Well, the way I had been living may have been nice from a financial standpoint, but the part about having to get up every morning and drive to a job that was nice to have, but that I seldom enjoyed, was a high price for me to pay offsetting any purely financial gain I made.
So, I decided I had enough of the business world, and told myself that even in our financial position, which was okay for me anyway, I was not about to work a minute longer than I absolutely had to, which was when I hit 65 and 10 months. That was the point where I began to collect my SS. The amount would be enough to cover the necessities of living, but little else. We did have some money saved, and if we stayed close to home and lived like pets in a self imposed cage, it probably would last quiet some time.
The day arrived on June 30th. I actually did not leave the company I worked for until July 1st in order to stretch my health care until the end of July, and yet only pay half as much for the full month.
On my last day, as I walked out the door, it never sunk in that I wouldn't be back. Oh, there was a time a few months ago when I gave some serious thought to returning to work in order to get health coverage, but, fortunately, that did not work out. When I knew I was going to have an interview I went to Border's to find a book I could skim through and review some buzz words for the interview.
When I arrived at the IT section of the store, I stood frozen to the floor far enough away that I could not reach the shelf. My mind shut down tight and whispered to me... "There's no way I will ever allow you to fill me up with all that ever again!" I knew then I could not do it. I just did not have the heart, stomach, or desire, to reenter that which I couldn't wait to leave.
I must say, though, that the first 15 months of my retirement literally flew by. It was like, where did I ever find the time to work before? And yet, I never really got used to being retired, or realizing I was retired until I recently went back to the place I retired from to have lunch with a few acquaintances. As I was leaving, I realized how much I enjoyed not working, there, or anywhere. It was only after that that I really started to wake up in the morning knowing I was where I wanted to be right then... still in a nice warm bed next to my wife! And the day was all mine... usually.
The perceived recklessness of my decision has never been an issue with me. Shortly after I retired we left for Europe, spending eight weeks, traveling from Amsterdam, through France, into Spain, and taking a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco. This trip took a big chunk of the money we had saved up, but I didn't care. We had talked of doing this for years, and we did it while we could still move about. I have no regrets.
To prove that, we took a month this year and drove out west. I wanted to see some of the country, the Grand Canyon, and other places as well. So, we planned it out, and we did it!
With the economy as it is, things may become a little tight financially for us over the next few years. But the uncertainty of life has instilled in me that if one wants to do something, one should do it instead of waiting until "the right time", whatever that is. Because of this philosophy, we have travelled to many countries, seen many beautiful sights, paintings, and other things, eaten incredible food, and have many incredible memories.
In the long run, spending freely may come back to haunt me, but the one thing I will have that nothing, or no one, will ever be able to take away from me, are the memories my wife and I have given each other during our travels through life, and that is worth more than anything I have. Not only that, but we are now planning our next trip, or trips! How we will do it, well, we'll just have to wait and see, but we will do it.
