What do I mean by pre-retirement?
Pre-retirement, that stage I found myself in that was between still working full-time and being fully retired. I was out of for work for almost a year and wondering what to do with myself. Major projects were being put on hold and jobs that I wanted weren’t readily available. So, after 30 plus years of constantly working full-time, with finishing a college education thrown in, and being 50 years old, I was questioning if I wanted to work for another company and have set schedule.
A major factor I had to take into consideration was, did I have enough put away to continue to pay bills, mortgage etc. Turns out if I wanted to live like an 18th century homesteader I could probably get by. I did not want to raise chickens in my yard and start growing crops. The answer then was a hard No. Plus, I wanted to do some kind of work but would prefer to be my own boss.
It was time for tremendous changes. To continue on I had to decide, what to do? Did I have the skills? How could I acquire any skills? And a laundry list of other decisions. Add into that, a year off plus more than a few years spent at a desk job, and other factors I’ll discuss some other time, had allowed me to give myself enough extra pounds so that calling my wardrobe tight would be polite.
How do I plan to affect these changes? That will be the purpose and direction my writings, how to make substantial changes to your life at 50. Or use this information to start preparing much earlier for a pre-retired life.
When it came time for me to retire from the Army after 22 years of service, I was submitting my resume to civilian companies, wondering how it was going to be working in the civilian world, and if I would be able to handle the transition. My wife looked at me one night and said, "dude, retire. You always say the problem with our society is there are no more stay at home parents. We will figure out the money and make it work". Scariest decision I ever made, but somehow it works and I am able to be around for practices, homework and placement tests for high schools!
Scariest decision I ever made. That's a pretty accurate statement. After a lifetime of working and schedules now your time is your own, and the responsibilities are still there. The bills don't stop and having livestock in the yard just doesn't seem feasible. But all the extras that you can ow experience do make it worth it.
Thanks for the comment.