TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2022 - PLANNING CONTINUED

 TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2022 - PLANNING CONTINUED

So yesterday I started this week looking at infrastructure and planning.  Where are you at and where are you going?  Do you have a plan?  Is it only your plan or does your spouse (or children/others) work with you?

What infrastructure do you need to change?  Do you need more coursework?  Do you need to take a class or get a certification?  Do you need to get healthier?  Do you need to save money?  Do you need to learn a hobby - a pastime that you can do for the rest of your life?  

Do you need to get good (or excellent) recommendations from your current job to get an advancement or a new job in a new location?

How close are you to retirement?  What infrastructure/planning do you need for retirement?  Are you going to “downsize” your home?  Move into an apartment or condo where you don’t have to mow lawn or shovel snow?  Move to be closer to your children or grandchildren? 

MY RETIREMENT

I had vague plans for retirement.  I heard friends say “You’ll know when it is time to retire”.  I loved my teaching.  I think I was a good (maybe great) teacher.  I think my seven years in a high school classroom helped me relate to students. I had dumb humor (sometimes called “Dad Jokes”). I got to know my students by name.  I took part in campus events (fraternity advisor, pep band advisor and player, faculty mentor, and even taking a turn in the dunk tank).  My last position as a senior lecturer at the University of Texas was different.  I wasn’t the “sage on the stage”, or “the guide who comes alongside, “just” a teacher. 

I know some people who retired too soon and some who stayed on long after they should have retired.  There was a professor who died on campus who was in his 80s.  

Retirement is considered a “take it easy” time.  Enjoy life!!  (As for me, I did enjoy my work).  A friend told me a story about a single guy who takes a week's vacation - who didn’t have any hobbies, didn’t have the desire to travel to some exotic place and spend money - just because he could.  After three days off, he returned to work.  He was bored!!

Now that I’m single - living on my own.  I do volunteer, I do have some hobbies (bridge and granny basketball), but I like work!!

MY RETIREMENT PLANS

I had plans for retirement.  We were going to travel.  I hadn’t been to Alaska (I’d been to all the other states).  I haven’t been to many of the major United States National Parks.  I haven’t been to the Grand Canyon, to Yosemite, to Glacier, to the Utah parks.  

I thought we could get involved with the seniors in the community - find a senior center and play games (bridge, euchre, and more).  We’d go to a recreation center and walk - maybe go swimming more.  Yup - I had it planned out.

But - my plans didn’t correspond with my wife’s plans.  And, I hadn’t communicated my plans well.  

I was “in the way”.  I was a “Frank Buxton”.  (Aside, Frank was a neighbor growing up, who retired and within a year had a heart attack and died.  To me, Frank retired and sat on the couch, snacked, watched TV, and … died). I told that story to my students.  I wasn’t going to be that way.  I was going to be active.  And, yet, I became that way.

We did one very nice trip - cruising down the Rhine River in Germany.  With my German heritage, I was excited to visit the area.  (My previous trips to Germany were passing through the Frankfurt airport and on to Belarus or Kazakhstan.  I did a trip to Austria (and I’d love to go back).

So, I was bored and tried three jobs in my first year.  A seasonal hire for Christmas at a department store, a substitute teacher in a high school, and a house sitter for a new home builder.  And, by April of my first year of retirement, I had a major health issue and major surgery (the surgeon said ‘I was lucky to be alive). 

I had made retirement plans - but I hadn’t really made definite plans.  I hadn’t communicated my plans to my wife.  And, I lost out.

MORE ON RETIREMENT /PLANNING

I have been working at an independent living retirement center.  This has expanded into some work at the Assisted Living facility and the Memory Care Unit.  (This same operation also runs a skilled nursing facility).  

Did these people plan on ending their days in a communal living center?  Did they plan on having an apartment with neighbors who were similar?  Did they plan on having activities - like bingo, choir, exercise, and social gatherings?  Did they plan on aging gracefully and dying?

They are ALL going to die.  I am going to die.  You are going to die.  All of us are going to die!!

That’s the way it happens.  We are born, we live, and we die.

Some die earlier than others.  Maybe these people died in a car crash, maybe with a disease, maybe in war or other conflicts.  

My takeaways from today: (1) you need to play for retirement, (2) you need to plan on dying; and (3) you need to plan your senior years and not just let “things” happen!!!

LOVE WINS!

Karen White ®
Tuesday, August 8, 2022