The Best Thing About Retirement, According to WSJ Readers

The transition to retirement isn’t always easy. There can be a loss of identity. Financial woes. Boredom. Such negatives get a lot of attention—leading many people to say they never plan to retire.

But there’s another side to this story, one that isn’t heard as often. And that is the one told by the many people who love retirement. These retirees speak of finally having the chance to learn who they are without a defined workweek. They describe having the time to travel, to learn a language, and being able to pursue hobbies that were always just out of reach while they were working or raising a family.

The discoveries don’t end there. From unexpected small pleasures to profound reckonings, retirement has brought many Wall Street Journal readers a new appreciation for life, opening a new chapter that is so much more exciting than they had anticipated.

Our question to them was simple: “What is the best thing you’ve found about retirement?” Here is some of what they told us.

Sleep in sync

I can live in sync with my personal time clock! It turns out my optimal sleep pattern is 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. With this schedule, I go to sleep within minutes and wake refreshed. No need to slam two mugs of coffee to function. You would be amazed how such a simple change has brightened my life and well-being.

—James Elliott, Doral, Fla.

Giving and receiving comfort

Retirement allows a sense of adventure and freedom that has not been available since graduate school. While healthy and active, we like to travel or volunteer. One example was after Hurricane Helene hit Asheville unexpectedly hard. We were given just a few days’ notice to respond with Samaritan’s Purse. They are boots-on-the-ground in disaster recovery. It was most humbling to be both on a very physical cleanup effort and yet also comforting and praying with the widows that had no water or power for nearly two weeks. 

—Vicki P. Maguire, Greenville, S.C.

Hold that thought 

I’ll get back later, on third tee.

—Tom Wells, Fishers, Ind.

Busy but I’m the boss

Seven days a week I am busy from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Running my golf groups, hobbies like reading, bridge and learning to play the piano, as well as running a TV-related blog for nearly 200 friends. Beyond that is meetups with friends, chores/honey do’s, traveling, playing with the dog, etc. What makes this all so enjoyable is that I don’t have to do any of it if I don’t want to. Life is good!

—Alan Berg, Hernando, Fla.

No plans, no worries

Before I retired, I had always heard you should have a plan about how to spend your time. “Don’t go cold turkey or you’ll be bored,” they said. 

My experience was different, I almost wanted to be bored. I was really looking forward to not being accountable. I immediately enjoyed my “no plan” days.

I started reading more, exercising more, traveling without worrying about my inbox, and spending more time with my wife—weekday pickleball, Tuesday night dates, etc. There were mornings I would wake up, thinking I’d overslept and missed my train, wondering what’s blowing up at work…but then I’d remember those days were over. I could just lie there with a smile on my face, noodling on whether I should go for a bike ride or practice golf after coffee. No decision fatigue there! 

It took over two years to finally want to get some commitments on the calendar, including some part-time work. I still have plenty of free time and I appreciate it even more now that I allowed myself to be “bored” at first. 

—John Van Tassel, Hinsdale, Ill.

The joys of small stuff

The joys of retirement are lying in bed with your spouse after the morning walk doing crossword puzzles instead of commuting or going straight to the computer screen. It’s keeping score for baseball games and trying to figure out the rules at soccer games. It’s ax throwing with the 8-year-old at The Feast of the Hunter’s Moon and going to festivals with your bride. It’s about all of those things, it’s figuring out everything doesn’t have to be highlight-reel stuff.

It took me a few years after retiring to figure out why I was busier than I’d ever been in my working life, but I’ve been grinning a lot ever since I did.

—Tom Wells, Fishers, Ind. 

Chair time

My two-hour morning coffee in my favorite chair, reading the news with the dogs on my lap. They’re on my lap right now, as I write!

—Mary Lu Cinque, Belmont, N.C.

A servant to my community

I have found in retirement a new way of bringing my knowledge and experience I gained as a collegiate coach to now becoming a servant leader to my community. I choose volunteer opportunities that are tied to my strengths: teaching health at a small, local Catholic school; coaching a young friend of the family who has no help at his high school; and working at the food bank at my church. I am now able to attend Mass almost daily, as well as take better care of myself. I am busier than ever and loving every minute of it! 

—Philip B. Olson, Garrison, Texas

The luxury of space to fill

The first few months of retirement, I felt like I just walked into a big hangar. Empty. Nothing in there. Slowly I filled up the hangar with things. Now the hangar is quite full after 20 some years. Tennis, pickleball, cycling, watercoloring, gardening, travel. The days are full and rewarding.

One time when I was biking over the bridge on top of Interstate 40, I looked down at the busy traffic and thought, “I am not one of you guys any more,” and felt sad. But now it is more like, “I am glad I am not one of you guys any more.“ 

—Tung Chao, Cary, N.C.

Role reversal

Every day is Saturday during retirement, and, as we expected, one can do whatever one wants.

But an unplanned and unanticipated development for us was the role reversal that occurred, (very, very slowly) between me and my wife, Helga: I gradually, and ultimately, assumed the routine food shopping as well as the planning and preparation of our nightly dinners. It freed her to develop her watercolor skills and other hobbies and interests. With our redefined roles, life goes on happily in Napa Valley, where we relocated nine years ago from the San Francisco peninsula. 

—Tom Barras, Napa, Calif.

Free to do…whatever

After 45 years of working as a chef, the best thing about retirement for me was the freedom that it unleashed immediately. The lack of daily structure takes some rewiring of the brain, but soon enough appreciation and then a euphoric feeling sets in with the realization that you can do anything you desire, anytime. 

The time that retirement allows you to pursue activities, learn, travel, read and be social in ways not possible as a working person is truly a gift. 

—Trudy Ainge, Southampton, N.Y.

Zig when others are zagging

Mooching off my grown kids! Which simply means spending the night at their place when traveling and getting even with my adult boys who ate me out of house and home as teenagers! 

I travel when no one else is, Monday through Friday and never on weekends. My wife and I never cruise during holidays or during the summer.

No job, no boss (except momma!). Medicare! Busting IRAs to travel! Total freedom.

—Ken Simmons, Henderson, Texas

Health dividends

The best thing about retirement? Regaining my health. Forty years of working nonstop, starting and growing a successful company while raising a family had left me completely depleted—mentally, physically and spiritually. I prayed to God for answers and with the help of my business partners and colleagues was able to retire two years ago. Since then I have been truly grateful for a period of rest and restoration and am now 10 pounds lighter, both figuratively and literally!

Recently my mother fell ill during a visit here. I have spent the past month helping to nurse her back to health, much of that time at various hospitals here and on the East Coast. What would I have done if I had been trying to juggle clients’ needs, manage the business and keep our personal family finances intact, all while being present for my mother? 

Amazingly, I also now occasionally sleep the entire night through, and on the nights I lie awake I am not stressed about what I need to do the next day; instead I think about all the things I am grateful for—including especially my wonderful husband. 

—Barbara J. Hoeft, Jackson, Wyo.

Get up and go—and stay

The best thing I found about retirement is the freedom to travel—at the last minute, in all seasons, for as long as I feel like (and can afford). I am leaving for Peru in a few days.

I will put my travel on hold early next year to help my daughter after the birth of my second grandchild. Then, the rest of the year is full of travel plans—Morocco in March, Central/Eastern Europe in May, and Greece in September on my own, as well as annual family trips to Cape Cod in July and Maine in October.

—Jonathan Blake, Albany, N.Y.

Blissfully ignorant

The best thing about retirement is not knowing (or caring) what day of the week it is.

—Ellie Malloch, Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Keep helping 

After working in law and finance for my whole career, I retired last February to be a first-responder chaplain. I’d spent the last year of my working life studying to serve firefighters, police and those in the community who suffer trauma. 

For me, golf and travel are too fleeting to fill years to come. So, instead of thinking about what career you’re retiring from, think about what are you retiring to? 

—Greg Moore, Beaverton, Ore.

Volunteer immersion 

After a military career that took us all over the world, and four years of travel and camping early in retirement, we settled in Oregon and really lost ourselves in volunteer work. We were amazed by the impact it makes in a small community. This nation runs on volunteers. 

My wife Kathy and I both volunteered at the Britt Music Festival as ushers for eight summers. It was a wonderful experience: meeting new people and seeing terrific shows free! I also volunteered with the Applegate Valley Fire Department where I learned a bunch of new emergency skills. I also served on several fun boards: a white-water rafting/kayaking club, a community park committee, a local hiking club, on the editorial board of our community newspaper, and on a regional federal resource commission. Kathy volunteered with a cat rescue organization and an independent film festival. 

Retirement reinforced how much Kathy and I enjoy each other’s company. And as we’ve gotten older, we’ve recently decided to move to a continuing care facility where the residents are heavily involved in volunteering. It matches our lifestyle!

—Tom Carstens, Medford, Ore.

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Write to Demetria Gallegos at Demetria.Gallegos@wsj.com.