re·tire·ment
noun
1.  the action or fact of leaving one’s job and ceasing to work.

I was privileged to spend 24 years working as a teacher and school librarian.   Even though we liked our jobs; my hubby and I decided about 15 years ago we wanted to retire early.   We wanted to enjoy life, travel and just spend time together.  Of course, life has its way of changing the best laid plans; but we kept the dream of retiring as a goal.  Our plan wasn’t set in stone and we had to alter it several times.  You know, for things like college and weddings and grandkids and stock market changes and all those other life happenings.  Even so, we were lucky enough to stay the course and retire early.

2 Years

It’s been almost 2 years since I retired from my job as a school librarian.   As often happens, my retirement hasn’t followed the course I expected. First, the original plan was altered a little because hubby had an opportunity to work another job for a year and a half.  The extra income helped our retirement plan; but the job put us a few months off schedule.  Second, things are off course because we haven’t made it to the house on the lake just yet.  The rainy weather in our area has delayed building our house by several months.  Almost all our possessions are in storage and we are staying with our son until the house is finished.   I guess you could say that we’ve been detoured by life (and mother nature); but we haven’t given up on our plan.  We’re retired and are just waiting to move on to the next phase in our plan.

Great Reasons to Retire Early

There are many articles that list the pros and cons of retiring; however,I wanted to share more than just generic reasons for retiring.  My list is different because it consists of my personal reasons for retiring early.  There are also a few that are from an educator’s perspective.  I hope sharing these will help you if you’re thinking of retiring early.

My Reasons for retiring early:

• We can live closer to our grandsons and kids.  We changed our retirement destination from the mountains to the lake; so we’d be closer to our grandsons.  We want to watch them grow up and be a regular part of their lives.  Not having to drive 6 hours to see them or our adult kids is a definite plus.  We won’t have to miss school activities or birthday parties because it’s too far to drive for an hour or two.
• We can spend more time with our grandsons.  Being able to spend time with our grandsons is one of the biggest perks of retirement.  Getting to be a part of the daily routine — reading, helping with homework and playing.  All those daily things we’ve missed for so many years.
• I get to spending quality time with my hubby.  True, we’ve spent years together already; but now our time is no longer bound by our work schedules.  We can take advantage of restaurant lunch specials and movie matinée prices.  We can take a spur of the moment walk or drive.  We can take a trip in the middle of the week.

• We’re going to live our retirement dream of living close to a lake.  We’ve bought the lot, finalized the plans and soon will be living next to the lake.
• We can go fishing and boating any time we want.    We don’t have to wait until the weekend when the lake is the most
  crowded.

  

  
  
• I can go shopping during the day.  I can take advantage of sales. I can go first thing in the morning or right after lunch instead of hoping that there will be something left when I get off work.
• I can read whenever I want.  Reading is one of my favorite hobbies.  I can read as late as I want at night.  Now, I can finish the book and not worry about being tired the next day at work.  I can read all day if I choose.  Reading whenever I want is great perk of retirement.

• I can play online games and check Facebook whenever I choose.  And I can have anyone I want on my friends list.
• There’s time to work on those projects I always wanted to try.  My Pinterest is overflowing with things I want to try and I now have the time.  So far, I’ve painted rocks, painted jars for Halloween, repurposed a lawn chair and tried many recipes.  It will be even better once we move into our house.

• I don’t have to wait until summer to travel.  As an educator, my vacations were limited to summer, spring break and the Christmas holidays.  Even weekend trips had to be planned around school activities.  Now, if we want to take a trip we can just go.

• There’s no need to set an alarm.  I don’t have to wake up at 5:45 every morning.  Need I say more?
• My day is no longer dictated by school bells or schedules.  I don’t have to be somewhere at a certain time every hour of the day.  I can eat lunch whenever I want.

• I don’t have to report to anyone — I no longer have a boss.  In the education world, bosses may go by a different title; but they are still the ones in charge.  —  Department heads, principals, assistant principals, superintendents, the school board…

• A week now consists of 6 Saturdays and a Sunday  There are no more Mondays to worry about.

Did you retire early?  Do you have any reasons you’d add to my list?