Packin' It In

Emotional readiness for retirement depends on what interests you have apart from career and family.

I'm sure retirement must be very hard for people whose paid work took up all their energy, so much so that they lost themselves in the process. It's that much easier for those of us who frankly resented how much time earning a living consumed, and who couldn't wait to be let out of harness to get on with our real lives.

Some people remember long-ago hobbies they were forced to abandon. Others take up tertiary study, either for a new career or for personal interest. The luckiest can combine these elements to find themselves happier and more fulfilled than they've ever been before.

What's it looking like for you?

A few more years for me, I think. Then picking up on the guitar again, maybe even going to lutherie school. Or maybe taking up with a community theater group.

And yourself?

questioneverything wrote:And yourself?

My main career (magazine and newspaper editor) was swallowed up when the internet invaded workplaces to the extent that any piece of writing now passes through considerably less scrutiny, hence the many grammatical errors, libels etc. that get through.

My last paid gig was in 2011, so I'd already fled the scene when https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3pyVav2c7I&t=4s showed just how few people comprised the admin, advertising, editorial, art and photographic departments when the end came. I was definitely ill-prepared financially, part of the adventure I'm having on Planet Earth.

There had been a much earlier time, at a newspaper on the other side of the world, when I hated having to work while I was bursting with books and other things I wanted to write. Reading and writing have been my mainstays since primary school, so it's like What lockdown? while my husband seems okay queueing for hours to keep us fed.

Guitar practice and a theatre group sound like a good basis for retirement. It would also be nice if you stuck around on UF to let us know how you're doing, and join in as many or as few conversations as you choose.