So, on one level I can speak to what retirement is like for me. And on another level it is distressing in some ways for me to realize I haven't been an owner operator of a business directly since the mid 1990s even though my wife and I still own one business that we have mostly managed for us where we only have to solve the very biggest problems. It is sort of like being Fire Captains my wife and I. We are there to Put out the big fires in our family and in our business now. So, mostly I have been retired (even though we still make business and personal financial decisions as we travel a lot now too.
Keeping moving is the single most important thing to keep your health. For example, even though my home is a place of safety, it is also an area where a lot of richer retired people also live. So, in one sense it is a place where people go to retire and to eventually die. So, I have to keep leaving here and going skiing or riding my motorcycle or going hiking (but even that is hard now with both our dogs dead). And often we need some time to grieve for our pets before getting new pets. Even though the house makes us feel like marbles rolling around in a warehouse because the house is between 2500 to 2700 square feet and there are only the two of us. Some people like bigger houses than this but to me, even this house needs a housekeeper because I'm 70 and my wife is 63. So, even though we both have our health my wife has had a knee replacement already and finally after 3 or 4 years told me her right knee is actually better than it was before the operation which is a wonderful thing to hear. Because she is doing really great now. But that wasn't always the case. It's been a long road.
And for me, I have almost died twice now since 2015. First I went to Kona side and snorkeled with my friends and ate too many papayas and mangos and coconuts and fruit juice, then I came back to the mainland and on March 27th 2015 my appendix exploded in a hotel in mt. Shasta so I had friends take me to the hospital. One year later I was still recovering from an operation and even worse from serious PTSD from psychological issues around this horrific experience.
If you are going to have your appendix burst please do it before you are 40 or 50 when it might be easier to recover from. Doing this in your late 60s is really tough. Only because I have an incredible immune system am I alive now because many men I met almost died of sepsis over 40 to 60 days in the hospital. I only was in the hospital from about Saturday night to the next Wednesday or Thursday but had to deal with PTSD until Christmas 2015 where I believed I was going to die instead of feeling I could live my life.
Then two months ago I stopped taking spironolactone (which my physicians assistant said would eventually happen) because it would go sideways at some point with side affects. And it took me two weeks to get things straightened out with my primary care physician and my heart specialist so I didn't just die in this transition. So, I'm back from that now too and mostly as good as new in that I can walk and I can sleep once again except now both our dogs have died and my younger daughter flew home to Portland yesterday and I wasn't prepared what our house would feel like with her gone again last night and I had to deal with my feelings in a way that men don't like to.
So, survival is harder at times when you are retired because "The Good news is you are retired and the Bad news is you are retired" and this is never ending and goes on forever like a Christmas or summer vacation that never ends.
So, if you are a workaholic (which I'm not) (but my father was) you might not want to retire because retirement is death for a workaholic. My father only lasted 5 years and then he was gone when he retired at 65. He made it to 69. So, I've already outlived my father. Strange feeling to have outlived my father now. Because I'm 70 and was forced to retire when I was 50 in 1998 in the fall from a heart virus that nearly killed me (and did kill anyone else I knew of in California at the time who had a heart virus).
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