Lately, I’ve had a bit of a mini-obsession with retirement. In some ways, it mirrors where I am professionally. I’ve long been aware that I have an expiration date on my career. With the rapid advent of AI and my own aging experience, this may also be happening a bit faster than I anticipated.
At the same time, I can also feel myself shifting. Before, “retirement” was a pipe dream of endless summer days that was like being on an extended vacation. These days? Everything has both softened and clarified, if that can make any sense. I no longer see retirement as some sort of endless vacation but as a concrete lifestyle still filled with “to-do” lists and achievements, but all taken at a more leisurely pace. Alternatively, I no longer see retirement as an “either/or” situation. Instead, it has become a very long and gentle fade to black on my professional career, likely aligning with both my energy and enthusiasm for work as well as my relevance and ability to work. (So much for those dreams of a final day at work somehow launching an exciting retirement phase.)
The other thing I’ve come to understand is that life was on a bit of glide path getting us both to here, though I didn’t necessarily recognize it at the time. First, came the professionally successful years. Becoming a CEO at 37, I spent well over a decade in that role and I learned things about myself and my own leadership that was both unexpected and challenging. Parlaying that experience into a national healthcare consultant was fun, demanding and – in the end – less fulfilling than I needed it to be. So, going out on my own two years ago became one of the best professional decisions I’ve ever made along with taking that first CEO role. What I didn’t realize at the time? Starting my own microbusiness would become the professional vehicle for my retirement glide path. Free of employed expectations, I’m now able to do the work I want to do with the people I want to do it with and at a pace of my own choosing.
Then came the renovations. My God, there were a LOT of renovations. They started the year we got married with siding and insulating the house, putting on a new roof and putting in geothermal. Fast forward to last November and we finally declared ourselves done – at least for a year. We still need to have a garage built and to renovate our main bathroom, but neither project is urgent and the pressure to get the house the way we want it is over. In our case, we didn’t just renovate for fun. We had some serious structural issues we needed to address. The house is now safe, secure and functional. It was also another huge part of our glide path. Last November, we didn’t just stop exhausting ourselves with renovations; we stopped the financial bleeding of renovations. It is hugely gratifying to drive past the home improvement store these days.
Now, we are at the point where we can live on less. Significantly less. We have been a two-income household since the day we shacked up together. Now? We can live on my husband’s salary alone, if needed. Without renovations to pay for, our expenses are minimal.
Less, it seems, is truly more.
For the next six months, that is my goal and it’s the next step on this glide path. The other night, we reset our expectations about my earnings, lowering it to both reflect reduced work opportunity along with reduced expenses. My goal? Making that work for us while growing savings and allowing us to continue to live very similarly to now. Without spending on renovations, that is entirely doable. What’s more? Living on less buys us additional freedom.
Having less – and doing less – is also its own reward. For the first time in years, we are both looking forward to our summer garden. In the past, our interest has waxed and waned. Sometimes, I downright resented the garden when I was busy professionally and the yield was a bit overwhelming.
I’m also looking forward to a summer of making good memories. My husband is planning some long weekends over the summer now that we don’t have to save his vacation days for digging piers or putting on a deck. My sister has warned me that this year’s Fourth of July at the Lake is going to be a blowout and she needs my help – which will actually be a lot of fun. We are planning bike rides and lunches at the state park, campfires and star gazing in the back yard and evening cocktails and a grilled dinner on our back deck.
I’m looking forward to drying clothes on my clothesline, making my sun tea and engaging with Mother Nature as much as I can. I’m looking forward to being a great kitty mom and being a fun partner again. I’m also looking forward to enjoying my work with good people doing great things for their community.
Finally, I am most looking forward to the simplicity. To cutting out the excess, downsizing the chaos and focusing our lives on the simple pleasures that cost nothing, or little.
After decades of growth, achievement, expansion and expenses, it’s time to begin the initial descent towards a life that is less all around and in all the ways that are truly good.
Less is genuinely more these days. And I am so grateful.
The Yuppie Homesteader 