I was reading Mr. Groovy’s recent post about what he likes and doesn’t like about retirement and it made me think about how different his life is from mine. The three things he doesn’t like, are flying on commercial airlines, sleeping in rent-a-bed hotels and not having unlimited financial resources. Or at least that was my Readers Digest condensed version (if you know what that means you might be as old as I am). As far as his favorite things about retirement, they included blogging, reading, writing books, travel, furnishing his ranch/house, building his workshop and welding up some steampunk metal art (OK that’s my image of what his art will look like!)
I’m not saying we are opposites but I like staying in hotels and flying as long as I’m not stuck in a middle seat between wide people (that gives me screaming claustrophobia). But those are small things, it was his list of how he spent his time and why he loved his current life that really made me scratch my head.
What he loved was that he was not on anyone else’s time table. He only did what he wanted when he wanted to. He doesn’t work part time unless you count blogging, but that’s not really work for him, its more of a passion. And because I’m in the middle of a three week period where my days are largely preordained to fit arbitrary schedules and locations set by others I had to stop and think.
I wondered, “Am I living this early retired life all wrong?” After all Mr. G is a very wise and reasoned individual and I’ve had a lot of success in life emulating people who were doing things right. And when someone I admire and respect chooses a different path, I feel compelled to at least stop and try to figure out why that works for them, and if it might work for me too.
Here is the three week schedule I’m currently living, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the alarm goes off at 4:50AM because my wife and I run four to eight miles early with an interesting group of friends. We could run any time, but that’s when the group has always run. Starting Monday of last week I had a finance committee meeting at the foundation that I chair and an appointment to get a family photo for our church directory. Tuesday I left very early to drive to the airport(two hour drive) and catch a flight from Arkansas to San Francisco, CA. The trip was to attend the annual national meeting for college trustees which consisted of seven hours a day of continuing education, Wednesday through Saturday.
Being a college trustee is a job that pays absolutely nothing unless you count a trip to an out of state meeting less than once a year. It is a significant amount of work, but I’ve seen community college change lives. One friend, Maria, I watched grow from being a starving undocumented teenager to now being a medical doctor with five degrees, two of which she obtained at our school. How can I not help be a part of that?
Sunday I pretty much chilled around the house unpacking from the trip, except I did have a church meeting where I was assigned about fifty names to call about their committee assignments. I had gotten in at dark thirty Saturday night after I allowed the airlines to buy me off my original flight for $600. It is hard to turn down free money, especially when it is enough to pay for my wife to take a round trip flight to Orange County CA to see her best friend!
Monday, I had a very long board meeting for the charity foundation I chair, another unpaid job that is a lot of work, but one that provides low income people free medical care at our clinic and free scholarships to our health facility/gym. It literally is a life saver. Tuesday, I had the day off completely, that was yesterday, and we ran with the group, then I played singles tennis with a buddy and later played doubles with my wife against a couple of other guys. After running and playing two tennis matches the same day I was feeling old and sore. The third time I climbed the stairs to my loft office I wondered why my office is upstairs in a house with so many unused rooms?
Today is Wednesday and I slept in until 7 AM when the power came back on, we didn’t know it was off since we were sleeping. When it comes back on our robo vacuum always goes nuts and starts cleaning. The first time that happened I was sure someone had broken into our house, I was in full home defense mode when I turned the hall corner and realized it was just our little robot cleaning up! After that I made the bed, our rule is the last one out of bed has to make it. Next, I came up to the office where I looked at ten grant applications for people wanting money from our foundation and prepped myself for the next two to five days of negotiations for my clients for whom I do regulatory consulting.
After that I did the annual evaluation of the paid director who runs the charity foundation and pondered what kind of pay increase we should give him, he’s amazing by the way. Then I gathered up the receipts for the college trustee trip to San Francisco last week so I can get partially reimbursed for airfare, lodging and meals. I’ll only get partial reimbursement on meals because I didn’t get the right kind of receipts, again, for several of them and because the state is rather parsimonious in what it thinks meals should cost.
This afternoon is actually looking like free time, up until I hit the road around 4 PM for the two hour drive to our state capital where the negotiations will be held. I really prefer driving up the day before a consulting project rather than getting up early and trying to not look sleepy during meetings. Like I said, I like staying in hotels, I’m not sure why exactly but even in my old work life I was on the road some years as many as 240 days. Mr. Groovy is trying to ruin that for me by spreading his phobia of bacteria and bodily fluids that might be all over the bed sheets, thanks for nothing Mr. G! But I know they wash all of that stuff in giant industrial machines that kill all germs. I know it because I need to know it.
The next two days will be spent with my lawyers and the consultants I hired and with our adversaries and allies as we attempt to forge a compromise that will keep our issues from going to court. We might win or we might not but it will be an interesting contest. My wife will join me up there Friday because we both are on tennis teams playing in the state tennis tournament conveniently being held in that same city. It rarely works out so well but this time we got lucky. I’ll have to pay for the hotel for the weekend since it is personal business but I will get a special low rate from the tennis association. (Update added later, My team won state! My wife’s team did not do very well so my celebration has been sort of muted. Otherwise I would be penalized for unnecessary gloating.)
Monday, I’ll either continue on with the negotiations or switch to another consulting project, if we are finished, I’m really getting a lot of things done in one trip but I’m going to have to take a lot of clothes. Or I might drive home Sunday and back up Tuesday for the second project. This looks a lot like a full time job right now but I also can go for a few weeks with little work activity so I still consider it a very part time job. Then I will get two days off! Oh wait, I have to finish reviewing those pesky grants and I still have all those church members to call. And then back on the road for a one day consulting meeting Friday. Oh yeah, there are going to be about 80 applications for a new college president posted this week and I’ll have to review all of those sometime, forget the two days off.
If you read Mr. Groovy’s post you’ll know his three weeks don’t look at all like mine and in fact mine might look like one of Dante’s warmer rings of hell to him. But oddly I’m having quite a good time doing things my way. And I think I know why. It is because my spirit animal is a slug. You know those little slimy homeless snails, that’s me. Unless I am activated by an outside commitment like a paid consulting gig, or an unpaid volunteer duty or a scheduled activity with my friends I tend to become gooed into my recliner where I peruse blogs and YouTube. I honestly could do that several days a week but that would be bad for my health, both physical and mental.
Also, these three weeks are on the extreme end of what my daily life is usually like. I sometimes go for two or three weeks with almost no paid or unpaid work requiring my attention and if a conflict does develop between my work or volunteering and something fun I want to do, the fun almost always wins. That’s what vice chair people are for, amiright?
Believe it or not, my careers, both as a corporate executive or during my stint as a lobbyist, were much more packed than now. Every week was busy back then. This would have seemed a walk in the park to that version of me, so maybe it is just what I’m used to.
And I don’t think I’m that unusual for a retired guy. When my wife and I try to schedule an overseas trip, or an off road weekend with friends it is difficult to find empty time on anybody’s calendar. There may be some early retired people sitting on their porches somewhere watching the world go by but the ones I know are still helping make it spin. Many are still making income they don’t need, like me, or are heavily engaged in volunteer work. Is being busy the ideal way to live after leaving the full time workforce behind? I do not know the answer to that one. It is certainly the path I’m walking.
What do you think you’ll do when you can do anything you want?
Will you try to keep earning money if you reach a place where you already have more than you’ll ever spend?
Is it insane to let volunteer work control a big part of your schedule?