Retirement Practice

I recently visited New Orleans on a long, warm February weekend, partly to escape 15-degree weather in Maryland, where I live, and partly to visit family. New Orleans is my hometown and most of my family still lives there.

Being the planner that I am, I added an extra vacation day. There is never enough time to get all of my personal crap done on weekends, so a Wednesday at home seemed like a good idea.

Another reason for a work-free Wednesday is what I call "retirement practice". Although I’ll always work, I do hope to retire from full time work in a few years and I think, being a planner, it makes sense to visualize what the work-free days would be like.

Today is that Wednesday.

I’m not the kind of person who wants to sit around and watch tv all day in retirement. I don’t want to spend every day chasing the neighborhood bar happy hours, sitting on the patio watching the cars drive by or sun bathing at my apartment pool. Ok, I DO want to do those things, but not every day. I want my retirement to include part time work similar to my current full time work, volunteering with local organizations, writing, reading, photography, learning and cooking.

My over ambitious "to do" list for today includes twenty items. It is now 5 PM on said Wednesday and I’ve only done five things on the list.

Where does the time go?

If you are thinking about retirement, do look at things this way?

One lesson that retirement practice is teaching me is that I’ll need to schedule my free days much more specifically than I did today. The timelines won’t have to be as detailed as those of a full time job, but they shouldn’t be as loose as they were today. Working full time tends to be go go go go go. Retirement could be more like go, take a nap, go, watch the noon news on tv, go, go, stop.

So what did I actually do today?

Worked out. I went to the fitness room at my apartment complex at 7 this morning, my usual time. Only two other people were there, which is why I go so early.

Grocery shopped. At 11 in the morning on a Wednesday, my grocery store has a tenth of the crowd it does on Saturday and many of the shoppers are older and slower than me.

Napped. I believe in 20-minute power naps. I often take one after breakfast to charge me up for the day. I took two today.

Emailed a friend about a future vacation idea. As I said before, I never seem to have time to do personal stuff. We’ve been invited to join some friends on an awesome vacation next year and I had some questions.

Cooked. I really need to step up my game at home and do more of the cooking. So I actually cooked three different meals, which should keep us fed till the weekend. Side note: Crock pots are wonderful inventions.

So now it’s 5:30. I’ve written this little blog post. I’ll be alone for two more hours, then awake for two more. What else can I check off? Laundry, pay a few bills, clean the humidifier, look up passport information (for that trip I mentioned) and book flights for a planned vacation this year.

I think my retirement practice strategy is solid. Days like this confirm my belief that in the absence of structure, I can be very lazy. Visualizing life without full time work will help me have a more rewarding retirement when I get there. I hope this helps you too.

Ok, time for a beer. And laundry.