Retired?

Today is the start of a new chapter in  my life. Or at least a sub-chapter.

I have just started my part-time status with the Home Depot. I have had 24 1/2 years as a full time employee (associate). Since the offer was made to put money into HD stock and then a company sponsored 401k plan, I have done so. When the EXPO Design Centers closed down, I was unsure of future employment status with an Orange Apron, so I moved money to an annuity. And ever since I have been issued W-2 or 1099 reported paychecks, I have been contributing to the Social Security funds.

Because I have been taking almost 20% of my normal paycheck and setting it aside for my future, my take-home pay has been reduced. And that is all right with me, because I have learned to live within my means. Paying cash is a great way to go. It also means my SS check will be real close to the amount I had been taking home already. I am not pressured into depleting my investments just to get by. I also do not have to work to supplement my income so I can eat or pay the normal day-to-day bills: utilities, phone, insurance.

I am working part-time, however, for a rather altruistic reason, as well as mental and physical health reasons.
The customers at my store are kind of like my groupies. They com to me with problems or stupid ideas or with no clue as to how to accomplish what they want. Or what would make their lives easier while working on a project. And there are also a lot of folks in my store who have no idea how to solve these problems, or what resources we have to help our clientele. NO, I don't have ALL the Answers, but I am able to fabricate a solution based on what we have in the store. And that is why people come back to our store: They are looking for someone to at least try to think through the problem with them. And if that person knows what we have available in the store, so much the better.

The mental and physical reasons are just that I get to interact with some good people and some really strange ones (you know who you are), and that I am not sitting on my ever widening ass waiting to grow weak and die. The above-mentioned problem solving keeps the mind active, alert to the concept that there may be no solution, but an alternative could be hiding just around the corner. I am also constantly training my department supervisor and store manager. Just little things, but slowly they are better learning how to do their respective jobs. And, I am still the only one in the hardware department who will carry compressors or table saws or whole wingcap displays down a ladder. No one else has the strength or willingness to do stupid things like that. But it is something that has to be done in order to have merchandise on the floor to sell.

But now, I am part-time. That means getting between 20 and 30 hours a week of pay. It means being home two more days a week with my spouse. And that may be a good reason, too. Seven days a week together may result the shortening of one of our lives by suspicious means. She watches a LOT of the crime dramas on TV. Is she studying up for something?

One thing is happening lately, with this extra time: I have started on chapter one, verse one, of  Book One of the "Eternal List of the Honey-Do's". She  has been retired for the last two years and has been writing these series of Books. I think she is finishing Book Four any day now.

I have a feeling I will be working harder in "retirement" than I had been before.

But I can stay up later to watch more Netflix.