Everydays a holiday

[stevewool]

Life as a expat , is everyday a holiday for you i wonder.

Some times you hear that some folk dont have a spare minute once they have retired but could that be because of housework and other chores they have to do each day now they do have the spare time to do these.

I do know a few folk who have retired but they get themselves into some sort of routine like having to go for there morning walk at a certain time and do the same walk no matter what the weather, plus shopping at the same time and same place and for the same goods, nip her and nip there to save a few pence , i must add these folk are retired here in England and Spain.

It does seem like there lives are controlled just like mine but with mine its work and theirs well its either pleasure or leisure or routine, is it a case we all need some sort of routine to make they day go by.

Looking forward to retirement or could it be a case of looking forward to a new unpaid job

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, stevewool said:

Looking forward to retirement or could it be a case of looking forward to a new unpaid job

 Steve, there will be days that you will wonder how you had the time to go to Work at all  believe me  Now I am off to walk the Dog 

[Old55]

Life is all about choices Steve you have free will to do as you like.

[expatuk2014]

Retirement is a never ending life of eating out travelling to SMs shopping. Changing curtains, moving the furniture, playing on the tablet, and watching downloaded movies,tv shows. Oh lets not forget sitting on the balcony in my rocking chair watching the fishermen in the bay while drinking cold beers

Edited January 5, 2018 by expatuk2014

[Kuya John]

Mga gawaing bahay........It depends on what time you get up as to what time you finish, then the rest of the day is yours.

 

Edited January 5, 2018 by Kuya John
photo added

[virginprune]

I wouldn't say life is a holiday here, a holiday is getting away somewhere/doing something other than the daily norm. Mostly life here is just living a normal retirement in a more  agreeable environment. 

[davewe]

16 hours ago, stevewool said:

Life as a expat , is everyday a holiday for you i wonder.

The answer for me as a new expat is no. When you are in holiday mode it is psychologically very different. You spend freely (too freely) because it's your once a year holiday and you worked hard and you deserve it. You do things (sometimes dumb things) that you would not ordinarily do. 

But when you're retired you do develop a routine. It's a new routine that doesn't include work, but still it's a routine. If you retired and lived in holiday mode, within no time you'd be exhausted and broke. Seems to me those are the expats who fail. 

[Queenie O.]

Hi Steve,

For me, my husband and I have a routine of sorts, but now that I live here full time I  make a concerted effort NOT to stick to too much structure or be too task oriented.  I'd say that most of my days truly are like a holiday. My husband does a lot of the grunt work of daily living, but I still do my share of tasks in keeping our daily lives going along smoothly. I find that my husband, although he does spend time relaxing during the day, still seems to occupy himself with extra tasks that I don't seem as all that necessary. He loves to be moving around a lot of the time, seemingly to me just to keep busy.

He was one to work hard at work in the States that included overtime, so he does still at times seem to impose more of his time as if it was a "job" of sorts still.  My feeling is that many men in general have always defined themselves by their jobs, and  it's hard to get out of that mindset. For me work, although not unpleasant, was always secondary--more the paycheck means to an end, to be able to the hobbies and interests that I had outside of work.  The old "grind" of living back in the States, and trying to balance work and demands of living and trying to find free time for ones self was not easy. I don't miss that one bit!

I think that for the most part one has to give themselves permission to step back from the old mindset of "work" and just chill out in this lazy island lifestyle. It took me a couple of years to realize that this was best for me, and it has been great ever since. Maybe temperament plays a big part also, in how one chooses to spend their days.

[Huggybearman]

I am sure that the reasons people stay or decide to chuck it in and go back to their home country, are as varied as the number of expats. We all have our own reasons, be it financial or retiring to somewhere we believe (or hope) is more agreeable.

Like others here I have lived in many countries with work and personally have always been able to adapt to whichever country I was living in. For me though, moving to the Philippines was a choice based solely on that is where my good lady is from. She is considerably younger than I am but she lived with me for several years both in the UK and in Thailand. She was very happy with that arrangement but deep down I realised that she would need more security in the future as she is/was unable to work in either of those countries. Having discussed it at length we decided it was better for her long term security for us to move to the Philippines. There she has a close family (but not too close!  ) and where she could run her small farm. It has worked out very well both for her and me. Since we moved she has tripled the size of her farm (and still growing) which has also given me a really interesting hobby in helping her get it organised onto a more commercial footing. She also teaches English online which she loves. She is now financially independent as well as giving her a feeling of having a real purpose in life. We, but mainly she, will be buying a house shortly which she will be able to finance from her own resources. I shall still make a considerable financial contribution each month, not just because I can but also because I want too. But, and this is an important 'but', she will still be able to manage quite well on her own after I have gone. That gives both of us considerable peace of mind.

As for me now living here in the Philippines, I have plenty to keep me occupied, which for me is key.         I have got used to the idiosyncrasies of life here, and have learned to enjoy the many positives and to accept the frustrations of its negatives. Fortunately the number of frustrations seem to be decreasing the longer I live here.

I guess it all comes down to having a positive mental attitude! 

Ken

[Gerald Glatt]

For me wherever I am it's as if I'm on holiday, first gotta see the tourist stuff,  then chat with the folks around where I am most times agreeing that the visitors are good for the $$ but bad  for us natives.

 

But that was when I was not retried too.

  It is hard to supervise the wife's time between work and clean the house and laundry, mowing, taking out the trash and whatever and sill have time for my nap now that I'm home more.

All-in-all it is tough to be retired but we must try our best.........or will be hit by one of those objects that fly through the air after some of our more useful suggestions.