Following Frank into Retirement – 3 months into it
A series of articles starting 5 months from retirement and into retirement
By Frank
The strong spring sun is finally overcoming the wintry nights. Early flower shoots, returning birds and plumping tree buds all are in sync with my emerging life as a retired person (although this year’s sporadic flow of maple sap might be a more fitting metaphor). As Suzanne and I gain more experience with our retirement, we find that we are fitting in new activities and tasks to our daily routine that are slowly leading us to a fulfilling retired life. There is a scent in the air of something good cooking (besides my multigrain cheese bread) and my anticipation is growing.
Step by step
A couple of blogs ago, I mentioned my progress as a retiree in terms of baby steps. Well, I’m well past baby steps and I’m starting to truck right along. This past month, being retired means that we’ve been able to apartment hunt in Kincardine for our son and daughter-in-law (while visiting friends and family in Owen Sound). We’ve also spent three days helping our neighbours to tap their trees in their sugar bush. Another four days disappeared in Ottawa visiting our son, his fiancée and her parents, and some close friends of ours. Fine meals were eaten, wedding dresses hunted and scotch drunk. Too bad everyone else had to go back to work. We’ve also been getting out most days for a long walk to our mailbox or in our bush. The cold nights have made it easy to walk on top of the snow in the morning and we’ve spent a couple of gorgeous days following the remains of the 100+ year old barbed wire fence around our property.
However, our biggest accomplishment so far is that we have started to tile our kitchen backsplash. Now this may not sound like a big step, but when you consider that we have had the tiles stored in our family room for two years (we were just waiting for the right time – honest), this is a big one. It’s taken us three days so far and we would have been finished cementing in the tiles today if I didn’t have trouble installing a new range hood (the old one was just too gross to be next to our new tile). The flashing and ductwork inside range hoods are razor sharp. Two quick slices and six stitches later, I’m a wiser and older-feeling renovator. I was most upset about the lost time, but as Suzanne said as she headed out for her afternoon haircut and evening of line-dancing, “No problem, we’ll finish it tomorrow”. Totally freeing.
There yesterday, gone today
One interesting aspect of my retirement is the complete absence of any thought or interest in my previous career. It is like that portion of my brain has been surgically removed. It just does not even enter into my thoughts except wondering at the changes in me each time we drive by a sawmill or wood products plant. It is slightly worrying that I might have already lost my cutting edge. Furthermore, how much of my quirky and lovable personality was a result of my constant trials and tribulations at work? Will the real Frank the Forester please stand up?
Money in the bank
Just a quick follow-up on my constant concerns about money; to my great relief the funds from all my various pensions have now been transferred over to me. Now I get to start worrying about the return on our investments. We have our LIRAs, TFSAs, RSPs, etc. with a large investment house. Now that I have more time to think about our investments, I’m beginning to question their recommendations. To invest the recent influx of cash from my pensions, they suggested a range of investments that had a return of 2% to 6.5%. While part of me understands the need for a balanced portfolio, I would like to average a return of at least 4% per year. I baulked at the 2% return investment and it was invested elsewhere. However, I wonder if I should be getting more active in understanding all our investments or if we should continue to rely on the judgement of our investment advisors.
Going with the flow
Suzanne and I are now finally entering into a month-long period at home with no short trips planned or anticipated. It is time to reinforce any new habits we have developed and liked, and add some new ones. I’ll be dusting off my bicycle soon and will be pedalling furiously to stay ahead of the bugs. Suzanne has many trays of germinated flower seeds that she is nursing along until they can be planted outdoors.
Each day seems to have its own uniqueness requiring us to constantly change our plans for the day. It is all good, so we’re finding it best to just go with the flow and see where we end up. It is fortunate that writing this blog each month provides me with a yardstick with which to gauge my progress into retirement. It’s a good way to prevent being unhappy in retirement with no idea how it came about.