Things We Wished We Knew Before Retirement
Jason 0 Comments Retire Wealthy Retirement Planning Tips for Retiree's
Well it's great to be with you all again it's
another video day for us – It is – So things that we wish we knew before we retired almost
sounds like a country music song there Tina – And I guess you must be feeling lucky
today Norm – Oh yeah got my lucky shirt on so because we're filming been to
Costco – Got the great deals haven't we – We have so one of the things that we wish we knew
before we retired was how free it is how stress free no longer having to get up and go through the
morning ritual of preparing yourself to go to work and being accountable to somebody else all
day long it's wonderful to be accountable to your own self and your partner that's it
you're your own person and it's such a freeing feeling and we saw that with Tina when she gave
up work the amount of stress we hadn't realized until a few years after retirement just how
different she was she'd lost all that stress of meeting quotas and all that good stuff – And I think
I'll just add Norm that when you're actually doing the job you actually don't think it is stressful
you don't think you are under all this stress until you stop it do something else and
you think wow this is a lot better we like this it's great so just being accountable to ourselves
we love it don't we – It is totally life changing – One thing that we do think is very important
before you retire is you do need to have a discussion with your partner as to what it is
that the ideas that you're both thinking you have when you're going to retire you do need to
have some goals about, do you want to travel do you want to garden or do hobbies do you want
to stay home you really do need to have that conversation to make sure you're both on the
same page – I think it is it is important and we hear a lot from some comments especially
married women who are saying that their husband their frightened the husband will get under their feet
because he'll be hanging around all the time in retirement but that really isn't the case – Not
for us is it – We've been secure as a couple for the longest time and retirement hasn't changed
how we feel about each other and about what our expectations of each other is it's not as if
we've all of a sudden being locked up together in retirement (no) so it is important to figure out
what you both want out of retirement and to have that discussion a few years before you actually
do retire (yeah) one thing to bear in mind is the first few years of your retirement you'll
be your most healthy so just use that health and strength that you do have in the early years
to achieve some of the goals that you want – Yeah and if you want to be traveling do it while
you've got that – Don't think about traveling if that's on your list just do it right away – Yeah
absolutely and that's what we've done isn't it when we retired we just traveled everywhere
didn't we it was great – About two years before we retired we had an inspector come to the house
for I don't even remember what it was but it was some form of home inspection that we had to and
so we got chatting with him because he was a few years older than us but not that much and he told
us that he had a house very similar to ours that he had sold and now he was living an apartment
and he went through the whole process of them and how they moved to the apartment and how
it was such an improvement on their life and it was something we'd never ever considered
– This was big news to us wasn't it we never even thought about renting an apartment – We had been
homeowners since we were 19 years old so to rent we had that preconceived idea that it was throwing
money away but the more that we looked into it so after he left the next couple of days we spent
many hours thinking about this we did a budget of how much it cost to keep our mortgage free
home – Yeah crunched all the numbers – And what the rent would be and if we had sold the house and it
made more and more sense to us to sell the house to downsize into an apartment bank the money
from the house live off that as an investment and that's what we did – And that's what we did didn't
we – But had that guy not come to our house we might never have come up with that idea – No because
originally we had thought that we would just buy a smaller house didn't we – That's right yeah
– So part of our decision when we had actually now decided that we were going to rent and we realized
that would take care of we wouldn't have all this maintenance and stuff like that to do we decided
after we started looking at apartments that if we moved to a cheaper area could we benefit by
getting the same as what we wanted in an apartment but would it cost us less money so the more
we looked into it we did have a family member who lived in a cheaper place so we looked
at the equivalent of renting an apartment in this new place and it was so much cheaper
wasn't it Norm – Because we initially thought we would just sell our house and stay in
the same area so we started shopping for apartments to find out how much they cost and the
availability and we were pretty surprised that at the expense of them but we were prepared
to pay that (yeah) and then we came to a what you would call it a small town that's cheaper
(yeah) we came to visit a family member here and so we started looking around at the apartments here
and they were substantially cheaper about $800 a month cheaper than where we were initially going
to – Yeah and not only that Norm there was a lot of extras with it wasn't that we got there was
underground parking and what else a swimming pool – And laundry facilities in the apartment – And that
was one thing the gentleman had told us he didn't have on-suite laundry he had it in a laundry room
so we wanted that – But coming to the cheaper town it wasn't just the rents that were
cheaper everything was cheaper the Tina's hairdresser as we've
said in the past was cheaper it just permeated everything so our budget became
so attainable (yeah) by moving – That gave us a lot more money to be able to travel didn't it because
we thought if we can save money on a daily basis and it worked perfect didn't it – It did it was
great, take a look at that if you do have family that live in an area that might be cheaper or
just consider going not knowing anybody – No it's like a new adventure isn't it a new chapter in
your life because we've made friends here and they don't have any family just here but they've
made it a new place for them haven't they – A lot of people have moved out of the big cities to a
small town because it's it's far more conducive to retirement (yes) and friendlier another
thing that you really need to consider is where your friends are going to come from
in retirement because once you leave work those friendships tend to wither away because
the only common bond you have was your job your workplace so we've never
really had lasting friendships from work colleagues they've always been outside
of there so it's it's critically important to continue looking for friendships in retirement
and being outgoing and prepared to speak to people Tina when we moved to this apartment building
they did have a social room and they did a coffee morning and so she would go down there and we
found out so much information about the town and businesses to use – It was great wasn't it – It was – It
was kind of my mission wasn't it to find out new information and to try and make new friends
which we did and we made some fabulous friendships – Well in particular there was one couple that Tina
made struck up a friendship with and they in turn have introduced us to another couple yeah and then
they in turn have introduced us to another couple so that's how it goes – Yeah so now we've got
a group of really close nice friends that we socialize with don't we – And the thing that we have
in common isn't an employer it's being retired – It is isn't it – It really is so don't be afraid
of striking out to a new city a new town because it's relatively easy to make friendships
– Yeah you just have to push yourself out there a little don't you and be confident to going to
things and it's very exciting isn't it so we hope that everybody is staying safe – And keeping
well – Until the next time bye bye, bye bye
