I haven’t been writing much this week because my wife made the decision to take a break from work. It was a sudden decision, but a great one. There’s a narrow window when she doesn’t have students or health plan surveys. Summer moves quick here in Rhode Island… if you blink you’ll miss it.
My wife is having a lot of fun I want to be a part of it… but only a bit. I want to be around, but I also want to give her space. So far it’s working out well.
We’ve put a good amount into the local restaurant economy. It’s certainly not financially ideal, but it’s good for us now.
I’ve often wondered what it would be like if my wife really retired. I could never imagine her doing nothing… it’s just not her personality. Though this week has been different. She’s enjoying reading a book by the ocean. And why not enjoy that?
This is interesting… in a very good way. I’m learning more about what I want out of “retirement”, but also what she might want. And it might all change tomorrow, because, as we say in our house, “There are no rules.” (That’s usually about vacation time. We certainly have rules as the kids can attest to. We just question the value of each rule.)
This is a small sample size. If someone tried to assess my views about things after a couple of days, I’d say they are nuts. But a small sample size is better than no data at all, right?
So I learned a couple of things this week. One of them is that retirement can get expensive IF we continue to feed the local restaurant economy. (We can also game the system due to numerous deals for locals.) The other is that you can (should?!?!) make things up as you go along.
As much as I like to think I can predict the future, no one (even me) knows what tomorrow may bring. And sometimes it’s great to know that you don’t know.
What’s one thing that you didn’t know about retirement? Let me know in the comments.
My biggest surprise is not missing my old job, ever, at all. Because I liked what I did I thought I might miss the celebrity part of being the public face of a household name corporation. I thought I’d feel out of the loop and less significant. However because I consult a few hours a week with the same companies I used to work with it feels about the same, but with virtually zero stress. I did not know how having one foot in my old world and one in my new retired one would feel, but for four years now it has worked perfectly.
My wife should try a short sabbatical too. She likes to keep busy and I often wonder if early retirement is really right for her. We probably will spend more on local restaurants too. There are so many places we want to try, but haven’t yet. Enjoy the mini retirement.
Will she go back to work? :)