I have decided that retirement is a line to cross and is not a hole in which to hide. I think the term today is active retirement rather than suspended animation. It is just a point or event in time, like a birthdate.
I am born into a new way of thinking and living. As with a new baby, I fill my lungs with a new source of Oxygen and learn to breathe by first crying. Been there, done that…
Depending on prior preparation it could be a heaven or a hell. Active retirement means you may be sucking on the teat of part time employment. If you watch a baby, you know that is a very comfortable place to be. It’s healthy, warm, and secure. But it doesn’t last forever.
I will always be looking for that supplemental feeding. I like receiving income from my retirement activities even though it may only be enough to cover the cost of staying active.
Every person’s situation is different. I am OK with where I stand at this moment. I have to be. I refuse to stress over crossing the retirement “event horizon”. It is not a finish line, just a pole marker on the far turn. I choose to adjust to the conditions that surround me knowing my race is far from over.
I have one word of wisdom for those younger than myself. Plan and prepare for the future now. It’s not something that can be done later. Today I see a world filled with grasshoppers, living fully for the present with few ants to be seen among them… saving for winter. Perhaps the ants are taxed and lulled out of existence by the siren’s song of Social Security (which is already causing retirement shipwrecks).
Aesop’s Fable; The Grasshopper and the Ant, is really good advice.