I retired in December of 2022, over two years earlier than I planned. You are 100% right - all 10 of these applied to me!! They also started during the pandemic for me, but it took 10 months of serious contemplation, financial figuring, and allowing myself to believe it could be possible before I finally retired. It consumed me for those 10 months, but now I wonder how it could ever have been such a hard decision when all the signs pointed to it being the right decision. Thanks!
Once you have made the decision to pull the trigger, the waiting for the end date is the hardest part. Trying to stay focused and productive is the challenge, for sure.
Sometimes the biggest step is realizing that you are financially secure.
Once you eliminate the rat race, many expenses are also cut.
Over the course of approx. 20 -30 years of retirement, the funds required create a downward trend. Once we wrap our heads around that, we tend to have more funds than we realize.
I agree with your comment about opening and closing schools. We have friends that are teachers. Just to add to that, teachers today are also faced with changing pronouns and names of students. Not that I disagree with the personal choice but as an older person, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the changes.
Teaching as a whole has changed drastically over the last few years. I can understand the freedom retirement offers.
I retired when I left a toxic job and was too exhausted to be bothered finding my way back into the workforce during the pandemic and beyond. I un-retired for a year, but finally realized that we're financially secure, and I don't love getting up and going to a job.....so why do it? Life is short and I'm loving the freedom and flexibility of no longer doing the 9-5 grind. Your points are excellent and I could tick a lot of them through my own journey into accepting that I'm now happily retired.
I loved my job teaching fourth grade and never thought of retiring ... but Number 8 happened when my daughter said she was having twins... already with a two year old. So great fun with babies a few years... but I went back to substituting most days for fourteen more years. The fuss and craziness with opening schools after pandemic was too much! You’ve nailed retirement reasons and feelings perfectly here! Well done! 👏👏😊
Thank you for including me in this piece! Very informative
I retired in December of 2022, over two years earlier than I planned. You are 100% right - all 10 of these applied to me!! They also started during the pandemic for me, but it took 10 months of serious contemplation, financial figuring, and allowing myself to believe it could be possible before I finally retired. It consumed me for those 10 months, but now I wonder how it could ever have been such a hard decision when all the signs pointed to it being the right decision. Thanks!
Yes. Thank you for sharing.
Once you have made the decision to pull the trigger, the waiting for the end date is the hardest part. Trying to stay focused and productive is the challenge, for sure.
Sometimes the biggest step is realizing that you are financially secure.
Once you eliminate the rat race, many expenses are also cut.
Over the course of approx. 20 -30 years of retirement, the funds required create a downward trend. Once we wrap our heads around that, we tend to have more funds than we realize.
Thank you so much.
I agree with your comment about opening and closing schools. We have friends that are teachers. Just to add to that, teachers today are also faced with changing pronouns and names of students. Not that I disagree with the personal choice but as an older person, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the changes.
Teaching as a whole has changed drastically over the last few years. I can understand the freedom retirement offers.
I retired when I left a toxic job and was too exhausted to be bothered finding my way back into the workforce during the pandemic and beyond. I un-retired for a year, but finally realized that we're financially secure, and I don't love getting up and going to a job.....so why do it? Life is short and I'm loving the freedom and flexibility of no longer doing the 9-5 grind. Your points are excellent and I could tick a lot of them through my own journey into accepting that I'm now happily retired.
I loved my job teaching fourth grade and never thought of retiring ... but Number 8 happened when my daughter said she was having twins... already with a two year old. So great fun with babies a few years... but I went back to substituting most days for fourteen more years. The fuss and craziness with opening schools after pandemic was too much! You’ve nailed retirement reasons and feelings perfectly here! Well done! 👏👏😊