" Helping you is what we do."        

THE INSIDE SCOOP ON RETIREMENT

RICK: "Were you surprised by anything about the transition to retirement?"

KEN: "Not exactly a surprise but when you retire and you've been used to getting up at a certain time, going to work at a certain time and so on, there's a month or two where you feel that, 'Gee, I'm missing something here', you know? 'I should be somewhere. I should be doing something.' It takes a little while to let go of that. That's probably why some people get into jobs just to have some sort of framework for their lives."

RICK: "Routine?"

KEN: "Uh huh. Some people require that."

RICK: "Did you?"

KEN: "I experienced that feeling of, let's say, vacancy. That feeling of 'gee I should be doing something right now, but I don't have to do anything until lunch time', that kind of thing. So I guess, maybe, ya. You have to start digging in a little and start thinking about finding your own routine and what you want to do. I think I was fairly successful in doing that."

GORDON: "Oh ya, it was hard because all of a sudden I had time. Didn't have to get up every day. You know I took over a young family and had to get up and cook and do that kind of thing but it wasn't the same. I had lots of things to do but it was different. All of a sudden instead of being God I was a peasant, you know?"

RICK: "How so?"

GORDON: "Well I used to be chief-chief of all I surveyed, and then I ended up being house husband at the whim of children and wife and it was an emotional adjustment.

RICK: "How did you handle that?"

GORDON: "Pretty well. I kept busy. That's all. Taking care of kids. Taking care of the house. Taking care of my wife. Taking care of the yard. All that stuff. There were no idle moments, that's for sure. I have to say I've enjoyed being in retirement from day one and I've always found stuff to occupy me, and aside from getting on my wife's nerves, I've had a good time."

RICK: "So it creates a different dynamic when one spouse retires before the other?"

GORDON: "I think it changes a lot, because she's now chasing her profession and I'm now the guy at home doing the work, so it's been a complete 180 degree turn and I found that good. I was ready to retire. I was ready to just sit down and be a vegetable. Burned out if you like. Tired. So getting out and getting involved with a young family was probably the best thing I could have done."

RICK: "How did your expectations of retirement match up against the reality of it?"

CAROL: "I expected to have to live like a church mouse. I'm not living like a church mouse and I don't think I'm ever going to have to do that, but I don't know. The other expectation I had of retirement. I didn't expect to lose contact with a lot of my friends and I expected it would be important to me if I did, and I have and it isn't. I think my grandchildren have become more important to me in my retirement. I've become closer to my grandkids than I used to be and that's great. Really wonderful! What else did I expect? I did expect I'd be more organized with my time. I thought I would structure my life more like I used to be at work. You know, that I'd have something to do between 8:30 and 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00, and my whole day would be accounted for. And if I didn't do that then I would be lost. Well, I don't do that and I'm not lost."

RICK: "So you thought it would be tougher?"

ANNE: "I thought it would be tougher. I thought it might take a little bit longer to do this transition of not working and not doing my work and all those type of things."

RICK: "What about it did you think would be the toughest?"

ANNE: "Feeling that I had to have something on my plate every day. You know, like there had to be something organized for the day."

RICK: "Structure."

ANNE: "Yes. And that hasn't been an issue. It's just wonderful."

RICK: "Why the need for structure? Why would you need that? Why did you think you needed it?"

ANNE: "Because you always have structure when you're working."

RICK: "A place to go? A place to be?"

ANNE: "Exactly. And I just didn't know just how easy it would be to break that sort of routine in your day."

RICK: "And the fear would be what?"

ANNE: "That I might get lonely, because I'm not married right? So I'm on my own. Or, I guess, just get lonely or find the days long or something like that but that hasn't been the case at all."

JIM: "I knew a month ahead that my severance was coming, so I talked to myself and said I've got to get used to the fact that the phone is not going to ring like it did when I was working."

RICK: "How did the transition go for you? The actual first few days of retirement?"

EARL: "Couldn't stand it! And even now I wake up early. Every morning I wake up early. I used to get up early and go to work."

RICK: "This is five years later."

EARL: "Yep. So I still wake up about 6:30. Ready to get up and go to work. (laughs) So your internal clock doesn't change, although your personal circumstances have. So now that you can sleep in, you don't. You know what I mean? It's really quite weird."

RICK: "So you had no difficulty making the transition?"

HAL: "No, I just enjoyed it. I think it's a basic thing. I'm somewhat lazy in my background. I would have liked to have retired when I was 20. I mean working is a means to an end. You work to live but you don't live to work. I think too many people put their whole lives into work and then when they're put out to pasture they don't feel important to anybody."

RICK: "And that wasn't the case for you?"

HAL: "No."

RICK: "What surprised you about the transition?"

HAL: "How easy it was. I mean, I've heard all the stories of 'how I don't know how I ever found time to work' but that's almost like justifying it. It keeps it at what you do, and people say, ‘Well what do you do?’ I say, ‘Well, whatever I want to do. If I want to sit on my ass and read a book, that's what I'm gonna do. If I wanna go for a swim, that's what I'm gonna do.’ To me it's just total freedom. I don't see how anybody should have any problems, but again I enjoyed life while I was working, and it's more fun after you're retired."

PAT: "I loved working in retail. I still would like it if there weren't so many conditions imposed on you. Everybody said the same thing. 'You are so lucky to be getting out.' I heard that so many times. In fact I felt guilty."

RICK: "Did you really?"

PAT: "Yes. Younger girls would be coming up to me and saying, 'You're so lucky to be getting out'. I say, 'You've gotta be 60 to do it, just remember that.' It was the only thing I could come up with that didn't make me feel so guilty. That I was able to actually leave and a lot of these girls can't because their livelihood depends on it."

LORRAINE: "Your interests totally change. You know, depending how involved you were in your job. I did not find it a problem to leave my job behind. I did not. But there again I eased my way out. I didn't just quit one day and I think that was a very good thing for me. You know, I worked 5 days a week, I went down to 4, I went down to 3, and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do that. So I just eased my way out, money-wise and time-wise. That works very well, to get used to the lesser money all of a sudden, because for a time I did have lesser money until some of my pensions kicked in. So that was okay. That was a good learning experience."

Are there ways that the transition to retirement can be better managed? If you have the option, like Lorraine, you might think about 'easing your way out'. Or, if that's not an option, you can plan to retire like Anne did. She just stumbled upon a great way to make the transition.

ANNE: "I had a trip to Europe planned 4 years ago and, serendipitously, I was to leave the beginning of April for almost a month. So I finished work and I had a week. And I was going crazy trying to do a bunch of stuff around the house and getting ready to go to Europe. So by the time I got home from Europe at the beginning of May, the last thing I ever even thought about wanting to do was to go back to work. I mean, like, anybody would. After a big, gorgeous trip, the last thing you want to do is go to work! So that was a really good transition. It was totally unplanned to coordinate with retiring. It was planned 4 years ago that I would do this trip."

RICK: "So that's actually a great idea to plan it that way. Retire. Big holiday right away. Come back. Piece of cake, you're in retirement mode!"

ANNE: "If people are going to retire I think it's a great idea to plan a great trip and do that because by the time you get back all those worries and thoughts are usually gone. You know, a lot of people don't go away on a trip right away. I know someone who did retire and they had a little bit of trouble adjusting. 'I'm not going to the office' and all that type of thing, whereas I had none of that. By the time I got back, it was this most remote thing in my life, that I actually had an office. By the time I got back, I was so far removed from going to the office and it was nothing. In fact, it was absolute pure bliss! Waking up in the morning going 'oh my God, this is so great!' Ya. So it was a very positive thing for me."

The Reporter’s Notebook

In one way, you’re simply not going to know how the transition is going to go for you until you actually experience it. No doubt it will confound your expectations somehow. Nevertheless, some things you know will happen. You will have more time. You will have a change in income and expenses. What do you know is going to happen, for sure? Do you need to act to make that transition easier? If so, how?
 

Cheri Crause, Rick Hoogendoorn, Richard and Brenda Jacques

ROYAL LEPAGE COAST CAPITAL REALTY - OAK BAY

1933 Oak Bay Avenue, Victoria, BC  V8R 1C8

Phone: 250 592-4422

Toll Free: 1 800 263-4753

Fax: 250 592-6600

copyright 2008     Cheri Crause & Associates Inc.
Cheri Crause, Real Estate Agent
Certified Senior Advisor
former Certified Financial Planner
Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Legal, trademark and privacy information