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Odd question but my guess is most of the regulars here are at least semi-retired and older. I find that I am a homebody at heart. I really don't like to travel anywhere these days except day trips so I can return to the home. I thought maybe it was a bit much almost like a phobia to travel. Of course, it is not but wonder if others here have similar thoughts.
I am spiritual director, and I have a few retirees for Spiritual Direction. They are always out doing things and even work some part-time jobs to stay busy. Others have told me they just don't know what they would do with the time. To me I have the opposite thoughts.............I have my guitars to play and a few other hobbies and no need to go find things to do. That seems to work with staying home because traveling around makes guitar playing and playing much more difficult. I did travel around US a lot as a teenager and up till I was 35 but since then no desire.
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09-20-2024 06:11 PM
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The people that retire and say they don't know what they will do to fill their time are just sad in my opinion.Hate to sound harsh but it's 2024,never have people had so many hobbies and activities available to them.I'm retired 15 years and there is not enough time in the day to do all the things i'm interested in doing.
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I'm retired and not enjoying it much because I've never had a hobby - always been work whether music or art - could never separate them from the search for money. When the gigs quit after Covid, I, sadly, quit playing and have barely touched a guitar for 6 months even though I bought a very nice GB10 which didn't even kick me into playing again. Art and music have always been there but only pursued because there was reason - gig or commission; absolutely no desire unless there was an end result - I find it impossible to play or draw for myself. I worked with a therapist for years trying to straighten it out but it never happened before he retired. Gun range is too far away and ammo too expensive; don't like model trains; woodworking too noisy and messy with no real shop; working on ham radio but not sure I have the passion for it that others have; can't read except at bedtime for a few minutes because I think it takes time away from doing something productive during the day. Just a sittin and rockin....
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I can relate, totally!
Originally Posted by deacon Mark
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I enjoy traveling very much. A few years ago my spouse and I decided to get a camper and do some touring. I like to play outside and get a new twist of inspiration that is not in the practice room. Since most of my gigs are on weekends, we do Sunday-Thurs outings unless I have a free weekend. We've found many new friends, people are generally really nice and pleasant mostly around our age late 60's.
I usually bring my Dupont GJG, but occasionally take my Eastman JP 880 and a little Fender Champion 20. Sometimes I'll be concentrating on a tune, look up and folks are standing around enjoying the music.
I do, however look forward to getting back to our house and sleeping in our own bed!
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I am not quite retired, but I do like to travel. We recently got a Class C RV for longer travels. We took it out to the East coast last week for a family get together and music festival.
I do have a lot of hobbies, too many in fact. I am going to get back into woodworking when the weather turns colder.
And of course putting together my Strat (which I hope won’t take long at all).
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Gee Skip, I am not a mental health professional but that sounds suspiciously like a form of depression to me, specifically what is clinically called anhedonia, which incidentally was Woody Allen's working title for his film "Annie Hall," as mentioned in the following quote: Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
“The key to the problem, I would come to understand, was this: I lacked both spiritual guidelines, and an ability to enjoy anything. But at the same time, I was also an excitement addict. This is such a toxic combination I can't even.
I didn't know this at the time, of course, but if I was not in the act of searching for excitement, being excited, or drunk, I was incapable of enjoying anything. The fancy word for that is "anhedonia," a word and feeling I would spend millions in therapy and treatment centers to discover and understand. Maybe that's why I won tennis matches only when I was a set down and within points of losing. Maybe that's why I did everything I did. "Anhedonia," by the way, was the original working title of my favorite movie, the one my mother and I had enjoyed together, "Annie Hall". Woody gets it. Woody gets me.” -- Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
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Great photos! We just booked our next vacation, and this time, we’ve decided to visit Qatar in September 2025. I’m just getting started with the first round of bookings for flights and hotels, making sure everything is set for an amazing trip. I also found out that we’ll need a visa, which we can easily get here https://e-visa-q?tar.com/ There’s still so much to plan—excursions, activities, and places to visit—but I’m already so excited! If anyone has been there before, I’d love to hear recommendations on must-see spots, hidden gems, or any tips for making the most of our time there.
Last edited by benhatchins; 02-24-2025 at 12:10 PM.
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I’ve always been a homebody too, and there’s something really comforting about having your own space for hobbies like guitar playing. I get why traveling can feel like more of a hassle than a joy once you’re used to a steady routine at home. That said, I do enjoy the occasional short getaway, and I’ve found Wowfare helpful for planning quick trips that don’t eat up too much time, so I can still enjoy a change of scenery without disrupting my home routine.
Last edited by Eugle; 12-22-2025 at 04:05 AM.
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Originally Posted by deacon Mark
I'm a homeboy at heart but travel is part of the gig, with the goal being getting paid and making it home alive. I don't like getting ready to go to gigs, don't wanna go, but as soon as I get in the truck and the wheels start turning I'm ok. Having a great gig is one of my few joys. Traveling far can be a phobia. "What if X happens when I'm so far from home?" I wear boots that are made for walking in case I gotta hoof it back from Mississippi. You should know as well as anyone that the Lord is master of life and death, he gives and takes away. Nothing can happen without his express consent. So don't worry about it, that's also the Lord's command, not to worry.
I don't have hobbies cause I can't afford any. I picked up trumpet a little over a month ago. It's not for fun and games. I expect to be able to make a buck doing it within three to five years. My guitar is for blues but the horn is gonna be for jazz. So if the good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise I'll start hitting some jazz jams by 2028-29. I've wasted enough time. It's mostly a game of discipline and endurance now and not letting the last few years of my youth escape me. What's gonna happen is gonna happen. No fear.
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I spent the majority of my younger and middle-age years on the road as a musician and later as audio engineer for a Grammy winning artist who toured the world. I got to see a lot. I have always had a hunger to experience as much as possible in my limited time here on earth. My travels have made me a better person and showed me that our way here in the USA is not the only, or necessarily the best, way to live. (pretty good though!)
Now that I'm semi-retired I plan to keep travelling as long as physically possible, even though it hurts sometimes.
I am fortunate to have a beautiful home with a lot of guitars but still have the urge to travel. We have a camper van that makes it really pleasant. Always a place to hang out and always something to eat and drink!Last edited by Gilpy; 12-22-2025 at 10:59 AM.
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Interesting discussion! I recently put in for my retirement, which will commence in 2026.
There's a mandatory retirement age in Japan, 60-65 depending on job and rank. At that point, there would be three options: Take full retirement and walk away, re-apply for your own job but with an 80% workload and 50% pay, or work part-time as needed. I love the work, and always have, but a full-time job became burdensome so I opted for part-time.
When I first started working here, I actually resented mandatory retirement and referred to it as my "kick out" year. But after corona reoriented a lot of our habitual lifeways, including work, I'm embracing retirement. With a nod to my GenZ students, I began "quiet quitting," taking on less tasks at work and responsibly paying more attention to work / life balance.
So this question of what to do as the time approaches has been on my mind for several years before official retirement. I'm happy to turn over my job to the younger folks who are maturing into their working lives, while the quiet quitting has given me time to play guitar and I'm looking forward to doing more of that. Me and the Mrs. both have our active social lives here, music being my main social activity. There are several venues in a reasonable driving distance that hold open jazz jam sessions, so I play out a couple of times a week. Although I have done some formal gigging here, I mostly play out for fun and only when I feel like it, so I much prefer the informal, spontaneous, irregular nature of jam sessions.
Similar to those in this thread who have already mentioned it about themselves, I have tendencies toward being a home body, but have ironically travelled the world quite a bit. After leaving the US in 2000, I lived and worked full-time in two countries (the UAE and now in Japan). I also lived part-time in two other countries, and have had short visits to several others. The Mrs. on the other hand loves travel and looked forward to my work breaks so we could travel together. In some way, retirement is about giving more of my time to her, providing an opportunity to face my habits and even some of my aversions.
Once my retirement kicks in next year, we would like to do some traveling, with the part-time working being adjustable to suit our travel plans. We both have family abroad, and have been visiting as often as we can, and we both enjoy making pilgrimages, and have done a few, so we hope to expand those types of travel. Neither of us are campers, nor do we enjoy random touristic traveling. We've taken short trips to visit our students who now work in Tokyo, and when my time is freed up we plan to visit those who have moved back to their home countries. Tentatively, we are hoping for a European tour to visit our students in the the UK, Finland and Sweden. Another student visit tour could take us to Central Asia, where we have students in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia, and still another could take us around Southeast Asia to visit students in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Maybe I could bring a travel guitar to seek out the occasional jazz jam session!
I suppose reaching retirement age can be a time to take stock of one's life and what to do with the time that remains, while humbly keeping thanks in our hearts for what we have and how we got where we are. Before retirement became a reality, I toyed with the idea of revisiting abandoned projects and even take on some new ones, but upon reflection I now realize that I'm no longer interested in some of them. However, there are a couple of old projects that I'd still like to wrap up, such as sorting through a lifetime of family photos and related memorabilia for passing on to the nieces and nephews. I would also like to digitize some taped music projects that I did back in the days when I ran a small analog recording studio. I have no interest in recording new material, preferring to keep musicking live, but one of my students has started an online platform for visual arts stories and materials and is interested in hearing my old recordings to expand the platform to include musical arts.
Retirement means giving up an office I've had for nearly 20 years, which when I look at it now became a glorified closet. So, this is a good time to take stock of possessions, both at the job and also at home. And as an unexpected perk to help clear things out, I found a kindred spirit with my GenZ students. We are both at major turning points; as I enter the last 20 years of my life, they are exiting the first 20 of theirs. And I noticed that a good many of them are tiring of the ever-changing presentist online life and are exploring the past through physical media. So I've taken the opportunity to give away books, DVDs, CDs, etc. I open my office a few times a week and let students take whatever catches their fancy, and I realized that bringing them some joy has helped me to let go of stuff. And then there's the question of music gear, but this is getting verbose so I'll end here.
Whatever retirement brings for everyone, I wish you the very best. Take care and enjoy!
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4 years retired and loving it. Both my wife and I devoted a lot of our earlier years developing hobbies and passions, so once the time came we were psyched. My career had a ton of travel so although we do take several trips each year a lot of them are visiting our kids. But between tennis, fishing, hiking and a couple gigs a month we stay busy and happy. Plus weekly library trips. The most important things are keeping your mind active and don't let inertia set in. The day you stay on the couch is the beginning of the end.
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Great topic, and I see many of us share the same issues despite being from different occupations, regions, even countries.
I'd long had early retirement as a goal, because I wasn't that crazy about the engineering jobs I had, and I've always had hobbies I wanted to spend more time on outside of work. Two years ago everything lined up to quit my job, and I needed relief from several stressful situations. Homelife got a lot easier and happier after that. Thing is, I have a younger wife and school age kid, so we're still on a school schedule. Travel is limited to breaks, summer, and "family friendly". I don't really like air travel, the system barely works, but we do a couple of trips a year anyway, plus rail & driving regionally.
I'm still learning about myself and, for example, just how much effort I put into music, but I never lack for things to do or get bored.
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At the company I retired from we started an interest group called North 50 for those of us north of 50 years old. We discussed plans for retirement etc and sometimes brought in people who had already retired to share experiences. It was a really good experience. But a resounding topic was how important it was to develop interests before retirement. You might not be able to jump in head first, but begin the process. My wife and I were already getting corporate burn out by 35 so we spent a LOT of time on it lol. As an example we went off to a tennis camp together because we saw a lot of older couples playing locally. Now 35 years later it's one of the major contributors to our social life. Even something like pickleball which is a much faster learning curve and is extremely social will get you out and active and having fun. I put off gigging for many years but now other retired friends and I have a band and a duo that plays only in summer at a local beer and wine garden. Nothing intense, mostly popular music like John Mayer, Traffic etc with the band and Metheny, Acoustic Alchemy etc in the duo. But now when we play the friend group we've developed all show up and it's like having a party but you don't have to clean up! We started planning for it and putting tunes together 3 years before we retired so we'd be ready. So my advice to anyone not there yet is start the process of building your retirement life now, whther you're 50 or 35! Once you get into it it rocks.
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I retired in my 50's from mental health work and I still make sax mouthpieces part time. I play at home and Ive pretty much decided that I like the idea of travel more than actual travel. I have my routine and plenty of hobbies to keep me busy. I suppose Im an introvert at heart. Travel just seems like a lot of work.
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This is a great and very timely thread for me. I have about 1 yr until retirement, and my priorities will be family, health, music, and travel. Two of our grandsons live right next door to us, so we get a lot of quality time with them. We will travel to see the other grandchildren more frequently. In addition, I will redouble my efforts at staying healthy, eating better, exercising more, etc.
I have been assembling a collection of guitars that will meet any of my playing interests and would like to branch out a bit more and play more frequently with others. I have a few fellow guitar playing friends who I get together pretty regularly, but will have more time after retirement. I have had some pretty high stress jobs throughout my career, so I’m looking forward to more peace of mind, focusing on self care, etc.
My wife and I would also like to travel more as well. She will continue to work longer than me, so it will be somewhat limited at first. I’d love to spend a month in Spain studying flamenco guitar with a teacher, so that might be in the cards.
Overall, I am ready psychologically to retire right now. But, there is more to do professionally before the time will be right.
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I just turned 77 two days ago. I retired four years ago. I teach guitar a couple days a week at a local private music school. I play guitar/ukulele/mandolin/bass a lot, and I'm working on a duo for assisted-living gigs with another guitar player. I ride my bicycle every day in the spring/summer/fall and ski a couple of weekdays each week in the winter. I mess around on the computer a bit, and I read novels for a couple of hours at night. I don't watch much TV. I'm not bored!
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I spent most of my working days away from home. I had a lot of free camping trips while in the Army, and then saw the sights of south Louisiana for years, well over half the time, gone for a week or more every other week, and then central Texas for the last decade or so. I'm tired of traveling. My wife talked me into a cruise, which we both disliked. I had already spent more time than I cared to out in the Gulf of Mexico at work. We traveled to New Orleans to visit family for several years, and that was fine, but they moved to Europe and I'm not up for that trip. My wife doesn't like being away from home overnight, and so we tend to stay near home. I retired about a year after my full retirement age, and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. After more than a decade of retirement, I don't recall feeling bored even once.
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Happy Birthday! Originally Posted by Tom Karol
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