We spend our whole lives worrying about a lot of things. But many of these things just don’t matter anymore once we reach retirement. Which things are we talking about? You’ll find 17 examples of them in this article.
Workplace Competition
You’ve spent your entire working life competing with others and doing whatever you can to try to stay on top. But now that you’ve retired, that pressure to constantly compete with others disappears. You don’t have to worry about trying to be the best because you’ve left the race behind.
Uncomfortable Fashion
A lot of what’s fashionable today is really uncomfortable and impractical to wear. But by the time we reach retirement, we stop caring about keeping up with the latest fashions and gravitate more toward what’s practical and comfortable rather than following a trend just because everyone else does.
Traffic
Figures from the U.S. World & News Report show that “drivers in major U.S. cities lost an average of 51 hours to traffic in 2022.” Being stuck in traffic before reaching retirement used to really frustrate us because we were so busy. But this doesn’t bother us now.
Slow Drivers
Getting stuck on the road behind a slow car really annoys us now because we don’t have time to waste. But when you retire, you won’t get so angry with slow cars because you won’t be rushing to get to places anymore. You’ll be ready to enjoy the journey.
Gossip
Back in the day, you used to want to be in the know about the latest work drama and family gossip. But when we retire, gossip becomes less appealing. We appreciate more the value of getting along with one another and understand how destructive gossip can be.
Saving
According to U.S. News Money, “the average retirement account at age 67 should be $645,700.” Saving money for retirement is very important. But once you retire, you no longer have to worry about saving. You can finally sit back and enjoy the fruit of a life of hard work.
Grudges
Holding a grudge used to seem like the best way to deal with hurt feelings in the past. But by the time we reach retirement, we realize that life is too short to stay resentful indefinitely. We’re more determined to forgive and forget offenses, especially when they’re about trivial matters.
Material Things
When we were younger, we used to do everything we could to have more things. We would work overtime and neglect our families just to get more money. But now that we’ve retired, we see how futile that pursuit was and dedicate more time to our friends and families.
Unrealistic Deadlines
Statistics from The American Institute of Stress show that “80% of workers feel stress on the job.” A lot of what stresses people out are unrealistic deadlines and a heavy workload. You won’t have to care about trying to make tight deadlines anymore when you stop working.
Impressing Others
Before we retired, we would do what we could to stay on trend and impress others. This didn’t make us happy, but we did it anyway. But now that we’ve gotten older and wiser, we see how pointless this was. We put our happiness ahead of trying to impress others.
Celebrities
Back in the day, we used to be obsessed with celebrities and their lives. We knew everything about them and were fascinated by them. But now that we’ve retired, we put more emphasis on our own lives and making our families happy than we do on celebrities.
Sick Leave
According to the Center for American Progress, “Most commonly, employees earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked.” This isn’t a lot of time if you get very sick. After retiring, you won’t have to worry about rushing back to the office when you’re still sick, as your time will be your own.
Vacation Rush
Before you retired, you had to go on vacation at peak times. This meant your vacations were always crowded by families with screaming children. Now that you’ve retired, you’re not interested in peak vacation times, and you can choose to go on a vacation any time of the year.
Vacation Prices
Going on vacation during the peak season when the kids are off school is always the most expensive time of the year. But now that you’ve retired, you’re not worried about trying to find the most economical trip during peak periods. You can go on cheap off-peak vacations.
Wasting Time
Wasting time, dawdling, or just not being productive used to really bother you before you retired. But now that your time is your own, it doesn’t matter how you spend it. If you end up wasting time or not making the most of it, you don’t have to worry anymore.
Networking
Networking and building up a rapport with business contacts used to be an important part of our lives before we retired. We were constantly trying to find new contacts to stay on top of the game. But now that we’ve retired, the pressure to always network has completely disappeared.
Finishing Projects
Before we retire, we have limited time to complete projects, so we’re always trying to work quickly so we can complete them before we have to return to work. But when we retire, we have so much more freedom and time on our hands. We can take as long as we like to finish a project.