I'm Retiring!

I'm going to retire! As I blogged about a month or so ago the product I was working on was canceled. The core team working on the project was told to find new jobs. I thought about it  and decided that I really didn't want to look for a job. This last year and a half has really burned me out. I had been planning to retire next year and the more I thought about it the more it just felt right to move the date up. So it's not certain (I may still change my mind for the right job.) but I'll probably be retiring in the next month or so. I am excited about it. I had been really stressing about the whole situation and when I made up my mind it just felt right.

Except for three two month breaks, (one for the birth of each of my two girls and one for a vacation trip to Alaska) I have worked almost non stop for the last 32 years! It will be interesting to see how I adjust to not working. My career has certainly been a big part of how I define myself. In fact during hard times in my life my success at work greatly helped my self esteem. But at this point in my life I have lots of joys and interests outside of work and I really don't think I'll have too much trouble adjusting. And retiring now doesn't necessarily mean I'll never work again. It just means I'm quitting for now.

So what will I do with my life? I have a long list of things I want to do. Some of them may never happen or I may change my mind once I try them but it will be fun to start working on the list.

1. Spend more time with my Husband, my Daughters, my new Grandson, my family and my friends. There never seems to be enough time and now I'm hoping there will be.
2. Exercise more regularly - weight lifting and  walking.
3. Sell our house and move. We don't know where but exploring the possibilities will be a big part of the agenda for the next few years.
4. Improve my piano playing skills. I've taken lessons for the last several years and I am looking forward to having more time to practice.
5. Blogging - I want to get to the point where I blog about interesting things every day. I want to improve my writing and blogging skills and I think the best way to do that is to just do it regularly. I also want to redesign my blog and explore some of the technology I've gotten behind on since I started my current job.
6. Travel - I'm looking forward to taking some long trips both within the US and abroad. Duke and I have talked about spending several months in Spain or Portugal or Australia or any of a whole list of other places. The idea is that if we rented a place and really explored an area then friends and family could come visit while we were there.
7. Gardening - This is one of those things I've always thought I would like to do more of. We shall see.
8. Hiking - My goal is to do at least one long hike a week.
9. Financial Planning - I'm hoping to do what it takes to complete the practical experience for my Certified Financial Planning certification. I'm still exploring how I will do this and then there is the question of how I will use the CFP once I get it. I've got lots of ideas to explore.
10. Guitar - I keep thinking I'd like to start taking guitar lessons again.
11. Read - I love to read.
12. Programming - I haven't done it in many years but my degree is in Computer Science and for a long time I've been intrigued with the idea of working on an open source project.

So that's it! My overarching goal is To live,To love, To learn, To be useful and most of all To be interesting. I'm planning to remake this blog into a chronicle of my journey into the rest of my life.

Comments

[Marion]

1.

Thanks Joe. I always enjoy your comments. Actually I am 54 so I think I'm about the right age to retire :-) And who knows I might find something I really want to do and go back to work. This might not be a permanent thing.

[Joe]

2.

Retire? You're way too young to retire! I'm sort of jealous. I was out of work for a year and I got to spend a lot of time with my family. It was an awesome year! Stay cool and best of luck!