Unplanned Retirement
Image is me: On the first day I will say I was actually retired the night before I left for an adventure in Surabaya.
When I graduated from University I had a simple plan. Work hard for 10 years, save money, invest wisely, buy a house and retire to a life of playing video games and watching anime. Unfortunately life had different ideas. Housing prices more than quadrupled in those 10 years making the idea of owning my house without mortgage within 10 years impossible. Unexpected expenses and bills left less money available each month to invest. Mostly though I got married and had two children which ensured that without careful planning I'd be broke forever.
However, I did plan carefully so that when the time came at 65 and maybe even earlier I could enjoy a life of freedom from work. I could enjoy my days rather than slaving away at a job each and every day.
Then the "What if" of "What happens if I can't work" became reality. As a Pharmacist I have to deal with prescription labels each and every day. It's unavoidable. I like to think I plan for every potential issue that comes my way. A couple of years ago something happened that I never even imagined.
I became allergic to the prescription labels
The actual diagnosis was "Hyperkeratotic contact irritant dermatitis" but the effect is virtually the same. If I touch prescription labels my skin will react badly. If I don't listen to my body all the skin comes off my fingertips which causes pain and an inability to do simple daily activities.
- Use cellphone? No...touch the screen is very painful.
- Use computer? No...pressing keyboard keys is very painful.
- Tie my shoes? No...fine manipulation of items with fingers is painful.
- Get a good nights sleep? No...even clenching my hand (making a fist) wakes me up with pain.
Image: Is my poor fingers. This is after one day working. It only goes downhill from here.
My brain is fine. My body is fine. Everything works fine and if I don't go to work and touch prescription labels you would never know I had an issue. To be fair, packing tape on Amazon boxes will cause issues to but in general sticky stuff peels my skin off.
I had an unpleasant choice
- Work full time and be in severe pain
- Work part time and have daily pain but be able to mostly function
- Quit work and be perfectly normal.
Tough choices
The choice I made
After the diagnosis I had to make some hard decisions. Do I stop working? Can I stop working? Who am I if I stop working? How is the money situation? What am I going to do with my time? Will I lose the respect of my family if I'm "unemployed"?
Then I saw this weeks Hive Learners post prompt and had to laugh.
If you were to retire today and placed on pension for the rest of your life, what would your life be like? How would you tackle the coming days and years of inactivity to make sure that you don't get bored? How will you enjoy your retirement when you no longer want to work?
I had to laugh because I did actually choose to retire. Not today but six weeks ago. Mostly. In my case that post prompt isn't a "What if" I was to retire today but rather "Now that you have chosen to retire..." so I'm speaking from a very real situation. I just had almost two years to plan things out :).
Here is how I'll layout the rest of the article.
- Finances : How do you make the money last?
- Time management : How do you spend your days?
- Retiring to something : How do you maintain purpose?
- Move it or lose it : How do you prevent age related decline?
- A follow-up of what I'm actually doing :)
Finances
Okay. When I first started to contemplate not working anymore I had to take a hard look at finances.
- How much money is there?
- How much income does my money bring in?
- How much are actual expenses--exactly?
- When will my pensions kick in and how much will they be?
There is a simple saying:
If you have:
Expenses plus a dollar ==> Happiness
Expenses less a dollar ==> Misery
because in retirement on a fixed income.. if you can't pay bills you will drift into debt and poverty.
but in retirement if your bills are paid, and you have a little extra...you are free.
I'm lucky that my wife and I lived well below our means for our entire working career and managed to save money to put into investments. At this time we can't live a carefree luxury lifestyle but with careful planning I'm pretty sure we can do have "Expenses plus a dollar".
However, if our pension was much more modest? Then I look very carefully at moving to a different place in Canada. Right now I live in Vancouver area where a small one bedroom apartment can easily run $ 2,200/month in rent..without including electricity, internet or heat. However, my mother moved from this area to a place in Unity, Saskatchewan (far from here). A quiet little town where she could rent a larger place which includes heat, electricity and internet for $320/month.
The difference of $ 1,900/month in income can be life changing!
Time Management
Once you have a budget and now you won't become destitute the next step is figuring out what to do with yourself.
My wife works as a nurse. She has seen many of her senior co-workers retire and she is happy for them. After 3-6 months? They return to work because they are so bored at home. They clean their home, they read their books, they catch up on their favorite shows, and then they realize there is nothing to do. When children leave the house and there isn't constant pressure to go go go a house can get very quiet. When there is no work to do 40 hours a week? That is a lot of time to fill.
Which brings up my next few topics. The first is you have to have a purpose. Without it you won't have a clue how to spend your time. The second is taking care of yourself is now a full time job.
Retire to something
Which brings me to "Never retire from our job". "Retire to a new job". The key difference is that the new job doesn't have to have a paycheque. The new job can be volunteer. The new job can be following a hobby or passion. The new job can be making your garden the best in the city. It doesn't matter what the new job is as long as it is something that gives you purpose. Purpose is huge because without it people flounder.
Here is another wonderful saying I learned from my very first boss. He told me "If you don't need the paycheque your boss has no power over you". It is very very true. If you don't like a volunteer position you can quit. Tired of gardening? Let it grow wild. You are retired. You do it because you want to not because you need to and that difference makes a world of difference.
Move it or lose it
Here is the point a lot of people miss. Whether you like it or not you now have a new full time job. Taking care of your health! Your mental health. Your physical health. Your spiritual health. Your emotional health.
Image is mine of my father. When he retired he rarely left his chair and watched a lot of TV. He didn't age well. I loved him (he passed on less than 6 months from this photo) but I don't want to age like him.
Ok. You can neglect these things but as you age things decline, sometimes quickly, if neglected. I would much rather stretch three times a day than find out that I can't tie my shoes from inflexibility. I would rather spend 15 minutes (or more) doing balance exercises than fall, break something important, and spend a long time in recovery. I would rather train my muscles and do cardio every day so I can play with grandchildren, or go on interesting hikes, or even just open a jar without calling for help then neglect them and grow progressively weaker every single day. Maintaining friendships and a social network when you don't have a job is work. Which is why if you haven't looked into spiritual health earlier in life I would suggest it later in life.
Ok. For any atheists or agnostics in the crowd I'm not saying you need to find religion. However, you have time and doing some research won't hurt you. That research can do a few things though. Learning about religion necessarily puts you in contact with other people. Sure you can try to learn from a book, but honestly, seeing those who believe is where the "rubber meets the road". Go to a church, shrine, mosque or synagogue and meet and talk to people there. Listen, be respectful, and here is the secret strength. Volunteer. Volunteer to be helpful and meet people. You may never find that you believe and you may ever follow the faith....but you also won't be ignorant and will likely make some friends along the way. Side benefit: When you are truly old and staring death in the face? You won't be blindly wondering what next... you will have something to lean into, even if it is disbelief in a higher power and a belief in a void when you pass.
My actual days
But the Hive learners prompt what do I actually do? What do my days look like? How would I tackle days of inactivity to avoid boredom? How do I enjoy retirement when I no longer want to work?
First: The no longer want to work isn't something I ever want to consider! Work gives purpose and I'm not abandoning that until I simply can no longer function! However I work because I want to.
This Hive post is an excellent example. Writing a post like this takes at least an hour. Add in Actifit posts, replies and trying to get a community up and going. That takes a lot of time and is absolutely work. When I return to Canada I have acreage that I want to turn into a productive plot and ask any farmer, changing wild land into tamed land is an awful lot of work. When the weather turns I will fly to the Philippines where I have a different piece of land which I want to tame. Again, more work!
Image is my wife's (she said I could use it). My driveway to 56 acres and a lifetime worth of hard work taming nature :)
Second: the ...coming days and years of inactivity... Please let me never become inactive! That's a death sentence in my mind. Currently I do stretching and balance exercises every morning, afternoon and evening. I walk outside or on the treadmill for at least an hour every day. Ideally I like exploring new places but if I can't I still want to get the blood pumping. I am learning to do weight training six days a week. Three days for upper body and three days for lower body with Sunday off for rest. Sunday is for going to church and spending time with family.
As my strength and balance increase? Escrima, tai-chi, or both. I really want to explore the world but unfortunately the world gets to be a scarier place as you get older. Being strong, balanced, and knowing a martial art so I can not be an easy target and make an opening for me to run away is strong. Personally I love the idea of Escrime (stick fighting) because if I'm an old man with a walking cane? I can take my cane everywhere and no one even things twice about an old man using a cane. However, if someone tried attacking me, now I'm a trained person with a weapon, how once and run away :)
Third: Travel. Right this very moment I'm a Canadian writing this article from Surabaya, Indonesia. Now... a lot of people say they will travel when they retire. They have a bucket list of tourist destinations they really want to see. Paris, London, Tokyo, Natural wonders, whatever travel blog or video that got you thinking "I've got to see that". Then you get there and pay way too much money for touristy kitsch. No thank you.
Surabaya is NOT a tourist town. It just isn't. However, the people are awesome ... and they don't speak English much. I am forced to learn a bit of the language. I'm forced to use my gadget to translate and get around. I'm forced to figure out new ways of doing things. More than that? I get to see a church in a different country. I get to see the traffic, the city layout, the daily rhythm, the different food and groceries and so much more. Even better? It is cheaper than living at home in Canada...by a lot!
(image is mine): The sidewalk isn't postcard perfect and watch out for obstacles and missing tiles but it is authentic and interesting.
(Image is mine): Try three foods your unlikely to ever see in Canada for $0.80? Trying new things is awesome...unless you get food poisoning :)
So, I get my good prepared for me. I don't have any house work of chores to do (the room service does it) and I have both a pool and gym 1 minute away waiting for me. Outside the door of the hotel there is a brand new (and kind of scary) world waiting to be explored. Sometimes I go out. Sometimes I just stay indoors.
....and when I stay indoors I can watch the anime I haven't been able to for years. I can play video games I never had time to play while I was busy working and being a husband and father.
Honestly between writing articles, going to the gym, doing my daily exercises, stretches, balancing exercises, reading, watching, playing and exploring my day is over before I know it.
However there is one more thing that is important to me. I have more time to read my bible and pray. For many that doesn't mean much but for me it is a rock that stabilizes my life. Exercise keeps my body strong. Writing and reading keeps my mind sharp (for an old guy). Stretches and balance exercise keep me limber and stable. Anime, movies, TV and games keep me entertained. But my faith anchors everything.
I do honestly miss being at home and meeting the people at church as that gives me community and a sense of belonging that I just don't get on vacation. Here is the thing though... I never realized how beneficial it was until I went away.
So, travel to live like a local and not some tourist binge is absolutely something I want to do because it expands my horizons but also because it make me acutely aware of what I have at home. Both are very valuable.
Enjoying who I am and where I am at 57
To sum things up?
I never expected to be forced from my career because of sticky tape and labels. Just saying it is pretty ridiculous. However, that's what has happened so I rolled with. I'm very glad I took the boring path of living beneath my means because now it means I can retire as I wanted.
Not to boring days sitting around the house aimlessly.
To days filled with activity, purpose, and even some exploring every now and then. I don't know how long I can do this for. Will my finances run out? Will my strength run out? Will my mind turn to mush? I have no idea but I do know this....
Everyone has the same final ending in death
But if I have to choose my final years being bored and getting weaker every day or fighting to stay strong, have purpose and exploring? I know which choice I'm going with every single time. Making a plan to stay that way is my full time job and actually quite fun.
So far.
Ask me again in 25 years how it actually works out.
As always thanks for reading this far. Any questions, or comments, I'd love to hear from you. Appreciate the eyes on this post for the Hive Learners topic of "Retirement".