Having a Life Plan

When I was a little girl, I had my life plan all organized. I would become a Grade 1 teacher just like Miss Burke. I would get married and work for two years, then start a family and have four kids: a girl, a boy, a girl and lastly another boy. Their names would all start with the letter "A".  I would become a stay-at-home mom with the four kids, and never work another teaching day in my life. I am sure I ended my plans with "live happily ever after".  Now isn't that just the sweetest little girl's look on life.    

I love my conversations with my friends. When they talk about people I don't know, I feel like I do once they are done sharing. During one of those conversations, my friend told me something I found very interesting about a couple that she knew. This couple have always had a life plan, and have always followed it. My question to her was "all of their lives together", because I was pretty sure she meant retirement only. I was wrong, as long as they have been together, they have had a plan. I am an organized person, but not so much when it comes to planning my life. Once, I remember saying, "I'm on the five-year plan". It simply meant I am working at this job for five years, and not making any more decisions about working, until those five years are up. That was it, nothing more was on the plan. I guess I am just not a "formal life planner".  I never had a plan for purchase of a home, which I think should have been a life plan decision. I bought my condo in less than an hour, yet it took months to find the perfect color of a vehicle before I bought it. Clearly no cut and dry system for life planning in my world.  

In my thirties I remember making a decision about my life, and I have followed through with it. That plan was not to work a day past the age of 65 years old. The government has set a retirement age and they encourage it by giving financial support to the people in Canada to stop working. I knew my work expiratory date was up on my 65th Birthday and I was excited to say, "I'm retired". I always made a point at work of being just as productive as those younger than I, but it was evident that working was harder on me. I had many reasons for retiring but one of my biggest was I felt it would free up a job for someone that may need it more than I did. Getting my job may be just the break someone needed to get away from shift work, working weekends or holidays. I believe Canada does not have a mandatory retirement age, which allows people to work as long as they want. Some people of retirement age are getting paid at their job, perhaps getting a pension from their place of employment and other income sources such as CPP. There are others that work because they simply don't have enough income to make a go of it and live the life they want on their retirement income. We all know people that continue to work because they feel they won't know what to do in retirement. Such an individual decision to make in your life plan. 

People will often ask me, "so how do you like being retired". My response is always the same. I tell them that for the first year I would get up and think, is this it? Is this retirement? Is there more? I would wonder, was I to do more? I was fearful I was going to miss all those opportunities that were out there as a retired person. After a year, I stopped asking those questions of myself, and decided I was overthinking it and in all honesty, I just don't care about the answers anymore. I am pretty content with the retired lifestyle.

                                        

Health always plays a big role in a retirement plan.  If you are having health issues, for sure stop working. If your health is good, for sure stop working and enjoy it. I admire life planners; I think for them it must be the guidance they need to live the life they wanted. Right now, I only have bits of a life plan, nothing concrete. I am hoping most people reading this are thinking, "neither do I". It then makes me feel like what I am doing is the norm. Sometimes I feel frustrated because I can't seem to sort out a plan and commit to it. Other times I am why stress about something I truly have little control over. I will get the direction I need when I need it, we know life unfolds the way it is meant to. There is a saying that I am going to follow, it goes like this, "If you don't know what to do, do nothing". Fits nicely into my life plan.