Everyone wants to know what it’s like to be retired, and this natural curiosity leads to some interesting conversations.  It’s unlike any other experience I’ve had in my life.  Time is now all mine, and what I do with it is solely my decision.  I can do anything from take a nap to run a marathon.  I lose track of the time and often get my days confused.  Is this because I’m getting senile or just relaxed?

Subtract your job from your life and that equals retirement.  It’s not like a vacation, where you have a limited amount of time before you go back to work, and the idea of going  back to work is always in the back of your mind.  I’ve been retired for seven months now, and still search my mind daily for work-related responsibilities.  It’s like driving to the airport and trying to remember what you forgot to pack.  There’s something missing, but you’re not sure what it is?  This exercise occurs regularly and the results are always the same.  I’m not missing the job – It’s the job itself that’s missing!

I was never able to take a two-week vacation from work.  Many people claim that it takes at least that long to unwind from job-related stress, so I can safely say that I was never relaxed on vacation.  I was always checking e-mail, making phone calls, and taking mental notes on what needed to be done when I got back to the office.   At least in the days before smart phones, you weren’t bombarded by work messages 24 hours a day.  You would check your voice mail when you got back and either find a number of unexpected problems, or breathe a sigh of relief that you somehow got away unscathed.  I still feel like 7 months of messages and e-mails have piled up in my voicemail and work computer, while I’ve been away on retirement.  I wonder if I’ll ever get over this feeling?

The good news is that I won’t be responding to these work requests – ever!  They are now someone else’s responsibility, and I feel good that I’ve made it possible for someone else to make a decent living.  I also feel a strong sense of satisfaction knowing that I was able to navigate through the minefield of the workforce, and make enough right moves to be able to retire.  I saved enough money, despite the ups and downs of the economy, to earn this life of leisure.  I also showed loyalty to my employer to be rewarded with a lifetime pension, and worked enough hours and lived long enough to claim Social Security.  I played the game right and so far I’m winning.

My conversation last night about retirement was with two friends in their mid-twenties.  I was surprised how focused they were on saving for the future.  It was not until my mid-thirties that I began to save.  There were no matching 401k plans back then, or company-sponsored seminars designed to encourage you to save for retirement.  I can’t remember how it all came together, but the first 15 years of my career was spent living from paycheck to paycheck.  Social Security was naturally being withdrawn from these checks, but there were no opportunities for pre-tax contributions to a retirement fund.  If there was anything to save, I had to take it to the bank and put it in a separate account.  That wasn’t happening.

Finally I went to work for a company that offered benefits, and I stayed with them for 20 years.  New technology allowed payroll deduction and automatic deposit.  Saving became easier because you could stash it away before you could ever spend it.  I funneled every dollar I could into a 401k plan, diverted dollars to savings, and took advantage of a newly instituted matching program and stock purchase plans that the company offered.  Once I got into the habit of saving, I began to make up for lost time.   At one point, more than half of my net monthly income was in various types of investment plans.

As my income levels increased, I got a letter saying that I was vested in the company pension program.  I had no idea how important that piece of information would effect my retirement income.  Companies today rarely offer these lifetime pension plans.  At best, they offer a matching 401k and a retirement payout once you’re vested and leave the company.  I also invested heavily in the company stock purchase plan, and began to receive company stock as part of my compensation.  They paid-off handsomely, but these options were accelerated and I was eventually forced to cash-out.  Some of these dollars went into an IRA, but most went to pay bills and are now long gone.

As our discussion from last night continued, we all agreed that there is no excuse for not taking advantage of payroll deducted savings opportunities.  Saving for retirement should be just like paying your bills.  Each month you make payments for utilities, housing, cars, medical care, and education.  Retirement should be considered one of those bills.  Chances are high that your company does not offer a lifetime pension based on years of service.  In today’s fast-changing world, you can stay in the same office and work for three different companies in a ten-year span, or move from job-to-job for more income and benefits.  In either case, there are few rewards for loyalty.  However, you can be loyal to your future.  If you “pay your retirement bills today, you’ll be able to pay your bills in retirement!”