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I admit it. I have been worried about retirement for 20 years. I worry about how I will fill my days.
I was raised with a strict Scots-Irish heritage, and was instilled with the notion that if whatever you’re doing is not productive, you’re wasting your time. Having spent 40+ years as a surgeon, that work ethic has dominated the pursuit of my dreams and aspirations. Now, at age 72, I am slowing down, but still working – seeing fewer patients, doing less difficult operations. We all enjoy doing what we’re good at, and it would hard not to be reasonably good at something you’ve spent 12-16 hours a day doing for nearly 50 years. So I have to say that I do love my job. It is gratifying and fulfilling, and even though every job has its less desirable elements, I am blessed that I have something I truly enjoy doing.
My choice is to slow down gradually, for several reasons.
1. As noted above, I enjoy what I do – I just don’t want to work as hard at it as I have most of my life.
2. I need the income. I have been divorced twice since age 53, and it doesn’t take a financial guru to figure out that you can’t cut your net worth 50% twice after that age and have enough left to be financially independent at age 65.
3. I’m scared to do it cold turkey. At this point I wouldn’t know how to handle a “week full of Saturdays,” so I figure I can slide into the retirement mode gently.
My guess is that there are many Type A people just like me out there. If you are one who has a day off and wonder what you are going to do all day, you fit the mold.
On this blog I plan to share with you the specific steps I’m taking to make a successful transition to Retirement (the “R” word).
I’d like to hear the thoughts on Retirement from other Type A’s, both those who have done it and those who are contemplating it. I earnestly invite your comments. We can help each other.
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Hi David,
ReplyDeleteWhen it first came out, I read Walter Bortz's book "We Live Too Short and Die Too Long":
http://www.amazon.com/Live-Too-Short-Die-Long/dp/0553351931/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245496848&sr=1-1
Walter Bortz, the author, is a few years older than we are. His advice on aging has been a major guide in my thinking. One point he makes in the above book is that our generation has few mentors for our seventies and beyond. Our parents and all previous generations expected to die in their sixties, or sooner. Those relatively few who were surprised by longevity usually had made few plans and pretty much sat around for a few decades as my Dad's mother did. So to whom do we look for models? Turns out that it is we who are going to be the first major generation of mentors for those who follow because there will be a lot of us who will live into later decades. Thus, the theme for you book is obviously a very timely one!
I remember another point Dr. Bortz made: have a plan for each decade. My plan for my seventies is to nudge the world into understanding that 21st century learning will move to ubiquitous individual connectivity to everything humankind knows, and therefore we are entering a golden age of education. For my eighties, my plan is to work in digital expressive media -- which by then should be awesome indeed! The nineties are a little hazy. Maybe by then some handsome old dude will marry me because I will have lost my marbles and will no longer scare guys off by liking to think.
An unforeseen but favorable surprise of this blog is that I have reconnected with some very old (as is long time ago) friends, reminding me that best friends are usually older friends. Last year I attended the 50th reunion of my 1958 class at Pomona College, and it was a somewhat surreal experience. There were some people there who had been close friends during the 4 collegiate years, and whom I had not seen or talked to for 50 years. When we sat down to talk, it was like picking up the conversation from yesterday, but with 50 years of experiences for each of us that had elapsed in the interim.
ReplyDeleteSo what does this have to do with retirement? It made me realize that as I have more time in retirement, I can look up some of my oldest friends, re-connect, and share a few of those missed experiences.
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