I've made a lot of bad decisions in my life, but the worse one was the decision to retire. I have never been so bored or felt as useless in my life until I retired.
I made the decision shortly after I had surgery for prostrate cancer, which left me 100 percent incontinent. I either wear a condom catheter or diapers 24 hours a day. at the time of the decision I felt lets enjoy life, lets retire and learn how to make sawdust all day. At the time I didn't realize how much I enjoyed working.
I try to stay active, always have a huge honey-do list ( I think she surfs the net for ideas), have a huge yard, try to stay active in church, and yes I make some saw dust, but I'm really bored.
I recently made an attempt to return to my field, Hospitality Management and/or consulting, even though I'm fairly well known and respected in my field I have acquired 73 negative chances of returning to the work force,(my age).
I had an interview last week with a management company that actually use a couple Excel Templates that I made and sold through advertising in several trade magazines. These are for creating budgets and statistical data for small properties that do not have large sophisticated software programs.
During the interview which was conducted by 5 very young and talented junior executives,(which have twice the amount of formal schooling than on hands management experience) they took turns reading a list of questions from a printed sheet. Some of the questions were, what was the last book you read, could you take instructions from a woman, would you feel comfortable if your immediate supervisor was considerably younger than you.
I actually felt as though I had a good chance, until the last question. I was asked "Where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years" Well this is where I blew it. I thought a little and kind of chuckled and said, "At my age, I hope to see myself in the mirror when I'm shaving". They collectively looked at each other, thanked me for my time and said I would be hearing from them.
Sorry for the rambling, but hey we're suppose to be family and if I can't ramble here where else? I just wanted to make a point, if your working and really enjoy what you do, then why retire.