Thanks for joining me on our meandering retirement path.  I used to think that retirees who said “I don’t know how I ever had time to work” were a bit, well, kookie.  But since May 2018 I have been eating crow.  I take it back.  There is no way to describe the liberation of not “working” when your new focus becomes leisure.  The first few weeks were like being on a holiday.  Although, mind you, business ownership is such that you never really get a break; you are on duty 24/7 even if you are away from home.  Sunday nights were (and still are to some degree) the best!  We would literally pinch each other as we celebrated not having to set the alarm for work on Monday morning.  The time of year for retirement has been a bonus since we are awakened every day with the sunshine streaming into the bedroom window.  A bright and cheerful reminder that a new day is ahead.  What are you going to do with it?

We decided that we would take the summer off.  Something that we hadn’t had the pleasure of since being kids!  Being carefree and un-scheduled is a feeling for which there are no words.  Rudy, my husband of 30 years, says he retired with mixed emotions: Joy and Happiness.  And then take the first year to settle in.  Would we be bored after a while? Would we have enough income? Would we ….. so many questions without the experience to reference.  One of the earliest things we found out is that no two retirement plans are the same: everyone has an opinion based on their personal experiences (or that of someone they know).  There is no right or wrong; there simply is.

As you wander with us perhaps you will find some answers, too.  Or just enjoy the ride.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Photo:  taken on Lake Ontario from our former boating days aboard “Sippin Thyme”