Pre-retirement, that stage I found myself in that was between still working full-time and being fully retired. I was out of for work for almost a year and wondering what to do with myself. Major projects were being put on hold and jobs that I wanted weren’t readily available. So, after 30 plus years of constantly working full-time, with finishing a college education thrown in, and being 50 years old, I was questioning if I wanted to work for another company and have set schedule.
A major factor I had to take into consideration was, did I have enough put away to continue to pay bills, mortgage etc. Turns out if I wanted to live like an 18th century homesteader I could probably get by. I did not want to raise chickens in my yard and start growing crops. The answer then was a hard No. Plus, I wanted to do some kind of work but would prefer to be my own boss.
It was time for tremendous changes. To continue on I had to decide, what to do? Did I have the skills? How could I acquire any skills? And a laundry list of other decisions. Add into that, a year off plus more than a few years spent at a desk job, and other factors I’ll discuss some other time, had allowed me to give myself enough extra pounds so that calling my wardrobe tight would be polite.
How do I plan to affect these changes? That will be the purpose and direction my writings, how to make substantial changes to your life at 50. Or use this information to start preparing much earlier for a pre-retired life.