The Retiring Sort

Countdown to My New Life

Posted on March 24, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

Four more days…. that’s all that’s left of my career. I had other jobs before I started down this path, but I started as a temp in an insurance office in 1974, and signed on full-time in 1975. I briefly tried something else, but I’ve pretty much been a property & casualty business insurance geek for going on forty years.

I’ll kiss all that glamour and excitement good-bye next Thursday afternoon, and although I’ve enjoyed my career and the people I’ve worked with, I really don’t expect to miss it.

Still, I’ve been grumpy and tense these past few weeks. Part of this is that our calendar quarter-end is always hectic, but there’s something more. A good friend stated the obvious simply for me: any life change, even a happy one like a marriage, a new baby, or voluntary retirement, is stressful.

It’s not that I’ll feel lost without my job (I absolutely won’t), or that I won’t know what to do with myself next (I absolutely will). However, I will now choose what tasks I undertake on any given day, as well as what things I won’t do on any given day. There will be no excuses for anything I don’t accomplish – it’s all on me.

There’s an eternal truth that every door has two sides. Every tomorrow has a yesterday. Every beginning signifies an ending.

I suppose a little piece of me is mourning the impending loss of position, occupation, and purpose that come with my job. I will no longer be a piece of that larger whole in my daily activities. And I will no longer have my goals established for me.

Why do I believe that I won’t miss my job? Because next Friday I’m going to visit my son and his family. And then I’m off to see my mother and sister. And then there will be Easter with our whole family. And after that I have a three page list of things I’ve been wanting (or needing) to do.

I don’t expect to miss my job, because I plan to fill my days with family, and financial planning, and finding a smaller house, and kayaking, and archiving family photos. I hope to find a place working with at least one local human services organization. I have a stack of books I want to read. And I’ll still spend time with some of my friends from work. I have a wonderful opportunity to set and accomplish my own daily goals from now on.

And the rest of my new life to blog about how I do it.

photo credit: © Serggod – Fotolia.com

Posted in Family, Giving Back, Recreation, Retirement itself, Ruminations | Tagged blogging, choices, Employment, family, Insurance, lifestyle, moving on, recreation, retirement, stress | 6 Comments

My Pre-Flight Checklist

Posted on March 17, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

So, I’ve announced my retirement and given my notice. Now I have a few weeks left to prepare. I haven’t really thought about the actual transition away from employment in a practical way until now, but there are a number of things I need to address before I actually start living without my job. That came into focus when I received an email from our HR Department, explaining the various processes ahead of me and some options I have.

It was actually a very helpful document, and included some items I hadn’t known how to approach. There’s a real value in processes like this that force us to think about all the mechanisms at our disposal, even if we suspect we won’t need them. Anyone leaving an employer with benefits should take time to understand what they leave behind, and what they take with them.

Health and other insurance – Medical and dental coverages have COBRA options assuring that the current insurers continue to offer coverage (at a cost, for time). For some retirees, this would be the time to begin Medicare. I have a spouse who is still working, so I will be able to move to his work plans.
Pension info – At one time, our company had a small pension plan. I had almost forgotten about this because we had it for such a short time, but the checklist did its job, and gave me the info.
401K – My employer provides a 401K option through a national brokerage firm. I can keep those investments in that account, or roll them into my IRA with another broker.

There were a few other items on our particular list. The very last item, however, gave me the most to think about. The Exit Interview.

How do I describe why I’m terminating my relationship with this employer at this time? For better or worse, I have spent ten years in this job, in this place, with these people. It’s not always easy or fun (what job is?), but it’s not that. My industry is changing. Work processes and business methods in general are changing. If I have to keep changing, I want to choose what the next changes are.

Completing the pre-flight checklist will be easy. Choosing my flight plans? Well, that’ll be a little more daunting.

America’s Dying Corporate Pension System (money.usnews.com)
The 6 Most Reliable Ways to Save For Retirement (myretirementblog.com)

photo credit: © Cobalt – Fotolia.com

Posted in Financial Issues, Information, Retirement itself | Tagged 401(k), COBRA, Employment, Health Insurance, Individual Retirement Account, Pension, retirement, retirement planning | 2 Comments

Coming to Terms – The Decision to Retire

Posted on February 29, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

I’ve been glibly throwing out the threat of retirement for a few years now.

Why? Well, that’s a good question. I’m fortunate to have employment in my field, complete with a regular paycheck, benefits, a cozy office, and some interesting and engaging co-workers. But employment, for me, also comes with a tedious commute, increasing pressure and stress, sleepless nights, and (I’m told) a progressive downturn in my normally cheerful and sprightly disposition.

There are dozens of things I want time for, including outings & travel with my beloved, reading the stack of magazines and e-books I’m accumulating, and finding a smaller house. I would really like the freedom to spend more time with my mother and sister, and with my children and grandchildren. I am woefully behind on archiving family genealogy, photos, and videos (a favorite pastime). I have a hundred things to do around the house – and I really don’t think I’m overestimating that. Most of all, I need to hit the reset button on my health.

There’s really not much question that I want, and maybe even need, to retire. My family is onboard, encouraging, and even sometimes insistent that I should. But looming over me are the fears that I may regret the decision and be inadequately prepared financially, and that this puts an unfair burden on my husband. It’s a big deal: In the long run, can we afford my retirement now?

We have developed our own quirky process for resolving questions like this over forty-plus interesting years. It involves some science, some imagination, ample compassion, and no small amount of prayer. It’s very simple, really. It just turns out that we best enjoy (or endure) the outcome of any big decision when we truly make it together.

Unless circumstances dictate a more immediate choice, we work through the possible pros and cons at our leisure, usually over a period of days, weeks, or months, until we reach that moment where we realize we’re very much on the same page. Our kids have been known to grow impatient, waiting for us to make a decision or take what they see as an obvious action. We may leave and return to the conversation many times, but it basically comes down to this for us: comfortable consensus. When we’re there, we just know.

And so it’s been for the past year, as we’ve gone back and forth, trying to anticipate the unpredictable economy and assess the unknowable future. Recently we came up with some new thoughts and arrived, almost suddenly, at that mutual sense of knowing peace.

It’s time.

Posted in Family, Retirement itself, Ruminations | Tagged Employment, family, lifestyle, retirement, retirement planning | 3 Comments

Rolling on the River… and with the Punches

Posted on February 26, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

My husband is an ardent paddler – we own kayaks, a canoe, and all the associated gear. He loves lakes and rivers – and everything he learns from them. When I’m lucky (although I slow him down a bit), I go along for the ride, and I’ve learned a lot as well. Rivers are wonderful microcosms of our world. In the burbling erratic flow that constitutes my crazy life, I’ve encountered rapids and rocks, quiet and noise, chaos and peace.

When I was in my twenties and recently buffeted by bouts of fatigue and postpartum depression, my mother-in-law passed away. She missed doing some of the big things she’d planned – most notably a long-anticipated trip to Europe with my father-in-law. Thus confronted with mortality, my little inner voice encouraged me that perhaps I would find it helpful to start actually doing something with my own life.

In my thirties, while working and raising three amazing children, I was carried along in a swirl of church, school, and other activities. That eddy carried me into my forties – when I learned that my earlier depression had likely been part of my first noticeable episode of mild relapsing-remitting MS. At that point my little inner voice began to suggest moderation.

In my fifties, when my nest was recently empty and my beloved and I had moved to a new state, we tackled new jobs (but fewer other activities), and were confronted with my mortality in a maelstrom of stage 2 breast cancer and the resulting treatments. This time, my little inner voice suggested getting to all those things I hadn’t done yet, lest I meet my mother-in law’s fate.

Now in my sixties, when my career has stopped being a source of gratification and accomplishment for me, my children no longer need my regular attention (and even my grandkids are becoming independent), I am embarking on a daunting new adventure – retirement.

I no longer need to paddle hard upstream every day. I have plenty of treks ahead of me, and a delightful companion on the journey, but the urgency now is to make the time meaningful – not just in good works or a legacy, but also in savoring the days and their many blessings for their own sake.

Every day on a river is different from the one before – each sunrise has its own character, the rains vary the depth and the speed of the water, and the seasons bring constant reinvention of the surrounding landscape. There are always hazards ahead in the whimsical currents, but there are also wonder, beauty, and opportunity.

Paddling through… every day is an adventure and a gift.

Posted in Recreation, Retirement itself, Ruminations | Tagged aging, family, lifestyle, recreation, retirement | 1 Comment

The Retiring Sort: On the Brink of Retirement

Posted on February 19, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

I’ve thought a lot lately about what it will mean to retire. I even went on the Merriam-Webster website (www.m-w.com) and considered some of their definitions, like:

to withdraw from action or danger
to withdraw especially for privacy
to move back : recede
to withdraw from one’s position or career : conclude one’s working or professional career
to pay in full : settle
to go to bed

I wonder if I’m the retiring sort.

I plan to find out. With the support and blessing of my beloved husband and companion of several decades, I will shortly give up a scintillating insurance career in favor of building a more enriching life. So what’s on my list of things to do (and write about?) Some of the things on my agenda are:

Helping to maximize our assets and planning to help us decide things like when to start taking Social Security, whether to buy or rent our next home, and how much supplemental income we may need in future years.
Focusing on our health – managing our meals better, getting more sleep, learning more about dietary supplements, and finding sustainable ways to get exercise all year round – you know, the kind we won’t abandon after two weeks.
Finding ways to give more back to the world around me. I have a number of ideas for this – looking forward to actually embarking on some.
Undertaking the search for a new home more suited to our evolving lifestyle – with less work needed in the yard, on repairs, and cleaning. Note I said less time needed, not spent – we increasingly avoid doing those tasks ourselves in favor of other activities. We need to find a sustainable and enjoyable home base from which to launch our future adventures.
Planning affordable future adventures. Our past trips have included everything from canoe trips to cruising, from family visits to a Hawaiian resort, and from overseas travel to museum day trips. We want to keep travelling without breaking the bank. I need to get creative.
More quality family time – Mom, kids, grandkids, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces & nephews….we have so many relatives, and they’re an interesting bunch!