[fintstone]

I guess it depends if you live for work or work to live. My work had taken up much of my life. All of my friends were from work and most of my day and night was spent working. Other than investing, all my achievements were from my employment (as was the money funding my investments and lifestyle). After spending decades devoting 12-20 hours a day to employment, it is tough to transition. Where do you start? Although deferred maintenance/things around the house can take up some time early on, it is tough to stay on task as they will always "wait until tomorrow" as you are retired. "It's too cold out" or "I am tired" or "watching TV" is awfully easy. It seems that instead of retiring then casting about for what to do, retiring to do something specifically would be better. Many folks see retirement at first as simply the long, restful vacation they have been denying themselves...and start out by sleeping late and watching TV/surfing the web.

I think that retiring in the winter sucks. Spring would be a better time.

It is also easy to fall into worry about spending money...especially at first when you are not quite sure how far your new level of income will go. The massive inflation does not help as most retirees have a finite savings and their annuities/savings may not keep up.