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BLOG: What one happily retired ophthalmologist says about retirement, part 3
Dr. “John Smith” continues to discuss his retirement in the third and last part of this blog series.
“It wasn’t that hard to quit. I was ready. I was tired of the office hassles, of the daily grind. But looking back, it would have been a great idea to schedule longer times off, small sabbaticals, perhaps, as I started entering that phase toward the end of my career when I was so tired of it all. A long weekend is nothing. A 2-week vacation is really nothing. I could have used a real break, and that would have kept me fresher, perhaps, and reduced the impact of daily hassles, making the last years better.
“As to retirement success factors, I think your marriage is the most critical to all of this. If your spouse wants to retire and is happy with you at home, you can have a happy time. If your wife says, ‘Oh God, what am I going to do with you!’ it’s a real problem. My wife and I are fortunate. We retired at the same time, and we each have a playmate. That’s really important. It’s not that much fun if you’re by yourself.
“We’re totally compulsive with our diet, exercise, our lifestyle. We’ve always been good about this, but after retirement, we went into high gear. It really makes a difference.
“The other thing we did that was smart was to hire a financial manager. I thought that managing our assets would be fun. But after a while it became just a horrible chore. Finding a firm to handle this for us truly took a load off.
“I don’t ‘doctor’ anymore. I’m not ‘Dr. Smith’ anywhere. I’m ‘John’ now. And all things considered, it was easy to make that transition. You’ll see when you get there. You’ll do just fine. Just think ahead. And don’t save all your time off from work for your retirement years.”
John B. Pinto is president of J. Pinto & Associates Inc., an ophthalmic practice management consulting firm established in 1979. John is the country’s most-published author on ophthalmology management topics. He is the author of John Pinto’s Little Green Book of Ophthalmology, Turnaround: 21 Weeks to Ophthalmic Practice Survival and Permanent Improvement, Cashflow: The Practical Art of Earning More From Your Ophthalmology Practice, The Efficient Ophthalmologist, The Women of Ophthalmology, Legal Issues in Ophthalmology and a new book, Ophthalmic Leadership: A Practical Guide for Physicians, Administrators and Teams. He can be reached at email: pintoinc@aol.com; website: www.pintoinc.com.