My wife and I decided to take 1 month off work and see what it is like to be retired. To make this as real as possible we decided to traveled away from home so as to not have all the reminders of our normal life holding us back and to explore a little. I figure I would share our experience with this community.
First and foremost, we finally get it. We finally understand how valuable our freedom is. No fancy new car or first class vacation even comes close to the freedom we just experienced. Most days we did fun things such as hiking, watching a movie, meeting up with friends, or other entertainment. Other days we were tired and just sat in the room watching TV and surfing the web. It was our choice with no obligation to anyone. Because of this freedom we never set an alarm clock but because the world was ours to explore we would naturally wake up at about 7:30am-8:30am. We had things we wanted to do and our brain just got us up to get the day going. Not single day during this month did I feel sleepy.
Interestingly we also realized how we lost track of the news. It didn't matter what else was going on in the world and daily politics appeared meaningless. We were enjoying ourselves way too much to care. Coming back now, much of it seams like superfluous noise.
In our regular life, having a drink at night with dinner a few times a week is common. On vacation we had 1-2 drinks every night. I tallied up our alcohol budget for the month and it came to over $250. Most of it was at home but a few of those were during a meal at restaurants. This bothers us a little and we are currently alcohol free for a while. Mind you it was only 1-2 mixed drink a night and we weren't getting drunk but the thought of drinking each and every night isn't healthy. I can easily see how with too much free time one can get addicted and something we should be mindful of in the future.
I didn't notice it until today, but during this vacation I had no back or neck pain. Somehow those aches have returned. It is not debilitating, I just sometimes feel my lower back is a little sore or sometimes I get a cringe in my neck. Is it the stress of work that brought them back or is it me sitting on the couch instead of being as active as I was that month? Maybe its a combination of the two.
I can tell this community one thing. This vacation has solidified our retirement plans. Baring some unusual event we will definitely be semi-retiring at the end of 2018. Life is way too good wasting it away stressing over someone else's problems. We will work just a handful of days a month. Not necessarily because we need the money but because we actually enjoy what we do and I believe we provide some good in this world. And, if we find it is holding us back from enjoying life we will eliminate that as well. Okay, in reality, to live our current lifestyle we would still need a little more money. But as I said earlier. I am now a big believer that nothing is more valuable than our time and if semi retirement isn't enough then our current lifestyle can decrease to meet our financial ability to afford it.
