Early Retirement ? What I Did. What I Am Doing Now

By: George Wallace

I’m told that on the average a person works until they are sixty-five, collects one Social Security check, and passes away.

I don’t care much for those odds. I didn’t then, and I don’t now. I retired when I was 52 years of age. That was in 1992. The decision was not easy. It was one that my wife left up to me, if I could show her in black and white that it could work financially. That was a very real incentive to sharpen the pencil carefully.

Obviously that decision had impacts with all the family. As a State employee offered an early retirement option there were no additional financial golden parachutes so common in the private sector. I was able to calculate exactly what my retirement income less health care premium would be. This amount would be my monthly income for ten years, until Social Security would kick in. And because I did not work that last ten years, that eventual Social Security check would be revised downward.

I chose to retire early. Of course many factors were a part of my decision. To be honest, psychology, and emotions, and the thought of doing the same thing for ten more years while age and physiology caught up with me and my ability to perform the job as I felt it ought to be done. I was at the peak of my skills, education, salary and apparently had no further level to which to aspire. Goals were getting sparse. I didn’t want what I had seen happen to friends and colleagues happen to me. I chose to retire early.

Friends asked if I intended to substitute. In the private sector this is called consultation. I chose never to go that route, as it simply left open so many ways to second guess myself and regret my decision. I had witnessed colleagues that had made that mistake, and I had vowed not to duplicate their actions. I have not worked for wage or salary compensation since retirement. One thing you will need to use in your own calculations is the rate of health care premiums. In my case, the premium has gone from $80 per month to over $350 per month.

I’m sixty-five working on sixty-six. I’ve never looked back, not even one day. I’ve never regretted a single day of missing getting up at an early hour, rushing around getting everyone and everything ready to decamp the house for the day at work. I have never regretted having to drive to work in nasty weather. I have especially never regretted having my psyche impinged upon by the emotional needs of other persons and their impossible demands upon my psychic energy.

I enjoy a slow start to the day and staying up late, working between midnight and two. I enjoyed days of a quiet household with only myself to keep me company. I did not need a TV, or radio, or music system going to “keep me company“. I have been able to overcome my severe addiction to both coffee and colas. These were once a dominant part of my day. I’ve “quit” coffee many times over the years, but not colas. I have learned to enjoy cool to cold water as a beverage of choice. I did sleep quite a lot for a few weeks early on. From day one, I have been busy doing the things I love to do.

I started with learning new skills and doing a lot more volunteer work. I was a volunteer guardian ad litem and I added to my case load. I had said for years that I wanted to write. I set out to seriously learn how by doing. I added new habits of keeping writing material easily to hand and writing at every opportunity. I have very distinct and vivid memories of sitting at the keyboard and setting a goal to write one page. Five pages. Thirty-five pages. One author had described this process as being one where words were created via the blood that exuded from his forehead. I never found the writing-creative process all that difficult. Difficult, yes, and sometimes I was at a blockage, or a dead spot, but I quickly found ways to go past or around these problems. My concerns are in dealing with the self imposed doubts about the quality of what I write.

I also paid more attention to my teenage kids. I attended their sporting events that I hadn’t had time for before. I went to see them perform in band events. I involved myself more deeply, more actively in my hobbies of stamp collecting and model railroading. I devoted more time to my community service club.

We remodeled our home to prepare it for eventual sale. Later when my wife finally decided to join me in retirement, we graduated a son from high school, married off a daughter, sold our home, and moved to Hawaii in one month.

In Hawaii, we have continued the pattern of volunteer work, working in our community, working with community service clubs, other organizations, and pursuing our hobbies. My wife has enjoyed extensive travels and her special interests. She started, learned, and still practices at a high level of skill a new hobby art form and has made dozens of new friends through that activity. We remodeled our new home to make it a better fit for our needs.

I landscaped the one acre grounds. We collected, and hauled hundreds of pickup loads of rocks to build dry laid rock walls and terraces. We hauled in over a hundred cubic yards of cinder-dirt, and planted hundreds of tropical plants and flowers. I learned to make cuttings and grow additional plants of especially beautiful hibiscus and poinsettias. I have grown trees from seed. That landscaping process is still going on as I made several hundred cuttings of a succulent “jade” plant about a year ago and have yet to get all of them in the ground.

I started one small internet business to see if I could do it, and went busted. Live and learn. I’ve written several books, and published one. I’ve begun another small internet business venture, which more closely matches my current skills and interests, and I’m working to grow it into profitability.

I plan to publish more of my books in the future and to continue to grow my little business. We are cleaning, painting, doing landscape clean up and repairs, and doing minor remodeling to our present home, as we have made the long term decision that we will return to the mainland to be closer to our children and grandchild. We have been using the internet and monitoring the real estate market in our targeted area. At this time, it is likely that we will temporarily rent in our new location for a few months while we explore and get to know the region, and adjust our lifestyle tempo.

We love a lot about Hawaii, the ocean, the beaches, the landscape filled with greenery and flowers, and the people. However, every time you want to go visit friends or relatives, you start with a now expensive, and now uncomfortable and irritating air flight, and a car rental. We would rather spend that money on gasoline and gifts. Air travel used to be something special and enjoyable. Now it is a royal pain, and an endurance of a deliberately obtuse and disrespectful bureaucratic process.

Article Source: http://www.retirementlivingarticledirectory.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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