We’ve figured out how we’ll spend our days and our money. And hopefully we have our health. But it’s also true that once you pull the trigger on retirement, there are some things you only come to know from experience.
Prior to retirement, I’d have said there was little chance we’d own a second home in retirement. Been there, done that. Our retirement cabin had been a second home for 7 years before we retired, which we used for weekend escapes and supplemental rental income.
A week before I retired, I received a phone call from a longtime friend who was the President of an international aluminum recycling company. We’d interacted frequently over my years of work, and I suspected his call was a congratulatory call on my upcoming retirement.
My wife and I both knew we wanted to spend more time doing charity work in retirement. What we never expected, however, was the reality that actually RUNNING a charity would become one of our Purposes in retirement.
I had heard from many retirees that they didn’t think much about money once they had retired, but I never expected it to be true for me. Fortunately, this is one area where retirement is nothing like I thought it would be.