Friday, July 6, 2012

Retirement Ramblings

Early in the year I wrote about the countdown to retirement. Well I am sitting here on this rainy day on July 6 2012 and decided I would write an update on where I am in that process. I did sit down with my boss and talk about the needs of the company and what i was looking to do. We decided on the hours i would need to work to equal the amount i would get from social security if i were to fully retire and what my responsibilities would be in this new part time position. Over the past few months we tweaked everything a little and on May 1st i kind of unofficially semi-retired. I took a couple of PTO days to give me the first two Friday's off in May and we decided that i would start working part time with Friday's off on the pay period that started on May 14 which happens to be the day i turned 65. And so it began.

It took a little getting use to but after about a month and a half i can say that i am really getting use to it. I admit that i am still trying to get a handle on what to do long term with this extra time, but for now i am just enjoying it. It allows me to have extra time to do some things around the house but mostly i have been practicing retirement and just enjoying some extra time with Kim. A couple of times i sat and read a book just because i could and then i took a nap. As much as i am enjoying the freedom for now, i am praying to see what the Lord might lead me toward doing to get involved in some volunteer work.

The Friday's off part is really nice but the part time hours hasn't been so part time yet. Since i started my semi-retirement right around the time we go into tourist season here there has been a lot to do at work and so i have not felt i could leave real early on the days i do work. Actually i am happy about that since i still feel needed and i know that when things slow down i will probably be cutting my hours back. Even being able to leave an hour or so earlier has been nice.

One of the things i really like is that no one works for me now. That was the one thing i really wanted more than anything. I have been in some form of management most of my life and i just didn't want to be responsible for anyone anymore. Since my son in law worked for me before it had an effect on our relationship that neither one of us liked. Now we can just enjoy the family relationship that we want and even though we both still work for the same company we have different responsibilities. I am doing the work that i really enjoy and find that there is still plenty to do. Taking care of computer issues and working with vendors to keep things maintained in all the stores keeps me going.

So as i sit here at home on this rainy Friday, i just have to say that being off on a rainy day is still better than being at work on a sunny day. I am loving it and will see what i wind up doing in the long term.