5 Key Year One Retirement Lessons

Time flies as the saying goes.  The end of this week marks one year of being retired for me and it certainly seems as if time as flown by.  I wanted to mark this week by sharing some key year one retirement lessons.  Even the fact that I have time to reflect on the past year is a positive sign.  Self-reflection is not an activity that I prioritized enough during my career and is featured in one of the lessons below. 

Before jumping into the list, it is worth mentioning that retirement has been very rewarding because of the additional time I’ve been able to spend with family.  We still have two high school students at home, and I’ve been able to go to more of their soccer games, help with homework, and even cook from time to time.  My wife and I take walks, eat lunch out on Fridays, and sometimes just sit next to each other and read.  I’m also able to help my parents and spend more time with them.  These activities may seem mundane.  However, I struggled to devote enough time to each of them while I was working long hours and frequently traveling for business.

5 Key Year One Retirement Lessons:

1. Forget about the “Sunday Blues”
2. Take care of mind and body
3. No need to multi-task
4. Keep planning
5. Time is still a precious commodity

1. Forget about the “Sunday Blues”

I’ve shared this lesson with friends and family because its impact has surprised me.  While I was working, Sunday nights were anxious times for me.  I often felt caught between a rock and hard place.  Jump onto email Sunday evening or wait until early Monday to get started?  Reading email on Sunday felt like I was cheating my family and myself out of the last remnants of the weekend.  But at least I knew what I was walking into.  Waiting until Monday morning somehow felt irresponsible and sometimes put me behind for the week; before I even got started.  I never tracked my sleep, but I’d be willing to bet that I endured sleepless Sunday nights more than any other night.

Recent research from The SleepJudge suggests that over 80% of Americans report feeling anxious on Sunday’s.  The same study confirms that I wasn’t alone in my restless Sunday sleep.  While I was aware of the “Sunday Blues” while I was working, I wasn’t aware of just how good it would be to get rid of the underlying anxiety.  I no longer dread Sunday evenings and tend to sleep just fine.  I discovered there was one more surprising aspect of ridding myself of the feeling of dread at the end of the weekend – it took time to go away. The feeling of impending doom on Sunday nights was so ingrained that it took a few months for it to completely leave my system.  To begin with, I was able to rationalize that I didn’t need to read email…either on Sunday night or Monday morning.  However, I couldn’t shake the anxious feeling that I needed to be doing something  I’m happy to report that time has made this feeling go away and I’ve forgotten about the “Sunday Blues”!

2. Take care of mind and body

Mental challenges were never in short supply while I was working.  Solving problems with either the aid or hinderance of others posed daily opportunities.  Learning has become my most common form of mental exercise in retirement.  For example, learning how to blog and create the planworkretire website has challenged me.  I started with zero experience or understanding of what it would take – so the learning has been and continues to be plentiful.  Learning more about hobbies I already enjoy is another source of staying sharp.  Improvement  in gardening, writing, and cooking have all provided me areas to learn and grow.  I’m am also reading more books than I did before retiring.    

Ensuring the mind remains healthy through retirement is crucial.  Keeping the body healthy is equally critical.  Many of us are aware of anecdotes that describe declining health for a recently retired friend of family member.  Staying physically active during retirement doesn’t necessarily mean preparing to compete in a triathlon.  And I’m by no means suggesting I used early retirement to get into peak physical condition.  Daily exercise, even if it is going for a walk, is something I strive for.  Combined with regular mental exercise, physical activity has kept me feeling good and avoiding too much “vegging out”, without the healthy veggie part.

3. No need to multitask

Modern work not only encourages multitasking – it seems to demand it.  We seek to accomplish more in less time by working on multiple activities at once.  Who hasn’t responded to a new email when it pops onto our screen even while in the middle of working on a presentation or analysis?  How many of us claim to be able to respond to email while remaining “engaged” on a phone meeting?  The problem with multitasking is that is just isn’t real.  Neuroscience tells us that the human brain is really switching between tasks, not completing them simultaneously.  All that switching costs us time and accuracy.  Take this simple test to simulate the impact of multitasking, and see how you do.

I find myself taking more focused action these days.  No longer do I feel the constant pressure of getting things done at work.  I can now take my time to learn about what I’m trying to do.  Recently I completed some major home irrigation line repair that I had (poorly) patched up several times before.  Working in a mindful way on a single project or activity has been surprisingly rewarding.  In a similar way, I find myself actively listening to my family and friends more often than in the past.  No longer are there two separate worlds to occupy my mind and divide my attention. Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we are doing. It improves our ability to fully engage and focus on what is happening in the present moment. Mindfulness helps me avoid the folly of pursuing multi-tasking and has been of the most useful retirement lessons gained this past year.

4. Keep planning

To say the least, the past year has been interesting.  Too many chaotic forces and events to cover here.  An “ideal” year to retire may not exist, but for sure this past year wasn’t it.  If you’ve read my past posts, you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of having a life plan.  Will planning prevent or enable us to avoid all of life’s surprises?  Of course not.  But it will provide a roadmap to help navigate the path and adjust to any surprises.  As of this writing, the S&P 500 is down ~15% so far in 2022.  This is certainly not good news for short-term investors.  However, it isn’t completely surprising or catastrophic to long-term investors with a plan.  Keeping financial performance in context with an overall plan helps to avoid panic.  In today’s 24-hour news cycle, it can be hard to keep events in perspective.  Reviewing your plan on a regular basis is crucial.  However, adjustments should be made mindfully and with the big, long-term picture in mind.

Being able to anchor on a plan can help avoid making knee-jerk reactions. But it can also build the confidence required to take advantage of opportunities.  It would be a mistake to shut down possibilities without exploring them.  I already mentioned the benefits of approaching life in a mindful way. These benefits certainly extend to exploring new opportunities.  Whether that is a job opportunity, a chance to travel, or learning something new. I’ve found that the paradox of having a plan is that it provides a greater level of confident flexibility by removing some of the guesswork in life.

5. Time is still precious

Finally, it’s been reinforced to me that time is still precious, even in retirement.  The past year seems to have moved extra fast.  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring for us, or those we care about.  Days and weeks still tick past on the calendar.  The list of things I’d like to do seems just as long as on the day I retired.  Of all the retirement lessons I’ve learned, this one has been the least surprising.

Back in the early 90’s, I took a job while I was still in college for a large computer manufacturer.  It was a cooperative education agreement that enabled me to take some time away from school to learn about an industry I was interested in while getting paid to do so.  It was a fantastic opportunity, and I had the privilege of working with some outstanding people.  I worked closely with one such person on a summer-long project.  He had announced his retirement at the end of that summer; so I had the good fortune to work with him prior to his well-earned next chapter.  He unfortunately passed away, unexpectedly, a mere few weeks before his retirement was to begin. I distinctly remember listening to his sons speak at his memorial as they described all of the things they had been looking forward to doing with their dad; once he retired.  It is a memory and lesson that has never left me.  If anything, this lesson has become sharper for me as I’ve grown older and am now retired myself.

It’s hard for us to make time to do all the things we’d like to do.  However, don’t ignore opportunities that come your way. Whether it is to talk with an old friend or really listen to a family member; we just don’t know when we’ll get another chance.  And it could be that another chance never presents itself.

Written by: A. Reed Reviewed by: B. Holman