Monday, February 25, 2013
Vacation Hiatus
I'm off on vacation for a week, where I won't have a laptop, so don't expect me to post. I'll be back next week, possibly with the ways that vacationing is different once you are retired.
The retired person's banking needs
Subtitle: Banks aren't what they used to be
When you retire, you need to think about your banking needs differently. The first issue is the checking account (I suspect someone reading this in twenty years will be thinking, "Oh, I remember checking accounts. I gave mine up back in 2015"). I get free checking because: money is regularly direct deposited, or I keep a minimum balance. Now that I am retired, I don't have a paycheck direct deposited and it will be some time before I start collecting social security. I didn't want to mess with minimum balance requirements, since I think it will take a while to figure out when to move money from my investment accounts to this account. Since money will only appear if I am organized enough to push it to the checking account, there is just too much room for error. Bank of America doesn't have an account that meets this criterion (free with no direct deposit and no minimum balance). They have some that are close, but not exactly what I wanted.
I've been at Bank of America for 30 years. I generally keep too much money in my checking account. They've been making a lot on that sloppiness, as my account doesn't collect interest. I thought that perhaps they could make an exception to their rules for a year for me and give me free checking. I went to the bank. The manager was very nice; she told me that she couldn't make an exception, but she would write up an escalation and see if the "back office" would accept it. She also said she would get back to me in 2-3 days. After a week with no callback, I called the phone number on the escalation paper work, where I was told I had been denied; the reason given was that it was the local branch's decision to make this kind of exception, and she (he told me her name, and it was the same woman I had spoken with) had turned it down.
As you can imagine, my money and Bank of America are soon to be separated. I've found a nice credit union that doesn't require anything for free checking, will give me free checks (not forever, but I'm not sure I will still be writing checks when I finish this first order :-), and won't charge me any ATM fees or conversion fees on international withdrawals. That pretty much covers what I need in a bank. It took a fair amount of research to find the right bank. Things I would suggest for those treading in these footsteps:
When you retire, you need to think about your banking needs differently. The first issue is the checking account (I suspect someone reading this in twenty years will be thinking, "Oh, I remember checking accounts. I gave mine up back in 2015"). I get free checking because: money is regularly direct deposited, or I keep a minimum balance. Now that I am retired, I don't have a paycheck direct deposited and it will be some time before I start collecting social security. I didn't want to mess with minimum balance requirements, since I think it will take a while to figure out when to move money from my investment accounts to this account. Since money will only appear if I am organized enough to push it to the checking account, there is just too much room for error. Bank of America doesn't have an account that meets this criterion (free with no direct deposit and no minimum balance). They have some that are close, but not exactly what I wanted.
I've been at Bank of America for 30 years. I generally keep too much money in my checking account. They've been making a lot on that sloppiness, as my account doesn't collect interest. I thought that perhaps they could make an exception to their rules for a year for me and give me free checking. I went to the bank. The manager was very nice; she told me that she couldn't make an exception, but she would write up an escalation and see if the "back office" would accept it. She also said she would get back to me in 2-3 days. After a week with no callback, I called the phone number on the escalation paper work, where I was told I had been denied; the reason given was that it was the local branch's decision to make this kind of exception, and she (he told me her name, and it was the same woman I had spoken with) had turned it down.
As you can imagine, my money and Bank of America are soon to be separated. I've found a nice credit union that doesn't require anything for free checking, will give me free checks (not forever, but I'm not sure I will still be writing checks when I finish this first order :-), and won't charge me any ATM fees or conversion fees on international withdrawals. That pretty much covers what I need in a bank. It took a fair amount of research to find the right bank. Things I would suggest for those treading in these footsteps:
- figure out what you use your account for. For me it is:
- write checks
- get cash
- do electronic funds transfers
- deposit cash
- very occasionally get things like medallion signatures (for opening investment accounts and other activies)
- get cash internationally
- there are 3 kinds of banks you should be looking at: 'regular' banks, credit unions, and online-only banks. For me, the online-only didn't have convenient enough ATMs, so that kind of bank didn't make sense as the only checking account.
- also check to see if your investment house will give you a true checking account. By that I mean one that you can write (small) checks on and get cash from ATMs. Mine does not. It will let me write large checks, so it will be handy for some transactions, but not all. And since it is not a bank, I can't use it to do electronic funds transfers.
- find out what special things your bank gives you (free checks?) and decide how important those are
- you can research all of this on the internet, though I did have to call a couple of institutions to get some vague language clarified
Now that I have the new account at the credit union, trying to close my Bank of America account is a minor nightmare. I can't close it till all my checks have cleared, which probably means they will have the use of my money (at least enough to avoid the fee) for another two weeks. I have to go into the bank -- despite their claimed strong security, which will allow me to move money around with impunity over the phone, closing an account means you have to go into the bank. Grump. (I know, I'm retired; I'm supposed to have all the time in the world). Then I have to find all the places where I have money taken from this account to make payments. Luckily, I never do this with recurring payments, so it's just a matter of being vigilant when I pay something to notice that it is a direct transfer from a checking account.
It seemed like this was going to be so easy. I have a feeling I'll be saying that several times over the next several months.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Western Wheelers Ride
Today I tried biking with the Western Wheelers, a cycling group in our area. They organize lots of rides -- sometimes you can find 3 or 4 in a single day. Normally, Mr. R-T and I cycle most Sundays, 25-40 miles in our area (well, not in the rain. We are both rain wimps.) with various subsets of two other couples. Even though we recently added another couple to our "bike club", none of the seven of them could make it today. I've been thinking that I need to find a group to do weekday rides, so I might as well start with this.
I have a huge amount of inertia around joining groups. It helped that I had already planned to ride, at about the same time, so getting ready wasn't a big roadblock. I found the group easily (which doesn't always happen with this sort of thing), and they were very friendly. Of the nine on the ride, seven were regular Western Wheelers riders, who seemed to know each other, and I and one other guy (a young guy from Google) were the two newbies. I was worried that the old-timers would stick together, but everyone was cordial and I talked to about half the people over the course of the ride. It was billed as an easy 'social' ride, so it was as much about chatting as it was about making it up the hills. The trip was about 25 miles, plus it took me 15 miles round trip to get to the starting location, making it a nice 40 mile ride.
Definitely much less stressful than I expected, and this will make it easier for me to do next time. I'd like, in the longer run, to find a small group of women to ride 1-2 times a week, but doing groups of unknowns for a while as I seek out congenial biking partners seems like it will work.
I suspect over the next year, I will end up joining 3-4 such groups: hiking, wine tasting, maybe German conversation, and a few other things I want to explore. This seems like the best way to build up a collection of retired friends who share interests, while my existing friends are still busy with their work lives.
I have a huge amount of inertia around joining groups. It helped that I had already planned to ride, at about the same time, so getting ready wasn't a big roadblock. I found the group easily (which doesn't always happen with this sort of thing), and they were very friendly. Of the nine on the ride, seven were regular Western Wheelers riders, who seemed to know each other, and I and one other guy (a young guy from Google) were the two newbies. I was worried that the old-timers would stick together, but everyone was cordial and I talked to about half the people over the course of the ride. It was billed as an easy 'social' ride, so it was as much about chatting as it was about making it up the hills. The trip was about 25 miles, plus it took me 15 miles round trip to get to the starting location, making it a nice 40 mile ride.
Definitely much less stressful than I expected, and this will make it easier for me to do next time. I'd like, in the longer run, to find a small group of women to ride 1-2 times a week, but doing groups of unknowns for a while as I seek out congenial biking partners seems like it will work.
I suspect over the next year, I will end up joining 3-4 such groups: hiking, wine tasting, maybe German conversation, and a few other things I want to explore. This seems like the best way to build up a collection of retired friends who share interests, while my existing friends are still busy with their work lives.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Retirement party, part II
Last night Mr R-T invited several old friends (and I use that advisedly -- I have known them all from 29 - 36 years) to dinner to celebrate my retirement. Everyone in the group is still working except me, with one of them just starting a new career. But I do think that perhaps what to do in retirement is on their minds. The one who loves to bake gave me a book about baking bread; the one who loves to do puzzles gave me a book of NY Times crossword puzzles, and the one who likes to do stitchery gave me a stitchery kit!
Of course, these are all things that I enjoy doing and that I hope to do more of in retirement, and I found them to be very thoughtful gifts. But I'm coming to the conclusion that people who aren't retired yet (and I confess that to some extent I felt this way too), think that there is more time in a 'retired day' than I am finding there to be. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's just that retirement is still new (and I've been a bit under the weather), so I have a pent up collection of things I have been putting off that I need to catch up on. Maybe I've slowed down, though I don't think that is true. I certain am less focused on only doing the most important things -- I make sure I take time out most days to do something purely for pleasure, which hasn't been part of my routine for many years and probably isn't part of my friends' routine, and while those moments don't take up a large part of my day, it's not inconsequential. Whatever it is, I'm barely staying abreast of the 'must do now' actions on my to-do list, rather than all the ones on my 'someday/maybe' list. Of course, I have added things like this blog to my routine that weren't there before, and somewhere that nasty limit of the 24 hour day hits us all.
Still, I very much enjoyed reminiscing about the days when we thought we had our entire lives in front of us. There were many ways that we were innocents; I don't think that any of us had the career we would have described at that point, though I doubt that any of us think that his/her planned career would have been better than the one s/he did have. We all knew each other B.C. (Before Children), and not only have we seen the trials and tribulations (and joys) of babies, toddlers and teens, we know the joys (and perhaps a few trials) of adult children. Now in retrospect, I wish I had asked everyone to predict where we each would be in another 25 years. I'm sure that we would be completely wrong, but it would be amusing to look back and see how we are still naive innocents.
Of course, these are all things that I enjoy doing and that I hope to do more of in retirement, and I found them to be very thoughtful gifts. But I'm coming to the conclusion that people who aren't retired yet (and I confess that to some extent I felt this way too), think that there is more time in a 'retired day' than I am finding there to be. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's just that retirement is still new (and I've been a bit under the weather), so I have a pent up collection of things I have been putting off that I need to catch up on. Maybe I've slowed down, though I don't think that is true. I certain am less focused on only doing the most important things -- I make sure I take time out most days to do something purely for pleasure, which hasn't been part of my routine for many years and probably isn't part of my friends' routine, and while those moments don't take up a large part of my day, it's not inconsequential. Whatever it is, I'm barely staying abreast of the 'must do now' actions on my to-do list, rather than all the ones on my 'someday/maybe' list. Of course, I have added things like this blog to my routine that weren't there before, and somewhere that nasty limit of the 24 hour day hits us all.
Still, I very much enjoyed reminiscing about the days when we thought we had our entire lives in front of us. There were many ways that we were innocents; I don't think that any of us had the career we would have described at that point, though I doubt that any of us think that his/her planned career would have been better than the one s/he did have. We all knew each other B.C. (Before Children), and not only have we seen the trials and tribulations (and joys) of babies, toddlers and teens, we know the joys (and perhaps a few trials) of adult children. Now in retrospect, I wish I had asked everyone to predict where we each would be in another 25 years. I'm sure that we would be completely wrong, but it would be amusing to look back and see how we are still naive innocents.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Solitude
I'm starting to feel better, so I may be back to more regular blogging (though I'm travelling next week, and I don't think I'm likely to blog then -- my planned activities aren't very retirement relevant). Today was also Mr. R-T's first full day back at work (he was hit hard by the illness; we now think he had two separate illnesses back to back). I really noticed the difference in being retired 'with a companion' vs. 'on my own'. It's not like we were spending all our hours in cozy communication (otherwise known as 'sharing our germs'); it was more like the parallel-play of two people in different rooms in the same house. But there is a big difference between being in a house alone and with someone else, even if the other person is not dependent on you.
I am someone who values my solitude. I equally value time I spend with friends, but I need a minimum amount of solitude or things that would otherwise just roll off my back start to bug me. On weekends where we get overbooked with social engagements, I am clawing the walls towards the end. I've definitely been looking forward to the idea that retirement == more solitude. Today gave me a hint of that reality, and it was good.
Being alone lets me focus on what I'm doing in the moment (sometimes that's not a good thing, when I look up and see how much time has passed), without worrying that someone will want lunch or suggest a distraction (living with someone who is a bit hypoglycemic means saying "I'll be ready for lunch in a hour or so" is not a viable response). It lets me wander among my thoughts. I went for a hike today (alone), and I came up with several ideas for blog posts, when that well had been dry for a few days. Sometimes I'm enough within myself that I hardly notice my surroundings, sometimes being alone is a chance to really attend to those surroundings without any other things distracting me.
It's pretty likely that I'm going to be alone a significant part of my day, at least until Mr. R-T retires. Right now, this seems so luxurious, I'm almost reluctant to find things that will break up the day's aloneness. But while I need solitude, I really enjoy time with friends, so I'm guessing I'll find a way to balance those halves of me.
I suspect that someone for whom solitude is not something to look forward to, it would be important to have activities/connections that would bring other people into your life every day, and it would be important to plan for at least some of those activities before retiring.
I am someone who values my solitude. I equally value time I spend with friends, but I need a minimum amount of solitude or things that would otherwise just roll off my back start to bug me. On weekends where we get overbooked with social engagements, I am clawing the walls towards the end. I've definitely been looking forward to the idea that retirement == more solitude. Today gave me a hint of that reality, and it was good.
Being alone lets me focus on what I'm doing in the moment (sometimes that's not a good thing, when I look up and see how much time has passed), without worrying that someone will want lunch or suggest a distraction (living with someone who is a bit hypoglycemic means saying "I'll be ready for lunch in a hour or so" is not a viable response). It lets me wander among my thoughts. I went for a hike today (alone), and I came up with several ideas for blog posts, when that well had been dry for a few days. Sometimes I'm enough within myself that I hardly notice my surroundings, sometimes being alone is a chance to really attend to those surroundings without any other things distracting me.
It's pretty likely that I'm going to be alone a significant part of my day, at least until Mr. R-T retires. Right now, this seems so luxurious, I'm almost reluctant to find things that will break up the day's aloneness. But while I need solitude, I really enjoy time with friends, so I'm guessing I'll find a way to balance those halves of me.
I suspect that someone for whom solitude is not something to look forward to, it would be important to have activities/connections that would bring other people into your life every day, and it would be important to plan for at least some of those activities before retiring.
Monday, February 18, 2013
News flash: Retirement is bad for your health
OK, I'm only kidding, but I wanted to explain my lack of posting. The week before I retired, Mr. R-T came home from a business trip with a cold that eventually turned into flu like symptoms. He's been home from work most of the last two weeks (every time he goes back, he suffers a relapse) and of course, he has passed his germs on to me. That means that since I retired, I have been either taking care of a sick adult (not particularly high on the "delightful activities" scale) or feeling under the weather (or both).
This was not part of my vision for my retirement. Of course, there will be 'sick days' (that term has new meaning to me now), but I wasn't planning to start my retirement that way -- in fact, if I had worked another week, I could have gotten paid for this misery :-). Let me use this as my excuse for a) not posting much and b) for the lack of humor in my posts. I just don't have enough brain cells for it.
We both have serious hacking coughs, but most of the other symptoms are gone. Last night we were a veritable symphony in bed -- when one of us would get the coughing under control, the other would start up. Perhaps I should have recorded us; hit records have been made from less. I'm hoping that I'll feel a bit better soon and can take on some of the retirement topics that I've been ruminating on for months.
This was not part of my vision for my retirement. Of course, there will be 'sick days' (that term has new meaning to me now), but I wasn't planning to start my retirement that way -- in fact, if I had worked another week, I could have gotten paid for this misery :-). Let me use this as my excuse for a) not posting much and b) for the lack of humor in my posts. I just don't have enough brain cells for it.
We both have serious hacking coughs, but most of the other symptoms are gone. Last night we were a veritable symphony in bed -- when one of us would get the coughing under control, the other would start up. Perhaps I should have recorded us; hit records have been made from less. I'm hoping that I'll feel a bit better soon and can take on some of the retirement topics that I've been ruminating on for months.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Planning your retirement -- Part I
I thought I'd describe a bit about the (many years of) thinking I did that led me to retire now.
My planning for retirement started about 12 years ago, though I would describe it more as "thinking about retirement". I would run into peers at conferences and elsewhere who would tell me they were thinking about retiring, and I always asked them "what are you going to do in retirement?". At the time, this was truly a puzzlement to me. I really couldn't imagine what I would do if I didn't have my career. Sure, I could imagine sleeping in, doing more gardening, travelling more, even doing the NYTimes crossword, but that clearly wasn't going to satisfy me for 25+ years. People seemed to fall into two categories: 1) either health or the availability of grandchildren drove them to retire; they wanted to do less of what they were currently doing, but other than the grandchildren, really didn't mention things they would do more of, and 2) people who had some sort of passion (from rails-to-trails advocacy to model train layouts) that they wanted to spend more time on. I didn't want to retire for the first reason (no one hopes to retire for health reasons, and even now, 12 years later, grandchildren are pretty far in the future for me), and I didn't have that grand, ongoing passion that would drive the second reason. Notice that no one said "my job is boring/stressful and I want to do something different". I'm sure that lots of people retire for that reason, but not in my social circle, apparently.
The strongest advice I got from people (none of whom had retired yet, but they had been talking to people who had) was not to retire "from" something but to retire "to" something. I spent many years trying to figure out what to retire "to". I don't yet have an answer for that for me. I think that if you have a hobby/passion that could be a part time job (in terms of how it would fill your days), that's fantastic. I tried to see if I could turn some things I have always wanted to do into that passion, but my life was busy enough that I could never find the time to get started with more than "dipping my toe in". I finally made a list of all the things I would like to explore as possible post-retirement activities, and that list is so long that if even half of them pan out, I'll be happily busy for many years. At that point, I stopped worrying about what I would retire to.
The second part of my thinking was to recognize how much my profession was a part of my identity. When I was at my penultimate job, about nine years ago, there were things going on (as in, the company was on a path to self destruction) that I couldn't buy into, so I ended up taking a six month leave of absence to de-stress and decide what I wanted to do. (My boss's last ditch attempt to keep me was to offer me the LOA, rather than accept my resignation). During that time, I considered retiring. The money was there, although it would have been a more frugal retirement than I can enjoy now. That was when I recognized that a lot of my personal identity was tied up in my profession. When I thought about not having regular discussions about UI design or User Experience research and methods (or interesting papers I had read or how to attack hard problems) or about how I would introduce myself to people I'd meet, I just couldn't imagine myself as retired. I did consider consulting, but I think that building up a consulting practice is a full time job plus, not a way to make time for other activities, so that didn't seem like an option. I ended up leaving that company and moving to Google, where I've had many opportunities to approach new problems, discuss research issues with others, analyze complex data, and all the other things I love about my work. I believe I've done some of the best work of my career during this time. But as the years went by, the concept of being a User Experience person became less important to me (I started to feel that I had pretty much done all the things I could imagine doing in my career -- doing them another time, with new bright young faces, was fun, but not novel enough to be worth the cost of working full time.) The notion of introducing myself as 'retired' became less of a feeling of "OK, I admit it, my working life is over" and more of "Look at me, I have so many opportunities. My life is a lot more varied than yours (if you are still working)".
This happened to me very gradually. I slowly started noticing how my priorities were changing -- I wasn't as excited about new work opportunities as I had been in the past, much less concerned about 'getting ahead', and more interested in having my evenings and weekends for things other than work. I also had some health problems that led to me being on short term disability and part time work for short periods, and I enjoyed those times more than I had for similar situations in the past. For a long time I wasn't ready to admit this shift, even to myself. Next time I'll talk about what happened when I did admit to this change in attitude.
My planning for retirement started about 12 years ago, though I would describe it more as "thinking about retirement". I would run into peers at conferences and elsewhere who would tell me they were thinking about retiring, and I always asked them "what are you going to do in retirement?". At the time, this was truly a puzzlement to me. I really couldn't imagine what I would do if I didn't have my career. Sure, I could imagine sleeping in, doing more gardening, travelling more, even doing the NYTimes crossword, but that clearly wasn't going to satisfy me for 25+ years. People seemed to fall into two categories: 1) either health or the availability of grandchildren drove them to retire; they wanted to do less of what they were currently doing, but other than the grandchildren, really didn't mention things they would do more of, and 2) people who had some sort of passion (from rails-to-trails advocacy to model train layouts) that they wanted to spend more time on. I didn't want to retire for the first reason (no one hopes to retire for health reasons, and even now, 12 years later, grandchildren are pretty far in the future for me), and I didn't have that grand, ongoing passion that would drive the second reason. Notice that no one said "my job is boring/stressful and I want to do something different". I'm sure that lots of people retire for that reason, but not in my social circle, apparently.
The strongest advice I got from people (none of whom had retired yet, but they had been talking to people who had) was not to retire "from" something but to retire "to" something. I spent many years trying to figure out what to retire "to". I don't yet have an answer for that for me. I think that if you have a hobby/passion that could be a part time job (in terms of how it would fill your days), that's fantastic. I tried to see if I could turn some things I have always wanted to do into that passion, but my life was busy enough that I could never find the time to get started with more than "dipping my toe in". I finally made a list of all the things I would like to explore as possible post-retirement activities, and that list is so long that if even half of them pan out, I'll be happily busy for many years. At that point, I stopped worrying about what I would retire to.
The second part of my thinking was to recognize how much my profession was a part of my identity. When I was at my penultimate job, about nine years ago, there were things going on (as in, the company was on a path to self destruction) that I couldn't buy into, so I ended up taking a six month leave of absence to de-stress and decide what I wanted to do. (My boss's last ditch attempt to keep me was to offer me the LOA, rather than accept my resignation). During that time, I considered retiring. The money was there, although it would have been a more frugal retirement than I can enjoy now. That was when I recognized that a lot of my personal identity was tied up in my profession. When I thought about not having regular discussions about UI design or User Experience research and methods (or interesting papers I had read or how to attack hard problems) or about how I would introduce myself to people I'd meet, I just couldn't imagine myself as retired. I did consider consulting, but I think that building up a consulting practice is a full time job plus, not a way to make time for other activities, so that didn't seem like an option. I ended up leaving that company and moving to Google, where I've had many opportunities to approach new problems, discuss research issues with others, analyze complex data, and all the other things I love about my work. I believe I've done some of the best work of my career during this time. But as the years went by, the concept of being a User Experience person became less important to me (I started to feel that I had pretty much done all the things I could imagine doing in my career -- doing them another time, with new bright young faces, was fun, but not novel enough to be worth the cost of working full time.) The notion of introducing myself as 'retired' became less of a feeling of "OK, I admit it, my working life is over" and more of "Look at me, I have so many opportunities. My life is a lot more varied than yours (if you are still working)".
This happened to me very gradually. I slowly started noticing how my priorities were changing -- I wasn't as excited about new work opportunities as I had been in the past, much less concerned about 'getting ahead', and more interested in having my evenings and weekends for things other than work. I also had some health problems that led to me being on short term disability and part time work for short periods, and I enjoyed those times more than I had for similar situations in the past. For a long time I wasn't ready to admit this shift, even to myself. Next time I'll talk about what happened when I did admit to this change in attitude.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
New York Times crossword -- feh. Here's a Real Crossword
Someone posted this on their Google+ page: http://nedbatchelder.com/blog/201302/a_regular_crossword.html (Thanks, Terri). Now, this is a crossword puzzle for techies. (If you don't know what a regular expression is, this won't make any sense to you). I've been too busy to solve much more than the obvious parts (and I haven't really figured out how to go around the hexagon; it's hard to read letters that are upside down). But it's now on my todo list. It's more like a sudoku than a crossword puzzle, in the sense that you really have to do it in a single sitting -- each answer depends on several clues, so one clue may limit a cell to 3-4 letters and another clue also limits it, but they only have one overlapping letter.
Retiring is good for my social life. The second of several retirement parties is tonight -- with people I was particularly connected to at work. And lots of facebook friends have said "let's get together for coffee". I think I have found most of my local friends who retired before me.
Retiring is good for my social life. The second of several retirement parties is tonight -- with people I was particularly connected to at work. And lots of facebook friends have said "let's get together for coffee". I think I have found most of my local friends who retired before me.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The costs of not working
The typical article about retirement (at least the ones I read) tells you that your expenses will be less in retirement, because you don't have all those costs of working. Well, in my case, I don't think that's going to be true. Yes, I no longer have my commuting expense (which was only 8 miles round trip, and I biked some of the time, so it wasn't very large. I have a Prius and I seldom filled up more than once a month). Clothing is not a serious expense; I can't go around naked in retirement, and the clothing I wore to work is the same as what I plan to wear in retirement. And childcare -- that's a distant past memory.
In the other direction, I'm not longer getting free breakfasts and lunch, so my grocery bill is going up (yes, this isn't true for most people, but I suspect a number of Googlers are following this). I now have to heat my house during the day, so that's an expense 4-5 months of the year (I don't have air conditioning; I hope that being retired doesn't cause me to want to put it in). I'm drinking a lot more tea during the day, rather than the free beverages at work. I no longer get my internet service reimbursed. And I am planning on doing some interesting cooking projects (like rediscovering bread making and pasta making) that may increase my food and/or cooking equipment expenses, at least in the short term. Seems like there are a lot more things increasing than decreasing.
I definitely hope my taxes will go down, but it will be a while before I have a handle on that. Health insurance is going to go up a lot (because Google's subsidy was large. Mr. Retired-techie (henceforth to be called Mr. R-T) doesn't have such a generous employer, and I don't even want to think about what it would be if I were on COBRA or buying an individual policy.
Most likely the biggest drain on my bank account will be travelling, and I hope to do that often and for a long time. But that's the subject of a different post.
(I probably should revisit this topic in a few months to describe how the differences work out when I have more actual experience, rather than just starting to notice these things.)
In the other direction, I'm not longer getting free breakfasts and lunch, so my grocery bill is going up (yes, this isn't true for most people, but I suspect a number of Googlers are following this). I now have to heat my house during the day, so that's an expense 4-5 months of the year (I don't have air conditioning; I hope that being retired doesn't cause me to want to put it in). I'm drinking a lot more tea during the day, rather than the free beverages at work. I no longer get my internet service reimbursed. And I am planning on doing some interesting cooking projects (like rediscovering bread making and pasta making) that may increase my food and/or cooking equipment expenses, at least in the short term. Seems like there are a lot more things increasing than decreasing.
I definitely hope my taxes will go down, but it will be a while before I have a handle on that. Health insurance is going to go up a lot (because Google's subsidy was large. Mr. Retired-techie (henceforth to be called Mr. R-T) doesn't have such a generous employer, and I don't even want to think about what it would be if I were on COBRA or buying an individual policy.
Most likely the biggest drain on my bank account will be travelling, and I hope to do that often and for a long time. But that's the subject of a different post.
(I probably should revisit this topic in a few months to describe how the differences work out when I have more actual experience, rather than just starting to notice these things.)
Monday, February 11, 2013
This is the first day of ...
Today feels like it's the real beginning of my retirement, especially since the weekend was busy with exactly the same things as I do every weekend. I 'slept in' till 6:20, went to the gym, did some house chores, and then started the New York Times Sunday crossword in the late morning. Doing the crossword was the symbolic beginning of my retirement, since I doubt I have had time to do one of these in ten years or more. I managed to finish it in under two hours, which is much better than I thought I would, I think because the theme answers for this puzzle were pretty obvious to me, and those were long answers that provided a lot of help for their crossing words. I had to use Google for seven clues (all cultural/historical references of some sort), again much better than I expected. I think doing the Sunday crossword is going to be on my to-do list permanently.
The rest of the day was a bunch of small tasks that needed to get done. Nice, quiet, peaceful day. I'm sure I'll want more activity and more interaction with other people in my days going forward, but the solitude and not feeling like there is more to do than there is day to do it in was delightful. Even when I do a 'staycation' holiday, I always feel like these days are so precious, I should fill them with as much of my TBD list as possible. This was different.
Off to make a nice seafood risotto. We have an out-of-town visitor for one night. Usually when such people arrive on a weekday, I cook something simple I can do after a full day at work, but this time, I can make something a bit more time consuming. Another retirement plus.
The rest of the day was a bunch of small tasks that needed to get done. Nice, quiet, peaceful day. I'm sure I'll want more activity and more interaction with other people in my days going forward, but the solitude and not feeling like there is more to do than there is day to do it in was delightful. Even when I do a 'staycation' holiday, I always feel like these days are so precious, I should fill them with as much of my TBD list as possible. This was different.
Off to make a nice seafood risotto. We have an out-of-town visitor for one night. Usually when such people arrive on a weekday, I cook something simple I can do after a full day at work, but this time, I can make something a bit more time consuming. Another retirement plus.
Friday, February 8, 2013
On to New Beginnings
I finished my last day of work. They threw me a lovely "tea party", so I got to say goodbye to a lot of people (there were hugs all around). I was pleased by the people I don't see every day who took the time to come by to say goodbye to me. Then I went through the official "exit interview" steps. I had this moment of panic, where I almost said "No, this was all a mistake. Give me back my badge and I'll be back at work Monday morning." But even though I recognize how much enjoyment I get from my work, I am so ready to start new things.
I announced on various social medial that I have retired and got a lot of responses (and I think surprise). Didn't discover anyone else who 'fessed up to having retired behind my back. I do seem to be one of the first of my cohort to take this step.
It's not going to feel like a new era till Monday, when I don't have to go off to work (and am responsible for making my own breakfast, sigh.). Enough people asked me what my first activity in retirement would be that I have come up with an answer: I'm going to save the Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle (yes, I still subscribe to a newspaper -- proof that I must be old enough to retire) and try to complete it Monday morning over some homemade muffins and a lot of tea. Then I will need to "get to work". My list of things that I have to do because of my life change includes:
I announced on various social medial that I have retired and got a lot of responses (and I think surprise). Didn't discover anyone else who 'fessed up to having retired behind my back. I do seem to be one of the first of my cohort to take this step.
It's not going to feel like a new era till Monday, when I don't have to go off to work (and am responsible for making my own breakfast, sigh.). Enough people asked me what my first activity in retirement would be that I have come up with an answer: I'm going to save the Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle (yes, I still subscribe to a newspaper -- proof that I must be old enough to retire) and try to complete it Monday morning over some homemade muffins and a lot of tea. Then I will need to "get to work". My list of things that I have to do because of my life change includes:
- figure out how to keep a free checking account (or get a different one) now that I don't have direct deposit
- start the process of signing up for Medicare
- figure out what my relationship to the Social Security office will be (more on this later)
- get moved over to my husband's benefits
- determine what to do with my 401k -- whether to keep it at Google or roll it over
- change my health club membership (I had a corporate membership till now)
After that there are a bunch of nagging little tasks (clean out this drawer, make lists, etc) that I need to do. I also want to find some hiking and biking buddies -- I have some who are available on weekends, but now that I have weekdays free, I need more. So if you know me in real life, and you too are on a 'flexible schedule', get in touch.
This is beginning to feel as exciting as starting a new job. Of course it has all the downside of any job where you work for yourself -- a real slavedriver of a boss.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Bittersweetness of Leaving Work
It's my next-to-last day at work. Really just winding things down, getting my files in order to pass on to someone else, etc. (Don't get me started on how hard it is to do something that simple.)
I sent out a message earlier this week telling the people I was most connected to that I am retiring. I have received almost 100 responses that have been really touching. People remembered incidents that I hadn't thought about in years (and a few that I will never forget; too bad confidentiality restrictions keep me from sharing those), but that apparently made a difference in their lives. The comments came from many different people; engineers I have worked with, user experience people I have worked with and who have worked for me (Melanie's gratitude that I believed her story that she was late for work one day because she was rescuing a bunny in Golden Gate Park cracked me up), technical women I have mentored or just discussed the challenges of working in our field with, and random people I have interacted with over the last eight years. Another comment that had me chuckling was the former intern who told me that his professor said that he couldn't get course credit for his internship unless he had proof that he had introduced himself to me during that summer. I hadn't thought of myself as sort of an exam. I really am welling up at the realization that I had made a memorable impact on so many people.
Of course, they all made an impact on me -- that's why I sent them the farewell note. Every one of those incidents was one I remembered, even if I didn't recognize that it was more than a minor exchange at the time. One of the things I have enjoyed most at Google is watching a bunch of young, often fresh out of school engineers, designers and researchers grow into risk taking, passionate, more-than-competent, effective professionals. Knowing that I played a small part in their development is extremely gratifying. And knowing that they valued my input, my experience, my perspective (maybe my wisdom, but I'm not sure they always got that) makes me feel good too.
I am going to miss all these great people. I am accustomed to having access to lots of really smart, competent, congenial people to share the load on projects. While knowing that I am losing access to my main source of that energy is not enough to pull me back to the workplace, I will need to figure out how to re-create something similar in my retirement -- whether it's help with things I take on, or just a set of people to chat with over coffee/lunch that make me feel connected to the world and that help me focus my thinking.
Tomorrow is R-day. I've left jobs before, but this is definitely different.
I sent out a message earlier this week telling the people I was most connected to that I am retiring. I have received almost 100 responses that have been really touching. People remembered incidents that I hadn't thought about in years (and a few that I will never forget; too bad confidentiality restrictions keep me from sharing those), but that apparently made a difference in their lives. The comments came from many different people; engineers I have worked with, user experience people I have worked with and who have worked for me (Melanie's gratitude that I believed her story that she was late for work one day because she was rescuing a bunny in Golden Gate Park cracked me up), technical women I have mentored or just discussed the challenges of working in our field with, and random people I have interacted with over the last eight years. Another comment that had me chuckling was the former intern who told me that his professor said that he couldn't get course credit for his internship unless he had proof that he had introduced himself to me during that summer. I hadn't thought of myself as sort of an exam. I really am welling up at the realization that I had made a memorable impact on so many people.
Of course, they all made an impact on me -- that's why I sent them the farewell note. Every one of those incidents was one I remembered, even if I didn't recognize that it was more than a minor exchange at the time. One of the things I have enjoyed most at Google is watching a bunch of young, often fresh out of school engineers, designers and researchers grow into risk taking, passionate, more-than-competent, effective professionals. Knowing that I played a small part in their development is extremely gratifying. And knowing that they valued my input, my experience, my perspective (maybe my wisdom, but I'm not sure they always got that) makes me feel good too.
I am going to miss all these great people. I am accustomed to having access to lots of really smart, competent, congenial people to share the load on projects. While knowing that I am losing access to my main source of that energy is not enough to pull me back to the workplace, I will need to figure out how to re-create something similar in my retirement -- whether it's help with things I take on, or just a set of people to chat with over coffee/lunch that make me feel connected to the world and that help me focus my thinking.
Tomorrow is R-day. I've left jobs before, but this is definitely different.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Introduction
Hello, my name is Robin and I'm about to retire. I've worked in the tech industry for the last 40 years. Now that I have announced my impending retirement, all my techie friends are saying "tell us what it looks like from the other side", so I've decided to do just that. This is going to be the story of what it's like for someone with technical skills, technical interests (and a few not typical of my fellow techies), and a technical outlook on life to retire.
I'm retiring from Google, so retirement means giving up a lot of things others don't think of: free meals at work, fresh fruit and good chocolate never more than 50 feet away, free massages, always knowing what's going on in the tech industry (with very little effort on my part), early access to innovative products, etc. I think this is going to be the biggest adjustment of my retirement. At Google we refer to such challenges as "first world problems", and I think most of you reading this are thinking something similar -- would that I had such things to give up! I know how privileged I am, but that isn't going to make the change any easier.
What everyone asks me is: what do you plan to do with all that free time? I'm sure I will have no trouble filling the hours with meaningful activities, and that's going to be the topic of some of my first posts. But you'll have to wait to find out.
Whether you are a Google colleague, a professional friend from other places I have worked or from my volunteer activities, a non-techie friend or neighbor, or a complete stranger who just happened upon this blog, welcome. I hope I can keep your interest.
I'm retiring from Google, so retirement means giving up a lot of things others don't think of: free meals at work, fresh fruit and good chocolate never more than 50 feet away, free massages, always knowing what's going on in the tech industry (with very little effort on my part), early access to innovative products, etc. I think this is going to be the biggest adjustment of my retirement. At Google we refer to such challenges as "first world problems", and I think most of you reading this are thinking something similar -- would that I had such things to give up! I know how privileged I am, but that isn't going to make the change any easier.
What everyone asks me is: what do you plan to do with all that free time? I'm sure I will have no trouble filling the hours with meaningful activities, and that's going to be the topic of some of my first posts. But you'll have to wait to find out.
Whether you are a Google colleague, a professional friend from other places I have worked or from my volunteer activities, a non-techie friend or neighbor, or a complete stranger who just happened upon this blog, welcome. I hope I can keep your interest.
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