Decluttering and Christmas

I just sent an email to my niece with a few new items to add to my Christmas list. The older I get, the harder I find it is to identify what I need/want. If you are a collector like I am, then over the years you have accummulated way more "stuff" than you could ever use. Whether it is a favourite article of clothing you can't bear to part with, or a cake plate a favourite aunt gave you and you never use but have a sentimental attachment to.....if you are like me, you have probably amassed a ton of stuff.

It is pretty natural to reach a point where you say, Enough is ENOUGH! Over the last few years, I've been identifying what I call perishables as the gifts I want. This could be bubble bath, a gift certificate to the movies or a favourite restaurant, cut flowers, etc. Of course, the other option, which I think is becoming pretty popular these days, is to ask that the gift giver, donate the value of a gift to your favourite charity. Another great idea.

The bottom line is that we tend to be such big consumers of goods that we end up by 60 with far more possessions than we could ever make use of. Reference my earlier post about Decluttering and Collecting, I have been trying to part with things - some go to the local St. Vincent de Paul, some go to a consignment shop and some just go into the garbage. I must admit it does feel good to lighten the load. So....when it comes to Christmas, think perishables and that way, you'll at least enter the new year without a whole hoard of new things to find a home for!

Commitment versus Freedom in Retirement

A friend dropped by for coffee yesterday and we talked about her husband's retirement. He really enjoyed his work and in his first year of retirement he took on a teaching project at a nearby university. She says one of his challenges in retirement is managing his time. He hates routine so just lets the days slip by doing whatever he feels like doing - that, of course, is how some people define retirement! However, as a deadline related to work approaches, he becomes a little stressed as he has to gear up to get the work done on time.

She is a very organized person and says that he really needs to establish a routine so that he doesn't fritter all his time away. We got into a discussion about the need to find some balance between making commitments in retirement and leaving our schedule wide open. Personality is a pretty important element in determining what this balance might look like. On the one hand, she likes her week to be well organized, and she has several fixed time commitments. This means that she uses her "free" time more efficiently since she knows her days are not totally open ended. At the end of the week she can clearly identify what she accomplished. On the other hand, he prefers open ended days and ends up being stressed out about locked in commitments that result in lots of last minute pressure to produce and perform. I suspect that at the end of the week, he is probably pretty comfortable with whatever he has done, regardless of how much or how little.

So what's it going to be for you? I struggle with this issue since I'm anti routine but also like to feel that I am accomplishing something every day. I suspect that for some people, it takes quite a long time to figure out just what the balance should be between making commitments, being organized and focused and yet leaving enough free time to be spontaneous. Bottom line: it really is a very personal issue. What works for one, won't necessarily work for the other. Advice: get a handle on this issue before you retire so that you can go through the transition, having taken into account your own personality traits.

Christmas Giving

It's that time of the year again and I've begun decorating the house for the holidays and shopping for gifts. I'm reminded of the years just after I took early retirement from my high paying job in the government in the mid-90s in order to go back to school. I went from alot of income to no predictable income. I did have a few contracts while I was at school but essentially I had to be very frugal. More about that in future posts.

As the first Christmas approached, I had no idea what I would do about gifts as my budget for gifts had to go from several hundred dollars (or more) to a few hundred dollars. I decided that I would give almost everyone antique Christmas ornaments so I began attending auctions and visiting antique shops looking for pretty antique ornaments at as low a cost as possible. I also searched out the cheapest but nicest boxes and gold ribbon I could find. Along with a bottle of gold paint for the plain brown boxes, I proceeded to decorate the boxes and then wrap up my ornaments, one to a box. I had also bought 2 box lots of cups and saucers at an auction for $60 in total(60 cups and saucers in all, that's $1 each, with at least 10 really nice ones that weren't damaged)and voila! I had several lovely gifts, all in their gold trimmed boxes wrapped up with gold ribbon. I have to say that I really enjoyed both finding the gifts and being creative with the gift boxes/wrapping. And in some ways the very best thing of all was discovering the following year that someone who received one of my gift boxes, actually used the box as a Christmas decoration!!!!

So....the moral of the story is this. Christmas may be about giving but it doesnt' have to involve spending thousands or even hundreds of dollars. It really is the thought that counts; and in the process of being frugal, we may even find pleasure and a sense of accomplishment for meeting the challenge of giving, without going into debt that returns to haunt us in the New Year.