r/retirement

I've been retired for a little while now, and I'm enjoying it. I have things I care about, projects I want to do, people I want to spend time with, and I'm certainly not sitting around waiting for the end.

But there's something in the background that I didn't really anticipate.

For most of my life there was always another stage ahead: school, work, relationships, career changes, plans for retirement. Now that I'm actually retired, I sometimes find myself thinking: This is the last major stage.

I don't necessarily mean that in a morbid way. It's more an awareness that the runway is finite in a way it didn't seem to be before. Even if I'm fortunate enough to have another 20 or 30 years, there probably isn't another great chapter after this one called "what comes next."

I'm curious whether other retired people feel this too.

Did retirement make you more conscious of the fact that you're in the later part of your life? Did that feeling fade with time, or become stronger? Has it changed what you care about, what you spend your time on, or what you're willing to put up with?

And maybe most of all: how do you hold that knowledge in your mind without letting it overshadow the life you're still living?

I'd especially be interested in hearing from people who've been retired for a number of years and can look back on how their thinking changed.

Quick overview, I am 72, and my wife is 65 in poor health. Done well in the stock market, but I am at a point where I want to get more conservative. We collect $3800 in social security. I won't leave equities entirely but want to take a big step back. We have $275k taxable $540k tax deferred. A rental property which we are planning to liquidate which should net us another $300k

I am considering dropping $500k into 10 year treasuries or CDs which would bring in another 2k monthly. The rest in combinations in the likes of VOO, SCHD, perhaps a couple of midstream, reits and other income instruments JEPI and a couple of closed end funds. Hoping to get monthly income between $7-8k which is more than enough

Home is paid off, we have one car and live relatively modest lives.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.