#23 – It’s Your Life: Live It! Beyond Retirement with Jacquie Doucette

Ryan Doolittle [00:01:07]:
After all, this is your life. You might as well live it. Let’s go beyond retirement with Jackie Doucette. Do you ever wonder who you’ll be and what you’ll do after your career is over? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear stories from people who figured it out who are thriving in retirement? I’m Ryan Doolittle. After working with the retire sooner team for years and researching and writing about how they structure their lifestyles, I know there’s more to be learned, so I’m going straight to the source and taking you with me. My mission with the Happiest Retirees podcast is to inspire 1 million families to find happiness in retirement. I want to learn how to live an exceptional life from people who do it every day. Let’s get started.

Ryan Doolittle [00:01:55]:
Jackie Doucette, thank you so much for coming on the Happiest Retirees podcast.

Jacquie Doucette [00:02:00]:
Thanks, Ryan. I’m excited to be here.

Ryan Doolittle [00:02:02]:
Yes, we’re very excited to have you. You really, really maximize your retirement, it seems, and you help other people try to do that themselves. So why don’t you start out by telling me about beyond retirement? That’s a site you run where you help people with their retirement, right?

Jacquie Doucette [00:02:19]:
Yeah, it started kind of by accident when I started my podcast. But the site is geared towards helping people figure out what to do with the rest of their life because we all know that there’s more to life than just, you know, sitting on the sofa watching Netflix. And some people. Some people don’t know what to do with themselves. So I’ve got some swag to help you figure it out, just so you look like you’re retired and moving on. And I’ve got some coaching and some things to do on the site just to help people remember what life was like before they started working so that they can get that back into their dreams again.

Ryan Doolittle [00:02:57]:
Yeah, I would imagine that is a huge thing because people, their whole life has been tied up in this job and probably more than they even realize. Right. So once they’re out, it’s almost like a different kind of empty nest syndrome. It’s like, oh, who am I without that?

Jacquie Doucette [00:03:13]:
Yeah, that’s it, exactly. And a lot of people say I can never retire because my job is my life. And I just think that that’s really sad because you’re so much more than just the work that you do. And so I like to help people remember the things that they used to do that were fun before they had to be locked into that job all day long. So go back to when you were ten and you went running out the doors. You didn’t think about work, you didn’t think about anything but having fun. And that’s the way it can be again.

Ryan Doolittle [00:03:41]:
Exactly. And do they even remember what they loved back then, or do you have to sort of coax it out of them?

Jacquie Doucette [00:03:48]:
A lot of times I have to just sort of coax it out of them. I start asking them what they did as a kid, what kind of sports they did, what kind of games they played, and get them to remember who they hung around with and talk to me about memories. And then that kind of brings it all back, and then all of a sudden, they’ll go way off on. On their tangent someplace.

Ryan Doolittle [00:04:10]:
Yeah, I imagine once you open those floodgates, they just come rushing in.

Jacquie Doucette [00:04:15]:
Sometimes people just don’t stop talking. All of a sudden they remember everything, and it’s, you know, their eyes light up and they get a big grin on their face, and it’s like, oh, I remember doing this. And we go off onto some exploration that they did when they were kids.

Ryan Doolittle [00:04:31]:
Totally. Okay, well, why don’t you tell me a little bit about what you did during your primary working years and also mention where you live and where you’re from.

Jacquie Doucette [00:04:39]:
Well, I live in southeastern Ontario, up in Canada, and I’ve spent the majority of my life in Ontario, but I spent a little bit of it in Nova Scotia on the eastern coast of Canada.

Ryan Doolittle [00:04:51]:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:04:52]:
I worked for the military. I started right out of high school. I joined the military and I worked for them for 20 years, starting off as an engineer in aircraft maintenance and finishing off as a pharmacist. I tried to retire, but it didn’t take. So I went back to work again.

Ryan Doolittle [00:05:08]:
Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:05:10]:
And I worked for the military as a civilian for another 20 years as a pharmacist. And now I’m finally retired, and I’m enjoying it.

Ryan Doolittle [00:05:19]:
How does an engineer say, you know what, I’m going to be a pharmacist now?

Jacquie Doucette [00:05:23]:
Well, when I was finished high school, I was accepted into pharmacy, but the military needed engineers, so they wanted me to be an engineer and I wanted a job. So that’s what I went and did. And then about ten years into that, the military went, oh, man, we really need pharmacists. We have a lot of engineers. So I said, hey, remember me? And they sent me back to school to be a pharmacist.

Ryan Doolittle [00:05:46]:
That’s crazy. So the one thing that you actually wanted to do originally, they ended up needing.

Jacquie Doucette [00:05:52]:
Yep. Finally.

Ryan Doolittle [00:05:53]:
Okay. But if the military told me, we really need engineers, I don’t think I have the talent. So you just happen to be good at that, too.

Jacquie Doucette [00:06:02]:
They teach you how to do it. I mean, I was just going to school. I was going to be doing an undergrad program regardless of what I chose.

Ryan Doolittle [00:06:09]:
Okay. Okay. So you were an engineer, which is ironic cause now you’re sort of engineering happiness for people.

Jacquie Doucette [00:06:17]:
Sure. Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:06:19]:
Tell me why and how you are a happy retiree, because obviously you couldn’t help other people, per se, unless you were one.

Jacquie Doucette [00:06:26]:
Well, I think. I think I’m happy because I’m getting to do what I want to do, and I think that’s the epitome of being retired and being happy. Retired is learning what it is you want to do and going out every day to do that.

Ryan Doolittle [00:06:41]:
Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:06:42]:
I figured it out. It took me a little while. Like I said, I failed at retirement the first time, but in the end, I figured it out and I know how to do it.

Ryan Doolittle [00:06:52]:
And so once you figured it out and realized you knew what you were doing, how long from that point to when you decided you wanted to help others?

Jacquie Doucette [00:07:01]:
It didn’t take very long. I retired in 2022, and my podcast started going in 2020? No, 2019. So it was before I retired and people started asking me questions. So then I figured, hey, I figured this out. I’ve retired. I know how I’m going to do it. I can help people. Probably took me about three years.

Ryan Doolittle [00:07:24]:
Okay, so would you say that as you figured out what made you happy, you were kind of simultaneously figuring out that helping others was part of that for you?

Jacquie Doucette [00:07:33]:
Yeah, that was a big part of it. And I think that’s what the key was for me, was figuring out that I was helping other people do it, too.

Ryan Doolittle [00:07:41]:
Oh, okay. And I have to say, I was looking over your website and the different links and for podcasting, and you are very tech savvy for your scheduling of podcasts, and it looks like you run a course for helping others learn how to podcast, and it’s all neatly slotted in there.

Jacquie Doucette [00:08:02]:
Well, thank you. Yeah, I’m glad I’ve got you fooled.

Ryan Doolittle [00:08:07]:
It just made me realize, oh, I feel like the Luddite because I do so much of that manually, just like reaching out to someone. Yours is all set up with calendly, and it’s all. It’s like perfect. It’s kind of. I guess what I’m saying is, can I hire you to set up my. Yeah, that. It’s really impressive. So, okay, so your tagline is, it’s your life.

Ryan Doolittle [00:08:34]:
Live it. How did you come up with that? And what does that mean?

Jacquie Doucette [00:08:38]:
It took a while to come up with it. I was. I was trying to sort out what being retired meant to me or what it would mean to somebody else. And the big idea in my mind is that it’s freedom and to be retired, it means that your life is finally your own and it’s up to you what you do with it. So it just kind of fell naturally into, it’s your life, go do something. Live it.

Ryan Doolittle [00:09:04]:
Okay. Because I really love the sentiment and it puts it in perspective. In a very quick almost mantra, you can just say to yourself over and over again.

Jacquie Doucette [00:09:13]:
Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:09:13]:
Okay. So before you retired, this is very interesting. When I started the podcast, I wasn’t sure how many people would have a clear plan and purpose before they retired. A lot of people don’t. You did. Now, I’m not saying it didn’t change and you didn’t adjust a little improv here or there, but it seemed like you really had a plan and purpose. Tell me how you had that and how it changed.

Jacquie Doucette [00:09:35]:
Sure. Well, that’s kind of how it all sort of fell in when I was trying to get ready to retire originally, my plan was to replace my work income with something else so I could retire early. And that didn’t quite get off the ground. So I ended up trying to plan what I’d do after I retired. And it had to be something meaningful. It had to be something that got me up every day. And it was hard to figure out because at the time, I was just getting up every day to go to work, and I just felt like I was in a rut. So I started thinking about what I wanted to do.

Jacquie Doucette [00:10:12]:
And I was looking online, I was kind of surfing the net because that’s what everybody does. And I was seeing all kinds of travel pictures and things people were doing all over the world. And I figured, well, you know, that’s what I really want to do. I really want to travel. And travel was going to be a big part of it, but how could I fit that in? I’ve got a husband, I’ve got a family, I’ve got things to do, but I want to travel, and I want to make that part of my life. So that’s kind of where the podcast came, and that’s where the idea of beyond retirement sort of grew, is that I can talk to other people and figure out what they’re doing with their life, and from that I can make my own plan. So my plan was to start living my life so I could talk to other people and, okay, it’s not a great thing.

Ryan Doolittle [00:11:00]:
Oh, I think it is. Well, it depends, but, yeah. Would you. So your dad stopped doing all the fun stuff when he retired, and it seems like even if you didn’t know it, you were definitely studying that and deciding, I don’t want to do that.

Jacquie Doucette [00:11:14]:
Sort of. My dad did a lot of stuff after he retired. He curled, he golfed, he played tennis, he walked, he bowled, he did all sorts of things.

Ryan Doolittle [00:11:23]:
He curled, you know, he did everything.

Jacquie Doucette [00:11:29]:
And he tried valiantly to convince me to curl, but it just wasn’t my thing.

Ryan Doolittle [00:11:33]:
Yeah, okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:11:35]:
But just about the time that I was retiring from the military, so my first go at retirement, he ended up with shingles. And I don’t know how much you know about shingles, but there’s pain that can come from that, that can last forever. And this was back in 2001, and that pain never went away. And it just completely destroyed him. It aged him immediately. He couldn’t get up, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t do any of those things anymore. So what I saw him doing as retirement went on was just sit. He watched tv, he read some books, he did some crossword puzzles, but he was always just sitting in his chair unless he was going to a meal.

Jacquie Doucette [00:12:15]:
And I decided that that wasn’t what my retirement was. Going to be. I was going to do whatever I needed to do to change that. I know I can’t predict whether I’m going to end up with pain from shingles, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I was going to do whatever I could, and that’s what changed the whole ballgame for me.

Ryan Doolittle [00:12:36]:
Oh, okay. Interesting. Okay. So on this show, we talk about core pursuits, which is something we’ve coined. It’s basically hobbies on steroids, things you’re really passionate about. And for you, you love pickleball, travel, and as you said, helping others plan and experience their best life. So tell me a little bit about why you love pickleball and travel. And I think you love volleyball, too.

Jacquie Doucette [00:12:59]:
Yeah, that’s, I would say volleyball is probably right up here in importance with breathing. So I really like volleyball.

Ryan Doolittle [00:13:06]:
Oh, my gosh. Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:13:08]:
But as I get older, it’s a little harder to play volleyball.

Ryan Doolittle [00:13:11]:
Yeah.

Jacquie Doucette [00:13:12]:
So I moved on to pickleball. And pickleball is a great sport. I know. I listened to one of your other podcasts and was you were talking to somebody or someone was talking to someone about pickleball. It’s just, it’s a game that anybody can play, and it doesn’t matter what your skill level is or what your mobility is, you can get in there and take part. And I think that that’s really important, especially as we get older. And I just love the fact that it’s a team sport, but you’re also doing it independently. Like, you’ve got to be able to play and hold up your own end of that team.

Ryan Doolittle [00:13:44]:
Yes. I had interviewed a pickleball champion. That may have been the episode you listened to. I know a lot of retirees love pickleball and a lot of non retirees love pickleball. I’m seeing more and more courts built where tennis courts everywhere used to be. And you mentioned that kind of fits in with travel because you can take your paddle and shoes with you wherever you go.

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:06]:
Yeah, I take my paddle in my suitcase whenever I’m going. If I don’t have a checked bag, I take a bag that’s big enough as a carry on so my paddle will fit in it. You never know when a little game’s gonna pop up somewhere.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:20]:
I love that. So tell me about some of the places you’ve traveled to and played pickleball at.

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:27]:
Well, I went to Phoenix, Arizona. I was there. I haven’t been anywhere worldwide to play pickleball.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:33]:
Oh, that’s funny.

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:34]:
I played in Mexico. I played in chapala in Mexico.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:36]:
Really? Where’s Chapala?

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:38]:
It’s about 40 minutes or so south of Guadalajara in the interior.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:43]:
Okay. And you found a pickleball court there?

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:46]:
Oh, there’s a ton of pickleball players there. It’s very, very big.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:50]:
So did you just show up with your paddle and someone was like, get out. Get in here?

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:54]:
Yep. That’s the way it goes. Yep.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:56]:
Really? Pick up pickleball?

Jacquie Doucette [00:14:58]:
That’s the way. Yep.

Ryan Doolittle [00:14:59]:
So you said, I’m Jackie. I’ve got next. Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:05]:
Sort of. I mean, you go up in fours, but, yeah, that’s the idea.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:08]:
Okay. And so where else have you played? You went to Phoenix and played?

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:13]:
I’ve carried it around a lot, but those are the only places recently that I’ve played. I only started playing a couple of years ago.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:18]:
Okay, well, where else did you travel to? You don’t have to play pickleball everywhere.

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:25]:
I was just saying to Marissa, this year has been my year of travel. I decided when I retired I’m not going to spend winters in Ontario anymore because they’re cold.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:33]:
Yeah.

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:34]:
So. So this year I dragged my husband along and we went to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:41]:
Wow.

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:41]:
And after that we went to Nicaragua and Turks and Caicos. And then I landed in Mexico.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:48]:
Oh, my gosh. That’s a healthy dose of traveling there.

Jacquie Doucette [00:15:52]:
It was a lot this year. Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:15:53]:
Yeah. Okay. So how have these core pursuits made you happier than you would be otherwise?

Jacquie Doucette [00:16:00]:
I think the biggest thing is that they get me involved with other people. You can’t play pickleball and not be happy. I mean, if you are, you’re not going to. If you’re unhappy, you’re not going to be on the court for very long because nobody’s going to want to play with you.

Ryan Doolittle [00:16:11]:
Oh, okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:16:12]:
But traveling, helping other people, those are things that just kind of go hand in hand for me. I like to travel and meet new people. And wherever I go, I try to look around and see what I can do to help out the people in the community that I’m in. And it just feels good to get up in the morning and know that somebody’s day is a little bit better because of something I did for them.

Ryan Doolittle [00:16:35]:
Well, you know, we ask people what their favorite core pursuits are, just like I’ve asked you. And volunteering is always near the top of the list. So it sounds like you do that even though you didn’t list that, you’re still doing a lot of volunteering in your way, helping people.

Jacquie Doucette [00:16:51]:
Yeah, that’s. I don’t go to the various charities or those sorts of things and say, what can I do for you? But I go out and figure out what I can do for them. So, yeah, it’s volunteering.

Ryan Doolittle [00:17:02]:
So you mentioned a perfect day for you involves waking up on your own schedule, no alarm clock. And I imagine after 20 years in the military, that was a lot of alarm clocks. So now does it feel really good?

Jacquie Doucette [00:17:15]:
It does. It feels really nice. I spent a lot of time getting up between 430 and five in the morning so that I could do my own exercise routine before the day got started. And now I don’t have to get up that early. My exercise routine can start whenever I feel like it, which is really nice.

Ryan Doolittle [00:17:30]:
Yes. So during this perfect day, you’re waking up whatever you want, taking your time with breakfast and sunshine, if you happen to be in a place that has it. And then you like yard work, maybe strolling around, talking to neighbors, and then you help others through coaching and whatnot. And then in the evenings, you like to relax and enjoy a glass or two of wine.

Jacquie Doucette [00:17:53]:
Yeah, sounds like a perfect day.

Ryan Doolittle [00:17:55]:
Okay. Okay, great. We found that in our survey, the happiest retirees tend to drink white wine or gin. So I’m always just curious to ask what people like drinking white wine. Oh, really? So like a chardonnay or.

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:10]:
Actually, you’re probably going to hear a whole bunch of people go, ooh. Cause I like Moscato.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:17]:
Moscato. Okay, I’ve heard of it. What is it?

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:20]:
It’s sweet white wine. I used to tell people that I drink soda pop wine.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:27]:
Now, in terms of animals, you used to say dogs, hands down. But now by the fact that I see a cat behind you, I think it’s shifted a bit.

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:37]:
Well, a little bit. This cat is the last of our home zoo. We had two cats and a dog, and they were all born in the same year, and this is the only one left.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:47]:
Oh, okay. Okay. What is this cat’s name?

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:50]:
Nikki.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:51]:
Nikki. Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:52]:
Yep. And she’s 19? No, 18.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:55]:
She’s. Oh, wow, she looks good.

Jacquie Doucette [00:18:58]:
Yeah, not too bad.

Ryan Doolittle [00:18:59]:
Yeah. Give me the name of her skincare doctor. Okay, so you mentioned this and you sort of mentioned it in passing, but I was very intrigued. You’re an international pet sitter?

Jacquie Doucette [00:19:11]:
Yeah, that’s my retirement gig, is pet sitting internationally. So I go to your house, wherever you happen to live, look after your pets there while you go away, so that the pets routine doesnt get disrupted at all.

Ryan Doolittle [00:19:24]:
How do you know to do that? Is there some website or something?

Jacquie Doucette [00:19:28]:
Yeah, theres a lot of platforms. Theres trusted house sitters, which is an international platform. Thats one of the most popular ones. Theres also Hauseit, Mexico, which I use regularly because thats where I really want to go.

Ryan Doolittle [00:19:39]:
Oh. So how does it work? So you look up someone in need, and then you reach out, and then they see if they like you or something or. How does that work?

Jacquie Doucette [00:19:50]:
Well, sort of. The homeowners post an ad on the platform saying, hey, we need somebody for this period, and here’s what your duties are going to be, and then you apply for it if it looks like it’s interesting to you, and then the homeowner gets to select from all the applications and decide who they want to have.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:07]:
So then you go. Does that mean you stay there for free?

Jacquie Doucette [00:20:11]:
Yes. Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:12]:
So the payment is staying there for free.

Jacquie Doucette [00:20:15]:
Exactly. That’s the accommodation.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:17]:
So on pretty much every trip are you doing that?

Jacquie Doucette [00:20:20]:
The trip that I talked about, where we went to Asia and Nicaragua, that was vacation. But Mexico and I did a sit in Houston. That was a house sit, a pet sit.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:31]:
And so you have enough time to leave and go explore, but as long as you’re back within, I don’t know, however many hours to watch the animal type of thing.

Jacquie Doucette [00:20:41]:
Right? Exactly. Most of the time, they’ll tell you how many hours their pets can be left alone. So you’re there for meals and for cuddle time and that sort of thing. When I was in Mexico, I was looking after three dogs, a cat, four budgies and six chickens.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:56]:
Oh, my God.

Jacquie Doucette [00:20:56]:
There’s lots of things going on.

Ryan Doolittle [00:20:58]:
Wow. And my wife shows up for meals in cuddle time, and then she’s gone, too. So I guess maybe I’m doing this without knowing it.

Jacquie Doucette [00:21:05]:
Exactly.

Ryan Doolittle [00:21:06]:
Yeah. Okay. Do you ever have people come to your house and pet sit?

Jacquie Doucette [00:21:12]:
We’ve done it once when we had, before the other cat passed away, we had someone come over Christmas time when we were away.

Ryan Doolittle [00:21:19]:
And did it work out?

Jacquie Doucette [00:21:21]:
Yeah, it worked out really well. It’s nice to have somebody come in so that we don’t have to worry about the animals. You don’t have to think about your house being empty if you’re gone for a long time. It’s good.

Ryan Doolittle [00:21:31]:
Okay. Now this is a question that is much more interesting than I ever knew it would be. Do you consider yourself retired now?

Jacquie Doucette [00:21:39]:
I do. I consider myself retired because to me, retirement means doing what you want to do when you want to do it. And this is the first time in my life where I’ve been able to say that that’s what I do.

Ryan Doolittle [00:21:51]:
And when you look at your friends who are still working, you see a big difference between their life.

Jacquie Doucette [00:21:56]:
Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:21:57]:
It’s interesting, I think sometimes that the word retirement, we almost need a new word because it’s not defining the way people are living it now.

Jacquie Doucette [00:22:07]:
No, not at all.

Ryan Doolittle [00:22:08]:
And so sometimes I ask people, do you feel retired? And they say no. And some of those people do less than you do. Like, you’re doing a lot and you still consider. So it’s just a very interesting paradigm shift, I guess. I’d say.

Jacquie Doucette [00:22:20]:
Yeah, I guess it’s, most of the people that I’ve interviewed recently have said they don’t consider themselves retired and they don’t use the term retire because, like you said, it has a different connotation. It’s kind of a negative or withdrawing from things. And that’s not what retirement is all about anymore.

Ryan Doolittle [00:22:38]:
Yeah. And along that line. Tell me about the philosophy with beyond retirement. What you try to impart to people.

Jacquie Doucette [00:22:45]:
I guess it’s starting to get more well known. But what I say is that you don’t retire from something. You retire to something. So the idea is that by being beyond retirement, you’ve hit that goalpost. You’ve done it, but now you’re moving forward and you got to keep looking ahead to what’s coming next.

Ryan Doolittle [00:23:02]:
Well, so just by shifting a preposition, you can shift your, you know, instead of retiring from retiring to, you can change your whole outlook.

Jacquie Doucette [00:23:12]:
Exactly. Yeah. And it’s, you’ve got, you know, 20 or 30 years to go. You’ve got to be doing something right.

Ryan Doolittle [00:23:18]:
Right. And you see, you don’t like to say, I used to be a pharmacist. You like to say, I am this thing now.

Jacquie Doucette [00:23:26]:
Yeah, that’s exactly. And it’s so hard because our whole, our whole society is made up of, you know, hi, I’m Jackie. I do this or what do you do? And once you’re retired, people shy away from that because they don’t do anything in their minds. But we do so many things.

Ryan Doolittle [00:23:43]:
I think that’s also a generational thing. My dad, when he’s telling me about one of his friends, he always mentions the career they had a, I mean, it’s interesting, but it just, he’s like, you know, gary, retired sheriff for 30 years. It’s like, I didn’t ask what he did, you know, I’m more than happy to hear about it, but it seems very ingrained, you know?

Jacquie Doucette [00:24:04]:
Yeah. Because you’re, I mean, your career you’re taught to grow up, get an education, get a good job, stay at that job. So your career is what that means. You’re successful, and I don’t think it is. There’s so much more.

Ryan Doolittle [00:24:18]:
Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So even though you’re kind of crushing it with this retirement thing, you’ve still faced some challenges along the way. So tell me about some of those challenges.

Jacquie Doucette [00:24:30]:
Oh, boy, did I write about those. I guess the biggest challenge for me was one that I was trying to ignore, and that’s financials. Financial life has got to be part of retirement life. You can’t be retired if you’re not financially ready for it. And I learned that the hard way. We thought we were ready for me to quit working, and we had plans for all the things we needed to do and all the stuff we needed to pay for, but we didn’t plan for it all to happen at once. And it seemed like somebody had this little black cloud over, over top of me. And as soon as I retired and wasn’t getting money anymore, everything we owned fell apart.

Jacquie Doucette [00:25:10]:
And that was a big, a big problem. So I try to remind people that while you’re not supposed to spend your life worrying about your finances, it’s good to have them in place first.

Ryan Doolittle [00:25:24]:
Yes, for sure. So you were able to make the adjustment you needed over time?

Jacquie Doucette [00:25:29]:
Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:25:30]:
Okay. So you. But if you had done it sooner, it would have made it smoother, it sounds like.

Jacquie Doucette [00:25:35]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:25:36]:
And another. So aside from financial and maybe the physical limitation of not being able to play as much volleyball as you want and adjusting to pickleball, what about over committing?

Jacquie Doucette [00:25:50]:
That’s a big problem. It was a problem for me at the start. I wanted to do everything, and you just can’t do everything. There’s only 24 hours in the day, and hopefully you’re sleeping for some of them. But I found that a lot of people have that problem. A lot of retirees come to me and they say, I don’t know what to do. I’m so busy, I don’t have time to turn around, let alone sit down and have a cup of coffee. And it’s important to know how to plan that as well.

Jacquie Doucette [00:26:19]:
It’s great to have all of this time to be your own, but you’ve still got to plan it a little bit. You’ve still got to say, oh, I can’t do that today, or, I’ll do that next week. Just like when you’re working, you’ve got to plan time to stop and breathe, smell those roses that you’ve planted.

Ryan Doolittle [00:26:36]:
Yes. Yeah. Smell the roses without getting hit by the thorns. So, you know, and I related a lot to what you said because I feel guilty sometimes saying no, but I need to say no or I’ll get overwhelmed. Have you. You’ve sort of felt some of that.

Jacquie Doucette [00:26:54]:
Yeah. And it gets to the point where, again, you don’t want to get up out of bed in the morning because you’ve got so many things on your, you know, on your plate, so many things that you’ve got to do. And that goes back to the. I’m not retired if I’ve got all these things because somebody else is running my time and it’s not mine anymore.

Ryan Doolittle [00:27:11]:
Right, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s good to stay busy in retirement, but like you’re saying you want to stay the amount of busy that’s good for you.

Jacquie Doucette [00:27:20]:
Exactly. And maybe you’ll overrun that for a little while while you figure out what’s a good tempo for you trying to do all the things you couldn’t do while you worked.

Ryan Doolittle [00:27:29]:
Right.

Jacquie Doucette [00:27:30]:
But at some point you’ll figure out what the right rate is so that you’re doing a couple of new things and a couple of old things and balancing it out for sure.

Ryan Doolittle [00:27:39]:
Yeah. I could see myself leaning too much into the things that I’ve always done and that kind of stunts you. And you also mentioned it’s a little harder to stay awake as late as you used to. Were you a night owl before?

Jacquie Doucette [00:27:53]:
No, not really. Oh, okay. But it’s even harder now for some reason. I guess I’m just up and doing things and by the time 09:00 comes, you better be keeping me really excited or I’m going to fall asleep.

Ryan Doolittle [00:28:06]:
So without your alarm, what time are you waking up in the morning?

Jacquie Doucette [00:28:09]:
To be honest, I wake up early still, but I stay in bed. So I wake up at, you know, 05:00 or 530, but I stay in bed until 730 or so.

Ryan Doolittle [00:28:19]:
Oh, wow.

Jacquie Doucette [00:28:20]:
Usually.

Ryan Doolittle [00:28:20]:
Usually. Are you just relaxing or you’re reading or.

Jacquie Doucette [00:28:23]:
I do a little bit of. A little bit of reading, a little bit of relaxing. That’s when I open up my phone and I play the wordle and the various little games.

Ryan Doolittle [00:28:32]:
So tell me, I thought it was interesting, you mentioned that there was stress that was present, but it was sort of a layover from the working days. It was like something you carried over into retirement and you had to learn how to not do that.

Jacquie Doucette [00:28:45]:
Yeah, I kind of. Quite often I’ll wake up in the morning and I think that there’s something that I really need to be doing and my mind is turning and my body’s kind of ready for it. And then I realize, nope, I don’t have to do that. There isn’t really anything there that has to be done right now. There’s very little in my life that is scheduled so tightly that I need to stress about it. And it’s hard not to have that stress. It’s hard to just go through your day doing whatever you please, but it’s a good feeling when you get it sorted out.

Ryan Doolittle [00:29:17]:
Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And if people are trying to become as happy as you are, I mean, do you have any advice that you haven’t already said? Because I think you’ve already given some great nuggets. But anything else about that, I don’t know.

Jacquie Doucette [00:29:32]:
I think the most important thing is to just think of how important it might be. Just kind of balance it out. Is it worth stressing over? Are you going to think about it tomorrow and really care how it turned out? If you’re not going to care about it in a couple of days, don’t worry about it. Now. That’s the, that’s the biggest piece of advice I can give. Stop stressing.

Ryan Doolittle [00:29:56]:
So sort of like live in the present?

Jacquie Doucette [00:29:58]:
Yeah.

Ryan Doolittle [00:29:59]:
Okay. Okay. I like that. If you want to plug anything for where people go for beyond retirement or anything, give it to me.

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:10]:
Not really anything. My website, beyondretirement ca. That’s the only thing.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:15]:
Oh, that’s the only thing. Okay. And. But they can go there. They can take podcast courses, they can learn how to. I mean, there’s a whole plethora of things, right?

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:25]:
There’s a few things.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:27]:
And. Oh, tell me, what rank were you in the military?

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:31]:
I was a captain.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:32]:
A captain. So was this the Canadian army or is this the Navy?

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:37]:
It was Air force. We have army, Air Force, Navy, but they’re all combined into the canadian armed forces. It’s all under one umbrella.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:45]:
Oh, okay. Okay. And then the mounties are something else.

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:50]:
Yeah, they’re. That’s a police force. That’s national.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:54]:
And they don’t all ride horses with those big hats.

Jacquie Doucette [00:30:57]:
No, they don’t.

Ryan Doolittle [00:30:58]:
Is there any chance I could get you to ride a horse and put on that hat for all?

Jacquie Doucette [00:31:02]:
Absolutely none.

Ryan Doolittle [00:31:03]:
No. Okay.

Jacquie Doucette [00:31:04]:
Okay. You got a better chance of getting me curling.

Ryan Doolittle [00:31:08]:
Okay. All right. I’ll work on it. Okay. Well, Jackie Doucette, thank you so much for joining us on the Happiest Retirees podcast.

Jacquie Doucette [00:31:16]:
Thanks very much, Ryan. I had a blast.

Ryan Doolittle [00:31:18]:
Oh, me too.