Things We Wished We Knew Before Retirement - YouTube

Well it's great to be with you all again it's  another video day for us - It is - So things that  

we wish we knew before we retired almost  sounds like a country music song there Tina  

- And I guess you must be feeling lucky  today Norm - Oh yeah got my lucky shirt  

on so because we're filming been to  Costco - Got the great deals haven't we  

- We have so one of the things that we wish we knew  before we retired was how free it is how stress  

free no longer having to get up and go through the  morning ritual of preparing yourself to go to work  

and being accountable to somebody else all  day long it's wonderful to be accountable to  

your own self and your partner that's it  you're your own person and it's such a freeing  

feeling and we saw that with Tina when she gave  up work the amount of stress we hadn't realized  

until a few years after retirement just how  different she was she'd lost all that stress of  

meeting quotas and all that good stuff - And I think  I'll just add Norm that when you're actually doing  

the job you actually don't think it is stressful  you don't think you are under all this  

stress until you stop it do something else and  you think wow this is a lot better we like this  

it's great so just being accountable to ourselves  we love it don't we - It is totally life changing  

- One thing that we do think is very important  before you retire is you do need to have a  

discussion with your partner as to what it is  that the ideas that you're both thinking you  

have when you're going to retire you do need to  have some goals about, do you want to travel do  

you want to garden or do hobbies do you want  to stay home you really do need to have that  

conversation to make sure you're both on the  same page - I think it is it is important and  

we hear a lot from some comments especially  married women who are saying that their husband  

their frightened the husband will get under their feet  because he'll be hanging around all the time in  

retirement but that really isn't the case - Not  for us is it - We've been secure as a couple for  

the longest time and retirement hasn't changed  how we feel about each other and about what  

our expectations of each other is it's not as if  we've all of a sudden being locked up together in  

retirement (no) so it is important to figure out  what you both want out of retirement and to have  

that discussion a few years before you actually  do retire (yeah) one thing to bear in mind is  

the first few years of your retirement you'll  be your most healthy so just use that health and  

strength that you do have in the early years  to achieve some of the goals that you want  

- Yeah and if you want to be traveling do it while  you've got that - Don't think about traveling if  

that's on your list just do it right away - Yeah  absolutely and that's what we've done isn't  

it when we retired we just traveled everywhere  didn't we it was great - About two years before we  

retired we had an inspector come to the house  for I don't even remember what it was but it was  

some form of home inspection that we had to and  so we got chatting with him because he was a few  

years older than us but not that much and he told  us that he had a house very similar to ours that  

he had sold and now he was living an apartment  and he went through the whole process of them  

and how they moved to the apartment and how  it was such an improvement on their life  

and it was something we'd never ever considered  - This was big news to us wasn't it we never even  

thought about renting an apartment - We had been  homeowners since we were 19 years old so to rent  

we had that preconceived idea that it was throwing  money away but the more that we looked into it so  

after he left the next couple of days we spent  many hours thinking about this we did a budget  

of how much it cost to keep our mortgage free  home - Yeah crunched all the numbers - And what the  

rent would be and if we had sold the house and it  made more and more sense to us to sell the house  

to downsize into an apartment bank the money  from the house live off that as an investment and  

that's what we did - And that's what we did didn't  we - But had that guy not come to our house we might  

never have come up with that idea - No because  originally we had thought that we would just  

buy a smaller house didn't we - That's right yeah  - So part of our decision when we had actually now  

decided that we were going to rent and we realized  that would take care of we wouldn't have all this  

maintenance and stuff like that to do we decided  after we started looking at apartments that if  

we moved to a cheaper area could we benefit by  getting the same as what we wanted in an apartment  

but would it cost us less money so the more  we looked into it we did have a family member  

who lived in a cheaper place so we looked  at the equivalent of renting an apartment  

in this new place and it was so much cheaper  wasn't it Norm - Because we initially thought  

we would just sell our house and stay in  the same area so we started shopping for  

apartments to find out how much they cost and the  availability and we were pretty surprised that  

at the expense of them but we were prepared  to pay that (yeah) and then we came to a what  

you would call it a small town that's cheaper  (yeah) we came to visit a family member here and so  

we started looking around at the apartments here  and they were substantially cheaper about $800  

a month cheaper than where we were initially going  to - Yeah and not only that Norm there was a lot of  

extras with it wasn't that we got there was  underground parking and what else a swimming pool  

- And laundry facilities in the apartment - And that  was one thing the gentleman had told us he didn't  

have on-suite laundry he had it in a laundry room  so we wanted that - But coming to the cheaper town  

it wasn't just the rents that were  cheaper everything was cheaper  

the Tina's hairdresser as we've  said in the past was cheaper

it just permeated everything so our budget became  so attainable (yeah) by moving - That gave us a lot  

more money to be able to travel didn't it because  we thought if we can save money on a daily basis  

and it worked perfect didn't it - It did it was  great, take a look at that if you do have family  

that live in an area that might be cheaper or  just consider going not knowing anybody - No it's  

like a new adventure isn't it a new chapter in  your life because we've made friends here and  

they don't have any family just here but they've  made it a new place for them haven't they - A lot  

of people have moved out of the big cities to a  small town because it's it's far more conducive to  

retirement (yes) and friendlier another  thing that you really need to consider  

is where your friends are going to come from  in retirement because once you leave work  

those friendships tend to wither away because  the only common bond you have was your job  

your workplace so we've never  really had lasting friendships from  

work colleagues they've always been outside  of there so it's it's critically important  

to continue looking for friendships in retirement  and being outgoing and prepared to speak to people  

Tina when we moved to this apartment building  they did have a social room and they did a coffee  

morning and so she would go down there and we  found out so much information about the town and  

businesses to use - It was great wasn't it - It was - It  was kind of my mission wasn't it to find out  

new information and to try and make new friends  which we did and we made some fabulous friendships  

- Well in particular there was one couple that Tina  made struck up a friendship with and they in turn  

have introduced us to another couple yeah and then  they in turn have introduced us to another couple  

so that's how it goes - Yeah so now we've got  a group of really close nice friends that we  

socialize with don't we - And the thing that we have  in common isn't an employer it's being retired  

- It is isn't it - It really is so don't be afraid  of striking out to a new city a new town  

because it's relatively easy to make friendships  - Yeah you just have to push yourself out there  

a little don't you and be confident to going to  things and it's very exciting isn't it so we hope  

that everybody is staying safe - And keeping  well - Until the next time bye bye, bye bye