Thread: What Will You Do When You Retire?

Retired in March 2015 at age 51 (Law Enforcement). Traveled a lot in 3 years, but not all big expensive trips. The bigger trips include, Hawai'i twice, Key West, New Orleans, Belize, and Costa Rica. This summer planning a trip to Europe and then February 2020 back to Costa Rica, maybe. My wife still works so we aren't able to stay away for more than 2 weeks at a time. I've held several jobs. I'm not a person prone to sitting around. I worked at Costco for a year part time, and currently have a full time seasonal position as grounds maintenance at a large local Metroparks with Dec.-March off. In winter months I'm remodeling my house.

I'd imagine I'd trade stocks, surf, and brew most of the time. Shutdown happened and I got a taste of what that'd be like, I was bored with that after 2 weeks.

And it was more of a pain because my girlfriend expected me to help out with things I had no interest in doing because I had 'so much time'. I guess that part of it wasn't too fun. I'd imagine I'd take up more hobbies since surfing is something you can only do 3-4 hours a day at most, and brewing is mainly just a few hours of doing something with 2 weeks of waiting for the yeast to do its thing.

I think if I was retired maybe I'd upsize my brewing operation and maybe start selling it. I always get friends wanting to buy my batches, but I have to say I can't cause it's illegal lol Even if I don't end up selling my beer, I may end up just building a backyard brewery anyway. It'd be a fun project I'd imagine

I read a number of these posts, found them quite interesting and decided to share my retirement journey.

I was an air technician with my local Air National Guard unit and having reached age 55 and 32 years of service in 2011, fell victim to the "Selective Retention Board". Originally, my plan was to retire at age 60 and with my military and federal retirement secured, travel around the country with my wife until the TSP funds were exhausted. But as luck would have it, life tends to get in the way of the best laid plans.

I spent the first 3 years of my retirement completing a number of home improvement projects, that I never had time for while working and helping my wife with her daycare business. After the home improvement projects were completed, I got bored and with some nudging from my wife, I went back to work part time, driving a school bus. Then in 2016, my wife decided to retire from her daycare, but got bored as well and decided to drive a school bus as well.

So reset the retirement plans. We were both going to retire for good at the end of the 2019/2020 school year and do all that traveling we had always talked about. But as luck would have it, my wife began having health issues in 2018 and this past November, was diagnosed with ALS. She has since given up driving a school bus at the request of her Dr. and I will be doing the same in June.

We still plan to travel, Niagara Falls, Maine and a cruise to the Caribbean are on the agenda this year, but plans will be tempered as my wife's health dictates. Eventually, the ALS will take her as there is no cure for this disease. But we will make the best of the time we have left and in the end, there will be no regrets.

The lesson in all this is to retire as soon as you can afford to do so. Enjoy each and every day as tomorrow is not promised.

So sorry to hear about your wife's condition. Yet another reminder how precious life is. Another reminder, to me, that I'm getting out ASAP and planning on living life.

Originally Posted by ravensfan

I read a number of these posts, found them quite interesting and decided to share my retirement journey.

I was an air technician with my local Air National Guard unit and having reached age 55 and 32 years of service in 2011, fell victim to the "Selective Retention Board". Originally, my plan was to retire at age 60 and with my military and federal retirement secured, travel around the country with my wife until the TSP funds were exhausted. But as luck would have it, life tends to get in the way of the best laid plans.

I spent the first 3 years of my retirement completing a number of home improvement projects, that I never had time for while working and helping my wife with her daycare business. After the home improvement projects were completed, I got bored and with some nudging from my wife, I went back to work part time, driving a school bus. Then in 2016, my wife decided to retire from her daycare, but got bored as well and decided to drive a school bus as well.

So reset the retirement plans. We were both going to retire for good at the end of the 2019/2020 school year and do all that traveling we had always talked about. But as luck would have it, my wife began having health issues in 2018 and this past November, was diagnosed with ALS. She has since given up driving a school bus at the request of her Dr. and I will be doing the same in June.

We still plan to travel, Niagara Falls, Maine and a cruise to the Caribbean are on the agenda this year, but plans will be tempered as my wife's health dictates. Eventually, the ALS will take her as there is no cure for this disease. But we will make the best of the time we have left and in the end, there will be no regrets.

The lesson in all this is to retire as soon as you can afford to do so. Enjoy each and every day as tomorrow is not promised.

RF, best of luck to you and your wife! Enjoy your time together! Good advice for all of us as we never know how much time we have!