retirement done wrong.

[Seahawk]

We are all different.

I am very close with my kids (they both return to the nest with alacrity), love and love returned from my wife, have great friends...very fortunate son.

But I love to work, love what I do - the content of the effort. I truly do. You guys do your thing, I'll do mine.

I just got to the hotel and will be getting ready to meet with a customer tomorrow who has submitted a PO to us to build their 10 day endurance UAS. We'll work the T&C's and move on...no other place I'd rather be and it has little to do with the money.

Perhaps the key is I do control my schedule, can take a meritorious afternoon off as needed

[vash]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

We are all different.

I am very close with my kids, love and love returned from my wife, have great friends...very fortunate son.

But I love to work, love what I do - the content of the effort. I truly do. You guys do your thing, I'll do mine.

I just got to the hotel and will be getting ready to meet with a customer tomorrow who has submitted a PO to us to build their 10 day endurance UAS. We'll work the T&C's and move on...no other place I'd rather be and it has little to do with the money.

Perhaps the key is I do control my schedule, can take a meritorious afternoon off as needed

great point. as always from you.

but this thread; my intention was more about the death, and less about the career. but like any typical thread, there is no telling where we take it. we tend to meander.

i still like my life as it sits. my job, my wife..same. and i work for the man..

[CurtEgerer]

I retired at 59 about a year ago, so it's still pretty fresh. I can see now how retirement can cause killer stress for those who don't prepare their mind properly. It's all about contentment. We did it a lot differently from most by selling all our crap and living the gypsy life in a luxury 5th wheel. So every day is a bit of an adventure - but rarely stressful. We're now traversing life with a very, very light load, living comfortably and debt-free on <10% of what we used to. The only way to make the plan work is to lose the desire to own 'things' (i.e., big houses, cool cars, expensive watches/jewelry, pole barns to put more crap in, etc., etc.) and lose the notion that you need to maintain your current lifestyle until you die. If you're getting your retirement advise from a financial adviser, you're doing it wrong! Like they say, less is more. Way more.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by vash

...my intention was more about the death, and less about the career.

Death is the constant, not retirement: "Man Plans, and God Laughs."

Or, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

I do think there is a correlation to the connection with some folks and their job and "the end" when they retire.

Not me. I'll die when i can't work...

[vash]

i think i relish the idea that my life will be simpler when i retire. one car, smaller home, no damn gardening.

get rid of everything i dont need. or use.

at least that is how i imagine it to be. (ill probably buy a duelly, bass boat, and learn to fly - hahhaa)

[KC911]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

....

Not me. I'll die when i can't work.

Me too...just not in the traditional way.

Edited: LOL when I read my post....dying in my sleep will be just fine

[sugarwood]

You might like this thread
Putting off passions/goals/hobbies until "retirement"

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by vash

i think i relish the idea that my life will be simpler when i retire. one car, smaller home, no damn gardening.

get rid of everything i dont need. or use.

at least that is how i imagine it to be. (ill probably buy a duelly, bass boat, and learn to fly - hahhaa)

I am 53, and have been happily married for 30 years now. We have lived in the same house for 25 years, and plan to be here another 25 years. We are slowly building it into what we have always wanted (see pictures on my "Slowly Man Cave build") as time, and money allows. We are perfectly content where we are, and actually look forward to having the time for a big garden.

I won't have any trouble keeping busy in retirement, and will probably fix things in my shop, and hopefully do more than winding a ball of wire.

My family all seem to live longer than most, so I hope I follow that trend.

[vash]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

I am 53, and have been happily married for 30 years now. We have lived in the same house for 25 years, and plan to be here another 25 years. We are slowly building it into what we have always wanted (see pictures on my "Slowly Man Cave build") as time, and money allows. We are perfectly content where we are, and actually look forward to having the time for a big garden.

I won't have any trouble keeping busy in retirement, and will probably fix things in my shop, and hopefully do more than winding a ball of wire.

My family all seem to live longer than most, so I hope I follow that trend.

true point. my wife thinks after i get the kitchen done i wont want to leave. she loves my bathroom remod idea.

[pdxfj]

Not exactly sure when I will retire, but my mother said it took her about 16 months to finally realize she was retired and her time was all her own.

Grandparents on both sides of my family lived well into their 80's and two of them made it into their 90's. My grandmother on my mother's side lived until she was 96.

You have to keep busy to keep going. Doesn't matter what, just keep active.

[sugarwood]

Correlation is not causation.
Maybe people who are dying are more likely to retire.

[sammyg2]

I've known a couple of people I worked with or for who were forced to retire and ended up sitting in their chairs waiting to die.

Lots of baby-boomers get so caught up in their career that it defines them, their working personal is who they are.
Their achievements, their satisfaction, their purpose is all wrapped up in that job.
take it away and they are lost with nothing left to do except die.

Neither of the two I'm thinking of lived two years after retirement.
One was the stingiest tightwad I had ever met, was a multi-millionaire but never spent a penny he didn't have to.

he left all that money to his kids who probably put it all up their noses.

[Brian 162]

My g/f"s dad retired at 58 yrs. old. He turns 93 in the next couple of weeks. Other than arthritis in his knee and losing a kidney (cancer) he's in pretty good shape. Both her parents still drive.

[Crowbob]

A guy at work dropped dead shaving the morning of his last day of work.

Another guy filled out the paperwork for retirement on a Friday. Died in the lazy-boy reading the following Sunday’s paper.

For five solid years after retiring, every morning I’d wake up ecstatic for not having to go to work.

I’d planned for retirement 10 years before I retired and stuck to the plan except that it took 11.5 years.

Never, ever once looked back. It’s been 8 years already and I can’t believe it. Now Grandkids are popping up like weeds right on cue to teach grampa what life is all about.

[JavaBrewer]

I think this really hinges on how you interpret the meaning of "retirement". Stop working and hang out, travel in a RV, drink and smoke heavily, travel, be a grand/great parent, all the above, none of the above. For me, I feel the urge to reinvent myself again when I turn 60. Self employed or corporate slave...no idea yet. I just know I want a totally new picture.

If I had enough money to walk away from my job today I would in 1 second. Into something else that excited me, involved people, and had a money making opportunity. I really dislike the Real Estate industry...filled with 'used car salesman' types...but think I could do well there and enjoy it. I currently work in technology.

[A930Rocket]

My dad retired at 65. Passed away at 89. He and my mom were very active with tennis and traveling until the last 3-4 years of his life.

Alzheimer’s sucks.

Originally Posted by Crowbob

A guy at work dropped dead shaving the morning of his last day of work.

Another guy filled out the paperwork for retirement on a Friday. Died in the lazy-boy reading the following Sunday’s paper.

For five solid years after retiring, every morning I’d wake up ecstatic for not having to go to work.

I’d planned for retirement 10 years before I retired and stuck to the plan except that it took 11.5 years.

Never, ever once looked back. It’s been 8 years already and I can’t believe it. Now Grandkids are popping up like weeds right on cue to teach grampa what life is all about.

Your is a very good story, C-B. I too have heard of too many folks who get bored and just give up living. You evidently thought it through and had a plan.

[Evans, Marv]

I retired almost fifteen years ago after working for the same school district for thirty years. Time has gone so quickly it sometimes blows my mind I've been retired half of the total time that I worked there. Life truly is like a roll of toilet paper - going faster and faster toward the end. However I guess I'm lucky. I have no real health issues and am in very good condition (for my age - I hate when people say that) and have had a decent number of relatives who lived into late 80s & 90s. Problem is that point in life isn't so far away.

[KC911]

Crowbob....that was an awesome post! Did you actually type it...or have the Mrs. Crowbob do it for ya....after she finished mowing ?

Retirement....means different things. I'm in better shape than I've been in 30 years....dropped 30 lbs....back down to my playing weight, no stress, don't "work hard, play HARD" anymore, and just don't give a crap about chasing $ I'll never spend....but I digress.

I'm so lazy...it just suits me fine. I'm too lazy to even sleep much these daze...so I'm glad the time just changed. Let's me get an earlier start to go Stihl something....or whatever?

Busy, busy, busy...but mebbe not if the fish are biting .

We are all very different, but most folks here seem to have figured out a journey that works for them. But PPOT is full of achievers of different stripes....retirements will be just as diverse imo...different strokes.

Ten years....where did the time go

[wdfifteen]

I used to think I would never retire. When I was 65 I would have quoted Paul’s posts with a +1000. But something happened, it was like flipping a switch. Suddenly I was aware of the time work was stealing from my family and most of all from MrsWD, the love of my life. I decided I wanted to spend every possible moment with them. It’s been over a year since I started disentangling myself from my various business enterprises.
We bought a house and some land and I’ve been working on it every day, side by side with MrsWD and always having time for our friends and family. The physical labor of fixing this place up has revealed the extent to which age and arthritis have deteriorated my body. I’m working harder than I have in years and loving every difficult, painful minute of it. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to what I thought I loved so much just a couple of years ago.
The biggest challenge to adjusting to retirement for me has been that my work defined me. I was known to tens of thousands of people (though I knew few of them) and it’s been quite an adjustment to suddenly be nobody. Now I’m defined by the people who love me, and I’m getting more and more comfortable with that.