<p>Change is a good thing and I may start doing my nails! Good grief.</p>
<p>I’m curious how many of the above were inspired or done due to the extra time acquired by retiring…</p>
<p>Love this thread. We went to the financial planner and we will be able to retire in the next five years. I am 54, hubby will be 60 next month.</p>
<p>We are thinking about the house…</p>
<p>I love white water rafting. I started going years ago to get over my fear of the water.</p>
<p>I actually haven’t been walking as much as I’d like. I need a knee replacement, but my Dr says I’m ten years too young? So I guess he wants to wait till I can’t go up and down the stairs at all, that should work.
I’m going to get a second opinion.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4, hubby had a hip replacement in his early fifties. Here’s my opinion: living in pain is no fun. I can give you the name of a great doctor inBaltimore.</p>
<p>Never dyed hair and have no intention of doing so. Am happy to minimize exposure to chemicals. No interest in doing nails, eyelashes, or pedicare for toenails (which is what sibs have been doing).</p>
<p>Planning to increase travel with H & do weeding/cleaning. We are dining out more often as well, which we both enjoy. May spend more time with H’s retired buddies (mine are mostly still working).</p>
<p>I don’t think it is retirement per se. I was planning on retiring but this opportunity just came up and it was perfect for me. So I am back to work, but part time. For now and probably forever…as long as I have a job like this. But I think it is something more. It is a mindset, a reevaluation, do it now or never.</p>
<p>ditched the land line a couple of years ago–no one ever called it except telemarketers anyway–and although I was hesitant, I really haven’t missed it. Decided to stop dyeing my hair 2 months ago. It looks awful right now, but I’m trying not to care. Been doing DIY updating on my house a little at a time over the past few years, partly for my own enjoyment, and partly if I decide to sell, the country blue and mauve wallpaper was not going to help. About to have an empty nest for the first time. I can’t retire for at least 12 years, but I dream about retirement every day. A job change would really be refreshing, but I’m not brave enough to take that plunge.</p>
<p>I can’t the thought of not coloring my hair! Wonder when that will start sounding good?</p>
<p>I envy those of you whose financial plans have worked out. I was so depressed the last time I got my 401K statement. I have socked away the maximum since I was eligible to contribute to the plan and my net return on investment is negative. 2008 was brutal (and no, I didn’t have it in “risky” investments.)</p>
<p>“I think it (retirement) is something more. It is a mindset, a reevaluation …”</p>
<p>And if you do it rigorously, it can be a revelation as well … you learn so much about who you really are. “I spent $22,400 on state and local taxes last year? And $9,300 for utilities? Yet there was no money for a vacation? Really?”</p>
<p>I did quit coloring my hair. I did that a couple years ago, and freaked out when someone (. albeit he was 23) thought I was 8 years older than I was. So i colored it back almost immediately But this time i changed my hairstyle slightly and I think it made a difference. I actually like the color. I had red hair, and had been putting a henna rinse on it for years to make it shiny about every 5 months. Now it is a lighter strawberry that I think is more flattering. ( instead of just growing it out, I had the ends lightened to match)</p>
<p>MDmom thanks for the offer.
a friends husband had both hips replaced, but he still had a lot of trouble. Knees apparently are even more difficult, and we are trying injections for pain.</p>
<p>We’ve increased travel but not as much as I would like. We plan virtually all our vacations around Pearl Jam tours:D</p>
<p>Most of the changes listed by the OP we did years ago. We need to change with the times. With the exception of ditching the land line. Our house’s mountainside situation still wreaks havoc with the local signals.This week H was on the phone with Verizon for five hours trying to get a fix on our options.
We have always been avid travelers, but now we have added the occasional impromptu weekend and we have also added a few oddball plans. The Trans Siberian railway? Possible apartment in France? Keeping the options open and trying to do as much as I can before the realities of aging set in.</p>
<p>musica, I was thinking the same thing about the land line. No mountains here, but cell phone reception is terrible in our house, no matter what carrier we use.</p>
<p>Yah missypie…If I could dump the land line, I would save about $68 a month. And no more evening sales calls.</p>
<p>Here is the tour we are looking at…I have never traveled with a tour group before, but Mongolia looks a little daunting.</p>
<p>[See</a> the REAL Asia with Intrepid Travel](<a href=“http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/WBSB#overview]See”>http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/WBSB#overview)</p>
<p>And after our fantastic trip to Istanbul last year, we would like to rent a car and freestyle a trip along the coast of Turkey.</p>
<p>Living “tuition free” certainly opens up the world!</p>
<p>Two days ago, we finally switched to the only carrier that now has decent service here and got Smartphones! I thought this day was never going to happen…getting H’s stress test before the first bill comes.</p>
<p>Would ditch my landline in a second and never regret it. It comes free w/ our internet and I use it for business. I can’t stand telemarketing, esp in an election year. The Do Not Call list is worthless. I ignore it after 5, but cuss every time it rings.</p>
<p>We love our newspapers, but they are increasingly worthless…a few pages and advertisements, and we’ve seen the headlines online. Keep them because they are small town papers and D loves to read the sports.</p>
<p>Want to sell at least one of the rentals, pretty sure it’s not the right time but I am so sick of renters. Thinking of selling my business, would stay in the same career for another ~15 years. Need to downsize our 3500 sf house and 5 acres of mowing, but H won’t.</p>
<p>Can’t WAIT until D graduates in 2015 and I no longer have to deal with this school system. Then we’ll have more time to mow those 5 acres :)</p>
<p>5 acres of mowing?
You need some goats!</p>
<p>We never upsized due to layoffs/medical expenses/private schools.
But now it’s just about the right size:)</p>
<p>When our hvac system went kaput we made the switch to geothermal. Should theoretically take 5 years to break even, however my house is now a constant temperature and it’s fabulous. Replaced two big windows in the front of the house that let in a ton of heat/cold and direct sun at the wrong times.</p>
<p>Almost sold our business and did a real analysis on wants/dreams/desires to uproot and do something different. Decided - not right now. </p>
<p>As for hair coloring - I was born a blonde, I will die a blonde. I also just got the brazillian blowout and it was lifechanging.</p>
<p>Last year we got new vinyl windows in preparation for selling our house. Our heating/cooling bills dropped by 50%. We spent a lot of money on improvements. Our neighbor across the street didn’t upgrade much and their house took over a year to sell. We questioned whether we should spend a lot of money on updates to sell the house. It really worked. Our house sold after only 24 days on the market. </p>
<p>I’ve never colored my hair. I have short hair streaks of silver but I’m OK with that.</p>
<p>Stopped coloring my hair in my late 40s to minimize exposure to chemicals. Stopped driving a gas-guzzling minivan. Now I have a little silver convertible that matches my hair.</p>
<p>In another week we’ll be empty-nesters. Bittersweet! H and I are planning to take up swing dancing. My parents were good swing dancers, and we hope to have as much fun with it as they did.</p>
<p>EK–Goats aren’t going to help us mow the 5 acres! We raise Boer show goats. They eat much more expensive feed than Kentucky Bluegrass! Round-up would do the trick, but I like my grass. Would like about 20% of it even better :)</p>