What is Retirement, Anyway?? Can I have it My Way?

I come from what my mother called “good New England stock” but never got any siblings, so I have no sib experience to draw on for what most consider learning how to live with others – it has made me pretty independent, and very self-reliant, which is certainly standing me in good stead now. She also gave me a curiosity about life which keeps every day fascinating… when you wonder about things, you never get bored. I might add, that if you view life as a continual source of puzzles to solve, you never stay long at the bottom; cause the challenge keeps prodding you to solve just this one more thing.

 

Love for the theatre

I’m not sure where I got my love for the theatre… not to perform, but to make it happen from behind the scenes. I found my niche in my ability to make clothes and props for actors to use in telling their stories. One of my great joys in life is to figure out how to cut & sew a garment that will move the way it needs to in order to assist the actor in conveying the feelings they are expressing in words. Fortunately, through a series of convoluted and very boring events, I ended up with a business that rents theatrical costumes and props for productions of musicals and period plays. Most of my customers are high schools, colleges and community theatres nationwide. It’s hard – it’s challenging – and I have loved every minute of what it has given me – joy, satisfaction, and the strength to know I can solve most anything that comes along, since that is what this activity does – foster problem-solving strengths.

 

Some call it living on the edge – I call it an adventure

I cannot relate to the idea of going to work for someone else to do the same thing every day, with no beginning or end – just repeated tasks. I think I’d have to make some kind of game out of it if I were to stay at it for any length of time. No, mine has always been a world of projects to be approached, figured out, solved and then on to the next. it’s fun, that process… those challenges. Who wouldn’t want to go to work every day if one knew it was going to be an adventure! Some, I think, call it “living on the edge” and view it as insecure and frightening – I call it an adventure!

 

Technology shift

Throughout my life (read work here, as it has always been about what I do each day) I could always pretty much see ahead to where I wanted to take the business next; or at least work out how to keep up with the world and continue to meet the challenges that a changing world offers. When I started, it was a paper and pencil world, with tools that were electric, but not yet electronic. I had an electric typewriter, electric sewing machine, electric pencil sharpener and can opener and coffee pot… we even got an electric telephone that plugged in, had a hold button and an accessory called an answering machine that also plugged in! We had battery-operated everything else, which was good, because we had run out of electric outlets, extension cords and power strips! Suddenly we got a way to send whole pages electronically, called the facsimile machine, and the world of work took off! We also got a thing called a mag card reader to attach to the fanciest of typewriters and the precursor to the personal computers we take for granted today! I was told it took the guilt out of making typing errors, and the words just flowed!

 

The old idea of developing a three-fold mailer to promote this year’s new shows available for costume rental and doing a 3,000-piece mailing to coincide with the opening of school in September was a thing of the past, and now I could send out promos anytime I wanted. Pictures and images became so much easier – or harder, depending on how much technology you want to learn – and pay for! Oops, my screen just said “low battery” – well, that’s easy enough – just reach over and put the little plug in the little slot on the side of my 4-pound fully functional MacBook Pro, and away we go for another 12 hours!

 

Life in retirement

I could always look that far forward & figure out what parts of modernization I wanted to dip my toe into and which I could let pass by, but when I tried to look beyond what my life would be past 70, there was always a blank space which revealed nothing to me about my life “in retirement”. Sometimes I’d wonder if I was going to die suddenly, tragically, to early, but no – I couldn’t see that either – it was just retirement, after all. Why was it so hard? Maybe because I hadn’t planned financially? Maybe, indeed – there’s no nest egg, no 401K, no “portfolio” of interest-bearing stock certificates… none of that, since my family didn’t ever discuss money – it was the forbidden topic. “Don’t worry, dear, the man you marry will take care of that for you”. Well, he didn’t, so here I am, facing retirement – but not wanting to, really, and certainly not knowing how to, having chosen “the path less taken” – wasn’t that Robert Frost? Did he have a 401K??

 

So much to think about – so much to figure out – what is retirement, anyway?? Can I have it my way? “hold the lettuce, hold the pickles…” ???

 

After all, it’s just another puzzle to solve!

 

–  Ann from Hampton, NH

 

* The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the Finance of America Reverse (LLC).

This article is intended for general informational and educational purposes only, and should not be construed as financial or tax advice. For more information about whether a reverse mortgage may be right for you, you should consult an independent financial advisor. For tax advice, please consult a tax professional.