Another week of retirement and the adjustment continues. I filled our municipality provided garbage bin this week, from the accumulation of junk collected over almost forty years. If I can do this every garbage day, the basement should be cleaned out in about ten years. Our supper club met on the weekend and we toasted my retirement. My wife is now the only member still employed. These folks are role models for me. Some are newly retired in the last couple of years and have paved the path for me. The daily exercise routine is probably the most important activity I’m trying to emulate. I do admit I am feeling better and my energy levels are ramping up.
A few more items have come off the to do list this week. One of those was removing a pile of brush from the yard. This was a very educational experience. I learned just how out of shape I am. That is what sitting in front of a screen as a remote worker for almost fourteen years does to you. Up in the morning, coffee, open the laptop and off we go! At the end of the day, especially during the winter months, I would close up shop, eat supper and binge watch TV until it was time to turn in. I may be exaggerating a bit, but this is really not that far from reality. I lived a very unhealthy lifestyle. One of my retirement goals is to fix this.
The true adventure to early retirement started with a ten-year plan, although the dream really began many years before. As the dreamer in the family, I am the idea man. The initial plan was to get out of high school, get a job with the government road crew and collect my pension in 30 years. Turns out I had a bit more ambition than I gave myself credit for. The years went by and a few not so great jobs got me to thinking that I might be able to make something of myself after all. A job with a government crown corporation in the early years was very enlightening. It was the first time I worked in an environment where the primary objective was to do as little work as possible. Sorry, but I was not raised that way. I was a casual worker, which meant I could be called in any day of the work week to fill in at any position. Management and I worked out a pretty good system. They would call and I would come, no questions asked. It didn’t matter what the job was, or the pay grade. I showed up and went to work. This work ethic paid off in the end. The plant was going through a major refit and they hired me on to work on the renovation project. As I reflect back, that was a definite turning point. Before long, I was on to bigger and better things.
Our first attempt at building our “financial future” came long before we were ready for it. As a young family in the eighties, we lived like most, paycheck to paycheck and, trust me, there was not much left after the necessities were looked after. More on this next time. I hope you can join me.
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