Friday, 24 June 2016
If you're not doing it now...
If you are not doing it before you are retired you won't do it after you are retired. I heard this caveat a long time ago and stuck with me.
It could be a play on the adage: Don't put something off until tomorrow because tomorrow may never come or it might be a different way of saying, work to live; don't live to work. Whichever, it's worth considering before retirement.
According to Zilinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free :
"Leisure consultants and pre-retirement planners state that if you are not spending any time pursuing these activities before retirement, it is unlikely that you will spend much time on these activities after you quit work." P. 17
( I reviewed this book in an earlier blog. If you copy and paste this link you could check out that blog entry:
https://debslifeinretirement.blogspot.ca/2016/02/reading-to-prep-for-retirement.html
Zilinski recommends making a list of 10 favourite interests and activities that you would like to pursue in retirement and write how much time you are presently spending on these activities. His reasoning is that unless you have a variety of activities to engage in when you retire, you may become bored and even depressed so you should start cultivating and pursuing interests while still working. He contends that even the most enjoyable activity loses its charm if it becomes routine.
When you are really busy with your career and family there may be plenty of activities that had to be put on hold. Even if you haven't done something in years, you might be able to have time for it again once you retire. The real issue is whether you start those activities again and if you will become involved in new activities when you have the time.
So I did a review of the activities that are taking up my time to see if I am the exception to the rule-- They fall into a few categories and I left off quite a few things that fall into I was doing them before--like exercise, reading, traveling, cottage, shopping.
Old but different; the unavoidable things that still need to be done because retirement doesn't make them magically disappear.
1. Housework including decorating and organizing--certainly did housework before retirement, definitely still doing it now. The difference is I can actually enjoy it now. I'm not saying I love cleaning but there is more enjoyment in having the time do a decent job and to enjoy the results. A great thing about retirement is not needing to cram all that work into the few hours available at night and on weekends.
2. Cooking- Thanks to the difference in our schedules I wasn't really doing this much before retirement, Moe was doing most of the daily cooking so I just did the same old stuff when I cooked. That's why I said I wanted to learn how to cook again in retirement. I've certainly enjoyed trying new recipes especially when they turn out well. Not a new activity but actually enjoying doing it is new.
Not new but with a twist
3. Baking--this is something I have loved to do since I was a kid. However, before retirement I baked on demand (read only when I had to or if I had tons of time). Now I bake more often and try new recipes and even ones that are a challenge.
4. Yoga--I was doing yoga before I retired. At home, often from videos and apps and books but sporadically. The twist here is now I go to yoga classes-regularly. Classes are so much better. Didn't have time for classes before. Love yoga!!
5. Knitting--wasn't doing this before retirement because it is addictive and will keep you from going to bed when you should. But not new since I have been able to knit since high school. Now I am knitting again. And it's still addictive and still keeps me up at night. The twist is that I joined a knitting circle--we knit for charities and it is a once a week social outing.
Below are Actually New Activities. Hah!!
6. Duolingo--it's an app that helps you learn another language. I am improving my French, everyday. Yes, I live in a French home and took French to grade 12 but I still have learned a lot from my iPad--I once said to kiss my neck when I really wanted to say kiss my butt--my pronunciation needs work! C'est la vie!
7. Blogging. Writing and publishing my personal writing--definitely new. Still scary.
Below is Proof that I'm an Exception to the Rule of "if you didn't do it before you won't do it after you retire":
8. I have no rhythm, I can't sing to save my life but I have always wanted to play so I bought a piano and am learning with lots of practice....
Thanks to my friend, Beth I was able to play the Scale of C with my right hand when we moved the piano into our house. It seems like thousands of years ago she tried to teach me on her grandmother's piano. That's as far as we got. I now know all the scales with both hands and in unison, and a couple of songs. I still can't sing or carry a tune, so my piano playing career will remain in the house.
So that may make me an exception to the idea that if you weren't doing it before you won't do it after however, as I said I am also not the exception. I was sure I was going to be doing these things but...
9. I still haven't made it to spin class or the pool, my garden doesn't exist and I've only painted one picture.
But then again, there is always September.
If you are not doing it before you are retired you won't do it after you are retired. I heard this caveat a long time ago and stuck with me.It could be a play on the adage: Don't put something off until tomorrow because tomorrow may never come or it might be a different way of saying, work to live; don't live to work. Whichever, it's worth considering before retirement.
According to Zilinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free :
"Leisure consultants and pre-retirement planners state that if you are not spending any time pursuing these activities before retirement, it is unlikely that you will spend much time on these activities after you quit work." P. 17
( I reviewed this book in an earlier blog. If you copy and paste this link you could check out that blog entry:
https://debslifeinretirement.blogspot.ca/2016/02/reading-to-prep-for-retirement.html
Zilinski recommends making a list of 10 favourite interests and activities that you would like to pursue in retirement and write how much time you are presently spending on these activities. His reasoning is that unless you have a variety of activities to engage in when you retire, you may become bored and even depressed so you should start cultivating and pursuing interests while still working. He contends that even the most enjoyable activity loses its charm if it becomes routine.
When you are really busy with your career and family there may be plenty of activities that had to be put on hold. Even if you haven't done something in years, you might be able to have time for it again once you retire. The real issue is whether you start those activities again and if you will become involved in new activities when you have the time.
So I did a review of the activities that are taking up my time to see if I am the exception to the rule-- They fall into a few categories and I left off quite a few things that fall into I was doing them before--like exercise, reading, traveling, cottage, shopping.
Old but different; the unavoidable things that still need to be done because retirement doesn't make them magically disappear.
1. Housework including decorating and organizing--certainly did housework before retirement, definitely still doing it now. The difference is I can actually enjoy it now. I'm not saying I love cleaning but there is more enjoyment in having the time do a decent job and to enjoy the results. A great thing about retirement is not needing to cram all that work into the few hours available at night and on weekends.
2. Cooking- Thanks to the difference in our schedules I wasn't really doing this much before retirement, Moe was doing most of the daily cooking so I just did the same old stuff when I cooked. That's why I said I wanted to learn how to cook again in retirement. I've certainly enjoyed trying new recipes especially when they turn out well. Not a new activity but actually enjoying doing it is new.
Not new but with a twist
3. Baking--this is something I have loved to do since I was a kid. However, before retirement I baked on demand (read only when I had to or if I had tons of time). Now I bake more often and try new recipes and even ones that are a challenge.
4. Yoga--I was doing yoga before I retired. At home, often from videos and apps and books but sporadically. The twist here is now I go to yoga classes-regularly. Classes are so much better. Didn't have time for classes before. Love yoga!!
5. Knitting--wasn't doing this before retirement because it is addictive and will keep you from going to bed when you should. But not new since I have been able to knit since high school. Now I am knitting again. And it's still addictive and still keeps me up at night. The twist is that I joined a knitting circle--we knit for charities and it is a once a week social outing.
Below are Actually New Activities. Hah!!
6. Duolingo--it's an app that helps you learn another language. I am improving my French, everyday. Yes, I live in a French home and took French to grade 12 but I still have learned a lot from my iPad--I once said to kiss my neck when I really wanted to say kiss my butt--my pronunciation needs work! C'est la vie!
7. Blogging. Writing and publishing my personal writing--definitely new. Still scary.
Below is Proof that I'm an Exception to the Rule of "if you didn't do it before you won't do it after you retire":
8. I have no rhythm, I can't sing to save my life but I have always wanted to play so I bought a piano and am learning with lots of practice....
Thanks to my friend, Beth I was able to play the Scale of C with my right hand when we moved the piano into our house. It seems like thousands of years ago she tried to teach me on her grandmother's piano. That's as far as we got. I now know all the scales with both hands and in unison, and a couple of songs. I still can't sing or carry a tune, so my piano playing career will remain in the house.
So that may make me an exception to the idea that if you weren't doing it before you won't do it after however, as I said I am also not the exception. I was sure I was going to be doing these things but...
9. I still haven't made it to spin class or the pool, my garden doesn't exist and I've only painted one picture.
But then again, there is always September.
Sunday, 29 May 2016
About My Retirement Gift to Me
I had wanted a stand mixer like this for such a very long time but there was always a reason why that desire was unfulfilled. The fact that I seldom found time to bake and had a perfectly good hand mixer did not justify the expense. And then I was going to retire and I knew that I wanted to use some of my time to bake.
Stand mixers were on sale before Christmas along with a mail-in-rebate from Kitchen Aid. The time had come to fulfill that want.
The most difficult part was committing to which one to purchase. Lift bowl or tilt-head, professional grade or home use, which colour, (probably the biggest and most important decision) how big a bowl or motor? So many decisions! I polled the bakers and cooks at school, sent e-mails to friends for their input that I took into full consideration. But in the end, I purchased the very one that I had been admiring for years; a beautiful fire engine red Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer with a tilt head. It has a stainless steel bowl and comes with three beaters and a port for the attachments that I am sure to investigating soon.
I brought it home the night before my last day at school. A perfect retirement gift for me. I've had it for six months now and every time I use it I think how I wish I had invested in this years ago! It works beautifully. It is easy to use, easy to clean and looks fabulous on my counter.
It is a bit heavy to move so I had to find a spot that works to store it yet is also where it can be used. The heaviness is actually a bonus as it is solid while in use, so I can do other tasks. I'm looking forward to adding the glass bowl and after I tried making my own pasta dough, I know I want the pasta attachments. I've used it so often already and I love it. I highly recommend!
It does make me wonder though... why do we so often put off what we really want until we can get a reason to give it to ourselves as a gift?
|
I had wanted a stand mixer like this for such a very long time but there was always a reason why that desire was unfulfilled. The fact that I seldom found time to bake and had a perfectly good hand mixer did not justify the expense. And then I was going to retire and I knew that I wanted to use some of my time to bake.
Stand mixers were on sale before Christmas along with a mail-in-rebate from Kitchen Aid. The time had come to fulfill that want.
The most difficult part was committing to which one to purchase. Lift bowl or tilt-head, professional grade or home use, which colour, (probably the biggest and most important decision) how big a bowl or motor? So many decisions! I polled the bakers and cooks at school, sent e-mails to friends for their input that I took into full consideration. But in the end, I purchased the very one that I had been admiring for years; a beautiful fire engine red Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer with a tilt head. It has a stainless steel bowl and comes with three beaters and a port for the attachments that I am sure to investigating soon.
I brought it home the night before my last day at school. A perfect retirement gift for me. I've had it for six months now and every time I use it I think how I wish I had invested in this years ago! It works beautifully. It is easy to use, easy to clean and looks fabulous on my counter.
It is a bit heavy to move so I had to find a spot that works to store it yet is also where it can be used. The heaviness is actually a bonus as it is solid while in use, so I can do other tasks. I'm looking forward to adding the glass bowl and after I tried making my own pasta dough, I know I want the pasta attachments. I've used it so often already and I love it. I highly recommend!
It does make me wonder though... why do we so often put off what we really want until we can get a reason to give it to ourselves as a gift?
The most difficult part was committing to which one to purchase. Lift bowl or tilt-head, professional grade or home use, which colour, (probably the biggest and most important decision) how big a bowl or motor? So many decisions! I polled the bakers and cooks at school, sent e-mails to friends for their input that I took into full consideration. But in the end, I purchased the very one that I had been admiring for years; a beautiful fire engine red Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer with a tilt head. It has a stainless steel bowl and comes with three beaters and a port for the attachments that I am sure to investigating soon.
I brought it home the night before my last day at school. A perfect retirement gift for me. I've had it for six months now and every time I use it I think how I wish I had invested in this years ago! It works beautifully. It is easy to use, easy to clean and looks fabulous on my counter.
It is a bit heavy to move so I had to find a spot that works to store it yet is also where it can be used. The heaviness is actually a bonus as it is solid while in use, so I can do other tasks. I'm looking forward to adding the glass bowl and after I tried making my own pasta dough, I know I want the pasta attachments. I've used it so often already and I love it. I highly recommend!
It does make me wonder though... why do we so often put off what we really want until we can get a reason to give it to ourselves as a gift?
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
RBC Retirement Designers
RBC Retirement Designers
I happened to see an interview on Marilyn Dennis, with Hilary Farr, who used to be on Love It or List. She now has a gig with the RBC as part of their website called Retirement Designers. At the end of the blog you can find it a link to the website. I checked out the website although I didn't find Hilary on it.
All of the big banks have information on websites about retirement planning that focuses on the financial planning aspects. This website is less about finances and more about how you want to live in retirement and what you want out of retirement.
RBC wants you to use the website to help "design a retirement" that will work for you (and your spouse, if applicable) on various levels and at different stages. If you think that you should pick up and follow your dreams after retiring or that retirement will be one long vacation, then the website could be a buzz kill for that. It is more about clarifying what is a doable dream and what might be a nice dream but not a great reality.
It seems some retirees have made decisions to move from their home or invest in a long held dream and then discovered that the reality is not what they had envisioned. Unfortunately for them, their dream retirement turned into an expensive mistake. Also, some retiring couples appear to be at odds or at least on different pages regarding their dream retirement. The website is set up to help them reach an agreeable compromise by finding common ground through determining their priorities.
There are some good points to the website and it poses many excellent questions for people who are considering retiring or changing up their lives; such as defining what you will do with the 2000 hours that you used to work in a year and now have free. What makes you get up in the morning and how best to make sure you want to get up in the morning. What you will do when you are not traveling or doing that one thing that you really want to do when you retire?
The website is worth checking out if for no other reason than to realize whether you have answers for the questions they pose or perhaps you need to do more thinking or investigating. There is a good priority setting activity to work through on an interactive tool, some videos and there are checklists and valuable information. Here is the link.
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/mfd-campaign/fall-b.html
I think I might try to see if other financial institutions have similar types of websites that focus less on the financial.
I happened to see an interview on Marilyn Dennis, with Hilary Farr, who used to be on Love It or List. She now has a gig with the RBC as part of their website called Retirement Designers. At the end of the blog you can find it a link to the website. I checked out the website although I didn't find Hilary on it.
All of the big banks have information on websites about retirement planning that focuses on the financial planning aspects. This website is less about finances and more about how you want to live in retirement and what you want out of retirement.
RBC wants you to use the website to help "design a retirement" that will work for you (and your spouse, if applicable) on various levels and at different stages. If you think that you should pick up and follow your dreams after retiring or that retirement will be one long vacation, then the website could be a buzz kill for that. It is more about clarifying what is a doable dream and what might be a nice dream but not a great reality.
It seems some retirees have made decisions to move from their home or invest in a long held dream and then discovered that the reality is not what they had envisioned. Unfortunately for them, their dream retirement turned into an expensive mistake. Also, some retiring couples appear to be at odds or at least on different pages regarding their dream retirement. The website is set up to help them reach an agreeable compromise by finding common ground through determining their priorities.
There are some good points to the website and it poses many excellent questions for people who are considering retiring or changing up their lives; such as defining what you will do with the 2000 hours that you used to work in a year and now have free. What makes you get up in the morning and how best to make sure you want to get up in the morning. What you will do when you are not traveling or doing that one thing that you really want to do when you retire?
The website is worth checking out if for no other reason than to realize whether you have answers for the questions they pose or perhaps you need to do more thinking or investigating. There is a good priority setting activity to work through on an interactive tool, some videos and there are checklists and valuable information. Here is the link.
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/mfd-campaign/fall-b.html
I think I might try to see if other financial institutions have similar types of websites that focus less on the financial.Monday, 7 March 2016
2000 Hours
All that free time???
It is estimated that when you retire you suddenly have about 2000 hours a year free. Those are the hours that you used to spend working full time. This of course is a rough estimate for many people may have spent fewer or more hours depending on where they were working. No wonder, people worry about getting bored--that's a lot of time to fill.
I have to admit, I still don't seem to have enough hours in the day. Yet in the next breath I would say that my time is much less rushed and pressured than when I was working. I feel short of time only because I am busy and I like it that way.
This morning at yoga class, the instructor was posing questions during our cool down or reflective time, asking us to consider what makes us get up in the morning. What made us get up that morning? For me it is because I have things I want to do or someplace to go. It's also because I need to be ready to do whatever comes up.
This morning, I wanted to get a few things accomplished before I left for yoga. I needed to make a marinade for the chicken I was cooking for supper, I wanted the house neat and chores finished. I wanted coffee while I did my French lesson on Duolingo and caught up on email before I left the house. After my yoga class, I wanted to be able to spend the afternoon on something I like to do. I was thinking of finishing a knitting pattern and spray painting a couple of items for a DYI project or maybe blogging for the afternoon.
As it turned out, the wind, or rather the first day of winter melting, took me for a long snow shoe trek through fields and forest and then a long walk down the road in my heavy winter boots. It was glorious to be outside in the sunshine, my coat unzipped and carrying my mitts in my hand soaking up vitamin D. Snow shoeing is a great way to get really warm! This trek was totally unplanned. It was a spontaneous response to the warmth of the day and the realization that there may be a limited number of days remaining to snow shoe. Ahh, the promise of spring.
The best days are when I have one or two things that are calling to me to get done and then a plan for one or two that will be just for fun. And the very best days are like today when I have plans for things to do but the chance to drop it all to do something spontaneous.
Since I've retired, I have been very diligent about getting out of bed whenever I wake up. I am waking up naturally because my body has had enough sleep not because of an alarm clock, so there is no point in lying around. Sometimes I might make coffee and then read for a bit in bed because that is something I love to do but I always make sure I am up and doing something else within the hour. I have found that staying in bed with nothing to do just puts me in a bad mood or dampens my day. Likewise, I have been careful about the time sucks; social media, watching t.v. during the day, and email.
After all I only have 2000 hours to fill, I better get busy enjoying them. 
It is estimated that when you retire you suddenly have about 2000 hours a year free. Those are the hours that you used to spend working full time. This of course is a rough estimate for many people may have spent fewer or more hours depending on where they were working. No wonder, people worry about getting bored--that's a lot of time to fill.
I have to admit, I still don't seem to have enough hours in the day. Yet in the next breath I would say that my time is much less rushed and pressured than when I was working. I feel short of time only because I am busy and I like it that way.
This morning at yoga class, the instructor was posing questions during our cool down or reflective time, asking us to consider what makes us get up in the morning. What made us get up that morning? For me it is because I have things I want to do or someplace to go. It's also because I need to be ready to do whatever comes up.
This morning, I wanted to get a few things accomplished before I left for yoga. I needed to make a marinade for the chicken I was cooking for supper, I wanted the house neat and chores finished. I wanted coffee while I did my French lesson on Duolingo and caught up on email before I left the house. After my yoga class, I wanted to be able to spend the afternoon on something I like to do. I was thinking of finishing a knitting pattern and spray painting a couple of items for a DYI project or maybe blogging for the afternoon.
As it turned out, the wind, or rather the first day of winter melting, took me for a long snow shoe trek through fields and forest and then a long walk down the road in my heavy winter boots. It was glorious to be outside in the sunshine, my coat unzipped and carrying my mitts in my hand soaking up vitamin D. Snow shoeing is a great way to get really warm! This trek was totally unplanned. It was a spontaneous response to the warmth of the day and the realization that there may be a limited number of days remaining to snow shoe. Ahh, the promise of spring.
The best days are when I have one or two things that are calling to me to get done and then a plan for one or two that will be just for fun. And the very best days are like today when I have plans for things to do but the chance to drop it all to do something spontaneous.
Since I've retired, I have been very diligent about getting out of bed whenever I wake up. I am waking up naturally because my body has had enough sleep not because of an alarm clock, so there is no point in lying around. Sometimes I might make coffee and then read for a bit in bed because that is something I love to do but I always make sure I am up and doing something else within the hour. I have found that staying in bed with nothing to do just puts me in a bad mood or dampens my day. Likewise, I have been careful about the time sucks; social media, watching t.v. during the day, and email.
After all I only have 2000 hours to fill, I better get busy enjoying them.
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Designing Your Retirement
Retirement is going to change your life. And it is going to change your life in more ways than just not going to work every day. It gives you freedom; it gives you choice and it gives you time. It also gives you the responsibility of keeping yourself happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.
For some people retirement will be just an increase of what they already do when they are not at work. They will spend time on the hobbies they have always done, visit with the people they already socialize with, and perhaps take a vacation or two. No real change, just more time and more freedom. In many ways they are very lucky people since the transition to retirement should be an easy slide into more of what they already have. However, if they don’t have enough hobbies or variety of activities they may become bored of the routine.
I had a great fear of being bored in my retirement so I did some serious searching on the internet for advice on planning for this big change. Like many people I list travel as one of the things I will do for my retirement but my choice to retire before my husband means that travel isn’t the biggest part of my plan right now. Also, I knew that hobbies alone would not be enough.
One of the most useful articles I read about planning for retirement is at the link below this page.
I actually completed the “wheel of life” and found that it really did help me build a vision of how I would create a full and balanced life with all my new freedom, choice and time. I really love activities like that and creating a pie with slices of life, all neat and pretty was fun. It is quicker and neater than a vision board. It has also given me something to consider if I need to. I updated it and made some tweaks after a rather unsettling conversation with someone who is finding he has too many hours to fill with his retirement--he's been retired for more than a year. I found it useful to consider how I build up a "slice" and to consider how these slices would shift in importance over the next few months.
Here are the instructions and below that is a link to the full article.
Envision your new world. One tool I find helpful in transitions is “the wheel of life.” This wheel looks like a pie with eight slices representing different elements of life: Fun, Health, Money, Friends, Career, Spouse, Physical Environment (home), and Personal Growth. A useful exercise is to go through each category and write out your vision for each. Where are you now in this area, and where might you like to take these in your transition? If you have a spouse or partner, involve them in the process. Reinventions are a team sport, after all.
How To Design A Retirement That Excites You
https://hbr.org/2015/11/design-a-retirement-that-excites-you
Retirement is going to change your life. And it is going to change your life in more ways than just not going to work every day. It gives you freedom; it gives you choice and it gives you time. It also gives you the responsibility of keeping yourself happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.
For some people retirement will be just an increase of what they already do when they are not at work. They will spend time on the hobbies they have always done, visit with the people they already socialize with, and perhaps take a vacation or two. No real change, just more time and more freedom. In many ways they are very lucky people since the transition to retirement should be an easy slide into more of what they already have. However, if they don’t have enough hobbies or variety of activities they may become bored of the routine.
I had a great fear of being bored in my retirement so I did some serious searching on the internet for advice on planning for this big change. Like many people I list travel as one of the things I will do for my retirement but my choice to retire before my husband means that travel isn’t the biggest part of my plan right now. Also, I knew that hobbies alone would not be enough.
One of the most useful articles I read about planning for retirement is at the link below this page.
I actually completed the “wheel of life” and found that it really did help me build a vision of how I would create a full and balanced life with all my new freedom, choice and time. I really love activities like that and creating a pie with slices of life, all neat and pretty was fun. It is quicker and neater than a vision board. It has also given me something to consider if I need to. I updated it and made some tweaks after a rather unsettling conversation with someone who is finding he has too many hours to fill with his retirement--he's been retired for more than a year. I found it useful to consider how I build up a "slice" and to consider how these slices would shift in importance over the next few months.
Here are the instructions and below that is a link to the full article.
Envision your new world. One tool I find helpful in transitions is “the wheel of life.” This wheel looks like a pie with eight slices representing different elements of life: Fun, Health, Money, Friends, Career, Spouse, Physical Environment (home), and Personal Growth. A useful exercise is to go through each category and write out your vision for each. Where are you now in this area, and where might you like to take these in your transition? If you have a spouse or partner, involve them in the process. Reinventions are a team sport, after all.
How To Design A Retirement That Excites You
https://hbr.org/2015/11/design-a-retirement-that-excites-you
https://hbr.org/2015/11/
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
Why Canadians yearn for retirement
Our Weekend
My darling husband woke me up Saturday morning to show me the weather on his iPad. It said some ridiculous temperature but the real news was that with the wind chill it felt like 50 below zero. Urrgh!! I rolled over to go back to sleep, glad that I had no reason to go anywhere.
Moe of course, felt he was somehow being ripped off. If this had been a week day the school buses would have been cancelled. The students would have had a snow day because of the extreme cold; I didn't bother reminding him that a snow day still means that he would have to show up for work. Or that the school's heating system most likely would not be able to keep up with the demand and that the school would be cold at best, frosty at worst. And although, we have the car in the garage it would start and that the ride to work would be okay, when he needed to come home the car would be freezing, the tires "square" and he would be cold all the way home. He knew all that. It's just if you need to tolerate that kind of temperature then you should at least get something out of it. It was a very good day to stay home.
When we were kids, temperature didn't stop the buses. I remember being outside hearing a branch crack and then fall from the tree because of the cold, our nostrils sticking together if you dared to take a deep breath when you removed your scarf from around your face. When the bus arrived and that door swung open you clumped up the stairs as fast as your heavy winter boots would allow, anticipating the welcome heat. However, once on the bus you just continued to be cold. Every time the door opened to allow other frozen children to clomp on, whatever warm air that the heater had created left to welcome the newcomers as they brought more cold in with them. It was not a good deal. Even in high school, when we drove for long periods without opening the door, that tin can never warmed up at those temperatures. I am not telling about this to say that we were tougher than kids are now because that isn't a fair comparison, but rather to say that the deciding to cancel buses for extreme cold is a worthwhile advancement in thinking. 
Coming back to this weekend, our sons told us that their apartment heating systems were struggling to keep up to the cold and although dressed as warmly as possible it was still chilly inside. We are lucky, we have two sources of heat in the house--electric and a gas fireplace downstairs. However, when it is that cold outside your body still senses it. Even dressed warmly inside with cozy slippers and extra layers, you might not be shivering but your joints and bones and lungs know you don't like it. 
When Moe attempted to start our truck, it refused even though it had been plugged-in over night. Our son was having the same trouble in North Bay as he tried to get to work. His car refused to start even after a boost. No matter how much you love your job, on a morning like that you yearn for retirement and specifically a retirement that includes winter somewhere warm. No matter how much you loved snow and winter sports when you were younger, your older body yearns to be a Canadian "snowbird".
Those of us who are left behind in the cold of Ontario this weekend were most likely thinking of all the lucky ones who may have chosen this week to leave for a warm vacation. Envy abounding! However, thinking of the ones who by some rather bad luck were returning this weekend from an all inclusive holiday into the extreme cold helps to balance out the envy. Imagine the disappointment of stepping off a plane into 40 below weather when just a few hours earlier you were perspiring in bright tropical sunlight.
Our daughter in Northern British Columbia tells us that she can go to the mountain to ski but that her yard right now is snow free. I guess that's fair since we were feeling sorry for her in early October when they had their first snowfall. Here in Northern Ontario, our world is deep with snow. It has covered everything in the yard making all shapes disappear. There is no mound or drift to indicate where we left our canoe near the water. Unless you know that it is out there the canoe is undetectable. If the temperature alone is not a reason to migrate south then being weary of looking at white, shoveling white, of brushing it off the car, of trudging through it is enough to make you want to escape the joys of winter.
We did brave the cold Saturday afternoon in order to have a Valentine's Dinner at a restaurant. After all, winter is long and you can't let it prevent you from having a good time. Like many Canadians we appreciate the beauty of winter and prefer a white Christmas card beautiful December. And on a sunny, milder day we even enjoy going outside for activities on snow or ice. And thankfully, the thermometer has now risen to a more comfortable temperature.
But when Darling Husband retires we will happily escape for at least the long dreary part of winter. Maybe we should consider early retirement for him!
My darling husband woke me up Saturday morning to show me the weather on his iPad. It said some ridiculous temperature but the real news was that with the wind chill it felt like 50 below zero. Urrgh!! I rolled over to go back to sleep, glad that I had no reason to go anywhere.
Moe of course, felt he was somehow being ripped off. If this had been a week day the school buses would have been cancelled. The students would have had a snow day because of the extreme cold; I didn't bother reminding him that a snow day still means that he would have to show up for work. Or that the school's heating system most likely would not be able to keep up with the demand and that the school would be cold at best, frosty at worst. And although, we have the car in the garage it would start and that the ride to work would be okay, when he needed to come home the car would be freezing, the tires "square" and he would be cold all the way home. He knew all that. It's just if you need to tolerate that kind of temperature then you should at least get something out of it. It was a very good day to stay home.
When we were kids, temperature didn't stop the buses. I remember being outside hearing a branch crack and then fall from the tree because of the cold, our nostrils sticking together if you dared to take a deep breath when you removed your scarf from around your face. When the bus arrived and that door swung open you clumped up the stairs as fast as your heavy winter boots would allow, anticipating the welcome heat. However, once on the bus you just continued to be cold. Every time the door opened to allow other frozen children to clomp on, whatever warm air that the heater had created left to welcome the newcomers as they brought more cold in with them. It was not a good deal. Even in high school, when we drove for long periods without opening the door, that tin can never warmed up at those temperatures. I am not telling about this to say that we were tougher than kids are now because that isn't a fair comparison, but rather to say that the deciding to cancel buses for extreme cold is a worthwhile advancement in thinking.
Coming back to this weekend, our sons told us that their apartment heating systems were struggling to keep up to the cold and although dressed as warmly as possible it was still chilly inside. We are lucky, we have two sources of heat in the house--electric and a gas fireplace downstairs. However, when it is that cold outside your body still senses it. Even dressed warmly inside with cozy slippers and extra layers, you might not be shivering but your joints and bones and lungs know you don't like it.
When Moe attempted to start our truck, it refused even though it had been plugged-in over night. Our son was having the same trouble in North Bay as he tried to get to work. His car refused to start even after a boost. No matter how much you love your job, on a morning like that you yearn for retirement and specifically a retirement that includes winter somewhere warm. No matter how much you loved snow and winter sports when you were younger, your older body yearns to be a Canadian "snowbird".
Those of us who are left behind in the cold of Ontario this weekend were most likely thinking of all the lucky ones who may have chosen this week to leave for a warm vacation. Envy abounding! However, thinking of the ones who by some rather bad luck were returning this weekend from an all inclusive holiday into the extreme cold helps to balance out the envy. Imagine the disappointment of stepping off a plane into 40 below weather when just a few hours earlier you were perspiring in bright tropical sunlight.
Our daughter in Northern British Columbia tells us that she can go to the mountain to ski but that her yard right now is snow free. I guess that's fair since we were feeling sorry for her in early October when they had their first snowfall. Here in Northern Ontario, our world is deep with snow. It has covered everything in the yard making all shapes disappear. There is no mound or drift to indicate where we left our canoe near the water. Unless you know that it is out there the canoe is undetectable. If the temperature alone is not a reason to migrate south then being weary of looking at white, shoveling white, of brushing it off the car, of trudging through it is enough to make you want to escape the joys of winter.
We did brave the cold Saturday afternoon in order to have a Valentine's Dinner at a restaurant. After all, winter is long and you can't let it prevent you from having a good time. Like many Canadians we appreciate the beauty of winter and prefer a white Christmas card beautiful December. And on a sunny, milder day we even enjoy going outside for activities on snow or ice. And thankfully, the thermometer has now risen to a more comfortable temperature.
But when Darling Husband retires we will happily escape for at least the long dreary part of winter. Maybe we should consider early retirement for him!
Friday, 12 February 2016
How I ended up retired
How my thinking changed
Retirement was never a holy grail for me. I didn't dream of retirement or complain about needing to work and I loved my job. I didn't yearn for retirement and when others were counting down the days or years until they retired, I would shudder. Work gave me meaning, identity and personal accomplishment. I had always wanted to be a teacher and enjoyed moving into administration to end my career. My original plan was to work until my husband retired in June 2017 or to even continue longer.
Don't get me wrong I was a teacher, so I was always home when my children were home for holidays. And I loved my summers. But I was busy during those times. During the summer, I was a stay-at-home mom and spent lots of my time catching up and getting ahead of mountains of housework so that the school year would be less hectic.
The date I was eligible to retire was November 30th 2013. It passed with a twinge of awareness that quickly went away. I still had things to do in my career and with a child in university there was tuition to pay. Plus I couldn't imagine being at home for four years waiting for my husband to join me.
But somewhere in the last year those feeling and that plan changed rather dramatically. These are some of the things that brought that about.
The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan has a website with a retirement calculator. My husband introduced it to me. It allows you to play around with different dates, and various options to obtain an estimate of your pension payment each month. By working for two years after my retirement date, the gap between my pension and my pay was shrinking. Was it really worth it to get up in the morning, drive for almost an hour during unpredictable winter weather to work in a stressful environment? As a school administrator, your responsibilities are enormous, the workload is heavy and the liabilities are scary. After taking into account the cost of gas and car upkeep, the cost of clothing, the savings from being organized and on top of things at home and the gap was even smaller. The logical part of being able to afford to live without working was making retirement enticing.
I spent January 2015 trying to get my asthma under control. It was a miserable winter and the cold, dry air took a toll on my lungs. Cold is the major trigger. The thought of spending the cold winter months in doors catching up on all the things I want to do in the house became rather appealing. No winter driving on dark cold mornings and the chance to have adequate sleep were equally enticing.
My last child graduated from university, so no more tuition. My daughter got married and lives across the country from us in B.C. The freedom to visit her and the ability to stay awake long enough to talk to her despite the time difference--very enticing.
I have a great desire to travel, almost every where in the world is on my bucket list. Yet, despite working my entire adult life I have not travelled as much as I would like. The only time we can travel is the busiest and most costly time. What's the point of working if I am never going anywhere? Retirement would mean that we could take advantage of off times and offers; a great enticement.
Somewhere during that time my feelings towards my job also changed. I had always said that when I retired I wanted to be able to say I still loved what I did. I was beginning to feel the enjoyment, the pride and excitement of solving problems and conquering challenges slipping away. I began to feel less autonomous, less self directed and less interested in the much of the work that didn't involve dealing with people. A life with less rushing, less stress and freedom to set my own pace was becoming the greatest enticement of all.
The life that I wanted to live began to call to me too. I was coming home from work, eating, cleaning up and then falling asleep. I was too tired after work or on weekends to be able to find the time to do all the things I wanted to do. Here we were, empty nesters with no real calls on our time but not the energy to do anything with that time. I had already worked two years longer than I needed to, did I really want to do three, let alone four?
Then I read the book, How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free and started to think about what retiring could mean for me. I had stopped thinking of retirement as the end but instead started thinking of it as the beginning.
Retirement was never a holy grail for me. I didn't dream of retirement or complain about needing to work and I loved my job. I didn't yearn for retirement and when others were counting down the days or years until they retired, I would shudder. Work gave me meaning, identity and personal accomplishment. I had always wanted to be a teacher and enjoyed moving into administration to end my career. My original plan was to work until my husband retired in June 2017 or to even continue longer.
Don't get me wrong I was a teacher, so I was always home when my children were home for holidays. And I loved my summers. But I was busy during those times. During the summer, I was a stay-at-home mom and spent lots of my time catching up and getting ahead of mountains of housework so that the school year would be less hectic.
The date I was eligible to retire was November 30th 2013. It passed with a twinge of awareness that quickly went away. I still had things to do in my career and with a child in university there was tuition to pay. Plus I couldn't imagine being at home for four years waiting for my husband to join me.
But somewhere in the last year those feeling and that plan changed rather dramatically. These are some of the things that brought that about.
The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan has a website with a retirement calculator. My husband introduced it to me. It allows you to play around with different dates, and various options to obtain an estimate of your pension payment each month. By working for two years after my retirement date, the gap between my pension and my pay was shrinking. Was it really worth it to get up in the morning, drive for almost an hour during unpredictable winter weather to work in a stressful environment? As a school administrator, your responsibilities are enormous, the workload is heavy and the liabilities are scary. After taking into account the cost of gas and car upkeep, the cost of clothing, the savings from being organized and on top of things at home and the gap was even smaller. The logical part of being able to afford to live without working was making retirement enticing.
I spent January 2015 trying to get my asthma under control. It was a miserable winter and the cold, dry air took a toll on my lungs. Cold is the major trigger. The thought of spending the cold winter months in doors catching up on all the things I want to do in the house became rather appealing. No winter driving on dark cold mornings and the chance to have adequate sleep were equally enticing.
My last child graduated from university, so no more tuition. My daughter got married and lives across the country from us in B.C. The freedom to visit her and the ability to stay awake long enough to talk to her despite the time difference--very enticing.
I have a great desire to travel, almost every where in the world is on my bucket list. Yet, despite working my entire adult life I have not travelled as much as I would like. The only time we can travel is the busiest and most costly time. What's the point of working if I am never going anywhere? Retirement would mean that we could take advantage of off times and offers; a great enticement.
Somewhere during that time my feelings towards my job also changed. I had always said that when I retired I wanted to be able to say I still loved what I did. I was beginning to feel the enjoyment, the pride and excitement of solving problems and conquering challenges slipping away. I began to feel less autonomous, less self directed and less interested in the much of the work that didn't involve dealing with people. A life with less rushing, less stress and freedom to set my own pace was becoming the greatest enticement of all.
The life that I wanted to live began to call to me too. I was coming home from work, eating, cleaning up and then falling asleep. I was too tired after work or on weekends to be able to find the time to do all the things I wanted to do. Here we were, empty nesters with no real calls on our time but not the energy to do anything with that time. I had already worked two years longer than I needed to, did I really want to do three, let alone four?
Then I read the book, How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free and started to think about what retiring could mean for me. I had stopped thinking of retirement as the end but instead started thinking of it as the beginning.
Don't get me wrong I was a teacher, so I was always home when my children were home for holidays. And I loved my summers. But I was busy during those times. During the summer, I was a stay-at-home mom and spent lots of my time catching up and getting ahead of mountains of housework so that the school year would be less hectic.
The date I was eligible to retire was November 30th 2013. It passed with a twinge of awareness that quickly went away. I still had things to do in my career and with a child in university there was tuition to pay. Plus I couldn't imagine being at home for four years waiting for my husband to join me.But somewhere in the last year those feeling and that plan changed rather dramatically. These are some of the things that brought that about.
The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan has a website with a retirement calculator. My husband introduced it to me. It allows you to play around with different dates, and various options to obtain an estimate of your pension payment each month. By working for two years after my retirement date, the gap between my pension and my pay was shrinking. Was it really worth it to get up in the morning, drive for almost an hour during unpredictable winter weather to work in a stressful environment? As a school administrator, your responsibilities are enormous, the workload is heavy and the liabilities are scary. After taking into account the cost of gas and car upkeep, the cost of clothing, the savings from being organized and on top of things at home and the gap was even smaller. The logical part of being able to afford to live without working was making retirement enticing.
I spent January 2015 trying to get my asthma under control. It was a miserable winter and the cold, dry air took a toll on my lungs. Cold is the major trigger. The thought of spending the cold winter months in doors catching up on all the things I want to do in the house became rather appealing. No winter driving on dark cold mornings and the chance to have adequate sleep were equally enticing.
My last child graduated from university, so no more tuition. My daughter got married and lives across the country from us in B.C. The freedom to visit her and the ability to stay awake long enough to talk to her despite the time difference--very enticing.
I have a great desire to travel, almost every where in the world is on my bucket list. Yet, despite working my entire adult life I have not travelled as much as I would like. The only time we can travel is the busiest and most costly time. What's the point of working if I am never going anywhere? Retirement would mean that we could take advantage of off times and offers; a great enticement.
Somewhere during that time my feelings towards my job also changed. I had always said that when I retired I wanted to be able to say I still loved what I did. I was beginning to feel the enjoyment, the pride and excitement of solving problems and conquering challenges slipping away. I began to feel less autonomous, less self directed and less interested in the much of the work that didn't involve dealing with people. A life with less rushing, less stress and freedom to set my own pace was becoming the greatest enticement of all.
The life that I wanted to live began to call to me too. I was coming home from work, eating, cleaning up and then falling asleep. I was too tired after work or on weekends to be able to find the time to do all the things I wanted to do. Here we were, empty nesters with no real calls on our time but not the energy to do anything with that time. I had already worked two years longer than I needed to, did I really want to do three, let alone four?
Then I read the book, How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free and started to think about what retiring could mean for me. I had stopped thinking of retirement as the end but instead started thinking of it as the beginning.
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Reading to Prep for Retirement
Seeking Answers
Most of the readily available advice about retirement concerns preparing financially for retirement. Without a doubt that is important, but it's not the only part of a successful retirement. I knew that for me the biggest part would be whether I could be happy without the structure of work. Although I loved summer vacation and Christmas holidays, could I be happy in an open ended vacation that didn't have the work of the holidays?
During a conversation about his recent retirement, my husband's brother-in-law, Marc suggested a book that helped him organize his time and health in retirement. It's a book that has little about the finances of retirement but a lot about putting life into retirement and determining what will constitute your retirement. Because after the traveling what will you do with all of the hours in a day? HOW TO RETIRE HAPPY, WILD, AND FREE, by best-selling author Ernie J. Zelinksi addressed the concerns that I had about retirement and helped me develop answers to my own questions. I am sure there are other great books out there that do the same thing, but after reading this one and doing some of the exercises in it I had enough confidence to trust in myself that I would be able to live a life I wanted to live without a career as a cornerstone.
Zilinksi has a different attitude about working than I have so that was something I had to wrap my mind around to accept and not be sidetracked by when I was reading. He is also the author of The Joy of Not Working and semi-retired happily quite young which worked for him. I have never thought of work as something that you want to be free from as soon as possible. He gives examples of how some people choose to live in order not to need to work at a paying job that seems to me to be a mind boggling choice of a life of poverty or of extreme frugality. I would never want to have be so focused on getting away from work that I made myself miserable while I was working. That's sort of the warning. However, if you would like to retire as soon as possible this may be the very book that will help you realize that you can find a way to make that happen.
There are parts of the book that certainly helped me put the image of the life I wanted to lead in retirement into focus. There are good exercises to try to prepare for retirement, particularly thePlant Your Get-a-Life Tree and Watch It Grow and Grow, that is part of a chapter entitled, So Many Worlds, So Much to Do. That chapter had me thinking and realizing that there was so much I wanted to do that there were probably not enough hours in the day or time in my clock to get it all done.
It is an easy, folksy read with cute cartoons and plenty of words of wisdom from various wise people in blurbs along the way. He writes a very convincing image of retirement and gives varied and extensive lists of suggestions for defining your life.
My biggest nugget from the book: you don't retire from something but you retire to something and that to something is personal and can be ever changing.
Most of the readily available advice about retirement concerns preparing financially for retirement. Without a doubt that is important, but it's not the only part of a successful retirement. I knew that for me the biggest part would be whether I could be happy without the structure of work. Although I loved summer vacation and Christmas holidays, could I be happy in an open ended vacation that didn't have the work of the holidays?
During a conversation about his recent retirement, my husband's brother-in-law, Marc suggested a book that helped him organize his time and health in retirement. It's a book that has little about the finances of retirement but a lot about putting life into retirement and determining what will constitute your retirement. Because after the traveling what will you do with all of the hours in a day? HOW TO RETIRE HAPPY, WILD, AND FREE, by best-selling author Ernie J. Zelinksi addressed the concerns that I had about retirement and helped me develop answers to my own questions. I am sure there are other great books out there that do the same thing, but after reading this one and doing some of the exercises in it I had enough confidence to trust in myself that I would be able to live a life I wanted to live without a career as a cornerstone.
Zilinksi has a different attitude about working than I have so that was something I had to wrap my mind around to accept and not be sidetracked by when I was reading. He is also the author of The Joy of Not Working and semi-retired happily quite young which worked for him. I have never thought of work as something that you want to be free from as soon as possible. He gives examples of how some people choose to live in order not to need to work at a paying job that seems to me to be a mind boggling choice of a life of poverty or of extreme frugality. I would never want to have be so focused on getting away from work that I made myself miserable while I was working. That's sort of the warning. However, if you would like to retire as soon as possible this may be the very book that will help you realize that you can find a way to make that happen.
There are parts of the book that certainly helped me put the image of the life I wanted to lead in retirement into focus. There are good exercises to try to prepare for retirement, particularly thePlant Your Get-a-Life Tree and Watch It Grow and Grow, that is part of a chapter entitled, So Many Worlds, So Much to Do. That chapter had me thinking and realizing that there was so much I wanted to do that there were probably not enough hours in the day or time in my clock to get it all done.
It is an easy, folksy read with cute cartoons and plenty of words of wisdom from various wise people in blurbs along the way. He writes a very convincing image of retirement and gives varied and extensive lists of suggestions for defining your life.
My biggest nugget from the book: you don't retire from something but you retire to something and that to something is personal and can be ever changing.
During a conversation about his recent retirement, my husband's brother-in-law, Marc suggested a book that helped him organize his time and health in retirement. It's a book that has little about the finances of retirement but a lot about putting life into retirement and determining what will constitute your retirement. Because after the traveling what will you do with all of the hours in a day? HOW TO RETIRE HAPPY, WILD, AND FREE, by best-selling author Ernie J. Zelinksi addressed the concerns that I had about retirement and helped me develop answers to my own questions. I am sure there are other great books out there that do the same thing, but after reading this one and doing some of the exercises in it I had enough confidence to trust in myself that I would be able to live a life I wanted to live without a career as a cornerstone.
Zilinksi has a different attitude about working than I have so that was something I had to wrap my mind around to accept and not be sidetracked by when I was reading. He is also the author of The Joy of Not Working and semi-retired happily quite young which worked for him. I have never thought of work as something that you want to be free from as soon as possible. He gives examples of how some people choose to live in order not to need to work at a paying job that seems to me to be a mind boggling choice of a life of poverty or of extreme frugality. I would never want to have be so focused on getting away from work that I made myself miserable while I was working. That's sort of the warning. However, if you would like to retire as soon as possible this may be the very book that will help you realize that you can find a way to make that happen.
There are parts of the book that certainly helped me put the image of the life I wanted to lead in retirement into focus. There are good exercises to try to prepare for retirement, particularly thePlant Your Get-a-Life Tree and Watch It Grow and Grow, that is part of a chapter entitled, So Many Worlds, So Much to Do. That chapter had me thinking and realizing that there was so much I wanted to do that there were probably not enough hours in the day or time in my clock to get it all done.
It is an easy, folksy read with cute cartoons and plenty of words of wisdom from various wise people in blurbs along the way. He writes a very convincing image of retirement and gives varied and extensive lists of suggestions for defining your life.
My biggest nugget from the book: you don't retire from something but you retire to something and that to something is personal and can be ever changing.
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