I know some of you are already past the days of working full time and I would love and appreciate your insights on life after your first career. As background, I'm closing in on the tail end of a career of almost 40 years with the same company. If the economy stays healthy I'm hoping to look for an opportunity to move to the next phase before too long. It might not be this year but I want to be prepared when the opportunity presents itself or the time comes. My company has provided us a choice to leave-in about 2 year intervals and the timing just hasn't felt right before now. I watched a lot of my colleagues take the opportunity over the last 15 years and learned a lot from their decisions. I am somewhat of a "planner" and like to give some thought on most stuff, but doing some things spontaneously can be equally as rewarding. I tend to do a lot of projects and repairs on my own-I have lots of tools and my Dad was a good teacher. I have a list of house projects that are accruing since I use most of my current spare time to ride and play golf. No grand kids yet but suspect there will be plenty enough in just a few years. Overall health is about as good as it can be. Kids are gainfully employed......well maybe 2 of 3. My wife has her own business but she can pretty much set up a practice anywhere she can get licensed-so location is not that much a concern.

I know that everyone's situation and finances are different but I'm sure there is a lot I can learn from those that have the experience and are willing to share. Here's some starter questions that I think about as I'm riding my bike:

How do you spend your time?
What might you do differently?
Have any of your "goals or priorities" changed?
Has anyone felt the need to work "part time" aside from financial reasons?
Without providing any details, has anyone had a situation where you thought you could retire financially but needed the additional income for something that wasn't accounted for?
How has it affected your interests like cycling---or other interests/hobbies you might have?
Who has traveled--and where---especially for cycling vacations?
Has anyone just got bored or tired of cycling because they have so much time to ride? How did you deal with it?
Any words of wisdom or lessons learned from those that have more experience with this retirement thing?
Who researched areas to move to and actually changed where they lived?

Appreciate any thoughts you are willing and would like to share on the general subject.