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Retirement!!!

:laugh It's not you Paul. The 'malfunctioning timepieces' are dead-on..... the correct time is zero (for retired folks anyway). As some old wise sort suggested..... "eat when you're hungry and sleep when you're tired". BTW, do you really take a nap at a particular time? - Bob

No set time but I do need to be sure to start my nap soon enough that I'm not late when it is time to cook dinner. :)
 
Congratulations! I am less than 5 years away myself, and as each month passes, the anticipation grows stronger. I plan to spend an entire summer touring the western US as soon as I put in my last day of work. I am sure I will have to do it on the "cheap" in order to be able to afford it, but I enjoy camping anyway, so I will be enjoying the best bike trip ever, regardless of the travel style.
 
Osbornk has it right. Once you have enough money to be relatively comfortable in retirement you need to pull the plug. Working any longer is just trading time for money and there may come a day when you would trade all of your money for just a little more time and that's a bad deal. Enjoy it. You've earned it and you deserve it.
 
Congrats

I just turned 60 in November and had planned on retiring at 62 and had been working towards simplifying, getting debt free, etc for the past couple of years.

Unexpectably I lost my job in October, and following the initial shock, I readjusted my thinking, evaluated my situation, and decided that I will classify this as "early retirement". If I can bridge the two year gap until SS kicks in, I will be successful.

Having been a junior enlisted man for the first four years after I first got married, and then 4 years of college with the GI Bill as my only income, my wife and I know how to live on the cheap. Our time together to pursue our interests is much more valuable than the lost income! BTW we are celebrating 40 happy years of marriage tomorrow.:dance
 
A few other points

1. Figure out most of the things you think you would like to do when you retire - then do them as much as possible BEFORE you retire. Far too many people go from the boredom of a job they hate to the boredom of retirement with nothing they really want to do. (We all share ONE thing we like to do, but it's good to have a few more irons in the fire.) Pretty common for people without compelling interests that they developed before retirement to end up in the ground within 12 months of retirement.

2. With some jobs you don't have to go from 40 hours a week to zero. As a musician, I retired the part I liked least (private teaching) when I was about 50. At 64, I'm still playing principal clarinet in a small but professional orchestra and plan to continue as long as my playing meets the musical standards of that group - and hope I know when it no longer does. The challenge of playing classical music really well, as well as the social aspect means that this "job" still has more pluses than minuses for me and the least of the "plusses" is the pay check. I also still play jazz and R&B sax, again for musical satisfaction and social interaction more than the meager pay. So, if you LIKE doing whatever has been keeping you financially afloat, maybe you should keep doing it - just less, and on your terms.

3. If possible, stay reasonably physically fit or gradually get that way. (Tried cross-country skiing with wife and grandkids yesterday. A 25 year hiatus from that activity equalled three falls and a sore body today.) But I can still walk and ride a bicycle. Vow to do both much more regularly!

Given the demographic of the MOA, bet this thread doesn't die any time soon!
 
I just turned 60 in November and had planned on retiring at 62 and had been working towards simplifying, getting debt free, etc for the past couple of years.

Unexpectably I lost my job in October, and following the initial shock, I readjusted my thinking, evaluated my situation, and decided that I will classify this as "early retirement". If I can bridge the two year gap until SS kicks in, I will be successful.

:dance

Something similiar happened to me 30 years ago. There's only 10 more months 'til I reach 62 and the SS kicks in. Semi-retirement for the past 30 years has been great!

The greatest lesson I've learned from not having a regular job is how valuable a responsible person with free time is. The world is full of people with high paying jobs that don't have the time to do the things they want to get done, and they are willing to pay someone very well to do them. Imagine, getting paid to sail down to Cozumel and spend the Winter; who'd of thought someone would pay for that, but they did.:D

Life is full of opportunities. All you need is the time to pursue them.

Tom
 
Hey MARS,please keep me in mind to lay in on one of these sails as a hired hand/no pay hand etc.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As to above comments, r.e., "being in the ground within 12 months", I disagree, as modern medicine keeps some really unhealthy people alive for a long, long time-look around you! It is true that many retire w/o any real hobbies & the time in retirement is hard for them. There are also the ones that I hear say" I'm not going to "do" anything. While I cannot relate to that whatsoever, I guess it works for several I know that basically do nothing.
I happen to be one that could have been happy on my farm & in my shop with not working, a long time ago, as my ego turned loose of any aspirations to be "important" way in the past.Also I gradually come to know that there are some rides I'll never afford or have time for and just focus on whats doable. Another version is the person that must talk about their past work as they move through retirement, and in exacting detail. My wife & I both, we just walked away for the most part...enjoy your time that you can now prioritize yourself!
And YESSSSSSS! I want to cruise, always been on my bucket list!:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow
Good health is obviously the main ingredient to an active & enjoyable retirement.
 
retired at 55 after 35 years in aviation

got a company pension, a military pension. social security and an ira.

sad thing is, i doubt that my grand kids will ever be able to retire...
freekin' country is broke. jobs being outsourced. taxes gooing up to pay the debt. more and more retired old farts (like me) less and less productive workers.
no money to pay law enforcement (they gotta pay the retired guys). violence/food prices going up.

think your pention (entitlement) is bullet proof? think again.

sthe only people with bullet proof pentions are in congress, pardners.

don't see anything on the horizon that's likely to turn this around
i'm afraid what's gonna happen is a major scio/political adjustment like a big war.

i hope it's not with china because they probably won't lend us the money to go to war with them.

did i mention that the state of health car for the unwashed masses is unlikely to improve? what about neculear insecurity?

i don;t see any ideas in congress other than

"we need to create jobs and be competitive in the world market".

brilliant

what are we gonna build that the world wants to buy and let the workers retire at 55 or even 65?

do the math. i've been trying hard to be optomistic. might work if i go back to drinking.
:(
 
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/ mod hat on/

Please, tone down on the trend towards political discussions...this can be a slippery slope.

Let's get back to discussing the joy and freedom of being retired and being able to ride everywhere all the time!!

/mod hat off/
 
/ mod hat on/

snip..... the joy and freedom of being retired and being able to ride everywhere all the time!!

/mod hat off/

hoho..... you haven't witnessed Mary's ToDo list :deal Once my part is done then I can start a plan; once her's is done then we can go :brow More seriously, Mary has been retired since 2005 and me since 2009. Lots of fun, projects and laughter. Our glass is always "half full". :clap As a song says "if you're lookin for trouble, trouble will find you..... deaf, dumb and blind you..." (Steve Goodman I think). - Bob (on the "bright side of the road")
 
Before my event as they call it, I was living in FL. and hanging around a very active sailing club.
I would listen to all the talk about "When I retire ,etc" from these folks.
They would spend all sorts of money getting the boat ready for the big trip. Then suddenly the wife would say, uh i didn't really mean it that I would like to do this and the boat would sit.

Or all the money was spent outfitting the boat, a bunch of trips were planned for when the retirement day/mortgage was paid off/kids graduated etc. The dock lines would go limp from rot and the old man would drop dead.

What i am trying to convey is this;
if you can at all possibly do it, GO NOW !!
do not fall into that trap of waiting just one more year until whatever the excuse/reasons you use to justify not going and doing that life long dream.

I got to do a lot more and see a lot more than many, but if I had only gone a year earlier than planned , maybe, just maybe i would have dodged that bullet. I'm certainly not dead yet , but my plans have been drastically altered. The good news is i still can and do what i can manage and do not regret anything in my life.
 
No plans to retire, will work until I drop. I've worked for myself most of my life and like what I do. I'm 61.
 
I may be repeating. . .

Sorry, I didn't read every word of every post, so may be repeating this:

My WORST day of retirement is better than my BEST day at work.

Got entirely out of debt, sold a lot of stuff and simplified. Retired at 55 on very little money, and have had the best 12 years of my life, so far. The best.

Good on you for taking the leap, and never look back.

Walking Eagle
 
Hey MARS,please keep me in mind to lay in on one of these sails as a hired hand/no pay hand etc.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .

Too late! I gave up life on the water for life on the prairie about 6 years ago. Learning to stay put has added a whole new dimension to my world.

Tom
 
No plans to retire...like what I do...tommcgee

+1.

The issue of whether to retire is unique to each individual.

I'm 63, and have been an attorney for 38 years. My work is interesting, and I can control work load, type of work, and the stress levels of the work. I have a wonderful group of clients.

My wife, who is an ophthalmologist, is also 63, and has no plans to retire. At this stage of our lives, we are not working because we have to, and we enjoy our lifestyle, and don't want to live anywhere else in the world.

But many of our friends have retired, and I think they did so for good reasons.

Congratulations, Hugh. :thumb
 
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My WORST day of retirement is better than my BEST day at work.

Got entirely out of debt, sold a lot of stuff and simplified. Retired at 55 on very little money, and have had the best 12 years of my life, so far.

Walking Eagle
Sweet! :dance
 
Never though it would happen

I never thought about retirement because that was for the really old guys. The ones that were all crippled up, using walking aids and drooling. I seemed to be stuck in my thirties, great health and working for a rock solid company. I didn't have the $10 million in the IRA that I was told that I should have so it just seemed ok to just keep working, been at it for decades and used to it as a way of life so I was ok with it.

Then it happened. Normal life went out the window leaving me adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Or so I thought. The first month after being laid off I was scared silly and couldn't do anything other that get out of bed and go back to bed. Month two was better but the outlook of being called back to work kept growing dimmer with the passing days.

Then it happened. I got to fear the phone ringing. Was it going to be an offer of work at another division of the company? Fill in for a week or two? I had taken stock of myself and realized everyday was Saturday for me! No alarm clock to answer to! No jackwagon co-workers to deal with! Want to go somewhere? Lite the fires, smoke the tires! No waiting for the weekend! Life is good!

Yes it stings to loose the pay and perks of the job but not as much as it feels good to be out of the rat race! The only thing left for me to do is the formal retirement in April.
 
No regrets.. Walked out of work on April 15th of last year (official retirement on June 1st, turned 65 that month.) Was called back once to sort out some programming, and haven't been back, and more importantly - haven't missed it since.

I used to dream about retiring - very regulary. And the dreams usually had some element of loss involved... perhaps being the loss of some work that I liked doing. Luckily - the last boss I had made certain that I didn't like the work environment so he made it easy to make the decision to pull the plug when I could.

Spent most of the summer driving (I know..) coast to coast, then up the west coast, then back home.. was a fun trip and got to see a lot of stuff I really enjoyed. Had the time to spend with my son and his fiancee before the wedding, then after the wedding without worrying about having to be back at work. My ex-boss nicely called me the night before the wedding, leaving an unpleasant call on my voice mail (long story about why.. but it was just his way..) I saved that voice mail so I can play it whenever I think about going back to work.

I may do some fun work like writing some motorcycle articles once in a while, but these will be no deadline sort of articles, so the pleasure is there without the stress.

FWIW - my blood-pressure dropped 15 points within a week of retiring. I think that made it all worthwhile.
 
Retirement

Congrats to you in retirement!!!!

I retired at 50 from the Fire Service after 32 years. Yes, I started at 18. Best job ever!!! Injuries took their toll and I had to leave. I would do it all over again. That said, this retirement stuff is pretty cool!!!

You will see!!!
 
1. Figure out most of the things you think you would like to do when you retire - then do them as much as possible BEFORE you retire. Far too many people go from the boredom of a job they hate to the boredom of retirement with nothing they really want to do. (We all share ONE thing we like to do, but it's good to have a few more irons in the fire.) Pretty common for people without compelling interests that they developed before retirement to end up in the ground within 12 months of retirement.

My dad told me years ago that having a job that you enjoyed was more important than chasing the almighty dollar. I found this to be true for me enjoying almost 28 years in the USN and after retirement in 1987 being lucky to continue performing maintenance on SH60B Helo Simulators at NS Mayport, FL. On Dec 31,2012 I will retire for the second time at the age of 70. My best friend and wife of 45 years is afraid of motorcycles but enjoys Cruise Ships and trips to Las Vegas so my touring by bike is a solitary ride that I've come to enjoy more as I get older. I have seen too many Military retiree's pass away within 15 years after retirement from the service. I strongly feel that having a hobby such as riding, shooting/reloading, golf, hunting, hiking, etc, is essential for anyone that retires. Riding cross country to me is not wanderlust but just the simple enjoyment of seeing, learning, and enjoying this country and our nieghbor Canada. The History and Scenic wonders of this country are strongly represented in my version of "The Bucket List". 28 States have been touched by my bikes and I hope to ride in all of the lower 48 and much of Canada before 2016 when I'll be 74 years young. God willing and the creek not rising too much, I hope to meet many of you at future Rally's and on the road.
 
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