Sunday, July 18, 2010

When I Retire....

Yesterday my brother in law and sister in law got together with us for dinner.  We got to speaking about retirement.  They have plans of travel, here there.  It was when he asked Chris and I why we never talked about what we want to do with or in our retirement.

Well, being disable sometimes I think I have a mindset that I am somewhat retired.  Only thing being that my physical issues stop a whole lot of things I might have chosen to do had I been healthy enough to choose them.  I don’t look at my retirement basically because I feel that I am living my life to the fullest now.  I know when my husband retires we won’t have a ton of money to do all the things we can now.  Nor can we depend on me having the health to do it.

Truth be told, both my parents died when they were 56 and for years they said they would do this or that (most was traveling) when they retired.  Now, those might have been pipe dreams on their part because my family was very  blue collar worker.  But, what came through to me in the long run was neither did reach that goal.  So, those experiences were never felt, never shared, never cherished.  I decided a long time ago that I will “make hay” while the getting is good and ease into retirement in a peaceful, non-gotta do this or that mindset. 

I am not one that cares a lot about cars (as long as it is dependable, good for me!) or the latest gadgets.  I am patient about getting things done around the house. I look at like this, we are never going to leave this home unless we have to sell it.  So, there is time to paint or whatever, whenever we can.  We enjoy the weekends and do maintain the house well. But, nothing is urgent or not livable.  I am not a home fashion diva (although I do like to read about it) and when a project is taken on (like the bathroom a few years ago) it will very often replace any vacation we were going to take.  But, that is okay.  Extravagant, we are not. Although, Chris may not agree about my spending habits on this.

I suspect we will be two homebodies who like to window shop, go out to lunch and spend time reading.  I just don’t have a lot of expectations, with the exception of slowing way down physically, emotionally, financially.

I drive my husband nuts with certain things.  I have a passion for books and it bothers the dickens out of him.  I spend too much time getting books in the mail.  I like clothes a little too much (even though this year most of my clothes were from the church rummage sale).  I like to buy spices to cook with.... the cabinet is full of them.  I do use them, but when you use them a tablespoon at a time, they don’t go away very fast.  Those little Tablespoons of spices are my little adventure in the unknown.

Taking this position has taken a lot of pressure off me and my new “bucket list” which has reasonable, attainable things I would like to do.  Like go to Martha’s Vineyard.  Heck, I am a New Englander and I have never been to the Islands.  Or Bar Harbor (or shall I say Baa-Haba) for more than 6 hours.  Learn to paint in oil (which has taken some expense on our part), write my own cookbook.  Although, after going through and putting together the church cookbook, I wonder about this one.  Maybe enter more recipe contest. Continue to write that paranormal Romance Mystery I have 5 chapters into already.

Nothing big... no Alaska, no Europe, no cross country.  To retire for me is to “be” content where you are at that stage of your life.  You no longer have much disposable income, you have to visit the library more if you have a hankering for more than a couple magazines, looking for coupons for lunches (although I do that even now!).  Simple, simple, simple.

I am not sure what my brother in law meant when he asked the question.  There are two philosophy of thought.  One, you save, save, save and sacrifice now or two, you be reasonable and enjoy now.  I think it bugs my husband that we will not be in a great condition financially, but I believe we will be in a good one.  With economy, the Social Security issues, who knows.  But, you cannot live your life NOW for retirement THEN.  I don’t mean that you don’t save and try to prepare.  I mean the sacrifices in your life should come at a time when you would expect them.  A time when I know I will neither have the energy or drive to do much more than enjoy my patio and go out for a pizza once in a while. 

Am I overly optimistic? Am I not optimistic?  I suppose one could make an argument for both.  All I know is that for now I am pretty sure I have tomorrow and I am grateful for today.  So, based on that I will save and prepare for another cruise, a trip to Florida and perhaps one of those bucket list trips.  Nothing grand, something just right for both of us.

Except for saving (and yes hubby and I don’t agree on this either) I am bound and determined to live life in the here and now.  I am going to smell those roses along the way now and pray that they will be there 15 years from now when I will be appreciating them even more.

No, nothing big planned for retirement for us.  Just being, living and counting our blessings and maybe an occasional hamburger from the Chili’s down the street, with a coupon, of course.