How to Experience Retirement BEFORE You Retire!

Is Motor Home Travel for You?

I want you to enjoy life as you go along. My mother taught me that waiting to have fun is very risky. Stuff happens along the way and it is not always good. Life needs to be lived day by day. I'm just saying.

I think that people nearing retirement may be planning for an eventuality they cannot even wrap their mind around. If you are going to make a reasonable plan for retirement, then you need to understand what a life of no work is truly like. You can do this by following my advice and just enjoy little bits of retirement as you go along.

How can you get a feel for a life without work?
If you live a life that includes periods of real down time, you are going to get a feel for what retirement is all about. Why should you do that? Well...you are not going to quit work and go on vacation to Hawaii for the rest of your life. A trip to a tropical resort is NOT retirement. It is fun but not what a retirement lifestyle is all about. I think it is better to find out what is feels like before you retire. Surprises are not always good. Here are some ways to experience the lifestyle while you are still working.

Planning on traveling in a motor home? You can find out how RV travel may be by simply going camping in either an RV resort or a camp ground. Stay put and settle in for a while. Don't feel like you have to be on the go all of the time. In fact, I would suggest doing it on the cheap and making your own fun. If you can do that, you are doing just what you would do if you were retired and living in a motor home for an extended period of time.
Plan to stay at home after retirement? This may sound nuts but spend your vacation at home. A two or three week vacation spent at home will give you a real feel for what retirement is all about. Shop, clean, putz and read. Even when you become a snowbird, you will be just living like you are at home.
Wonder what a normal retirement day will feel like? When you are at home for the vacation, shop on Monday morning. Golf in Wednesdays. There is a whole world of things that happen in the world during the week when you are working. Get out there and see what it looks like.
Do you want to be a snowbird in a 55+ community? Never turn down an invitation to go someplace with a group...golfing or just berry picking. Spending time with other people and learning to enjoy it will help you see what a retiree's snowbird lifestyle is all about. We live very closely but you really cannot understand how it works until you actually do it.
Are you afraid of all that free time? Set aside a period of time for nothing but what you want to do. No work related stuff can invade this time. See how it feel to fill the days with just life in leisure. This is not like the stay at home putzing thing. This is honest go goodness leisure without anything to do. See how you do with that experience.

Doesn't this all seem way to simple? Well, it is not brain surgery...it is just living as you go along.

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Five Little Ducks...stories played out!

The children's song about the little ducks leaving the nest to fly away has always been one of my favorites. Every mother has seen their babies fly away and rejoiced. Life comes full circle. Animals live that same cycle. Babies grow up. Birds leave the nest. Life goes on. So when the three ducks show up every year near my patio I am not surprised. But I am puzzled that it always seems to be the same three. Something just doesn't seem right. It appears the one did not fly away at all. Five little ducks Went out to play Over the hills and far away. The mommy duck went "quack, quack quack," Four little ducks came swimming back... And then Three Two and One. A drake, a female duck (a hen) and a not quite a drake but still not a hen gather here on the 5th green of the golf course. She leads and the other two follow along obediently. They eat, sleep, and guard each other. Each and every day this time of year they come. I have not named them. Jinxing them would be very pos...

How to be a Snowbird in 2024

Early years in RV resort! Our motor home is parked next to our first Park Model When it begins to cool in the evenings and the geese fly in formation, my mind turns to Arizona. Yearning for the desert air and vibrant blue sky is compel me to fly away. I do it every year and will as long as I am allowed. Townhome near Tucson's Pantano Wash and bike trail. We started this way of life when we retired. First with a fifth-wheel trailer, later with a motor home, and finally in something permanent that evolved over the years. First, it was a park model in an RV Resort, then a townhouse close to walking trails, and finally into a home on a small golf course. Congress Hotel from window of near by hotel. Each time we moved, we upscaled and increased our monetary wealth. That is the way our mind works. It is as though we couldn't just have fun without working a lot. We painted and planted flowers and haunted thrift stores to find just the right furniture. We were always hav...

How to be a 12 Month Snow Bird

Vacation Rental in Mexico I live around snowbirds 6 months of the year. I have heard those people say that they all want to live the "snowbird" lifestyle when they go home. But it just is not possible. They are isolated and cold. Social activities with friends and beautiful weather are greatly missed when they return to the realities of their "real" life. One couple I visited with lately returned to Florida this morning where they own a home. The woman is a nurse and works in the summer. They are not going home until May this year. It is too cold in Michigan in the spring so they are hoping to extend their good weather season by simply staying away. Besides that they love their Florida lifestyle a lot. Last week I visited with a woman that lives the snowbird lifestyle year around. No going home to the Midwest in the spring. They essentially vacation 12 month out of the year. And I thought their solution for avoiding unpleasant weather and keeping their lifestyle in...

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