Retirement

The List:

• Assemble your correspondence and transcribe it or scan to PDF.
• Do the same for medical records, to create a complete, accurate history of  surgeries, broken bones, etc.
• Fill out those darn forms: Living Will, Medical Power of Attorney, funeral plan, etc.
• Research your genealogy.
• Pick any topic you have been interested in and research it.
• Set up a portable hard drive to store shared files (music, recipes, photos, owner's manuals, tax returns ...).
• Digitize your photos and slides.
• Digitize your vinyl collection (I use an Ion turntable and EZ Vinyl Tape Converter).
• Create a catalog of your books, music, videos (I use libib.com)
• If you don't know how to do one (or all!) of the above, take a class or ask a friend.

The Reason:

This retirement thing is harder than it looks (my joke is that you never get a day off). But seriously ... when you retire you lose:

1. The site where you spent a big chunk of your day
2. The sense of purpose you got from your work
3. The gratification - or an excuse to complain!
4. A large chunk of your social network
5. A part of your identity
6. A reliable topic of conversation

That's a lot to grieve. On top of the losses, you get:

1. A narrowed focus on your spouse / partner / roommate - often not in a good way
2. Difficulty focusing on tasks
3. A sense of isolation

You can see the problems, right?

Steve and I have retired twice. The first time was in 2004, when his job moved to Sweden and left him behind. I was a self-employed graphic designer, so I could take my job on the road. We traveled a bit, I scaled back my client list, and we had some good times.

But mostly we played solitaire on our computers, bled money, picked fights and gained weight. So we both went back to work. He found a job as a delivery driver, and I found work at a copy shop. Neither of us was looking for a career (I found one, but that's a different story!).

When Steve was "let go" following a surgery that took extra time to heal, I continued working for another year. When I also retired, I'd had time to figure some things out, and realized some changes were necessary. So I was prepared to budget more carefully, plan meals more carefully, and shop less often.

I had a lot of good intentions, but mostly didn't keep them: all those ones about losing weight, exercising regularly, drinking less, saving more money: they pretty much died of neglect. I also had some health issues that made it difficult for me to commit to volunteering regularly, another retirement goal.

We have found a satisfying life together, but it's been challenging at times. Remember to keep talking, keep moving and keep learning. And tackle a new challenge from time to time, like one of those above!