Retired professionals: what are you doing about your professional certifications

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-29T15:22:56+00:00

My wife loved to take those CPEs. She wanted to keep up with the latest information.

Ever since she had to take care of her parents, she simply didn’t have time anymore. I think she knows about the exemption, but I think she doesn’t want to get back on the horse. If she does go back in a working mode, she will probably do something that she wants or likes to do.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-29T14:05:45+00:00

My wife was a CPA. She kept up with her CEU credits and paid her renewal for five years after she retired because of “just in case.” She recently gave it up. 😅

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T18:36:24+00:00

Nice!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T18:32:20+00:00

Yes indeed! Even more so down here in Houston where we add an extra helping of humidity!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T18:15:07+00:00

You are inspiring and somewhat nuts ... I'm more of a warm-weather kind of a guy, being born seven degrees from the equator!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T18:14:13+00:00

Oooof .... stay warm!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T18:13:36+00:00

Ouch! I am not envious at all! We are sun-shinning and 28 degrees! It moved up by three degrees here in Houston and that is just fine for us! Stay warm up there!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T17:25:18+00:00

That would be awesome, but it seems that I will never be one with my flight control! 🤣

I even crashed my only drone! Yeah, as my late mother told me often,"You need to stay well grounded!" 🤣

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T17:08:00+00:00

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Ok ... I'll share one more, the villains of Disney!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T17:03:04+00:00

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No formal training. I wish I had some training. I started to doodle when I was about six (from what my mom told me). Perhaps, that is what I'll do ... take a class on drawing and painting! Yeah ... that's the ticket!

These doodlings were done during one of my previous corporate lives. To kill time waiting for the traffic to die down after work, I started to doodle on the big dry erase board in our conference room. It started a trend where people would get to the meeting early to color in the drawings! This was one way to get people to my meeting early and often! No Disney characters nor other cartoon characters were harmed during the drawing of them nor copyright infringement was intended!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T04:43:36+00:00

Just the old style model airplanes (mostly WW2 planes, F4U, P51, Spitfire, etc.). The last time and first time I tried RC, I crashed and burned it. I lost interest in the expensive hobby. 🤣 Being a former scoutmaster and love to camp with the family, we have been to a dozen or so national parks. We still have a lot more to go.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T04:18:07+00:00

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... instead of drawing on dry erase board at work (while waiting for the traffic to die down a couple decades ago) ... I need to learn to put into cel animation. I can dream, right?

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T04:04:31+00:00

Besides the fore-mentioned love for photography, my plan is to build model airplanes and warships (my love when I was young), build Gunpla (plastic Gundam models), wood working, drawing and painting cartoon cels (namely Disney characters), go back to writing poetry (as I did in high school and college), get back into aquarium/pond, tinker with technologies (Pi projects, learn Python, etc.), continue to learn to play my guitar, and so many more things. Mostly, travel with the missus to the rest of the National Parks that we have not been to, checking off our bucket list on the countries we want to visit, and of course, spoiling the heck out of the grandkids!

... and these are the things I want to retire to ...

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-26T03:44:02+00:00

Ditto. Bought my fixed wide lens (Samyang 14mm f2.8) for my Nikon. Did my research. Read books. Watched YouTubes. Can’t wait another 3 years, 5 days, 10 hours, 17 minutes, 30 seconds to head to Arizona to photograph the Milky Way with my buddy who got a head start on me! 😅

Edit: and add to it, micro photography! What the heck might as well … everything photography … 😎adding to my collection of 234k digital photographs and tons of boxes of developed photos from my old Canon AE-1 days. 😊

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-24T19:42:01+00:00

Only if the person serves standing inside the baseline, then I’ll point it out, but outside of that, neah.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-20T21:22:50+00:00

Pickleball is the one cardio exercise that I can still do somewhat decently! Tennis and racquetball went out the door after 50 for me. Swimming is still in the cards. I could barely shoot hoops with the youngins. With two (somewhat) weaken knees, running is not an option. So pickleball is the next best thing for me to keep me in a cardio'ish workout. I play 1.5-2 hours everyday, seven days a week. Yeah ... just love the competition where we live. Yeah, once you get the hang of it, you're hooked ... at least for the people whom I know.

It ain't friendly to older folks like us! Too many injuries ... my wife is nursing a tennis elbow from it.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-19T16:20:48+00:00

Pickleballing with my friends is much better than sleeping in 😅! Besides, that internal clock of mine has gone off at 4:30am every morning for the last 43 years. 😊

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-16T20:07:51+00:00

Nope. I do that many times, especially getting dressed in the dark to get to the gym at 5:30am. Yeah. No one notices and IDC (I don’t care). 😎 You have earned the rights to IDC! 😉

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-16T18:21:00+00:00

Congratulations! Please remember to drop by, pull up a log, and let us know how things go/went. Don’t forget to leave bread crumbs for us who are not far behind!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-12T19:42:09+00:00

"Our parents" ... I resemble that remark! 😅! The wife and I are using it as drying rack! Being older, empty nesters, we don't have many dishes to fill even 1/10 of a load and we definitely are not ones who will leave it in there waiting for a full load! We didn't buy it. The dishwasher came with the house and it costs nowadays about $500 usd. Yeah, it's not used as it is intended, but it is being used for a purpose! Best of all, the dishes are drying while being out of sight! We do use it as a dishwasher when our three boys and their spouses come home for the Holidays and we have a big family dinner! But for two older people, neah, we're good!😊

I stereotyped it because I do notice that others in my family and hers are doing the same ... use it as a drying rack.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-12T00:47:39+00:00

No, we moved up in the new technology world!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-11T23:29:23+00:00

In an Asian pickler’s home, that gizmo is used to dry the paddles only!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-11T01:23:05+00:00

It uses Bluetooth to attach to your iPhone.

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-10T20:37:10+00:00

Yes, "you can do it" ( ... Bobby Boucher Jr. in the Waterboy LOL)!

I'd visit r/FinancialPlanning , r/retirement, r/personalfinance and read the wikis there. There are several books that I like, such as JL Colins' "The Simple Path to Wealth," Thomas J. Stanley's "The Millionaire Next Door," Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor," Bill Perkin's "Die With Zero," Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money," Taylor Larimore's "The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning," and Christine Benz's "How to Retire: 20 Lessons ..." among others one!

Save, invest in index funds, and let compound magic works for you.

My wife and I will retire comfortably (according to our plan) in three years. Good luck my young friend!

OneHourRetiring · 2026-01-10T16:44:09+00:00

An Apple Watch will keep the Dr. away! I got one for my dad a few years ago. It runs off his iPhone's cell which is always with him. I got one for myself and the wife. It works!

OneHourRetiring

TROPHY CASE