I Should Have Known Better

Chapter III - Retirement

While I was still working we used to vacation in Mexico as often as we could. One time we got to know an ex American Airlines pilot who was the happiest and most energetic person that I had ever remember seeing. It was natural to want to know his secret. Here is his story of retirement.

He was delivering an airplane to Saudi Arabia one exceptionally hot day. As he was standing on the runway in the blistering heat he was asking himself why he was doing this, and should he keep doing it. To answer that question, after he returned to the US he conducted his own survey of retired people. Since he lived in Florida there was no shortage of people to interview. He wanted to know what their concerns were about being retired.

Starting with 70 year olds he discovered that this group was primarily concerned about their health. Was there easy access to good medical care, pharmacies and hospitals.

The 70's group didn't sound like they were having a whole lot of fun, so he moved down to the 60 year olds. These people were also concerned about health but also about their finances. They had longer to live and were worried about having enough money to last.

This was getting discouraging, but he kept on with the survey and went down farther to the fifty year olds. Wow, what he discovered was an eye opener, these people without exception were all having the time of their lives. They were all having fun and without worries.

When he told some people about retiring, they all said he was crazy, he was at the peak of his career and earning a good salary. Why throw it all away. But to him the facts were clear. Why wait until you can't enjoy your life anymore. So he immediately gave his notice of retirement. He was fifty-five at the time. When we met him he was 60 and had never looked back.

When I heard his story I was about 55 and it made a lot of sense to me. I had a great job and loved going to work, but I knew it had to end sometime, someday, and I would have to reinvent myself then, and it was better to go when things were going well. It took me a few more years to get it together but I got out as soon as I could. I was fifty-nine.

I worked for a great company, that did it's best to look after the employees, even in retirement. We were all given talks on financial planning and retirement. So I kind of knew that some people have trouble with not working, not being employed, not having the status and importance of a job. Who are you when you don't work? What is your function in the world? What is your worth? Are you still contributing in some way or just playing and taking up space?

I was aware of all of this on my first day of retirement, but I had a golf game scheduled and that was my focus. I had a golfing buddy who retired when I did, so I would get a call around six every morning to go and play. I liked golf and I was trying to improve my score, so playing lots seemed to be the way to do it.

About six weeks later I ran into one of the managers from my old department who asked me how things were going, how did I like being retired. I told him that when I retired I promised myself that I would golf everyday it didn't rain, and do you know after six weeks I am starting to pray for rain.

I was always big on freedom, and now that I had virtual freedom and could do anything that I wanted, and when I wanted, I couldn't do what I liked over and over forever. It did finally rain and then it was getting to the time when I would normally go to Mexico. So far there was nothing terribly difficult about retirement.

I used to say, "What is all this about retirement being difficult? I haven't seen any problems so far".

To get to Mexico we drove for the first time in our Honda Accord. It was six days on the road at 1000 km a day. After a few hours of sitting in the car my left leg wouldn't function until I walked around a bit; a constant reminder that my sciatica was always with me. In Mexico, there was swimming in the ocean, and long walks on the beach to stay healthy. That took care of the first six months of retirement and I thought I was doing quite well. Thank you very much.