You must reply to at least three colleagues in a manner that extends the discussion. A simple “I agree/disagree” will not be accepted. respond in a manner that further extends the discussion.

post 1.

I think an important lesson to take away from the article ‘The Key to a Successful Retirement’ is that you can plan, and plan, and plan, and retirement will still not unfold the way you thought.  I’d have to agree with Doug here, part of the excitement of retirement is not having somebody plan out your day for you, so when Sydney took her ‘test run’ at retirement it almost felt like Doug was back at work.  I imagine those two years where Doug was retired and Sydney was working were pure glory for him.  The important take away here is that their adequate planning is ultimately what allowed them to learn ‘how to retire’ based on trial and error.  They’re able to do the things they planned for and learn whether or not they like them because they planned for it.  Whether or not they ultimately like it isn’t necessarily the point, the point is that they’ve put together a retirement that affords them the ability to try those things thoughts.  There are certainly worse things one can experience in their retirement years than having your wife drag you around New York trying out new restaurants. 

post 2

I think the thing that stuck out to me after reading “The key to a Successful Retirement” was the idea of expectations. The article could have gone a much more negative way if the author was unsatisfied with how her retirement played out. This is why I believe it is always best to either lower your expectations, or ignore them entirely. This is because you can still accomplish your goals, dreams, or objectives without fantasizing about the outcome you truly desire. Additionally, by lowering your expectations you actually increase the likelihood of achieving the goal due to things like stress from worrying being gone. Unfortunately, life is not like the movies we see and our expectations would be more effective if they reflected reality rather than fiction.

post 3

One thing that really stuck out to me in “The Key to a Successful Retirement” was the quote “the truth is it’s hard to know who you’ll be without work until you take away the work and find out.” I experienced a lot of this when I got out of the Marine Corps and was wondering how the next few years were going to play out and who I actually was. I was 17 when I joined and was 26 when I got out, so I had never experienced being an adult without the Marine Corps attached to it. I think a big takeaway of the article is what I experienced in a way, which is just let life/retirement happen. You can have a plan, but retirement is meant to be enjoyed and straying from that plan shouldn’t be a stressor or a cause of anxiety. I also think this article highlighted the need to talk to your significant other and see what their retirement wishes are, just because you are married doesn’t mean you will have similar ideas on how you both want to spend your retirement years; marriage in retirement can be very different from the marriage you had while both being in the workforce.