'Tis what it is, right?
So, as of this writing (in the year 2022) I am 60 ½ years old and I have been retired for just two months shy of five years.
There are three primary things that enabled me to retire at the ripe young age of 55.
The first is my wife who manages (and manages) our money is an absolutely fantastic way. I have to admit that there were times when I didn't truly enjoy her fiscal discipline when it came to yet another of my crazy ideas, but I sure am happy with the results! We aren't rolling in dough, but we are able to carry on with our lives at the level we were at when I retired.
The second factor was my father. He also retired at 55 and was very supportive of my desire to do the same. There is a lot of fear factor when putting the words "fixed" and "income" next to each other in a sentence and I desperately needed the voice of experience to help me get over the nagging concerns that accompany such a momentous decision. I don't remember the precise words he used, but basically it came down to "What you're talking about doing is buying time. You're going to spend a lot more money during your age 55-70 years, but after that you're going to be happy with a comfortable chair and a good TV."
The third factor was my career. It paid well. Way back in the late 1970's I was already interested in computers. I went to Cincinnati Public Schools, which weren't great, but I got in with a very small crowd of students that were allowed to use a teletype and phone modem to connect to the school system's mainframe during our lunch hour.
That got me interested in programming in the BASIC language. I also had part time jobs that provided me with a pretty substantial income for a teenager - I saved up enough money to buy a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 back before Tandy even thought to sell them in the Radio Shack stores. I had to order one and have it delivered to a local Radio Shack store. These little computers were so new that the store owner begged me to open the boxes right there in the store because he had never seen one.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect I was one of less than a thousand people in the world that had a store-bought home computer.
That early exposure led directly to a career in IT as a programmer. It was not a glamorous job at the time, and paid nowhere near as much as it does now, but I liked it and I was good at it. By the time the Internet came around and created a huge demand for IT folks, I was well positioned in a management position. I eventually reached the IT Director/VP level which naturally led to a six-figure salary and generous performance bonuses.
Long story short (believe me, I could go on and on about this), with my wife managing the money we were able to retire at a relatively young age. Everything was paid for, so we didn't have mortgage payments, car payments, etc.
As happy as I was to be relieved of the stress of my last job (17 years at a small company), I was caught by surprise by something called "retirement depression." I didn't know that was even a thing until I started having symptoms that I needed to feed to my pal Google. Here's what he found:
You’ve likely thought a lot about how you’ll enjoy your golden years. But there’s a good chance you never thought much about the psychological effect retirement might have on you. Retirement often means a loss of identity. Whether you identified as a banker, cook, or teacher, retirement can cause you to question who you are now that you’re no longer working.
Other issues that accompany retirement—such as more time and less money—can also make for a difficult adjustment. Some retirees experience mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, after they've stopped working.
If you’re in the early stages of retirement and feeling somewhat lost, you’re not alone. Many retirees find the transition can be difficult.
Before finding that text, I described my situation as a boat that has lost its rudder. I still had the drive to accomplish things, but no direction as to where to go. I immediately picked up half a dozen of things I had tinkered with in my limited spare time while I was employed. I also made a trip down to Florida and came back with the worst flu/cold I could remember having. It took at least a week to get over that and when I did, I looked at the frantic pace I was using to fill my time and decided that it would make a lot more sense to focus on just a couple things at a time.
Five years in, I have finally reached a good balance. That said, it takes constant management to make sure I don't overdo it all again. I have so many varied interests that I do have to maintain some discipline. Between volunteer jobs and hobbies, I keep pretty busy. In fact, I just quit one of my volunteer jobs and another is working its what towards the chopping block.
My intentions for this blog are to share ideas with other folks that are going through the same type of transition, and to basically write a personal diary. This is not new to me - I have had a number of blogs over the years, the most prominent of which is the Schmetterling Aviation blog. That one is pretty static now, but for three years I used it to document the building of my airplane. I had another flying blog before that, so it was a logical progression to go from sharing stories about flying to sharing stories about building my own kit plane.
The building blog is called Schmetterling Aviation. You can find it at this link (http://www.schmetterlingaviation.com/2009/09/placeholder.html).
You can find the book on Amazon at this link (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SJ1H77Y).
The flying book is called The PapaGolf Chronicles. You can find it here. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BTB2G6Y).
The blog is here. (https://n466pg.blogspot.com/)
I'll just wrap this up with a reminder: this blog will not be all about flying and airplanes. I have a whole lot more to share!
Let's get started.
