The Best I Can Do On Retirement Advice

In 45 days I will have been retired for 7 years. When I was seven that was a long, long time. Now it is enough time for me to inhale, slowly.

In preparing for retirement, I had been reasonably lucky, financially, thank God. I lined up my ducks very carefully as to Medicare and Social Security for my spouse and me.

Notably, to obtain Kristine’s Social Security benefits, I needed a verified copy of our marriage license. My first thought was, did we remember to get one? I had no memory of showing up at the state offices to obtain same, as a lawyer might say. What had we done? My heart nose-dived to my feet. I was thrilled, to say the least, when too many days later the verified copy arrived in our mailbox.

I hand carried our Social Security enrollment papers to the local office. I used an excellent insurance broker for our supplemental health insurance. So far so good.

Having had points in my life where I enjoyed my writing, as did others, I decided I would self-publish memoirs that people might find interesting. It was both a relaxing and exciting adventure. It also allowed for a legacy for my OFFSPRING, a word that sounds like bouncing off a poor mattress at dawn.

The writing kept me in the house way too much. The paradigm for Kristine and me had changed. We had never had me out of the workforce permanently, in the house frequently and all without children around. I found that getting out for whatever reason on my own would be an excellent idea. Like most couples we needed/need time together as well as time apart.

Additionally, COVID-19 has created challenges with privacy for both of us. It has also allowed for cooperative, home improvement projects that seem to work for both of us. There is an upside and a downside to having retired at 68. I was not fired, but have been able to live independent of a job. On the other hand, I am in the higher risk group for serious COVID-19 infection.

As you will note, the retirement we save for is, as one would expect filled with joy and sorrow. In planning for ourselves we should give it a go on understanding what ties our past to our retired future. In my case it was the love of my life and less importantly my writing. May you be blessed with both long life and a peaceful retirement that, in brief, beats working.

H. Robert Rubin, best-selling, Amazon memoirist and author of Look Backward Angel, How Did I Get Through This? and Please Save the Third Dance for Me, all available on Amazon.