Did someone say that retirement is paying yourself to work at something you love?
The year after my painting trip to Mexico, I started planning for retirement, or rather, planning for a different Job - being an artist.
No, I was not going to run a business. But I wanted more time to make Art.
I turned seventy in January of 1999. In six months' time, I had to withdraw from my retirement accounts by law. It would not be making any sense for me to be working. Besides, the business of selling real estate had become much more complicated and the whole industry was changing.
I had always told myself, if I ever felt that I do not look forward to going to my office in the morning, then it is time to do something else.
It was Time!
I sold my business and the building to my associate. I promised to stay with her for one year to help her get established.
At that time, I still had a couple of rent houses left. So I turned one of them into my office/studio. The office part did not really work out, but the studio part did.
I remodeled the property and made it my art studio.
It was a project! Lot of work. Lot of headaches.
But the end result was great.
I had my own studio.
My husband's health had been deteriorating. He had stopped fishing and hunting. He was not able to do much gardening either. He could still go to his Tuesday morning breakfast with his former colleagues. He was good at keeping track of his own medications. And he spent a lot of his waking hours in front of the television - he loved watching sports.
Every once in a while, we would go to Las Vegas for a short visit. It was his outing.
However, no house was big enough for two retired people.
My studio became my sanctuary.
And I was planning my next overseas painting trip.
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