Can anyone really afford to retire? Can we afford not to retire?
When it’s time, it’s time. I don’t want to be like Miss Eppie Gardner, one of my mother’s teachers, who sat in the wastepaper basket.
She had the habit of lecturing or teaching (?) from the desk top. She would hitch up the right leg and hip and perch on the edge of the teacher desk. One day, after many years of doing that same thing, day after day, she hitched up, hiked up, lifted, and sat. But she did not sit on the desk. She missed and sat in the trashcan!
My cousin and I vowed that if either of us were periously close to that point, we’d be kind enough to tell the other. My cousin took early retirement and has not regretted a moment of it. She is living on the lake…has refurbished her house there and, while she has considerably less money, she has a whole lot more peace and happiness.
She was great at her job. The people did not want her to retire. But, she knew the time was right and so, she just did it. Single, she is on her own, but has a family of close friends.
Now, it’s my turn to consider retirement.
