Retirement activities

[RetiredAt63]

Retirement is wonderful, you should all try it ;-)  Remember I did work full time from 25 to 63 (that was after grad school, which is a full time job in itself), plus have a family, so I didn't retire as young as most of you are aiming for.

Apart from the frivolous life I am leading (theater, curling, various clubs and hobbies I never had enough time for before) I am doing more volunteer work in my community.  My dog and I tried  out as a Therapy dog team, and after passing a tough test (50% pass rate for our group) and having three supervised visits we are now on our own.  We will be doing visits once a week to a local senior's residence.  This is a rural area so many of the residents had dogs, and really like to see her.  Down the road I would like her to participate in children's reading programs - many children will read out loud to a dog when they won't do it in class or at home, the dog is comforting and non-judgmental.  My dog loves loves loves children (breed characteristic) and she is very cuddly, so I think this would be a good activity for her. We have to have a minimum of a year as a general therapy dog before she can be tested for that, though.

Philosophical musing - We discuss quality of life and goals here a lot - as people plan their retirements, and really even in their daily lives before then, I think contributing to your community in some way adds meaning to life.  I have done a lot of volunteering, was involved in community activities, was a Scouter, was active in associations connected to work (but not things I had to do because of work) - I can look back and see that things happened and (hopefully) were better because of my contributions, and those of other volunteers.
     Also there has been a lot of discussion on the characteristics of a good spouse in a Mustachian way.  There is more to it than attitudes to money - my almost-ex husband thought volunteering was for suckers, our values did not exactly align.  Telling your spouse she/he is a sucker does not lead to a happy marriage.  So finding someone who shares most of your values, not just those about money, is important.

[RetiredAt63]

Um, it says I posted at 5:31, but I am not that much of an early bird - it was 7:31 here.  So much for being able to sleep in once retired - I love my dog but she doesn't let me sleep in.

[footenote]

Great advice, RetiredAt63! After eight years of being "FIRE-ish" (enough socked away to retire if I wanted to, but drawn to periodic employment, entrepreneurship), I'm starting the transition to a lifestyle similar to yours.

I've been thinking about what that life will look / feel like. I know I want volunteering to be part of it. So thanks for the picture of your life and what you find rewarding about it, I found it useful and inspiring.

[Jamesqf]

Um, it says I posted at 5:31, but I am not that much of an early bird - it was 7:31 here.

I think all post times are converted to MMM's home Mountain Time zone.

[the fixer]

You can fix the time zone setting in your profile, under "Look & Layout."

I totally agree with doing volunteer work. Even though I'm not retired yet, my low amount of working would leave me pretty bored and unfulfilled if I didn't get out and be productive in a way I could feel good about. For an outdoorsy person, my choices are things like trail building and search & rescue. I also got inspired by a Washington Post article last night (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/11/09/too-much-of-too-little/) to think of a way I can help people learn to eat well on a food-stamp budget.

My wife loves dogs, I'll mention the possibility of a therapy dog to her as a long-term goal.

[RetiredAt63]

My wife loves dogs, I'll mention the possibility of a therapy dog to her as a long-term goal.

I was surprised at how hard it was to pass the initial test - a Golder Retriever failed!  But any breed (or mix) is eligible, at least for my organization.  There are more than one, what is happening in your area may not be what is happening in mine.

Basics - calm, good with people, good with other dogs. They must be able to ignore food (I am amazed we passed, that test was a plate of cookies at nose level and she was closer to the plate than I was). Walk on loose leash.  Be calm around loud unexpected noises.  Not jump up on people.  Be OK around white lab coats (that was an easy one for us), be OK with people who are acting strange (could be Alzheimer people in a senior's residence).

Extra bonus with my dog - she is white, so her black eyes and nose show up on her face nicely for people who have poor vision.  She has thick soft fur, so petting her is a very pleasant experience.

We were not tested for ignoring stuffed toys - that was a bit of an issue on our test visits.  She does love stuffies, and any stuffy is her stuffy once she has seen it.

And, they were not just testing the dog, they were testing the dog-person combination.  Some of the test sthrew me a bit also.

[MrsPete]

Yes, this is something my husband and I talk about fairly often -- we think it's a mistake to retire and have nothing on your plate.  While theater and curling hold no magic for us, we have numerous other ideas about how we want to spend our time in retirement, and volunteering is a part of that.  He was involved in some child-protection programs earlier, but he began traveling so often for work that he ended up dropping that -- but he'd like to get back into it.  Having seen what Meals on Wheels did for my grandmother, I might be interested in working with that program, or I'd like to volunteer with the library.  And we're both interested in doing more with the church.  We might also consider doing the campground host thing, a program in which you camp (for free) in a state/national park for a month; the job responsibilities seem to be limited to collecting campground fees every evening and being available for emergencies. 

[Villanelle]

Dh and I want to move to an active senior community when we fully retire.  My parents live in one now, and it is amazing.  Their's is large enough that the "extra-cucciculars" program is extremely robust.  No matter what you are into--model trains, softball, card games, tap dancing, yoga, investing, glass working, sewing, painting, tennis, politics-- there is a club, and maybe more than one, that does it. 

On top of volunteering (and side work that I suspect my husband will try to do for as long as he's able), I think that will be more than enough to keep us as busy as we want to be.

[Leisured]

It is possible to do volunteering work online. Visit Zooinverse, the link below, and you will see an example of crowdsourcing. Scientists have several projects where data needs to be transcribed from images or handwritten text. Computers cannot do this, so volunteers transcribe, several volunteers transcribe the same image, and a computer assesses the results, so any volunteer who makes a mistake is ‘outvoted’ by the other volunteers.

Many of the projects analyze the enormous volume of data from space telescopes looking to other galaxies, and for other planets around other stars in our galaxy. There are I think about 800,000 volunteers worldwide.

I am working on Climate, where handwritten weather readings from the late nineteenth century on US Coast Guard vessels are transcribed. Volunteers have already finished transcribing handwritten weather data from Royal Navy ships early twentieth century, from all over the world. The objective is to extend global weather data back in time.

There are other projects. Take your pick.

https://www.zooniverse.org/


Gutenberg.org uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan pages of old books, usually a hundred years old, and proofreaders are needed to check the OCR. Usually one typo per page, and as usual several volunteers check each page. Most of the books seem to be of little value today, but use the link to the proofreading service below and see what you think.

http://www.pgdp.net/c/

[footenote]

Leisured - Thank you so much for those links, I appreciate them! 

[golden1]

When I retire, I would like to join a choral group, run more, cook more elaborate meals, garden, volunteer etc...  Honestly, I'd also love to hold a low responsibility part time job, like 2 days a week, because I find I am just happier. 

[kkbmustang]

Leisured-Very cool. Thanks for the links.