Retirement?

As a young worker starting his career, I wondered about retirement and how to prepare for it.  I was 23.  My dad was facing retirement and I worried about him. I didn’t dwell on this, but all prospective hirers provided competitive benefit programs for me to consider. Over time, I didn’t worry about the far off years too much. I knew the benefits were well thought out and would protect me and add to my social security benefits.


That was 1965. Skip forward to 2019.  I'm retired now. I worked for several career employers and eventually opened my own consulting firm. Ran that for 20+ years. Self-employed, really, and winced over paying double for social security and Medicare. But I did it. And I always knew those two programs were my ace in the hole.


Politicians like to shake our confidence in government programs to earn votes.  I don’t listen to them. I vote for the best, most thoughtful candidate. I pay attention always to news about social security and Medicare. I know when politicians are trying to make changes. And they are defeated in such shenanigans.


Now that I’m retired, my company benefits (income) were awarded to my spouse in a divorce. I still receive insurance benefits, but that’s it. I live on social security and rely heavily on Medicare. Both are doing well by me.  I have no complaints.  Life’s experience is on me and I’ve learned to live on little. It’s OK.


Besides, the expensive extras in lifestyle have been mostly eliminated. Much of them due to health concerns and limited mobility.


Downsizing taught me a lot of things. Mainly, I learned that the little things in life are vastly more important than the visible consumption stuff. Truth is, I enjoy reading, listening to my music, relating with people, being active in worthwhile causes and keeping my brain keen.  


Interacting with people in need makes my life full. My challenges are: keeping up with technology and fixing it when it doesn’t work (Rocky does this for me!); drivers who don’t pay attention to others on the road and display incredible selfishness; lack of collaboration among too many people who expect a lot from others but don’t contribute their fair share.


When I hear someone complain, I wonder how much of the problem is of their own doing? I also wonder, if they are skipping over the marvelous fruits of life just sitting there waiting to be noticed?

I think most of us could use some retraining on dealing with silence and noticing the value of what we ignore. The universe is both large and small. The small is very accessible.

Make good use of it.


December 13, 2019