I *"retired" *almost half a decade back, but prefer to refer to myself as unemployed. I imagine (most probably wrongly) that I will get sympathy when people hear this but the bigger point is that internally the word retirement has a finality about it tends to influence your thinking internally. What does retirement mean anyway?
A sudden change in status from employed to unemployed is hard hitting and one really needs to prepare for it. It is fine to think I need a break, need to unwind etc. but this is really a small blip in the big picture and it is important to have some plan on how one occupies one's time, assuming of course that finances are in order. As one wise sage (cant recollect who) said and some of which I directly experienced, the things that hit you the most when one transitions from corporate to "unemployed" mode are: 1) A feeling of lack of control 2) A feeling of lack of usefulness and contributing 3) If not prepared, suddenly having a vast amount of time , not knowing how to fill it. 4) The dissolution of office networks and chats. You realize how important these are only once they are no longer there. and on a lighter note: 5) Gradual reduction of corporate jargon. Key learnings (see I have still not eliminated corporate jargon) - Get finances in order. - Have a plan as to what to do. Most likely one does not know and it starts sliding, so important to keep at it - Have a daily routine Deepak On Sun, 14 Jun 2026 at 01:24, Sandhya via Silklist < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Folks, > > Long years ago, I started a silklist thread on whether to retire or not to > retire at that point, but I continued to slug it out in the corporate > world, and now the time has finally come when I have redeemed my retiree > badge. At the stroke of the midnight hour a couple of Saturdays ago, I was > at my retirement party and enjoyed my freedom! > > Here's a light blog I wrote a week later: > https://varnikadotorg.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/retired-but-not-tired/ > > I have many more things to do and share in my blog and will continue that > series, but I thought I'd circle back here and talk about this topic again. > In that long-ago Silklist thread, there were fervent discussions about the > pros and cons of retiring early, what steps one should take to prepare for > it, what to do after retirement etc. etc. There were many who had taken > that route and most others who were contemplating it. The thread kept > getting picked up again and again, and obviously struck a chord with many. > My retirement journey has finally started, and I'm curious to hear other's > experiences and thoughts about it. > > Are you retired? What are you doing post-retirement? On hindsight, would > you give your younger self some advice about what you would do differently? > If you're still working, do you think and plan for retirement? Is anyone > even thinking about working till journey's end? Share away. > > Retired-but-not-tired etc. > Sandhya > > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >
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