The Reality Of Half Retirement
The Reality of Half Retirement
I’m a big fan of proof of concept. It is easy for content producers to spout off all sorts of numbers and advice, but they have to back it up with some data. Maybe that has to do with sharing numbers. Maybe investment strategies. Today I would like to do something different. I would like to help you understand the reality of half retirement.
I thought I would share with you today’s schedule. Monday and Friday are my favorite days because I have most of the day to do as I please. Although Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are also low stress, I have a number of work meetings that keep me occupied for a portion of the time.
Morning
The reality of half retirement is that I still get up early. About 4:45 am most mornings. I turn on the tea kettle, plop down on the couch, catch up with social media, make sure my blog posted correctly, and read for a few minutes. I am currently reading Blood Of The Fold by Terry Goodkind. I read predominantly science fiction, and work my way through about one book a week. I prefer multi book series if possible. The more the better.
AT 5:45 am my wife wakes up, and she does an exercise video while I work out on the step machine for 30 minutes. Then it is breakfast and a shower. This morning my son was sleeping in, but my daughter started camp. I helped her with her lunch, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and by 8:00 am my daughter and I were walking towards camp.
Her camp is about 3/4 of a mile away. After dropping her off, I walked home and listened to a few minutes of one of my favorite podcasts. I arrived home in just enough time to read for thirty minutes before hopping on a phone meeting with the organizer of a future personal finance conference.
We chatted for almost an hour and a half. I ate a quick snack, and then it was back outside to enjoy the weather and walk to the bank.
Noonish
By 11:00 am I was on my way to the bank. I could have driven, but it was such a beautiful morning, I couldn’t resist. Add in another 1.5-2.0 miles worth of steps to the tally. By the time I arrived home at noon I was up to almost 14K steps.
I gobbled down lunch and spent the next hour mentally preparing for a number of keynote talks I will be giving in the future. Some could call this work, but for me it’s more about passion. I take on these gigs and prepare extensively not for the cash, but for the pure joy of telling my stories to an audience. Whether about personal finance or medicine, there is something magical about giving a talk in front of a big audience.
Afternoon/Work Time?
Every weekday should include at least some traditional work. Although my hospice meetings start tomorrow, I like to do an hour of prep activities for my upcoming meetings. I do this every Monday. It takes about an hour, and is mostly mindless computer work. It is neither joyful nor abysmal. It just is.
By 2pm, I am ready to sit down and write this blog post. It will probably take me in the range of thirty to forty five minutes. I will just get a quick rough draft down first, and then spend another fifteen minutes editing later in the day.
The reality of half retirement is that nothing I do has to be particularly stressful. Only if I want it to be.
As I finish up this post, I’ll be running out to pick my daughter back up from camp. She finishes at 3:15 pm. We tend to meander a little, but will probably crash through the front doors sometime around 3:45 pm.
I might read, hang out with the kids, or start cooking dinner. My wife is the true chef. I do as much of the prep work as possible to be ready for the heavy cooking that starts when she gets off of work at 5 pm.
I might crack a beer.
Evening
After dinner, my wife and I like to take a few mile walk alone. We always invite the kids, but they never want to come. We wander down by the University campus and east towards the trail on the lake. We talk. Worry about the kids, and usually have a pretty good sweat worked up by the time we get home.
I can’t believe that it is 7:00 PM already. We turn on the TV and watch a show with the kids, or read, or maybe play a board game.
Before I know it, it is 10:00 pm and I am making my way upstairs to go to bed.
Final Thoughts
There you have it. The reality of half retirement. Lots of reading and walking. Time with my wife and kids. Projects that I choose for myself whether I will make money or not. A little bit of bonafide work here and there.
And that’s it.
This is not unlike my full retired life, in scope and tempo. I wake a little later 7:30 am, live my life to maybe 12:30 am. I don’t have anything I HAVE to do but plenty to do. My oldest is gone to grad school and my youngest fully engaged in her life and her business while attending college but she still lives at home so we haven’t quite made empty nester. Soon enough that will come. I spend a lot of time researching and writing about finance issues from a “fully retired” perspective. I have time to workout lately twice a day since all I do is walk 5 feet into my well appointed gym. I usually pray while engaged in exercise. I don’t have a goal like weight loss so my attention while I pray turns to how my body feels, the tensions, the breathing, the post athletic response to exercise like BP pulse breathing nature etc. I’m nothing if not a physiology geek which is an extension of my career. I’m pretty anal about my diet choosing to live a carb free life, which has made my body enzymatic ally become efficient at living off consumed fat and protein, and the way you make your ATP is more efficient than using glucose as a substrate, you become less acidotic to exercise, expire less CO2 and need to expire less CO2. My glucose is made by my liver and I make a normal amount. My A1c is 5.3.
Notice in either o f our lives spending money hardly enters in. I do what I want, when I want, am fulfilled by what I do and almost none of it “costs” me a penny. I live on some acreage trimmed a pastoral and across the street is 100 acres of cattle and goats, to the south a blueberry farm. Been to Europe, the Far East, hither and yon, but I like where I’m at best of all.
You are totally right. Money spending has little to do with most of it.
That sounds like a nice relaxing life. You have a good mix of activities. My life is very similar. But my son will be free most of the summer. We’ll need to figure out some ways to keep him busy. Otherwise, he’ll be on screen all day long. I enjoy SF too, but haven’t found good new books lately. Currently, I’m waiting for the latest Expanse series book from the library.
As the kids get older you spend less time worrying about there physical needs. I love to find an SF author who does long multibook series and then dig in.
You didn’t talk about the “work” days!
I too am off Monday and Friday and love it. Yesterday for example after getting the kids to school my wife and I worked out. Then I went for a hike in between running errands.
Somewhere in there I fed the kids and was able to get some online work done for the rental side hustle. Low pressure. It’s pretty good.
Then on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I’m back to wake up – commute – office toil- commute- eat-collapse routine.
This half retirement is definitely my proof of concept.
It’s a very pleasant way to live. You might not be at FI yet, but why not do this and work longer?
I am a little more than half retired but have more unpaid volunteer work than you, so, on balance probably equally busy. Kids are grown and gone so I have that time free too. But unlike you only our morning runs are scheduled. Everything else I do is pretty random. No set meal times, work times or play times. I couldn’t even guess what next week will look like and whether I’ll work any or not. For sure there will be lots of tennis. But as for work, it just depends on if I feel like it. But today and tomorrow I’m working 8 hour days and living in an out of town hotel. I like the variety of no schedule and not knowing for sure where I’ll be next.
It’s nice to run fast and free and not worry about an exact schedule.
Half retired for the last 6 months (age 43). Amazing how the 4 or 5 day “weekends” just seem to evaporate! Loving the “chapter 2” of my career (office only gyne) but I am never particularly excited when the alarm rings on Tuesday morning (ie, I am not “bored” and desperate to get back to work).
This month my husband FULLY retires from a 37 year career as a pelvic floor surgeon. It is surreal! Yesterday was his last office, and only 2 OR days to go. He is excited to never again have to do a speculum exam, or a pessary change! Currently he is mowing the lawn. We’ve joined a local indoor climbing gym. We go for 10k walks routinely. He’s been drumming like crazy and watching online tutorials. We leave for a trip to Mexico tomorrow. Everyone keeps asking “what are you going to do now?”- answer: live!! 🙂
-Kristina
Maybe the better question is what aren’t you going to do? Work?
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