Retired (Me, not this blog)

I regret to inform you that I have failed in my plans for an early retirement. In fact I retired as of 5:00PM Friday July 11, 2025, one month after my 65th birthday.

As someone who never quite figured out what he wanted to do when he grew up, I’ve long seen retirement as a welcome end to that enduring conundrum. I’ve also seen early retirement as a sign of success, albeit a success that I never really thought I would achieve. So my failure to retire early is in fact a success in terms of achieving the expected.

The government has agreed to throw me a few nickels each month in what they mockingly refer to as a “pension,” plus I have a pittance stuffed under the mattress to supplement that less-than-living-wage income. Fortunately Martine isn’t set to retire for some time, so I can split the burden between “society” and her.

Twenty-some years ago I wrote a blog post titled “Retirement Plans” in which I expressed my desire for an “as-soon-as-possible” retirement based on the fabulous experience of a former university professor of mine who really found his footing as a writer after he retired from teaching. I have no specific plans to follow in his footprints, but nor do I have plans not to. We shall see.

So here I am, retired. Twenty minutes in, it seems OK so far. Time will tell.

There is no shortage of advice that says a successful golden age depends very much on staying active and maintaining a sense of purpose, and I plan to do all that one way or another. But first I need to mourn the loss of my steady salary and adjust to the fact that I never again have to think about what I want to do when I grow up.