04/2020 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 59ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
A BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU
for sharing your retirement
experiences (see “Living
in Retirement,” Dec.). I’ve
been overwhelmed with
e-mails—many more than I
can acknowledge in a single
article. So this will be the
first of several columns,
starting with a look at some
of the things that have sur-
prised you the most.
What struck me most
is that you’re all so darn
busy. “Before I retired, I
made a three-page list of
things to keep me busy,”
writes Bob Gray. “Eight
months after I retired, I
found the list. I hadn’t
had time to look at it.”
Karen Lojo keeps a weekly
spreadsheet of things she
would like to get done, but
“it’s in pencil so I can re-
shuff le it.” Lojo has back-
packed across the Grand
Canyon, “but my closets are
still not cleaned.” Likewise,
John Russo discovered that
“things that weren’t impor-
tant enough to do when I
was working aren’t impor-
tant to me now.”
Jim Turner surprised his
family, who feared he would
be at loose ends when he re-
tired. Instead, “I replaced
my work routine with my
retirement routine: exercise
in the morning, errands and
civic work in the afternoon,
and reading in the evening.”
Turner’s second-biggest
surprise: “I watch less TVthan when I was working.”
Roger Van Cleve thought
that he would spend more
time on creative projects,
such as brewing his own
beer and learning to play
the guitar. Instead, “the
amount of time I spend
playing sports has ex-
panded” to include tennis,
cycling and golf. Those gui-
tar lessons “have slipped
down the priority list.”
Marilee Morgan is also
doing something she didn’t
envision in retirement: get-
ting up at 6:15 a.m. to take
advantage of activities in
her active-adult community.
“I wasn’t a morning person
before, but now I happily
rise early, eager to enjoy
the day. Go figure!”The time factor. Keeping
busy is the key to adjustingto all the extra time on your
hands. “My biggest surprise
is how fast time goes by,”
writes Sally Zitzer. “I have
now been retired for 15
years and it boggles my
mind.” Ramin Hashemi
says “the day goes by just as
quickly as when I worked.”
But the transition can be
rocky. At first, says John
Walther, “I went a little
bonkers and threw myself
into every volunteer oppor-
tunity that looked palatable.
Now I’m dialing back and
trying to find the right
balance.” After decades of
productive work, “it’s hard
to learn how to just relax,”
says Walther. “Once I real-
ized this, I started to enjoy
the process.”
For some of you, produc-
tive work is still in the pic-
ture. “I was surprised thatafter anticipating retire-
ment for so long, I lasted
six months before starting
my own part-time consult-
ing business,” says Rob
Jennings. For others, it’s
the opposite: “I loved retire-
ment right from the get-go
and haven’t missed work
at all,” writes Cindy Gnech.
“In the eight years since I
retired, I have worked for
five whole days, and I com-
plained almost the whole
time about the things I
couldn’t do.”
Financially, your experi-
ences have also been mixed.
“I’m spending much more
than I expected in retire-
ment because of all my free
time,” says Dennis Maki.
Like a number of other
readers who retired too
early to sign up for Medi-
care, Tom Whin was sur-
prised at “how much our
health insurance premiums
went up every year after
our COBRA coverage ex-
pired and we had to use
Obamacare.”
On the plus side, Nancy
Ashmore’s biggest surprise
is that “we have more than
enough money to enjoy ex-
actly the retirement life we
envisioned. Years of finan-
cial planning, maxing out
the 401(k) and paying off all
debt before retirement have
given us a freedom that is
truly exhilarating.” QLIVING IN RETIREMENT Janet BodnarExpect Surprises in Retirement
Financially, your experiences have been mixed—and sometimes eye-opening.
CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT JANET_BODNAR@
KIPLINGER.COM.