<p>Move to a house on a golf course in NC, volunteer at the local HS and soup kitchen, attend car shows and corvette club events… but wait… I am NOT retired yet, still trying to convince my new neighbors.</p>
<p>Live full-time in the house we have bought near the shore at the tip (almost) of Jersey. Go off-grid as much as possible and raise/catch as much of our food as we can. </p>
<p>Write full time (both of us) and maybe make some money from it. </p>
<p>Get involved in local volunteer work.</p>
<p>Kayak, read, bike, swim, walk as much as possible. </p>
<p>Well, that’s the plan, but we can’t afford it just yet.</p>
<p>I did recently retire and am enjoying life immensely with my sweetie of 37 years. Moved from cold climes to eastern Tennessee where there are outside activities galore-golf, hiking, fishing, kayaking, camping and cycling. We are building our dream house on one of the community golf courses and will be moving into it soon.</p>
<p>One of the first things we did is get our library cards at the public l ibrary which is not nearly as big as the univ library but it does participate in the regional system, though I havent run out of things in the local library to read yet.</p>
<p>We are beginning to do volunteer work thru the church we are attending and I look to do some ARC and DAV service as well.</p>
<p>We have always been travelers and done so in Europe, visiting Spain, Italy, Greece, Scotland and Ireland. I think for the next several years we will concentrate on the good old USA, having several National Parks nearby and visiting those in the west which we have never been to with the exception of Crater Lake and Olympia.</p>
<p>The one hobby which I intend to concentrate on is photography and will invest in a good digital to supplement my beloved Minolta 101 SRT which I have an array of lenses and filters for.</p>
<p>I would sell everything we own ( hopefully we will hang on tight to them in these challenging times ) and move back to New England , preferably Cape Cod where I grew up.
Garden , cook and be with family. Also visit all the places on our lists.
I can’t imagine my husband not working. He is a grown up that was never diagnosed , but I think he has ADD and can’t sit still…</p>
<p>My husband and I want to retire in a college town in the south where we can go to all the home football games and we can audit classes. If I still need to work, I can become the cafeteria lady at the college that all the kids love :-)</p>
<p>If we can’t afford to do that , Mexico for us. I have looked into it seriously and I think it’s the best alternative if you don’t have enough retirement savings. We could live somewhere warm and not have to eat mac and cheese every day.</p>
<p>Buy a small trailer, travel a few months a year with my pups. Camp my way across the US visiting friends and family. Enjoy small towns and out of the way places. Hang out at the campsites, with tea and meet others, take some photos, read some books, lots of long walks. Back home (which I want a small house in a larger town) I would raise sunflowers to cut and sell in bundles at the local farmer’s market. Maybe work seasonally at a small flower shop, maybe not. Volunteer for the library, reading program, nursing home, local thrift shop…Rescue a few pups along the way. Spend lots of time with my future grandbabies and my daughters. Learn a new craft or skill, perfect some current ones.</p>
<p>I do not want to retire. It scares me. I love my job and it is my major entertainment. I have hobby - pottery. I love it also. I love to go for a walk, rollerblade, swim, usually exersice about 2 hours / day. Hwever, these activities are not enough to fill the time on a daily basis. I do not like reading, watching TV, house chores, shopping, cooking. So, interesting job has served me well to be satisfied with my life.</p>
<p>VDERON, I love Mexico. It has been our vacation place for the past 14 years. Some years we went to other places (Jamaica, Cayman), but none of them compare to Mexico. Good choice.</p>
<p>I am really trying to get my head around not retiring for a long time - at least 5 years later than I’ve wanted to. My investments have taken such a nose dive that it’s a realistic possiblity that retirement will be many years away. And really, with an empty nest, it won’t be so bad to keep working…I really am trying to convince myself of this. I recently asked the managing partner of our firm (who is a year younger than me) if the firm is prepared for so many of us to not retire…</p>
<p>Am living a semi-retired life (euphemism for not able to get a job). I travel or would like to travel. </p>
<p>I traveled to Asia last year. I would like to live in Florence for a bit this year or next. I love western Europe. I will be traveling in Cal this winter. </p>
<p>I like to learn Tai-Chi and take on more volunteer work. </p>
<p>I will take some courses if finances permit.</p>
<p>As we think about retirement, it’s important to think about what supports and medical care we’ll need as we run into the inevitable health problems and disabilities that come with old age. It’s also important for us to keep in mind that as our children enter the work world, marry, have kids, they may not have the time or money to visit us much if we live very far away or to keep track of us when we physically start to decline. While we may be willing to travel to visit them, at some point that may be very difficult for us due to our own or our partners’ health issues.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, few elderly people – no matter how wise or intelligent – have insight into when they lack the ability to live independently. We need to plan our lives with the realization that old age includes physical and often a mental decline.</p>
<p>I plan to keep living where I currently am living. There are plenty of things to do – including culturally. There’s also good medical care, and I have a wide range of friends of all ages including some who are decades younger than me who presumably will still be around after many of my peers may have passed on (assuming I outlive my peers). Since I am one of those people blessed with lots of good cholesterol, it’s possible that I’ll outlive many of my peers, so I think it’s important to have friends who are much younger. Fortunately, I enjoy being with people of all ages.</p>
<p>I’d love to travel more (China, Australia and India at the very least). I’d like to finally learn Spanish. I’d like to paint more watercolors (and travel at a leisurely enough pace to do more painting while traveling.) I’d like to teach an **adult **class or two in watercolors. I’ve taught kids and was good at the teaching the material part, not so good at dealing with kid behavior!</p>
<p>I’d like to travel the world w/husband–I’d write articles to support us, and he’d take photographs. 
I’m not sure he’s on board w/this gig, though…</p>
<p>H and I would like to move to Europe for a few years; both of us could teach part-time to help fund the venture. He’s a musician/composer, so he can also perform and compose commissions for $$. </p>
<p>After that, I don’t know; we have talked about buying a small place in/near Ithaca, a town we both like (and in which he lived for 30 years before moving south to marry me [poor sod!]), but that would have to be in addition to somewhere which gets less snow/is somewhat warmer in the winter.</p>
<p>I get to travel the world and do interesting work now. I think my work is incredibly stimulating and will keep me vital. My plan is to keep doing the work but perhaps a) do less of it; and b) cherry-pick so I’m only doing the most interesting engagements. I might increase the proportion of my work that is pro bono. I now evaluate opportunities that arise and don’t proactively seek to help and would like put myself out a little more. My wife loves her work and similarly has no desire to stop. She’s a painter and would like to be represented outside the North America, so more traveling would suit her.</p>
<p>As soon as the nest empties, she’ll start traveling with me on some of my trips [for example, I now have 4 companion tickets on BA/AA to London (maybe Europe) that I haven’t used]. Our plan is to buy a house in someplace warmer in the winter than Boston – we live outside Boston and I’m tired of the winters – and spend some of the winters there. We’re hoping to do that with a few friends, so that we start with a community. I’d like to buy a house in a place that entices my kids to come back when they’re in college and when they have their own kids. So, while we might buy a condo in the area first to get to know it and to rent it out when we’re not using it, we’d ultimately buy a larger house. We currently share a summer house in Quebec and would keep that until it needs major new investment and then work out with the sibs whose going to take it over.</p>
<p>Retirement will just mean a taking on fewer engagements and turning over my managerial responsibilities to someone younger (or selling the firm), writing another book, and possibly affiliating with a local university. We’d go between houses and travel as the mood and weather struck. Ultimately, it probably means stopping work if/when I can’t do it physically and mentally.</p>
<p>Interesting career you have now, shawbridge!</p>
<p>My husband and I retired once already, in 2000, when doctors gave him 4 to seven years if he was lucky. New treatments mean his lymphoma is still in remission, and you’ll notice it’s been 9 years. (His oncologist thinks he’s boring now.) I’ve had cancer, too, and in theory am cured (chondrosarcoma). It took about five years of retirement–lots of cycling, lots of travel, lots of all the things you all are talking about–for my husband to get bored of it and start a new business, where he works full-time, but doing something he really loves. (I know this, because he could sell out and chose not to.)</p>
<p>Me, my second life after leaving high school teaching has been dog training. I train and compete in dog agility. I meet lots of people who do all kinds of things in their “other life” and I can travel anywhere in the country and meet people who share my love of dogs and agility. </p>
<p>When my father retired (in 1973), he was bored silly. It wasn’t long before he started teaching at a local university. My brother did the same thing when he retired (he’s 77). My sister (age 75 now) became a Master Gardener. </p>
<p>Life is boring if you’re just sitting around.</p>
<p>dmd77–I’d agree (from what I’ve seen). My parents who retired in their mid-70s did not pick up an active lifestyle immediately (lots of going out for cofee, watching TV). I hate to say I saw direct connection to somewhat of a mental decline, but I think that was part of it. I wish they’d continued to work in some capacity, or at least picked up some regular volunteer stuff. They are still okay (traveling, etc.) but I think they’d have been happier w/something you ‘have’ to do every day.</p>
<p>My folks retired in their “dream house” on the coast near beautiful Cambria Ca. It was idylic for about two months. Their lesson—never retire where you like to vacation, scenery, peace and quiet can turn into a real bore. They later moved to a university town to be near a younger, more vibrant group of people.</p>
<p>My parents are like Jolynne Smith’s, only they retired earlier. I wish that when they were in their 60s they would have gotten part time jobs - my mom loves to shop and I think she would have enjoyed a part time retail job.</p>
<p>musicamusica-my inlaws considered Cambria. They bought a house there and even without living there fulltime they found it slow. They visit several times a year for 3 or 4 days at a time. They now list the house with a vacation rental company.</p>