Here we are in January 2019 and I’ve been retired for five months. Time to reflect, take stock and consider 5 lessons from 5 months of retirement.
1. We are spending a little too much money
There’s no single reason for us spending too much money, it’s an accumulation of various “budget” lines each being a little overspent against our projections. Examples include driving far more than we expected to the tune of 20,000 miles in the last year, with most since I retired. Our daughters are still partly financially dependent on us and we are out by about £2,000 a year.
We have some options here:
- we can reduce our expenditure further
- we can increase our income through drawing more money down from our savings or even start to draw on my occupational pension earlier than planned
- we can increase our income through doing some work
Either way I’m not too worried about it but I know Rachel is concerned. I knew this first year would be a year of settling into our new lifestyle to see what is a realistic budget for the future.
On the last of the bullet points, I might enjoy doing some freelance work. A few days ago, for instance, I chatted to two separate people and I found myself engaged in a conversation about doing some work. I didn’t really move the conversations that way, it just developed. One was with a local charity who are talking to me about possible work in the future and another public sector organisation where I could help them with some HR points. This is possibly helpful in keeping my grey cells working as well as a paid project.
2. Essential to keep up with current affairs
It would be very easy for anyone who is newly retired to simply shrink back into their own little world. Life could then become very insular and this could be argued as being seriously wrong, unwise and on a road to isolation and loneliness. Worse still is dementia, being bitter towards the world and withdrawing from life.
Besides, it’s simply good to know what is going on in the world and even better, with retirement, being able to respond to what’s going on. This can include writing to important key people such as MPs, CEOs, local politicians and the like. It might even be an opportunity to do something positive!
3. Seeing the big picture
This follows the previous point. I like having a wide view of things, trying to consider things well and not getting sucked into small, petty mindedness.
This is really about a state of mind and something we need to maintain as it would be very easy to gradually slide towards petty details such as remembering what kind of rubbish is being collected each week. For us we have recycling and landfill collected on alternate weeks and I can never remember which is which. If the time comes when I can remember which wheelie bin I need to push out onto the pavement, that is a poor sign!
4. Using our time well
By this I mean not allowing life to drift by in a pointless kind of way. I have blogged before getting the balance right between socialising, doing voluntary work, things around the home, learning new things, keeping fit and so on. Arguably we should all reflect on our lives from time to time and ask what does our life mean? What have we achieved? What would our legacy be? What does my life stand for?
5. Being aware of my age
This is not something I welcome, embrace and definitely don’t celebrate. I am far more conscious of the aging effects on my body. Last November I had my first operation and my kidneys are not performing well at all. I notice the side effects in a number of ways.
I had my hair cut yesterday and each time I can see it is thinning out a little more. The woman cutting my hair even asked if I needed my eyebrows trimming. My eyes don’t focus as well and I know I need a stronger prescription for my glasses.
With running in December, I easily picked up an injury which has taken far too long to mend itself. All of these are the inevitable signs of aging and no matter how much I dislike this, there’s very little I can do about it.
The somber thought is that I am having to accept that being 57 is now middle age territory. Flippin heck.