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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I see posters who say they are going to work until they die, or retire and work PT retail or consulting, travel more, or volunteer more. 
If you are retired, what expectations did you have ahead of retirement and what is your life actually like today?

DH and I retired early in our 50s after some health scares, as well as seeing friends die from heart attacks, cancer, etc. We both took packages and we sold our vacation home to pay off our primary mortgage.

My expectation: We would continue to work in some capacity - consulting, sitting on boards, etc, as well as volunteer and travel. I also had ambitious fitness goals - marathons! triathlons!

Reality: I planned to take six months off to recharge. Six months turned into a year. One year turned into three. I have no interest in ever working again. DH is the same. I don't know if it is just total burnout on corporate life, but neither one of us can bear the thought of another Zoom call or calendar invite. The same feeling applies to volunteering and fitness - I don't want to HAVE to do anything, including a volunteer shift at the museum. I exercise daily for the enjoyment of it, not to reach some goal. Basically, the whole "busyness" and goal-oriented portion of my identity is GONE, which is rather shocking to me. My 30 or 40-year-old self would be horrified by this person, and I assumed I'd die of boredom. But I'm pretty content.

What do we do? Right now we're in sandwich generation mode, with 1 elderly parent needing support, 1 kid still at home, and some extended family needing help (job search, addiction recovery). I feel grateful to have the bandwidth to help with that without also juggling a job. I consider that my volunteer time. I'm enjoying the monotony of everyday things, like cooking or walking the dog or grocery shopping, without being in a rush. We've cut back on housecleaners and gardeners and handymen so we are doing all that ourselves.

I think/hope we'll enter "phase 2" of retirement in a few years after the last child is flown, the parent and dog pass away and we can travel more. But if we don't get beyond phase 1, that's okay too.

For those who have BTDT, what does your retirement look like? Is it what you expected?

[/quote]
After one year, I'm still in phase 1, like you. I don't think I will ever move on. It's amazing to not have to work. I'm perfectly content. I didn't expect to be so happy about it and expected that I'd want to do more, but I don't. Have helped my kids with some things and I cook and manage my house, but that's it. [/quote]

Same. I had some family business that took some time in the first couple of years of retirement, and a bit of consulting early on, but after that was done, I transitioned happily to “phase I” like OP. I have plenty to do and am never bored. We do some traveling, and plan to start spending some more time away from our “home base,” now our youngest is settled in college. People who knew me during my career can’t believe it I don’t miss it at all.  I always reply that I miss the people, but I don’t miss the work, which is the truth. [/quote]

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