Retirement Countdown 2025

  MILESTONE RETIRE 2025 has certainly been an adventurous one. I knew that this was the year I planned on retiring from my job of almost 6 years -  regardless of the circumstances of our economy or political upheaval, (what's new? ) But as 2025 arrived, I wanted to make sure this was the year filled with adventure!  Office gang, School of Pharmacy, PharmD Program  I chose to leave on July 1st, and that it would be a great time to take off and travel. My job was fulfilling for the most part. I made some impact as an college admissions coordinator. I helped see many perspective pharmacy students navigate their career path to enter in a world class PharmD program as future pharmacists. This I will never forget.  Graduation Ceremony  TRAVEL  Travel is my current relationship. My fellow solo traveler, a sense of discovery is my guidance to living on my own and making the best of it. Upon retiring, I stepped on to a plane to fly across the atlantic for my f...

I recently returned from a close to two weeks vacation in London and returned home yesterday. I had a hard time adjusting to the time, but made it happen. I turned in early to be in my local time zone. It went pretty well, got up about 2 hours before my alarm went off.  Big Ben and Houses of Parliament  As "usual", I started putting the remaining things back like my toiletries, clothing, and sort for laundry. Done. I just started a load of laundry and hurried back upstairs to do some other things to tend to. But, the funny thing I noticed as that I was cramming everything in to get things done like I had somewhere else to go. But no, I have taken 8+ hours back to do whatever I wanted to do. I constantly paused catching myself realizing, "What's the rush?" I just realized I needed to pace myself now that I have more hours in the day to do things.  Taking a break at the Tower Bridge, London  This morning, I planned on going to the gym, having breakfast before 9am...

I'm literally 5 months away before I pull the trigger. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel on this retirement journey. Looked at my finances as usual, looks like I'm in rather good shape; budgeted for a couple of trips I'll be taking before my retirement and after.  Next week will be my 60th birthday and that number, 60 is quite large and intimidating. I never thought I'd see myself being 60, I always thought it was someone else, but wow, I'm going to be there soon. What I also looked into was my health. I've lined up a couple of yearly medical routine check in with my primary doctor and also schedule an eye check up.  All usually around my birthday. Cross fingers I won't encounter any significant changes in my health. I do admit I've gained quite a few over the years. Not sure if was due to getting older or I'm less active these days. I've been doing free weights, some running, and strength training but not at the level I was whe...

It's 2025. My countdown to my retirement date is July 1st. I'm quite anxious at the same time scared. But, I've been planning this for years and now that I want to pull the trigger, I have this unease, at the same time excitement to leave my present employment and really take some time off.  All these emotions running through my head lately is not a surprise. It manifests in my constant checking of my financial health. I'm always logging into my account to see if I have enough to retire. In addition, I'm scrambling to fund a healthy emergency fund, for the just in case moments. Also, taking stock of my health at this time. I have not been running or working out as usual. I walk alot but it's not quite what I find as good. Sleeping hasn't been any easier, for years, I don't sleep a full 6 hours. If anything, much less. Wonder if it's because I'm getting older and "we" old people don't sleep like our days of going to clubs at late ni...