More of The Mad Retiree’s

Rules and Regulations of (Early) Retirement

 

I’ve added some of my own, personal (early) retirement rules to the “Top Five” I blogged about the last time.

 

Mainly because I’ve always known that I do not do well in un-scheduled time.

 

And since retiring, there are some days when I have amazed myself at just how undisciplined and unfocused I can be. 

 

So in my case, adding a few rules to the rules is a good thing!
 

 

1.) Walk – if it’s within “walking” distance of home, I do just that. 

 

Walk. 

 

And walking distance?  If I can walk there in 30 – 40 minutes, it’s within walking distance.  Hello Square One!

 

And quite frankly, I could use the exercise.   I try to look on the whole walking thing as my contribution to cutting carbon emissions … and saving money on bus fare.

 

And the next time my GP asks if I’m getting any exercise, I can look her directly in the eye and say “yes”.

 

2.) No more using Google for general interest searches – put on your hat and coat and head out to your local library branch.  No more internet searches for the recipe you just saw on the Food Network.  Go to the library and check out the entire cookbook.  Can’t remember the date of Canadian confederation – go to the library and look it up.  A trip to the library to look something up serves three purposes – 1) it gets you out of the house  2) it affords you the opportunity to converse and socialize with other adults  3) you also get the opportunity to learn something new (and if you walked to your local library branch – bonus points.)

 

3.) Spending money  – if a friend calls and invites you to lunch and you’ve spend all of this month’s allowance, tell the friend you’re short of cash right now and can’t lunch out, but could we do something else.  Don’t be tempted to take “an advance” on next month’s pension cheque or to use your credit card to pay for lunch.  A good friend will understand that now you are retired, you’re watching every penny, especially if they too, are retired.   And if they don’t understand, they’re probably not that good of a friend and lunch would have been boring anyway!

 

Same goes with those shoes or book or CD you saw at the sidewalk sale.  If you don’t have the cash - you can’t have them! 

 

No matter how good the shoes would have made your legs look!

 

4.) Credit cards – and speaking of not using your credit card to pay for lunch or sidewalk sale splurges - no using credit card(s) to pay for day-to-day expenses. 

 

I know and I am sorry!

 

But you will find yourself developing a much closer relationship with your money if you actually handle it every day.   You will begin to see exactly how much and how quickly your money is dripping through your fingers.

 

Like water, I tells ya!

 

5.) Computer games, electronic devices and binge streaming – if you can correctly name more than one of the Kardashians or can spell Daenerys Targargen I’m thinking it’s time to shut down the electronic playground and stumble your way out into the sunshine and perhaps seek professional help!  When you have nothing but time on your hands, sometimes the temptation to amuse yourself with just one game of computer solitaire is over whelming.  (Quite frankly, given the number of games I’ve played, you’d think I’d have a better winning percentage.)

 

6.) Afternoon Television – I was never a soap opera junkie or cared very much about just what Martha Stewart considered a “good thing”. 

 

But – my name is Vi – and I think I’m becoming addicted to afternoon TV.  (I comparison, maybe computer games and binge streaming are good things after all.)

 

I may not be able to name more than one Kardashian and I certainly can’t spell Daenerys Targargen, but I am beginning to believe that painting that accent wall a pastel sage will indeed usher in the Zen-like spring brightness my living room so sorely needs. 

 

So, my new rule about afternoon TV, for myself at least – just don’t!!!!!

 

(But, seriously, what do you think about pastel sage as a paint colour?)

The Best Retirement Advice I Ever Received

(Though I Didn’t Know It At The Time!)

 

Way back in 2008, I attended a pre-retirement panel discussion hosted by the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education – “Managing Transitions: Life After 50”. 

 

There were five panel members, each at a different “stage” of retirement (or transition) – i.e.: retired a decade; officially retired, but had gone back to work; retired but heavily into volunteering; newly retired; planning to retire by the end of the year, etc., etc. 

 

The overall discussion made such an impact on me that I actually kept the flyer.

 

 

(there are unreadable notes scribbled on the back)

 

Mainly, because at the end of the session, each panel member was asked – “if there was one piece of advice you would share with someone contemplating retirement, what would it be”.

 

At the time, all of the tidbits of advice sounded good and practical, so I dutifully scribbled everything down.

 

But it is only now, almost three years into early retirement, that I have come to appreciate how valuable and useful those five, simple nuggets of advice actually were:

 

If you are not physically fit, get fit.

Schedule your day.

Maintain social contacts, continue to network.

Get involved with something bigger than you.

Learn something difficult.

 

If you do no other planning for your retirement, memorize this list, because combined, it is the best retirement advice you are ever going to get  ….

 

If you are not physically fit, get fit!   If you are one of those perennial new year’s resolutions people who constantly pledge that this is the year you are definitely, probably, for sure, maybe going to get to the gym – and then never do – don’t make the same post-retirement resolution. 

 

If your pre-retirement excuse for not going to the gym was lack of time, suddenly having all of the time in the world, post-retirement, is not automatically going to turn you into a physical fitness buff.  You’re just going to look for other reasons not to go to the gym.

 

So just make this bit of retirement advice a pledge to stay physically active.  We all know that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  At the very least, make getting out of the house every day and going for a walk (to the nearest Tim’s!) a regular part of your post-retirement day.  Your knees, hips and general practitioner will thank you.

 

Schedule your day.  Sounds like a step backwards, I know, since one of the main reasons for retiring is to get away from schedules.  But again, from personal experience, I have come to appreciate the value of having some structure to my days, even if I am supposed to be retired. 

 

Knowing that today is laundry or grocery shopping day, or that you are supposed to be somewhere at a particular time gives purpose and momentum to your day – keeps you moving forward, gives you a sense of accomplishment. 

 

And if you really, truly have big plans for retirement, getting things written down and scheduled will make sure those plans actually come to fruition.

 

Maintain social contacts.  – Once again, speaking from personal experience, I discovered the hard way how badly I had under-estimated the amount of human contact and adult conversation I required to keep my sanity intact.  Bottom line, you need to be in some sort of contact with you fellow human beings on a daily basis. 

 

If you already have the required spouse kicking around the house, you’re half-way there.

 

But, if like me, you are single with no children, you need to work extra hard at arranging play dates for yourself.  You need to get, and keep, yourself out there.    Search yourself out a variety of people with a variety of interests.  Otherwise, you just end up talking to yourself!

 

There’s a reason food courts are full of seniors nursing cups of coffee and reading the Racing Form!

 

Get involved with something bigger than you.  Basically, find an organization or association or cause that shares the same values and outlook on life as you do.  Give them a call and find out what they need.  Became a full-time volunteer, fundraise, stand for election to the board, etc.  Offer up whatever career skills you have.

 

If you are already involved with an organization, get more involved. 

 

Or if you’re really not the “joining in” type, make it a point to attend as many events as you can for whatever group, or groups, that interest you.  It might lead to bigger and better things!  (Please don’t make me tell my bird watching story again!)

 

Learn something difficult. If you’ve already decided that you are going to learn to play the piano, or to fly a plane, or to go back to school, make sure you follow through once you actually retire.  Your gray matter will thank you.

 

But really, your retirement plans don’t have to be that grandiose. 

 

Just try to expand and extend your horizons in some way.  Whether it’s pursuing a new hobby or just amping up the participation level on an old one.   Or signing up for something new at the local community centre, just because it’s free of charge. 

 

Or try finally plowing your way through Edward Gibbons “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.

 

All six volumes.

 

Before the start of the next millennium.

 

Just do (and keep doing) something that makes you think!  Finally put all those years of education to good use!

Cabin Fever Doesn’t Come with Room Service
 

Sorry I’ve been away for a bit!
 

I could blame it on technology – my Microsoft Surface claimed it “could not detect a battery”.  (Which begged the question – if there suddenly was no battery in my notebook, how could there possibly be any power in the system to flash me a “no battery” message.  The nice, young man at the Microsoft store in Square One had no answer for me.)
 

Or I could blame it on February in general. 
 

But the truth of the matter is that sometime after my mid-January birthday, I crashed and burned.
 

I have a low distraction threshold at the best of times, but for six or seven weeks or so (the entire month of February and most of March) I was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything other than the refrigerator and the TV remote. 
 

Any focus, motivation or discipline I did possess was gone. 

I was finding it nearly impossible to muster, let alone focus, any interest at all on any of those projects and activities near and dear to my little retirement heart. 
 

My organizational skills were non-existent.  There were knitting projects (plural), scattered all over the living room. 

There was (a lot of) stuff stacked in little piles on the coffee table. 

There was even unopened mail littering the dining room table. 
 

I simply ceased to be able to function.  Simply getting through the day was becoming a challenge.
 

I experienced a similar situation about two months into retirement.  But that episode was really more of a panic attack.  A sudden and overwhelming realization of the enormity of what I had just done. 

I had just quit my job! 
  

I froze in my tracks for a couple, three days, trying to remember how and why I thought this whole retirement thing was a good idea.
 

And after a few days of breathing heavily into a paper bag, I finally did remember why this whole retirement thing was indeed, a very good idea.
 

But this time, I seemed to have been struck down by a combination of ennui and cabin fever.  A strange combination of restlessness and boredom that literally, took me about six weeks to shake off.
 

Rightly or wrongly, part of the problem may have been the weather – all those friggin’ freezing temperatures in February were enough to suck the life force out of even the strongest soul! 

But freezing temperatures were just an excuse. 
 

The real problem was that I was having difficulty mustering up even a passing interest in two of the most important tenants of retirement – outside contact and activity.
 

Basically – getting out of the house and doing something useful with some other like-minded people!
 

After money, how to plan and maintain daily activity and contact with friends, family and acquaintances are the most important topics that will be discussed at every retirement workshop you will attend and every retirement handbook you will read.  (They should actually take priority over money, but that’s just my opinion.)

Take notes!
 

Because for a few weeks at least, I was having enormous difficulty practicing what I preached.
 

Luckily, I was able to recognize that I really needed to start spending my days doing something other than wishing for a hot fudge sundae to suddenly appear in the refrigerator. 
 

It took some time, though. 
 

Because I really just wanted to sit on the couch and eat that hot fudge sundae.
 

And believe me, I wasted a lot of days standing in front of the refrigerator waiting for it  to appear!
 

The problem is, once your focus, discipline and motivation have been scattered all over the map, it’s more difficult than you think to pull yourself together.
 

It’s sort of like when you were a kid on summer vacation and you told your mother you were bored and her answer was to make you go outside and play.  Same principle.  Only, this time, if you don’t dig deep and find your own focus, motivation and discipline, the consequences will be far more dire.
 

I will not lie.  I struggled.  I made excuses.  It’s so much easier to do nothing that actually get yourself motivated to do something, anything. 

But I persevered.  
 
I really had no alternative.

And thanks to the Mississauga Quilters Guild Annual Show and a cup of tea and a biscuit with friends – I do believe, for better or worse,  I’m back!!!!

The jury is still out on whether or not it's a good thing!






 

”They Have Books and Things That They Lend For Free ….”
(oh come on!  If you’re of a “certain” age, you’re already humming
the tune in your head!!”)

Question – do you know where your local library branch is?

If not, shame on you!

Do you have an up-to-date library card?

If not, double shame on you!

(And if you have school-aged children who don’t have an up-to-date library card either, triple shame on you!!!)

The first question you should be asking yourself, right after “can I afford to retire”, is “do I know the way to my local library branch?” 

I promise you, it’s not your high school library anymore!

As soon as you have retired, you should waste no time in making your local library branch your new best friend!

It may have been so long since you’ve actually been inside a library, you’ve forgotten just what the library has to offer, especially for retirees:

a) Computers and internet access.  If you don’t have a home computer, you can book time on one of the library’s computers.  And since you’re probably going to be looking for a computer at 10 a.m. on a weekday morning, chances are very good that all of the computers are going to be free! If you have a home computer, but no internet provider, pack up your lap top and head to the library.

b) Printers.  If you have a home computer, but no printer – down load your files and head to the library.

c) Just bought your first lap top in anticipation of retiring but aren’t really quite sure how to make the thing work – betcha there’s a free computer workshop being offered at your local library.  (Most of the computer classes at the Mississauga library branches are being marketed specifically to and for seniors!)

d) Speaking of free workshops, there are tons of them being offered through the Mississauga library system.  And I’m sure the same is true of the library system in whatever municipality you call home.  I haven’t seen a library system yet that isn’t offering workshops on how to use the library’s resources to trace your family tree, for example!  (A top ten project for most retirees, it seems!)

e) Drop-in’s and book clubs.  Join a library book club and the book will be provided to you!  Drop in on the monthly knitting club (or scrapbooking or model airplane club).  Or ask if you can start a drop-in for a particular hobby that interests you!

f) Monthly speaker’s series – cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, arthritis.   Guest speakers from various organizations will undoubtedly being making the monthly rounds of your library system. 

g) And let’s not forget the primary raisin d’etre for the library system – books!  Don’t buy the next bestseller (do you really have money in your budget to buy hardcover books anyway?)  Pick it up at the library.  May have to get yourself on the “wait list”, but you’re not going anywhere, so you’ve got the time to wait!  And once you have read the book and have decided that you can’t live without your very own copy, then you can go out a buy a copy!

h) And magazines and CD’s!  Before you go out and buy a new CD or the next monthly issue of a favorite magazine, check the library first.

i) DVD’s.  Some libraries keep a library of recent releases, some don’t.  Just check before you buy!

j) Discards.  Most libraries cull their collections of books, magazines, CD’s and DVD’s on a regular basis.  Get to know your library staff and find out when the monthly, bi-monthly, bi-annual or annual cull happens.  Can usually pick up a myriad of items for less than a buck!

k) The bulletin board/brochure rack.  The bulletin board and brochure rack in my local library branch have become one of my prime sources for information on the goings-on in my neighbourhood.  And I suspect, the smaller your home town, the larger the library bulletin board.  All of your local sports and arts organizations are bound to have a flyer in the rack.  The bulletin board is also a prime source of information for notices from your local government – planning hearings, New Year’s levee, Canada Day Celebrations, etc. 

l) The Mississauga Library E-Bookmobile made a stop in Celebration Square last fall.  I don’t have an e-reader (yet), but if you’ve got an e-reader, check your library branch for free downloads.

m) Music – I can download x number of free music selections from the Mississauga Library (I have an IPod sitting in a plastic case on my bookshelf.  No excuse now for not trying to figure out how to work the thing!)

 

n)  I can access a 3-D printer at the Mississauga central library branch

… and I’m sure there are loads and loads of other services and activities available in your local library branch that I haven’t even thought of!
 

So, right after you submit your notice of retirement to human resources … get out a map or a GPS or a bloodhound and go and find your local library branch.
 

(And the same goes for any Community Centre in your area!  I’ll bet the smaller the city you eventually retire to, the more events and activities you’ll find offered at both.  And the bulletin boards and brochure racks will be proportionately larger as well!  And no doubt, many of the activities offered will be free!)

Money Makes the World ‘Round

The holiday season is finally officially over and I’m guessing your January credit card statements have just arrived in the mail.  I know mine has. 

But I’ll bet my credit card statement has a heck of a lot fewer charges on it than your’s does. 

And you know why? 

Cash. 

Good old-fashioned, cold-currency cash.

If you are long retired, newly retired or thinking about retiring – let me re-introduce you to the concept of paying with cash.

We baby boomers were the first generation to be introduced to the concept of credit cards.  Easy and immediate credit to buy whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted it.  And as long as we paid the minimum amount due on the monthly statement, there was no limit to the amount of potential credit we had access to.

Virtually from childhood, we have been bombarded with advertising, magazines, style and home improvement television shows, etc., etc., etc. telling us the best and most beautiful ways to exercise all that credit the banks were pushing on us.

And now, at the dawn of the 21^st century, we don’t even have to go to the time and trouble of actually fishing those credit cards out of our wallets. We can just wave our expensive cell phones in the general vicinity of a chip and pin machine and everything from a cup of coffee to a slightly-used car and even the down payment on a house can be had on credit, no questions asked.

Well, I’m here to tell you that as a retiree, the cashless society is not your friend. 

In fact, by the time you actually retire, you should no longer be on speaking terms with your credit cards.

If y’all remember, I suggested that you start seriously looking at your finances at least five years prior to your actual retirement date.  You need to figure out exactly how much money you are spending on a monthly basis.  That means your mortgage payment or rent, all monthly utilities, home and auto insurance, transit, gas and auto maintenance, groceries and spending money, debt repayment and banking fees, cell phones and internet, pets, etc., etc.

Basically, you have to figure out where every last penny you are earning is going.

Then you use this information to put together a monthly, retirement budget. 

So starting today, you are going to re-introduce yourself to the concept of paying with cash. 

Look at the pretty colours of the various bills, memorize the dollar amounts on each bill, get the feel of the plasticized paper, be mesmerized by the holograms.

And learn the hard, cold lesson that when you’ve used up all your monthly allotment of currency on something ridiclous like an expensive lunch or a new pair of shoes – you are essentially broke. 

Once you’re out of cash, you have to wait for the next pension cheque to drop into the bank to get some more. 

You don’t get to use your credit card for a tankful of gas.  You don’t get to go the ATM and withdraw “only” forty bucks.  You don’t get to go to the movies with your friends.

It’s a b**** of a lesson.  And the lesson is – learn to live on a budget!

Now that you are retired, you should always, always, always be using cash for:

Groceries

Transit tickets and passes

Gas for the car, as well as your driver’s license renewal, yearly sticker, and bi-annual emission testing

Movie admissions

All lunches and dinners

Trade show, exhibition and amusement park admissions

Clothing and shoes

All personal care items, including make-up and hair salon appointments

All beverages of a social nature purchased at the liquor or beer store

Pet food and toys

…. basically, once you are retired, you should be paying cash for absolutely everything.  If you are using credit to pay for anything listed above, you aren’t doing the budget thing correctly. You need to revisit your monthly budget and make some realistic adjustments.

Because of all of the easy credit we have had access to all of our adult lives, we baby boomers are also the first generation attempting to retire while at the same time, carrying record amounts of personal debt. 

So when you eventually do retire, you need to become extra conscious of exactly how much you are spending in relation to the size of your pension cheque so as not to increase that debt load.

And one of the best ways to monitor your spending habits and overall personal debt, retired or not, is to pay with cash whenever possible.

Hey, I watch re-run episodes of “’Til Debt Do Us Part”!