Retirement, From the Spouse’s Side
Okay, it happened. My husband’s last day wearing a U.S. Army uniform was Friday.
First thought? Woo hoo!
Second thought? What now?
First, we have to get used to living in each others’ space again. Not only did he retire, but we haven’t been co-located for more than a year. So, yeah.
Cooking for more than one? Love. Sharing the remote? May take counseling.
We’ve done a lot of things right when it comes to preparing for retirement.
Home that we love? Check. In a location that people we also love are likely to want to come and visit? Check.
We also worked really hard to become debt-free—really hard (thank you Chaplain Jarvis and Dave Ramsey).
The nest egg? Building. Hubby has several solid employment contacts in his area of interest, so that’s going well.
We’re in the pre-planning stage of a trip or two (Alaska cruise? Yes, please).
One thing that neither of us is good at? Doing nothing. So, we’re finding that we’ll have time to learn hobbies and skills that we never had time for before. Turns out all of that time that we couldn’t find in our 20s and 30s wasn’t lost at all. It’s just sort of been in trust until now, when we have the means and the freedom to do something meaningful with it.
We’re learning some home food production, and we’re going to a fly-fishing instructor in the spring. There’s a knitting group in our town, and winter is just starting to set in up in the mountains.
So, if you happen to be in Colorado, and you see me snowshoeing back from a fly-fishing river while knitting some mittens and I offer you some home-canned preserves? Stop and chat for a while. Maybe we can take a welding class together.
Corrie, I’m enjoying your chapters. Thanks for sharing these insights.
It looks like your TAP time is paying dividends. You two will have no problem being responsible for your own entertainment and figuring out what you want to do all day…
I’m glad you’re enjoying the chapters! I’m planning to keep on doing them until I run out of material (which of course may be exactly never}. I really value my time that I spent in the TAP workshops, it was such a fun thing to do and I loved engaging the soon-to-be veterans and helping them avoid some of the pitfalls that I hit when I got out of the Army in 2004. I’d also swear that I learned more than they did every workshop, even though on paper it was the same workshop every time 🙂
Corrie
Love the idea that our time from our 20’s and 30’s wasn’t lost – just in trust until we could have the means to use it! I suspect we will be heading down the ETS path sooner rather than later, and this post reminds me to not stress so much and get ready to enjoy it!
Thank you for your kind comment. I know that this is a topsy-turvy time in the military, but hopefully things work out for you the way they’re supposed to. I’ll be publishing more in upcoming blogs on how we got to where we are (a combination of VERY hard work and some luck, of course…that’s how life is), so stay tuned!
Corrie
This is so nice, now they can get to know each other. If they find they like each other it will
Be alright. If not ,then all the time and space they will need ,if he goes to work and she can
Take all those classes she always wanted to.they should be just fine. Good luck.
Thank you, Shirley.
It’s true that our relationship started with a deployment (mine, to OIF in 2003) and has had a couple more and some geographical separation, but whenever we are together we have fun. We explored Korea during the three years we were there, and we have great friends and family.
Oh how I would love for us to retire to Colorado!! Congratulations!
Congrats again, Corrie, on becoming debt-free! You are an inspiration! 🙂 And retirement sounds lovely!