Reflections on Retirement

This week marks ten years since I “retired.” I put that word in quotes because one really never stops, but just changes focus. As I often tell people, “I don’t do anything I get paid for.” So, how have the last ten years been? Are they the same or different from what I imagined? And did I make the right choice to retire when I did? The short answers are “great”, “very different”, and “yes”, but there is obviously much more to it than that.

There were several things that together convinced me that the time was right to retire. First, I had always said that I was going to keep working as long as I was still having fun. What I meant by that was that I had no intention of retiring at 65, but planned on keeping going. But there came a time that I realized that the fun had left. One aspect of it was when I got a new manager. He was from the UK and his philosophy was that everyone in his group should do things the same way – it didn’t matter if you were a 25 year-old new hire, or someone like me who had over 30 years of experience. No short cuts allowed, even if you could demonstrate that you were saving either time or money – only the “standard” way was allowed. I felt like my experience was worthless. But the other aspect was that the management of the company was changing and the new operating philosophy was to concentrate on elimination of “waste”. By that he meant that you should be in your office, head down, working. The often informal chats in the hall, even if they were contributing to knowledge sharing and finding better ways of doing things, were not allowed. Even taking a bathroom break should be minimized. The “fun” of working, and of knowing that you were making a contribution, was gone – and in a big way. I wasn’t the only one who felt that – nearly everyone around me who had enough time in that they could afford to leave was leaving as well.

The second thing that convinced me was my health. I had a major heart attack in January of 2005 – one that could easily have ended my life. While I was fully recovered from it in a short time, by the fall of 2006 I realized that I didn’t want to have my life come to an end while working – that I wanted to have some time to enjoy life – whatever of it I had left.

The third thing was that I was finding that all my technical knowledge was becoming obsolete. Over the past few years I had even helped on the project to move any remaining systems off of the corporate mainframe and then seen it turned off. While I still had a ton of “business knowledge” that made me valuable, the technical side of things had totally changed over the past several years.

Finally, I looked at the financial side of things and realized that between my pension, a limited withdrawal from my 401K that I’d been building up for a couple of decades, and eventually Social Security at age 62, that I could be making as much income when not working as I was while working. So there was no financial pressure to keep going.

So in October of 2006, when we were asked by our managers to write out our annual goals (which we did every year), I simply left mine blank and announced that I would be retiring at the end of March. That gave me nearly 6 months to get everything in order, to ensure that my business knowledge got passed along to others, and for me to leave with a good conscience. I followed that plan, got to relax for those months since no one would assign me any projects unless they had a very short deadline, and never looked back.

Financially, things have worked out very well. I early on selected a financial advisor whose Christian perspective matched my own and together we put together a plan that has done as expected. I’ve survived the “great depression” without any issues and have no reason to believe that things will not continue well in this area.

But activity-wise, things have gone very differently. When I retired, my wife was still teaching preschool. In fact, for the first year and a half I was an unpaid teacher’s aide for her. But in mid-2008 she decided to take a sabbatical after teaching for 25 years without a break. Then in August her mother had a few falling episodes and we decided to have my wife spend some extended time in Michigan helping to care for her. That ended up being 12 out of the next 18 months until her mother passed away in early 2010 – leaving me living in PA on my own during those absences. No sooner had my wife come home, then she was repacking to spend time in NJ with our daughter-in-law who was expecting and having some physical issues. Then our daughter, who had gotten married in the interim, and son-in-law began having a family, and, since they lived with us, our life became filled with grandchildren. The first one born in 2010 was soon joined by another in early 2012, then 2013, then a fourth in 2014. So instead of leisurely times we now spend our days in childcare for four growing boys. Not what I was planning on, but I still wouldn’t trade the impact that we are able to have on their lives.

We had started a home renovation project in early 2013, but then boy #3 came along nearly 10 weeks premature and our project came to a screeching halt before it could be completed as we had to help care for a preemie. It’s now nearly 4 years later and we still haven’t been able to get that project restarted! Oh well, maybe one of the days (years?)!

Health-wise, I’ve never been better. As I posted a few months ago, my numbers are all headed in the right direction. For those who care about such things, my triglycerides have always been out of control and peaked at over 950 last year. Now, with the advice of a new primary care physician, my most recent bloodwork showed them at 185. “Normal” is considered 150 or less, which is just a short distance away, but with an 80% drop in just 6 months, she and I are both very pleased.

Even with all the hours that I devote to childcare each day, I’m still finding time to pursue a few of my passions – even if it’s sometimes at 3am. Between genealogy research, history, and blogging, I’ve got a hobby that I can enjoy – and that will keep my mind active. And I’ve still got a few volunteer hats that I wear as well.

So is “retirement” what I expected – no. But am I enjoying it – yes! And was it worth it – most definitely yes!