Reflections of Same Old Birthday That Rolls Around Every Year

Even though it’s the same old birthday that happens every year, I don’t always plan something for it. Staying in Sacramento this year. This year is the birthday I was supposed to retire. About 10 years ago, I circled this date on my calendar and promised myself I would retire when I turned 66. Plans have a funny way of not always working out. For one thing, I’m married to a guy who is almost 11 years younger than me. At 55, he has no urge to retire. It’s all my fault anyway. I should not have urged him to get a job, and if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have this problem right now.

When we decided to get married almost 20 years ago, I warned my husband: You’re gonna push me around in my wheelchair in my old age. I did not think about what it would be like when I was ready to retire and he was not.

However, it’s more nuanced than that. Not just my husband’s fault I’m not retired. It’s my fault because I have built a successful business that I enjoy, so I can’t stop. This is what happens to top producing real estate agents. They never retire. NEVER. You think to yourself, what would I do if I didn’t sell Sacramento real estate? Well, there’s what I think I would do, and then what I would really do. I excel at doing nothing. The queen of nothingness. Which is probably what I would do. Then I’d go stark-raving mad.

This is what I think about when the same old birthday rolls around, year after year.

After people retire, they’ve got to have something they enjoy doing instead of working. I have worked for so long that it is ingrained in my brain. Don’t know how to separate working from playing because they are both intertwined. I love real estate. Absolutely love listing and selling homes. My team members are the best people in the world, and I count them among my friends.

Financially, I am secure. I don’t have to work unless I want to. Which obviously, I do. I do want to work. Retiring at 66, well, it seems like I am too young to do that.

However, when I look at most of our neighbors at our second home in Hawaii — all retired. One guy has taken up SCUBA diving, and I often spot him hanging up his wet suit in his garage, wishing I was him. Others volunteer. Another spends days in classroom instruction, learning new skills. But I still feel compelled to continue helping home buyers and sellers. My team relies on me. I’m not done complaining about stuff, either. Somebody’s got to object to crap.

Rather than bemoan the fact my best laid plans fell by the wayside today, I am better off celebrating the fact that the same old birthday keeps happening. Given the alternative and all. My compromise is to spend a lot of time working from our house in Hawaii. That’s my trade-off. As long as I can sell Sacramento real estate while I’m working from my lanai, I’m as content as I’m gonna be.

Today, I am giving an interview to a reporter from Realtor Magazine, then it’s off to the dentist, my doctor for an annual exam, work, work, work, and then dinner in East Sacramento with my husband. Life is good. Happy birthday to me.

Psst: Happy Birthday to my client Robbie on the 29th, too.