I’m not sure I can really retire until my wife is finally able to join me. However, the problem is that I’ll be over 70 when that happens and four years will have gone by. Precious years at my age. It’s tough when your working wife is frustrated with work and yet is not eligible for Social Security or Medicare. Unfortunately, it would cost a fortune for her medical insurance alone. It will probably somehow work out. 

The last five years of my career were the toughest. You can almost see the finish line, but there are so many minefields in the way. I was no longer a boss and making less money than in my prime, but I had time to practice for retirement. Supervisors began to experiment with organizational plans that I had seen fail too many times. Commission structures were changed that resulted in nothing but turnover. People were put in positions that they were simply not qualified to handle. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and I knew that five years from now it would suddenly be discovered that this was clearly the wrong direction. The remarkable thing was the inevitable fact that these inept leaders would soon be promoted to even greater corporate heights. 

I can feel my wife’s pain as she’s forced to deal with this stage of her career. I also feel a sense of guilt and helplessness as I watch from the sidelines. The last two years for her have been filled with accomplishment and satisfaction, but recent months have been more challenging. When mamas not happy…nobody’s happy. This should be the time of year when you’re looking ahead to new opportunities. I, too, was missing this key motivator in my last few years of employment. Instead, it was like facing another mountain that was in the way to a comfortable retirement. 

I guess we’ll see what the New Year brings as I head into my third year of retirement. I stopped climbing the corporate ladder long before my final decade of work. I used the time to work out a plan on how to constructively spend my leisurely years ahead. After all those years of working, it would take practice to fill the holes that striving for advancement once filled. I searched for hobbies and interests in trying to reinvent myself for the times ahead. I also selfishly thought that the only variable would be me and keeping myself content. I figured that I would be happy with retirement, while my wife was content with her career. However, if she becomes disenchanted with her career, I might need to reevaluate my retirement plan.