Pre-Retirement Planning Part 2

Today I talked with a fellow on the “adjustment to transitioning into retirement” person. I didn’t find the information as helpful as last week’s financial coaching. But we are going to have a second session and then he will send me a lot of information on resources. He did give me some food for thought which I am supposed to think about over the next few weeks. He asked me a lot of questions about what I liked to do, who my friends were, did I think about the spiritual side of things and so forth. He was going for the 6 slices of the pie so I knew where we were heading each time he asked the question. What I wanted to know was whether I was prepared for retiring early. My concern was whether I would get bored or lonely because my friends might still be working.

I thought perhaps a good way to start my retirement would be to use the first year sectioning it in Quarters and spend each quarter on a particular hobby so that I really find my true love. So perhaps the first quarter would be photography, the second drawing, the third writing and the fourth gardening. (Fitting the quarters into the proper yearly cycle). Exercise would still be all year round. It would be a novelty to spend so much time on a particular project, perhaps I could actually become a perfectionist.

Retirement seems so attractive to me, more so every day. Once again, it isn’t because I don’t like my job, it’s simply the sense of deprivement I feel by not enjoying the outdoors and daylight hours and things that normal people seem to take for granted. This commuting is a real curse. Yet I would really regret selling my home, I love it so much.

Oh, and is anyone ready for the psychological shock of not having a steady income coming in? No wonder people dream of the lottery winnings.

I asked about the free university tuition and that led him to ask me if I had any desire to study something new or different. I mentioned that I would like to take horticulture classes to enhance my gardening skills. He was so serious and spiritual himself I didn’t feel right about pulling his leg with my nuclear physics dreams. But sometimes I actually do think I would like to study the sciences just for something different.

Oh yes, and he suggested I might want to study languages. How did he know? I guess Spanish is definitely in the cards for me. And by the way, I watched “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” the other day and I could understand Swedish a whole lot better than I can Norwegian. I must be a very odd Dane to find Swedish easier to understand than Norwegian because my parents always said it was the reverse. Most peculiar!