Retirement

I had to retire early because of a Heart virus I almost didn't survive. In fact, I was the only one I knew of in California who survived a Heart virus that year. You have a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a heart virus every time you get your teeth cleaned if something they clean from your teeth gets in to your blood and this results in an infection in your heart. However, it is different than Sepsis which has entirely different issues and is even more fatal.

So, I was forced to retire in the fall of 1998 in order to have any chance at all to stay alive which I did.

But, I also have to say my life has been better and much less of a struggle since then as well. However, you have to be financially positioned to survive things like this. If my financial position wasn't good I would be dead now. If my relationship with God wasn't really good I would be dead now. IF I was a workaholic I would be dead now. If I didn't enjoy contemplation and world travel I would be dead now.

But, I thrive with time to myself because I never get bored because I'm infinitely full of ideas of what to do next. It isn't that I dont have bad days because the aging process affects us all.

However, this is what I have to say about anyone wanting to retire.

It takes at least 5 years to adapt to being retired. So, be easy on yourself the first five years or you won't survive retirement.

2nd: It's better to retire young enough because the longer your wait the more likely you are just going to die instead of adapt to retirement. (My father only lasted 5 years) because he was a workaholic by nature and so retirement didnt' really suit him even though he wanted it too.

The two biggest issues beyond mental and physical health are  money and your ability to adapt to something new. Because adaptation is what retirement is all about. If you don't adapt you die.very simple.

Also, I really didn't prepare for retirement on any level until my 40s. But, because I made the right decisions, By God's Grace, I'm still alive today and financially okay.

So, the two really big ones are financial and mental and physical health. If you take care of these three things the rest of the things sort of work themselves out one by one.


 I expected to work until I died which likely would have been doing that around 60 I figure. But, retiring at 50 because God forced me to I'm still adapting and alive and kicking and traveling the world and skiing and riding my motorcycle in my late 60s.

So, just remember "Anything is possible" and you may be alive and retired and living almost anywhere on earth and happy, possibly some of the time happier than you have ever been before.

By God's Grace