Hard to believe it’s been a month since I walked out the schoolhouse doors for the final time. I definitely haven’t been bored!
I have truly enjoyed having the luxury of time to simply exhale and attend to life’s surprises without the stress of having to figure out how to coordinate house/car repairs with work schedules.
I’m still trying to find my retirement rhythm. Hubby’s a couple of months ahead of me on that front and has developed a schedule that works for him. This doesn’t necessarily work for me, so there’s been a lot of comprise to get to a workable schedule that suits both of us. It’s funny how some things haven’t changed. I still spend Sunday mornings doing my planning for the coming week (currently questioning if I need to move down to a smaller planner) and Friday night is still “date night” at our favorite restaurant.
Lingering COVID concerns, inflation, gas prices, weather, equipment availability and business closures have definitely impacted some of the activities we thought we’d be enjoying right now. As mentioned previously, we’re still going ahead with travel that was already planned. Fortunately, the flights on my trip last week to Oklahoma weren’t canceled. The biggest issue seems to be a lack of staffing versus a lot of pent up demand for travel services. My best advice: be patient, go early to events/restaurants if you can and lower your expectations when it comes to hotels. COVID has definitely changed things.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned the past month is that regardless of what the stock market does and when my paychecks finally stop, we will be okay. Money is like a river – it flows in and out of your life. Sometimes the flow is strong and sometimes it trickles. We are at a point where the flow has lessened and we will see greater outflows than inflows for a period of time. That’s okay. We planned for this. This is part of the leap of faith that I mentioned in earlier retirement posts that I had to learn how to make. Still a work in progress when it comes to this. Wish me luck!
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