Well, here we are in a new year with new challenges and new opportunities. Actually i am getting excited, as excited as i can get, because i can start to see that i may actually be able to realize my latest goal. All of you who know me have heard me say often that i have been counting down to retirement for the past two years. Now as i sit here and write this that countdown has come down to only three months and three days. I have to admit though that as this goal comes closer to reality i am also apprehensive. Working has been my life for almost fifty years, sometimes to the detriment of other areas of my life but that is a subject for a future blog. What am i going to do with the time that i would normally spend working? I am sure my loving wife has some ideas and i know they will be good ones but what else?
Aside from what i would do with this extra time i need to figure out if it is financially feasible and check into medical coverage. For quite a few months now i have been researching Medicare options and our spending habits to prepare for that big day. I don't know if any of you have ever looked into Medicare options but to give you an idea of how complicated it really is let me just say; it is run by our federal government. Enough said! Yesterday i met with a Medicare insurance agent to try to decide what would be the best option for me. After about two hours we finally decided and the application will be filed in February and i will officially be on Medicare May 1, 2012; step one completed.
I have already discussed my impending retirement with my present employer but not in depth. I am planning to have a more in depth discussion in the next couple of weeks. We have already discussed the possibility of my working part time, eliminating some of my present responsibilities and doing some that i actually like to do. The next step is to see how many hours i would work and if we can all agree. That will be step two.
Back to what i would do with the extra time i would have. One of the things i would like to do is just have time to do projects around the house. One day a week is just not enough. I could probably retire and just work around the house for a year before i could catch up on all the projects i need to do. In addition to that i would like to have the time to volunteer and do something to help others, both in and outside my family. All my life the majority of my time has been given to some company to help it grow and prosper. That has been very satisfying for me but now i would like to do something that actually makes a difference. Something that will improve someones life. I guess that will be step three.
Well there you have it. Does it look like the realization of a dream or the apprehension of a rambling senior citizen? I see it as both because i am both excited and apprehensive. One of the things that i am excited about is that my family is very supportive of my retiring and encouraging me to go forward and do it. Maybe it has something to do with the project thing. I know we won't have the financial resources available to help others as much as we can now but i believe that if i can have more of myself available, that is going to make my family very happy. I will continue to pray and seek God's will in making this decision as to what direction to go because that is the only way i will know i am making the right decisions.
