Retiring Retirement
We have the good fortune of serving clients in all phases of their life. We get to see the joy of their first home purchase and provide the extra support and care needed to get through the sale of a beloved family home. We have certainly seen, and done, it all.
One day we received a call from a friend who had recently retired and was looking to downsize. Her daughters had left the nest for good as they were now well-established on their own. Certainly a “job” well done for that momma but one that comes with lots of mixed emotions, like, now what?
Well, after many years of discernment, this awesome momma decided it was her time to leave the nest too; It was time to rightsize her home and life and ride off into the literal sunset.
We had a blast helping her with all of the preparation and planning as well as the sale of her beloved home. When the sale and celebration were all said and done, we began discussing what it really means, or should mean, to retire. At the beginning of our exploration, we decided we needed to retire the word retirement, who wants to be tired over and over again anyway?!!
We decided to pose the question to our Team Skally Insiders community and boy did we get some great responses. Quickly, the new name suggestions for the word retired flowed in. Some of our favorites were Adventuring, Perma-cation, Hobbying, Chilaxing, the GoGo Years, and Pursuement. We couldn’t pick one so we decided to put the names to a vote, and by the narrowest of margins, perma-cation came out the winner. In case you haven’t decoded the word yet, it’s simply the marriage of the words Permanent and Vacation!
After many interviews with our more senior clients and friends, we came up with five themes for a happily ever perma-cation:
HOBBIES - Discover new hobbies and pursue them passionately, may we suggest pickleball! The YMCA has a great group of pickleballers
PURPOSE - Find your purpose, we have several friends who are leveraging their experience as business Board members and leadership advisors, some are into pet sitting and others are volunteering all over the place like the Salvation Army, Mary’s Place and our local YMCA
DE-DENSIFY - Take time to remove items that you no longer want or need. You could donate, pass to family or friends, or take advantage of a great Facebook Group, Buy Nothing Newcastle to share your unneeded treasures.
PRESENT - Live in the present as it’s literally a gift.
HFWBYB - Have Fun While Being Your Best - find a way to have fun every day.
After all, as the late great Ed Foreman said, Life is for Laughing, Loving, and Living not Whining, Worrying, and Working! BTW, for all of us who are years away from our Perma-Cations keep in mind that it doesn’t have to feel like work if you do what you love and love what you do! More to come on that in a future article.
Until then, cheers to your current or future Perma-cation!
Matt & Christina
Matt & Christina are Team Skally, top real estate agents in the Seattle Metro with expertise in luxury homes on the Eastside including Bellevue, Newcastle, Mercer Island, Renton and Issaquah. Their client testimonials say it all - they deliver exceptional service and record-breaking results. Recognized as top agents on social media by Property Sparks, Diamond Award winners for best client service and regularly featured in online and print publications including Greet - Newcastle & Newport Hills Magazine. In addition to serving clients, Matt and Christina love family time with their two boys and two Goldendoodles as well as volunteering in the community.