retirement done wrong.

[vash]

Originally Posted by tcar

I'm correcting the book name in case someone wants to read it...

Tuesdays with Morrie... by Mitch Albom.

...one of the landmark books for me.

damn..my apologies. i was typing fast.

[vash]

so happy i didnt type

"weekend with Bernie"..

Tuesday with Morrie was the first book my wife got me as a gift to read. i tore thru it. it is an amazing read.

[KC911]

I'm ten years in....wouldn't trade the past decade for a million bucks (easy)....no regrets. The saddest story is one of my dad's work (blue collar) buddies. He and his wife worked (workaholics) their whole lives to amass a small real estate portfoilio (several million)...to leave to kids, and then they were gonna travel....


The only travelling she ever did was to Duke for chemo

Makin' money you can't spend....ain't what being dead's about...

No regrets here

[nvr2mny]

Personally, retirement is not something I'm working 'towards' attaining. I love what I do. At 57 I'm more excited about the future of my biz than ever before. I've been doing what I do (used textiles) for the past 39 years, yes right out of high school. We are currently growing our retail base, which for brick & mortar retailers these days is unusual. I do have the ability to choose when/where and how long of a day I put in, so maybe that's "my" type of retirement. My biz partner is 64 and he's got the same mental makeup as myself. We can, fortunately, do what we want, when we want and where we want. We'll both probably die "in our chairs" when that day comes, but we do make PLENTY of time for our wives, kids and grandkids. I guess for me it's more about balance than anything. We have implemented a succession plan in the event either of us get hit with an unplanned health event.

[speeder]

Honestly, this happens all the time. My dad retired @ 70, (mandatory), and immediately got diagnosed w cancer. Suffered through the next 12 years and then died. Couldn't even travel much or do any of the things he planned on. It was worse than dropping dead.

The best thing about dying is that you don't even know that it happened.

[craigster59]

They say in my union (IATSE 44) the average retiree collects 9 monthly paychecks before taking the old dirt nap. Stress combined with long hours seems to do the trick.

[PetrolBlueSC]

[KC911]

I left the corporate bs behind me at 48....I'm gonna live to be 110...easy

....unless I'm wrong

[ckelly78z]

Knew a guy who finally retired from being a newspaper copy editor, that also had a concrete business on the side......2 months later the smoking caught up with him.

In a different story my Dad retired at 59.5, from a factory that he worked in for 41 years, and started with early SS at 62. My parents are 76 years old now, and just came back from a 4000 mile round trip airstream rally/caravan around the Western state checking out many national parks, and the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, and are generally in very good shape.

He says that many of the guys who retired at 65, only made it about 5 more years before dying.

I will be retiring as early as I can.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by craigster59

They say in my union (IATSE 44) the average retiree collects 9 monthly paychecks before taking the old dirt nap. Stress combined with long hours seems to do the trick.

To expand, the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan says for ALL of the IATSE locals the average pension pay is 18 months, been that way for 50+ years.

[CalPersFatCat]

Retired 4 years ago this month, 6 days after I turned 50. Several on this board, (you know who you are), promised me that CALPERS would soon fold and that I would be destitute by now.

$8,000'ish x 48 months = $320,000 sucked out of California so far.

For awhile, I was worried that my checks would stop coming when HUGH R retired... thankfully, he decided to stay in California and keep paying those CA taxes, instead of moving to the Poconos.

The Ponzi scheme marches on...

DL

[Pazuzu]

Took over running a warehouse when I was in college, replaced a guy who had been there for 40 years. He was pushed out around 70 years old, never married, no kids. He was the guy who drove the exact same route to work every day for 40 years, ate the exact same meal at McDonalds for 40 years (it was waiting for him when we walked in each day), drove the same RV the same 400 miles to the same watering hole for the same twice a year, 1 week vacation for 40 years.

He made it 4 months. He was found rotting in his easy chair (same 40 year old chair) 2 weeks after he died, since no one cared. At the office, we all assumed he had moved to that watering hole, that's what he claimed he was going to do...

[Schrup]

I had a coworker forced into retirement by new management about 5 years ago. He was found hanging from a tree in his front yard 2 weeks later. He left a note blaming the new management. Said management was all relieved of their duties within the year for a couple of unrelated hostile workplace investigations.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by vash

had a acquaintance retire in early October. he was a surly man. total "get off my lawn" type. i got along fine with him. he cherished politeness and manners. if he got that, life was simply easier for everyone.

well, he retired..LESS than a month later, we just got a group email. he died!!!

i'm betting he never got his first retirement check!

ouch. that sucks beyond words. i am bummed for him at many levels.

any stories of known "shorter retirements"? this is the record breaker that i've seen with my own eyes.

Always take the lump sum payment

[red-beard]

My dad retired at 69 1/2, so he would have 25 years in and get the premium health care plan with drug benefits. 6 years later, they added the drugs to Medicare...

He has been retired for 20 years. Unfortunately, the last 5 have been miserable, not able to walk, partially paralyzed, etc. He turns 90 in December. We are adding a lot of length to life, but not quality of life.

[oldE]

On the flip side of many of these stories would be my eldest brother. After 15 years in the Air Force, he went to work for the utility in northern Alberta. Retired again at 65. Then went to work for a buddy of his for another 15 years. A physical on his 80 th birthday showed him he better take care of any loose ends. 14 months later the fun was over.
He traveled so much I sometimes wonder if my sister in law notices he doesn't come home.

Best
Les

[dan88911]

Retired 7yrs. now, ''how sweetie it is"

There are no guarantees on longevity.
Health is your number wealth.Do what you can to maintain it.
Money is not the only thing however, there are not many substitutes
Time is your biggest asset.

Try to life a balanced life.
That's my 2 cents.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by dan88911

Retired 7yrs. now, ''how sweetie it is"

There are no guarantees on longevity.
Health is your number wealth.Do what you can to maintain it.
Money is not the only thing however, there are not many substitutes
Time is your biggest asset.

Try to life a balanced life.
That's my 2 cents.

I think that once you reach a certain age/health, you should be put into a bed with identical red-headed triplets, and then have an elephant stomp you...

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I the got work, retire, dead thing dreadfully wrong

2nd time around I'm trying to leaving the dead bit to last

I'm only 50, rather than just stop work, I'm trying to glide gracefully into retirement by picking and choosing my work to allow me time to spend on my own projects or to go travelling.

My man cave build is my first attempt at putting one of my projects at the front of the queue instead of as before always putting other peoples projects first.

[MRM]

Springtime yard sales are a huge up here. One year my wife and I decided to drive around to a bunch and see what the fuss was about. We stopped at one place where there was my favorite type of curmudgeonly single old man selling a bunch of old stuff. On the steps to his garage was a huge ball of copper wire all round around and around on itself so that it was easily the size and shape of a beach ball. He was offering it for a decent discount off the price of scrap copper to make it worth someone's while to take it down to the recycler. I could tell there was a story behind how he accumulated a 150 pound ball of wire, so I asked him.

The winter before he was laid up in his house with hip replacement surgery. He said he couldn't do anything, so he just started winding wire. He kept doing it all winter long until the ball got as big as it was. Then, he said, spring came, he could walk again, and he didn't need to wind wire any more (his words). I realized at that point that we all need a reason to live. It doesn't need to be a good reason, it just needs to be something that means something to us. If an occupation is all someone does, that's all they live for and all they have to live for. It's not surprising that people die when they lose their reason to live.

Many years ago I worked in a kitchen with an old guy named Tom who we creatively called Old Tom. He had retired from the Navy after 20 plus years as an E-4. Never busted, just never promoted. He was that kind of a guy. He transitioned smoothly from the Navy to the kitchen where he feed the automatic dish machine. He was an institution. We even called that position Old Tom. He was the most serious alcoholic I've ever even heard about. When he wasn't working, he was drinking. But he lived for that job. He never took any time off, but every year he built up so much vacation that management would make him take enough time off to burn some of it off. He'd come in on Friday's to pick up his check and shoot the breeze with the people who were working. We were all envious of his time off but he'd tell us how miserable he was and how he wanted to get back to work. At the time I thought he was joking or trying to make us feel better for having to work.

Eventually he got old enough that he retired. I don't remember if he hit some maximum age limit or if someone talked him into it and he finally gave in. He had plenty of pension income and he never spent his whole paycheck, so he was set financially. He had no financial need to work. He retired with several weeks of vacation due, so He kept coming in on Fridays to pick up the checks for his final weeks of vacation before he was formally moved off the payroll. He'd always stop in and shoot the breeze with whoever was working that day. After his checks stopped he didn't come around the kitchen anymore. Something like two months later he hanged himself in his apartment late one night after coming home from the bar. It was very sad. You need something to live for to keep on living.