I’ve written about retirement in other posts on this blog. My target retirement age has been 70 for about as long as I’ve been doing serious planning for retirement. I’ve begun to change that to 67, in the sense of using 70 for the initial calculation, and then recalculating for 67. I also keep 65 in the mix because you may not have the choice to go beyond 65. In my line of work, it’s rare to run into those issues before age 65, which is more of a concern with jobs that require manual labor.
With that background out of the way, and with 70 being far in the future, it’s still worth asking what I’d do more if I were retired. If there’s something I’d do more when retired, I should be doing more of it now. Here are few that come to mind:
Maintain my house and property the right way. There are numerous deferred projects because of my lack of time. I hire someone to mow the lawn, and they’re doing a terrible job. I pay the same company to trim the bushes and they don’t do that very well either. There’s painting that should get done but doesn’t. Staining the deck always requires me to reshuffle my summer work schedule. The list could go on. It doesn’t bother me so much that the work isn’t getting done, but it creates stress having to manage so many things not related to work, having to make time in my schedule that should really be spent doing other things, and doing this work rather than doing things that help me recover for the next workday or workweek.
Exercise and lift weights. I do this regularly, but not as often as I should, nor as intensively as I should. I don’t have the energy to work and engage in high-intensity exercise and lifting.
Eat better. I’d do more cooking and the food would be much healthier. I might save a little money this way (probably not much) but it would be something I’d do for my health and enjoyment.
Get my life organized. When you have as many things flying at you as I do, it’s hard to keep track of all the little things you need to do outside of work. It creates stress when your brain is fried from work and then you have to come home and handle important paperwork.
Connect with others. By this I mean getting involved in activities at church and elsewhere in the community.
Visit the public library. I love going there. When I was college, I’d go to the public library several times a week. With my current schedule, I have trouble getting there several times a year. And there’s no chance I’ll ever make it there on a workday afternoon.
Do things to save money. This includes things like mowing my lawn and home maintenance. There are other things like doing research and searching for the lowest price that I just cannot do because of my work schedule. I could travel to other cities to buy things at a discount at Sam’s Club or Costco.
None of these can be classified as hobbies. A lot of them aren’t even enjoyable. They’re things I know I should be doing now but don’t. I’m going to make an effort to fit more of them into my schedule before retirement.
Making a list like this - and knowing there a many other items I could add to it - helps me get over the fear that retirement will be boring or without purpose.