Following Frank into Retirement – 5 Months to Go
A series of articles starting 5 months from retirement
By Frank
I am a 58-year-old unambitious overachiever. I have worked hard at several jobs in research and manufacturing, none of which has been boring, but that for the most part have left me personally unsatisfied. I am pretty frustrated now in my current position. In the past I would have moved on to another company many years ago, but my partner, Suzanne, and I do not want to relocate again. If I was passionate about my work I would consider consulting, however instead I find myself pondering the leap into retirement. I’ve been asked to share in this blog my pinball decision path towards retirement and over the next several months I will be writing about the many arguments I’ve had with myself and the “Ah-ha” moments that have helped me make my decision. I have given notice to my employer and will be retiring at the end of 2014.
The struggle of work, family and my own priorities
I have enjoyed a successful career and my work has provided a good living for Suzanne and me, and our three children (now all in their twenties and almost living on their own). In my early 40’s I decided that the jump to senior management required more personal commitment to the job than I was willing to offer. My priorities in life have remained family-first, work-second, and Frank-third. As work demanded more and more of my energy, I let my personal interests and activities fall to the wayside to ensure that my family life was relatively unaffected. Eventually our lifestyle was dominated by my work and we decided to follow our priorities and make one last move based on our vision of our future life. We selected an area in which we could envisage retiring and decided to bear the consequences of the poor employment prospects. We felt that if we made the move many years in advance of retirement we would have a good chance to settle into the area rather than have a radical shift upon retirement.
Suzanne, after 13 years as an at-home mother, rejoined the workforce to provide us with a safety net until I was once again gainfully employed. I eventually joined a company that allowed me to work from a home office but that required considerable travel in Ontario and Quebec. While Suzanne and I provided a stable home base for our children to progress from public through high schools, we both are growing increasingly intolerant of our situations in our respective jobs and are ready for a change.
Retirement decision factors
In a way we are fortunate in that I have changed jobs too frequently to be tied to a company pension plan and don’t need to wait for any “magic” combinations of age and years of service. Our kids will be finished post secondary schooling by spring of 2015. Suzanne is retiring two months earlier than me and, since we’re best mates and do most things together, her upcoming retirement was a major factor in my decision. We have lived for the past 11 years in an area and house in which we intend to stay for as long as we are physically able. We will be relying primarily on our RSP and other savings but should have enough for a 2-week trip abroad each year as well as some tooling around North America. I’ve done a detailed cash flow that incorporates all our possible income, an inflation rate of 2%, a return on investment of 4% and any large expenses that we can anticipate in the next 40 years. It has helped us make our decision, but there is really no way to know how life will turn out.
Anything is possible in retirement
As I mentioned earlier, I used to enjoy many activities and I’m looking forward to rediscovering as many of them as I can and having the time to pursue new ones. Anything is possible in retirement – accepting an overseas post for a couple of years to allow us to explore a new country; reading up on subjects that have always interested me; taking better care of my body by being more active and doing yoga. Now that I’ve made my decision, I can’t wait.
Hi Frank,
Thank-you for sharing your reflections on your decision to retire; it is a really big step. You are fortunate that at 58 you are able to retire. You mentioned that throughout your career your interests took 3rd place behind family and career. I was wondering what you were doing to re-kindle some of the interests you had when you were younger or what you were doing to find new interests / activities to pursue in retirement.
Hi HG,
Thanks for your comments (even if it has started me re-rethinking my decision all over again). Although some of the more physical activities that I did when I was younger (like playing squash) are not possible where we now live (or likely given the state of my knees), there are many activities like pottery, photography, and music that will be easy for me to take up again. While I am not passionate about any one activity, I do enjoy variety and so I expect that I will flit from one thing to another (or perhaps, as a friend of my mine plans to do, I will pursue an activity for a year or so or until I want to change). I don’t feel any driving need to perfect any one talent, just to enjoy doing it (although becoming proficient at an activity will be my goal). The joy of retirement is that I don’t have to keep on doing something if I’m not enjoying it. Being free from having to generate income, means that I can explore different things without consequence – create a tasty vegetarian Italian sausage; build a smoker; put together a still; prune the trees on our land and build trails; go traveling. I think I’ve been postponing fun activities for years until the time was ripe. So now I’ll be trying out yoga for those recalcitrant body parts, reading history books to inform me about the countries to which Suzanne and I will be travelling, possibly joining a local music group (if they’ll have me) and helping my kids fix up their places. The list really is endless once I get going, it is just that work tends to stifle my creativeness for anything besides work. I just have to give my mind and body a good shake. Who knows what I’ll get up to doing in the end, but I know I won’t be just sitting around. It is really an exciting time.