Feeling Lazy

I'm using the picture that I posted in my last post as a screen saver. I look at it often as I sit here in my office. I think my 3 weeks in Malawi have somehow slowed me down. Ever since we returned to Ottawa, I find that I'm sleepy alot. I'm calling it Malawi Malaise. It was summer when we were there; it was hot, humid and sunny most days. In general, we loved the fact it was like summer in Ottawa. At night, however, we found it hard to sleep under our mosquito nets as it didn't cool off much, there is no air conditioning, often not even a fan, and we were sleeping in strange beds. Maybe I'm just making up for lost sleep.

I was talking with a friend in Toronto by phone recently and explained to her that although I seem to have lots of energy in the morning, by early afternoon I just feel sort of lazy. Not that this phenomenon is all that new. I've always had a low point after lunch where my ability to initiate anything other than perhaps a shopping trip is almost non-existent. She says she feels the same way. We compared notes and agreed that without intense deadlines and pressures to force us to be productive, we lean towards lazy. I reflect on this often as I think about what retirement from work is really like for people and also what it's going to be like for me. Don't get me wrong. I really like having control over my time, with a tendency to work in the morning and goof off in the afternoon. But some days I feel that I just let the time slip through my fingers. What if I wasn't working any more at all. Would I do even less each day?

Compared to the challenges some people face in life, I know that these are pretty nice issues to have to work through. And I think it's good for me as a retirement planner to be facing some of the same challenges some retirees face as they transition from a life of full time work or even part time work into full retirement. I haven't got it all worked out for myself yet, but if I'd only take the advice I give to others, I'm sure I'd find the answer!

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.

How Strong is Your Work Ethic?

I've been semi-retired for about 2 years and it has taken me almost that long to stop feeling guilty when I take a day or even an afternoon "off". Most weeks days, I do some work in my office. On slow days, I might be "free" by mid-morning. There are tons of things I like to do with "free" time but it is amazing how guilty I feel, especially if I let this time slip away, without actually accomplishing anything.

I think one of the hardest things for some retirees to adjust to when they first retire is actually allowing themselves to just goof around, take it easy, relax. The Protestant work ethic is alive and well in Canada and for many of us, it doesn't disappear once paid work is left behind. If you are someone who thrives on challenges, accomplishments, contributing, etc., then it may be important in the early stages of retirement to make sure that some time is allocated to productive activity. One of the challenges in fact in retirement is figuring out how you are going to define "productive" activity into the future. For some, continuing to work for some kind of income may be the answer. I feel quite good on a day when I have completed some kind of significant work task; then I feel that I've earned the rest of the day off.

The good news is that even someone who is quite driven can, over time, adjust to the notion that it isn't necessary to be productive all the time. It's taken 2 years but I now find that I can take a week day "off" from my work, and guess what, I feel just fine about it. I've given myself permission to do whatever I want on that day. It's a great place to get to.