The impetus for this project was one of those moments of serendipity where all the pieces kind of fall together. It was the product of more than a year of planning combined with things you never expected.
Allow me to back up and explain how I got here.
I was born in a small town… No, that’s too far back.
{This caveman statue is from my actual hometown of Grants Pass, Oregon)
After my divorce… Huh-uh. Still not there.
I sold my first novel… Oh, for heaven’s sake, Chris, hurry up!
All right, flash forward another 20-plus years.
I had been flirting with the idea of retirement for several years; actively looking for solutions to several stumbling blocks, including some complicated medical insurance issues. (That last is going to come up regularly throughout this series.) I'd made spreadsheets and run what-if scenarios until my brain threatened to explode.
I went to Las Vegas where I worked as hotel liaison and administrator for an intensive writers’ workshop, a job I’d done for this particular conference for several years.
At the end of the conference as I was preparing to rush home and back to work I had a very clear realization: If I retired I wouldn’t have to worry about how fast I got home.
I wouldn’t be tied to someone else’s schedule.
I went home with a very clear goal: Retire before the next workshop.
I gave myself the year, told my boss informally that I was working toward my goal, and began preparing my department for my departure. At the same time I began preparing myself for a major lifestyle change. Six months later I handed in my formal notice, giving the company six months to replace me and I turned my attention to my personal preparations.
Today I am at this year’s version of that workshop, and I am retired. {Note: This post was initially written before the pandemic. Group gatherings were not yet as issue.}
It hasn’t really hit me yet and probably won’t until after I get home and don’t have to get up and go to work. Right now I am doing something not that much different from what I have done in the past.
And thus the years of planning brought me to the point of retirement.
The second part of this is the serendipity. That’s a kind of magic you can’t predict, you can only be open to possibilities and hope it happens.
During the workshop, the staff act as hosts for lunch tables, talking with different groups of attendees about whatever is on their minds.
My lunch groups knew I had just retired from my “day job” and sat at my table precisely so they could ask me about how I did it. The fact that there were several people following my journey, looking for answers and guidance, brought home to me that there were people who wanted to know how I did it.
These conversations brought up several more questions, like:
1. Relationships. Retirement changes every relationship, but when a creative – or their non-creative partner - retires there are even more complications.
2. Schedules. A job that requires you to get out of bed and leave the house every day for literally thousands of days gives a structure to your life. When those limitations go away, when every hour of the day is a possible time for creating, you can get overwhelmed with choice.
3. Limits. A corollary of schedules. When the alarm clock no longer dictates bedtime, how do you choose where to stop?
4. Funding. Many creative endeavors have an actual monetary cost, for supplies, classes, tools. Budgeting for those expenses when your income is reduced can be a challenge.
5. Goals. Retirement means a huge reassessment of career and life goals. For many years retirement has been the ultimate pot of gold and now it's here. You need to find your next goal.
6. Estate Planning. For a creative, estate planning goes far beyond what most people face in retirement. Stock portfolios, real estate, collectible cars or paintings or stamps can be handled by established, generally easily-available professionals. Managing your art (of whatever kind) requires specialized knowledge, and experienced, trustworthy experts can be difficult to find.
7. Hard Conversations. Talking to your family about what happens with your estate can be much more difficult for a creative. It isn’t just about possessions, it’s about art that embodies part of you. Families often don’t want to talk about what happens after you are gone, and doubly so when it’s something that is so much a part of you.
These are just the topics that have come up within the last couple days. I am sure that each of you reading this will have other questions, other topics for us to consider.
Let’s go on this journey together. Tell me what you’re concerned about, and I promise to share with you honestly success and failure. My life isn’t really a string of Instagram-ready moments. It’s messy, and full of pitfalls and potholes. I will try not to sugar-coat the lows, to pretend that I don’t fail regularly. I will also try not to downplay the successes. That's probably even harder for me; I was taught not to "show off." But it there's a strategy that works, or a step in the right direction I promise to tell you about it.
I hope that will help us all navigate the unknown waters ahead.