience with home care. He also helps with grooming and they go for short walks in the neighborhood. Fridays, our cleaning lady, a lively, compassionate woman we’ve employed once a month for twenty years, now comes weekly, spreads out the cleaning over time and spends time with him, modeling clay and reading poetry (I never knew she lived Whitman!). He has spontaneously begun playing Mozart and Chopin for 45/9 minutes at a time, still able to read music. We are coming out of a cocoon of mourning and protectiv(mainly me—he remains happy and upbeat)—for his ling, who knows.

Yes, yes, I know—get a blog, TL;DR, paragraphs are your friend. No one is making you read this. My takeaway—retire when you want and can, but prepare for life to take you where it chooses. Best of luck.

Dog sweaters. Knitting.

R12, are you Tom Daley?

Faded a-w-a-yyyy….

A dog will give your day rhythm and you a reason to get out of bed.

[quote]I am in American academia...I always thought I would work into 80s because “my job is my hobby and my vocation ” but things have gotten quite tiresome in recent years.

As you suggest, yours is by definition a classic profession, meaning your job and your identity really are one to a significant extent (and in a very different way than a workaholic.) I don't imagine you will be robbed of anything by quitting, aside from that part of your work that you do love. If your doubts are profound and you fear you really will miss the interactions and intellectual component, I might explore to see if there is some way that you might stay at it in some limited way. Only you know whether that focus is in contact with students (or peers), research, writing, etc. Few jobs are structured to be able to neatly scale down, to cherry-pick the good parts and at the same time reduce hours and administrative tasks, but academia is one area that *may* offer some flexibility. Maybe the answer is in something new and not altogether obvious that draws on your knowledge: admissions, or selection criteria in your department? or organizing a conference or exhibition or your field or something across disciplines? That part all falls to you, and the prospects depend on timing and a hundred other things out of your control.

The better news is that you needn't turn into a couch potato. Your tools will not have been left behind at the workshop. You carry them with you where you go in then world and they are not easily shaken off or forgotten, particularly if you make the least effort to entertain/occupy yourself whether it's reading, traveling, studying something that's always been of interest but you've never found time for -- the time is now. It's always now.

I retired a few years ago at 61 and love it. I do waste endless hours, but at things I like, maybe not getting around to the interesting thing I wanted to do until I've blown three hours or Google searches that begat Google searches and saved notes and links and downloaded files and plans to travel to a place I've never visited.

Americans are very hard on themselves about work. Not to be constantly at motion and engaged in work is a huge thing in the U.S. It's also a huge lie and hugely overrated. Even the language of not being hard at work is negative. The prospect that someone might have a morning with nothing better to do than take breakfast in a strange part of the city and see a museum or talk his way into a building he's never seen, or spend more time with young friends or people that you see too infrequently is suspect. Which is crazy. In retirement I have so many more things in motion now in my head than I ever had when working at researching and writing on subjects at which I'm expert. I can't (and don't want to) escape my interests, but now they are really mine, not incidentally curious subjects of the questions of others. Now those questions are purely mine, and the pursuit can go as far afield as I like. On more mundane things, it's nice to develop your own leisurely habits and hours during the day while the world works.

R11 Wishing you all good things. Sounds like you have a well considered plan.

Adopt a Russian adolescent suffering fetal alcohol syndrome-that will keep you busy.

You can always help train and discipline a child.

Older guardians will often employ, shall we say, more permanent solutions.

People who retire die by inches.

People who leave their primary paid work with lifelong interests who have both the capacity to be a social creature and to be self-motivated and reliant live until they die.

Make use of your good health while you have it because by 70 you will have at least five chronic conditions you'll be working with, and each day will start with the rundown of what is bothering your body/mind/spirit.

Why bother…

[quote]"How long can I sustain doing that?"

R3 that is some of the best advice on retirement I’ve come across

We retired at your fourth paragraph R11

R4 Where is your age 55+ community located? Do you like it? Am thinking of going to one but know nothing....

I retired at 60 from the soul-sucking corporate world, and a few months later, landed a role as a freelance writer for an entertainment publication. I wrote about TV, movies, reality shows, etc. The pay sucked, but it was more about doing something I enjoyed.

I also went to work for two local sports arenas as a concierge. I've had the opportunity to meet A-list athletes and celebrities in this position. Again, the pay is crap, but it's a lot of fun.

In many ways, I'm busier than I've ever been, but I no longer feel like the life is being drained from me.

[quote] It took me about three years to get rid of all the programming I was given in life

I was self-employed (for a few years) and it took a long time to realize that my time was now more flexible. No, you can't take it to the extreme, you still have to generate income.

[quote] If you can afford it, I suggest everyone should stop working and retire as soon as possible to enjoy the life we were born to live. That is, unless you love living in the rat race of the modern world.

Not all jobs are "rat races."

You're projecting your own unhappiness with the workplace onto the broader world.

Plus, you're being preachy.

[quote] My friend, who is also retired, said the other day 'how on earth did we manage to grocery shop, clean the house and do laundry while we had full time jobs? Where did we find the time?'.

I'm not retired, but this is how I feel. My weekends just vanish because I have to do a bunch of food prep, personal stuff, laundry, etc.

[quote] [R4] Where is your age 55+ community located? Do you like it? Am thinking of going to one but know nothing....

R24 I live in Leesburg, FL. There are dozens of 55+ communities all over Florida, especially around the Orlando area. I shopped around to find the perfect one that suited me. My community is located in a nature preserve, meaning all sorts of wild animals creep around here including gators, bobcats, herons, ducks, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, etc. This picture is looking out my porch window and some duck eating in my yard. This is heaven on earth, for me!

^^^ Sorry, wrong link. Here is the right one.

Agree, r8.

My cousin and I were discussing this a few weeks ago. She retired earlier this year from public school administration.

I cut back my hours at my job because I’m older and I’ve been working nights for 13 years and I’m tired of it. No, I will not go to days. Traffic is horrific.

She and I were both wondering how in the fuck we managed to get everything done - she has two kids, a full time job and was going to night school, plus trying to do the usual laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.

I was working two jobs and squeezing in one class a week, plus all of the errands and household chores.

How in the hell did I manage to get everything done?

I honestly can’t wait to retire from my current job next year. I’m just sick of the commute. I have numerous hobbies and plenty of “round tuit” projects that need done.

I may end up working part time at a local nursery or home improvement store, but right now, I just want to rest.

Very nice and thank you, R29

I've been retired for a year now and am finally learning how to not feel guilty for not being "productive." My mom is 94 so I visit her twice a week and help clean the house/cook/work in the yard. I see friends for dinner or lunch often and I have lots of interests. I play guitar, record music and go to museums when I feel like it. I was on my feet all day in my old job so I am trying hard to stay active & away from sitting at the computer. Exercise, cooking, friends, watching sports and music keep me happy. I love being retired and I appreciate the freedom to do nothing, if I choose to. Good luck!

R30’s nature preserve looks positively pythonic!

I've been doing a lot of reading, working out, going to movies, and spring cleaning. I've been planning on taking art classes, learning Spanish, and volunteering at an animal shelter but the spring cleaning is a gargantuan undertaking. It's lasted for months!

T @ R30, it looks positively delightful -- but what about the lot rent?

I know I live around junkies, drunks, Trump freaks, people getting SSI who shouldn't be, etc., but I own my land outright. I'd be afraid to live somewhere with lot rent, because I know they raise it every year.

But Leesburg is a nice town, has a decent AYCE Chinese place, a yearly well-attended motorcycle rally, and pretty back roads all around it.

Do you think the lot rent is worth it? TIA

[quote] T @ [R30], it looks positively delightful -- but what about the lot rent?

There is no lot rent. We own our home. No PUD. Of course, we pay normal property taxes like everyone else, as well as the mortgage. The HOA fee is $245 a month which includes: private gate, all lawn care, internet, cable, all community facilities (pool, tennis, pickle ball, library, exercise room, craft's room, card room, ballroom, baseball field, and nature trails through the environmental areas. I was paying more than that a month in just cable and internet before I moved in here.

T @ R37, my sister has a place like that in Brooksville; the place is called Brookridge. I, of course, found it for her and my BIL. At the time, it was 45K. Now it's worth about 150K. They pay 40/month HOA. Makes me want to cry that I didn't buy one there, but at the time, I didn't have the $. I paid cash for my place, 28K for the trailer and the land. Once and done.

My guess is that at this point, your area would be a bit out of my price range. But thanks for the info.

More like a chocolate explosion, OP.