All of our life, at least so far, at least since the early 1980s, we've worked for a living with little time left over to appreciate our presence here on this blue planet. In consulting, we've even managed to monetize our time - consulting is sometimes derogatorily referred to as "brains by the hour" - so from there it was only a short distance to the point where we were willing to pay others to do things that freed up our time and gave us more hours. Time was money, and there was an inverse relationship between income and free time. The more we worked, the more money we had, but the more money we had, the less time we had to enjoy it.
What's more, knowing that free time was our scarcest commodity, but that we were reasonably assured of a steady income and a lifetime flow of future paychecks, we had no problem with buying an airline ticket, non-stop please, instead of driving, with paying landscapers and house-cleaners to do our routine menial chores, and with buying or paying for anything that would save us some precious time.
In retirement, the situation is going to be the polar opposite. Our income will be fixed and we will have finite savings on which to survive. But we will have all day to do whatever needs getting done, all week, all month, all year if need be. What we're afraid of is having nothing to do, of boredom, and of falling into lethargy or depression. So it will be in our interest to do things that fill time and at the same time doing things that will save us money. Rake or blow our own leaves. Clean our own damn house. Drive instead of fly places. Instead of annoying us, things that will take up a lot of time will keep us from having nothing to do, and may keep us from squandering our savings.
Once we realized this, our mindset changed instantly. No, we're not young and we don't have an infinite number of years ahead of us, but we will have all the time in the world to do all the things that need to be done in this world. No need to rush. And this new way of looking at life doesn't need to wait until retirement but can start right now. This very moment. We have to go to work today? Good. That's something to do, and bonus points: we'll get some extra income for the effort. Traffic on the way home? No problem - we have nowhere else to be, might as well turn up the music and enjoy the leisurely pace of driving.
Yesterday, we had to call the U.S. Social Security Administration because the on-line Medicare enrollment locked us out when we couldn't identify a telephone number from 15 years ago. As we were warned, we were on hold for over an hour before we got through to someone, and then had to go back on hold again and again as that someone tried to resolve our issue. The long and the short of it is that we now have an appointment for a second telephone interview in mid-May - the first call turned out to be just a set-up for an interview with someone else to prove we really are who we say we are.
Before our time/money realization, this would have infuriated us. "What? We don't have time for this!" However, now we do have the time, in fact, it's something that will fill a few of those hours of some later day, so we should be thankful. What's more, our study of Stoicism shows us that we needn't worry about things that are outside of our control, and all that we can really control is our own reaction to things. It's our choice whether to be infuriated, outraged, and angry about the god-damned government and their incompetent bureaucracy, or to calmly accept that this is the path ahead of us and then calmly walk that path, without beating ourselves up over it and stressing out about things we can't change anyway. We were particularly calm and, well, Zen, during our pre-appointment telephone interview yesterday and the person on the other end of the phone (and we do need to remember that it is, in fact, a person on the other end, with their own life and problems, sorrows and disappointments, joys and achievements) even mentioned how much they appreciated our patience and understanding.
We're looking forward to retirement - it's already making us better persons.
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