A friend next door—I’ll call him Bill—retired recently and I invited a few neighbors in to celebrate. We range in age from 50 to 80, but we all happen to be retired. So, I told everyone, “Bring a dish to pass and some advice for Bill.”
“First, get your IRA in order,” one woman said and we all laughed, swapping stories about finances and the reality-check of no pay check.
A couple people offered more inspiring messages. “Reach for your dreams,” one said. “Look forward to a good day,” said another.
A jogger in the group said, “Get up and be physical every day. It’s cheaper to be healthy.” We all groaned and agreed.
The youngest retiree in the group said, “At first, it felt like I had forty hours a day so I said Yes to everything. It became overwhelming.” She added that she was leaving early for a volunteer commitment.
My experience was the opposite. “I love being able to say No,” I said. “No, I don’t do seven a.m. meetings. No, I don’t do deadlines.”
Finally, my husband said, “Don’t get caught in the errands trap. It can take up all your time.” But when he described his shortcut to Meijer’s, everybody nodded.
Nobody wished they were still working. “Freedom,” someone said. “It’s worth everything.”
