We thought we would do more traveling.....we don't.
We thought we would have enough money so that there would be no need to change our life style.....We don't.

EVERYTHING has gone up in price, Telephone, Cable TV, Newspaper, water, Garbage collection, Electricity, Gas, Property Taxes, Auto and home insurance, you named it!!

It has been these essential services that we either cannot or do not care to cut back on that have blown the budget. I am not talking about a one or two dollar increase. Some have doubled. Medications have gone from less than $50. per month to over $200. All these things have made a BIG difference and we have had to go into the principle of our investments a lot sooner than we had planned.

Ginger,
We're newly retired, and I expected freedom to do what we want. We don't seen to have any. There is always something that seems to confine us to home. It seems there is always someone with an appointment, someone getting married, someone's birthday, a repairmen coming. We have yet to have a week of days without demands. Maybe we just need to get organized. Or maybe we need to learn to say NO.
We do thoroughly enjoy not having to get up for work in the morning.
Aileen, Those rising costs are what we were concerned about. We figured on some, but the rate of increase is far more then we imagined.
Hayjud

I thought I'd have more energy and get alot done. Seems everything takes much longer to do.

I love the freedom of retirement...we travel a lot and do a lot of things together...golf, visiting local parks and scenic areas, etc. The down side is that we have less disposable income but I have always been frugal so it isn't a major problem.
I did think I would have a clean house and an outstanding garden but because I don't have time constraints, I tend to procrastinate a LOT!

I'm with Carol-procrastination moved in the day I retired & tho I've tamed it a bit it rears it's nasty head to often !
Another big problem for me is staying in shape--I was an RN-ran my butt off for 38 yrs--but I never had to worry about the pounds creeping on-but now Lordy all I have to do is look in the direction of food & it ends up on my hips, belly, upper arms etc-I do exercise ( aquatic program & stationery bike) faithfully but I'm not constantly moving as I did when working.
Diane

I too am a retired R.N., love my retirement, but seems I am always in demand by family and friends who think I now have all this free time to do errands and volunteer my services for them, I know I sound selfish, but would like to take some leisure time to enjoy doing nothing if I want to do just that. I worked in the health care field for 29 stressful years, even though I loved caring for patients. Sometimes, I just let the phone ring when I feel pressured by well meaning friends.

No money problems here..and we have great company insurance until we reach Medicare age..which will be in a couple of years..then our insurance will cost more than what we are paying for company insurance ($50 a month for the two of us)...just a health problem with me. We had everything planned and then I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma..."Life is what happens when you're making other plans".......but...the up side of this thing is..they caught it early and think they got it all...

I took early retirement about 15 years ago, my husband about 10 years. We were able to do lots of traveling in a RV as my daughter was still at home and we also had excellent neighbors to help out. Rural area! Now my son and wife are moving to Mich. and neighbors have moved etc so we are selling and moving to ND with oldest daughter. Most of our summers have been spent helping to rebuild a duplex with basement back there and so we hope to get some more traviling in. Since we don't play golf, cards, etc have found many places and people don't have the same likes and dislikes. We like to visit small towns, and unusual places off the beaten track. We try to stay away from large cities as they all seem the same. When we do go to a large city, we usually take tours. I am a people person, my husband is not. I do some crafting traveling. We have a computer in the trailer and that helps. I love the norther tier states and Canada and try to go at least once a year. Don't partictular like Mexico. Have been in every providence except Prince Edward Island. Maybe after we get settled this summer, we can get together.
Marie

Kitt, I'm glad to hear your prognosis is good! I'm half afraid I'll turn into a lazy vegetable after I finally do move to wherever I wind up. So, I'm thinking procrastination will be my problem too.

Ginger...I sort of have that problem because we have so much time to get things done now..that you sort of tend to put things off for later..and we sold our herd of cattle, so we don't have "that" work to do now. I seem to be a little better about finding things to do than my husband does..but I have my computer that I am taking classes for and never seem to tire of dinking around with it...and he isn't all that interested...he never had hobbies because he worked so many hours a day before he retired...and we farmed on the side. We still farm, but just do grain farming so there is a lot of time between work periods. We "could" travel now, but have just never been all that interested in doing that. But...we have planned well and have enough money to do whatever we want...this type of cancer comes back in other organs usually, so I will have to have CAT scans periodically, but the "five year" rule is pretty much true in this case...two years down....I guess I was sort of rambling there...sorry

I guess I thought we would do more traveling. We haven't unless we were going to visit relatives. I know we could but it would all be left up to me and I just don't get that excited about it.

Ginger, retiring is a lot different for a man than a woman. You know she still get to do everything around the house that she always had. :~) I am getting DH to do more every "year". LOL One thing I do now is eat in restaurants much more. I decided that "eating out" would be MY retirement. Works good for me!

Retired when I was 68, 8 years ago. We have traveled every state except 1, South Carolina, still can't figure out how we missed that one. Enjoyed western Europe, particularly fond of Spain and Portugal. Decided we should watch the spending a litle more closely so have been doing less traveling and more activities closer to home. Still help plant at the greenhouse I ran for more years than I care to remember but that is only in late winter and very early spring. At least when the day is over now I don't have to worry about anything business related, just go home.

I retired five years ago....at age 59. The darned health insurance is my biggest worry. I have a health plan where I worked, but that is going away in a year, when I reach 65. I will have medicare, but I am five years older than my wife, so I will have to get a single plan for her for five years.

We love to travel....and here is what we do. We plan for a trip about six months down the line. We research the places we are going to go.....get motel reservations....and get tickets to places we want to see and do. In October, we have a trip planned to Florida....then on the way home we will tour Charleston, go to the Grand Ole Opry...and take in some shows in Branson. The planning of the trips and the anticipation of going....is about as much fun as the trip itself.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am really enjoying my retirement. I think as time goes by....it will get tougher and tougher financially. But I think a lot of people wait too long to retire.

Is there anyone here that is retired without a "we"? Ginger is the only one that uses the singular pronoun of "I". Hmmmm... I'm an "I"! :)

I never thought about 'retirement', have always had my ducks lined up so I could work or not as circumstances dictated or I felt. Guess I was always 'semi-retired', but not of age yet. I moved to Florida 4.5 years ago and wouldn't consider moving anywhere north again (started out in NJ many years ago). I like the warm.

Even though I don't work now, and probably never will *have* to again, I still get calls from my old employer to do little 'jobs' ... I run into the hole financially on them because I deal with old folks & old computers and I just charge token fees, but it keeps me in touch. I don't know if I could NOT work at something. Type A personality I guess.

For anyone else that's single ... not widowed, do you miss having any more than a 'handyman' around? I have a 'handyman' BF, but we both like our own space and it works out well.

I'm not retired yet but hope to be within the next year and a half. I am single and don't have any family living any where near. I don't really have anyone but myself, no BF no neighbors that I would know if I saw them. I live on 17 acres of land in a somewhat rural area and I have animals. At this point I really don't know what I will decide to do when I retire. I would like warmer winters and am considering other locations, but, my property is really quite pretty so I don't know if I will be relocating or not. I would like to have time to work in my yard and garden and time to enjoy my animals. Sometimes I think I must be the only one that doesn't have someone to do things with or to have someone to do things for me. I wish I had planned things better and had more in my retirement fund. Judith

Gina, I was wondering the same thing. That makes THREE of us anyway.

There used to be a popular song in the 40's or 50's by Teddi King called "An occasional man" That says it all.

Hi Everyone,
I am a teacher, and I only have six days left to work. One minute I am excited, and the next, I think that I really hate to leave the job that I have loved and have been dedicated to for so long. I keep telling myself that there are many other things, and people that I love also. My husband is excited for me to retire because we always had to wait until the summer months to plan trips etc. Since he has a job working only 6 months a year (shift work) we can do a lot of things together that we hadn't been able to do before. Thank God he is excited and wants for me to just throw my teaching stuff away so I won't even think about going back to work. Thank God also, that my work money was always MINE and he we didn't rely on me paying any bills or insurances etc. with it.
I'll let y'all know in a few months how it is going for me. I think that I am going to love it because once, I took off for seven years and was never bored a bit. I plan to stay very busy, and I am mostly excited about starting a completely new phase of my life, and I will take advantage of the time to grow in ways that I can't when I am working.

I think it is wonderful that you have a loving husband waiting to spend more time with you. Have a lot of fun. Save your stuff for someday you may regret throwing it all away.
Think of each new day as the start of another adventure.

Yes, I have been very fortunate, Minnie. I know so many women whose husbands don't want them to quit work and are dependent on both of their salaries. When we built our new house, we made sure that we built so that I would never HAVE to work to help pay for it. It has been a good feeling all these years to know that I could quit if I wanted to.
As far as throwing all my teaching stuff away, I could never do that. I have put too much time and energy into collecting and making so many of my teaching aids. I still have stuff in my attic since 1974.
Thanks for the good wishes for me and like I said, I'll keep y'all posted. Hope it's good news. We have many plans for the future.

Hi I have been retired almost 10 years now and I was so afraid I would be bored with nothing to do. Ha That has never happened. With 7 grand children and nine grandchildren lots of things going on.About 20 years ago we bought a lake lot so we could someday build a retirement home. Well 2 years after we bought we started building and we still haven't finished completely. Have a big garden at the lake where we spend most of the summer and stilll have our family home and in the wintwer we go south for a couple months so for us there is something to keep us going all the time. Our son left home this year so we will probably sell the house in the next couple years as it is getting to be to much but all in all retirement is great

Hi I retired Ten years ago and I love it.I work as a crossing guard.My dog pebbles and my folding chair go to work each day.Some times we help people who need directions.Then we feel like real policemen.I did most of my travellig when I was young.Glad I did because with the new rules with the bagsI dont think I could drag my bags that far.I take bus trips and have fun.Each day I get up I thank God for another day.You know we are only promise70years and I am over that.Goldy

Good for you, Goldy! I, too am getting my traveling done now before retiring (I mean the big kind of trips.) When I move back to the States I hope to do small trips, etc. & maybe I'll be able to find a job where I can bring my dog to work, too!

I didn't dream we would be this comfortable. I take care of the money and saw to it that our home and a new car were paid for when we retired. My husband won't fly, so I travel alone. Do any of you know about groups of women who travel together and enjoy nature, I would love to hear about them.

Jonesy, check out the link below. Also, do you have any garden clubs or a Botanical Garden in your area? Sometimes they sponsor trips you might like.

Here is a link that might be useful: Travel

We have been retired for 15 years and really enjoyed it. We have traveled to all states except Hawaii and guess we won't make it. We had planned to go to Arizona again this year but don't feel I am physically able, and my niece is begging us to come to Florida. Rising are starting to catch up to our income and that hurts also.
I will say we have always kept very busy. and my computer is my salvation. I have a great time on Photo Forum,Kitchen table and several others,

MarciaSC,

With regard to wives still having almost the same load after husbands retire.

I've told this story quite often, and get varying replies - I've been a retirement consultant for a few years.

Husband retires.

On the morning after, he sits reading the paper.

For a few minutes.

Lowers the paper, looks around.

Raises the paper, reads for a few minutes.

Lowers the paper, looks around.

Same thing happens again.

When next he lowers the paper, wife asks, "Everything O.K., dear?".

Husband asks in reply, "Where's breakfast?"

Wife says, "You retired yesterday, didn't you?"

Husband says, "Yes, of course - you know that".

Wife says, "So did I".

Then she adds, "Tell you what - I'll get breakfast now, then we'll sit down and discuss who's to do what around here. We need to have equal amounts of chores to do, in future".

As I said - I've had varying responses.

Wives especially get a kick out of it.

Several have said, "That's a good idea - we'll have to try that".

Husbands may not care for the prospect - but find it hard to dispute the logic of such a proposal.

Good wishes for equalized household chores in future - where there's two of you.

Even if I were to make such a statement - there's no one else around to hear.

So - I'm stuck with doing all the chores, myself.

No spouse around to notify me that I'm not doing it most efficiently or the easiest way.

Good wishes to all.

joyful guy/Ed

P.S. Keep making new friends - the old ones keep dying off.

When it's your turn - you don't have that problem any more.

EB