This is a little confusing. You say you could get a daily G-note by consulting but you also mention 3 reasons that this isn't happening; your age, a move towards local talent and the lack of outreach from the players in your earlier life. I know you were highly regarded at The Mouse House - do you still have a rolodex to get you back in the game? Is a consulting gig really an option?

Second thing, I mean no disrespect here, but historically, your posts and threads rarely miss an opportunity to mention the shekels being funneled into your bank accounts, but when the thought of taking your wife on a nice adventure comes up you claim budget restrictions. You're a smart guy, Hugh. You've been places and seen things and I bet if you put your mind to it you could come up with a plan to show your wife the world. You need to get out the Atlas with her and figure out her wish list. How much would it really, actually cost, and what would it mean to her to have you take her there?

Sorry if I'm out of line. I guess I've always been a little envious of your life and times as presented on this BBS and I know that outside looking in is vastly different from the reality.

Enjoy your retirement!

Just turned 77 and been retired fifteen years at this point. When I retired, my school district wanted me to work part time and a company I'd worked at as a liaison for the district offered me a full time position. I thanked them both but said I wanted to make a 180 in life - which I did. 65 is pretty young, and you should have a lot of life, energy, and interests left. I have a couple of observations to offer. Your life and the person you are in retirement isn't static. If you think you're going to buzz along as the same person and in some kind of life style, you're probably wrong. Your job now is to find (maybe new) things to fill your life with enjoyment. Don't expect those things to be the same in years to come, so be prepared to follow new interests and threads of life in the future. At this point, lots of my old H.S. friends have started to die off. That's a sobering thing. Something else I've noticed is that at some point lots of people seem to run out of interest in things. As an old guy commented to me lately, "I just can't seem to get myself to finish my projects." I've seen that enough. So if you want to work (you rightfully don't seem interested in that), get in there and work. If not get out there and find things you are interested in and motivated to do, and keep on keeping on.

When I finally retire, I won't be going back. I have too many projects to do on the farm, and will most likely have a slew of grandkids to keep up with, and cheer for. In between times, i'll be traveling in our big azz travel trailer, enjoying the serenity, and scenery.

Consulting probably won't be on the table for me, so if you get the chance, I would give it a try to scratch that itch.

I retired about 1 1/2 years ago at the age of 60 , like you I had worked since the age of 15 . Financially we are in good shape and other than paying for health insurance there is NOTHING about full time employment I miss . I stay very busy with projects and around the house stuff . I did pick up a part time job working two days a week just for beer money :D My wife has been retired for 5 years now and has no desire to work either . We paid our dues it's our time now .

Whatever you do stay active , mentally and physically . There are lots of places you can volunteer or mentor , a great way to give back to society . Stay within your budget and keep traveling it sounds like you and your wife enjoy that . SmileWavy

A wise man once told me that after he retired it took him awhile to figure out how to do nothing, but he finally figured it out.

I don't know squat about art....but I gots a navel :).

I planned to exit the corporate world @ 50....didn't quite make it though back in '08...but on "my" terms. Niece asked me a few months later if I wuz gonna look fer a job....

Naw....I'll find one :)....

I'm 59....doin' fine....never looked back...

I could've/could make serious coin sittin' in my underwear....but I'm no where near "Hugh rich"...

My life was never my career....

You'll figure it out :)

Hugh, I'm 69 and still working - I didn't plan for it but life got in the way. My intent is to retire next year when I turn 70 ( if my job isn't phased out first).

I wrestle with what retirement looks like for me. It's a big shift in routine. I look at retirement as a 2 phase time period. The early phase when you have your health and can fulfill the dreams of travel, relaxation, activities, being with family. The second phase is when health turns and you are in the winter of your life.

I agree with many who have posted that you need to give yourself some time - just enjoy.

Posts like this scare me. I am debating retirement myself. I am probably not as well off as Hugh, but live well within my means. It looks to me like I can live my current lifestyle indefinitely on my investments and pensions, but if apparently well-prepared folks are having to consider going back to work a year later, not out of boredom, but for money...for luxuries. I am hesitant to even consider retirement. I make pretty good money now, but once out of my line of work, you are out. Really no coming back. If I needed money, I would probably have to go back to the level I was at 15-20 years ago in salary and responsibility. In my world, old guys just don’t get the job.

^^^ Honestly fint....when I opted to exit @ 48....I knew there was "no going back".... and the end of '08 was bleak. It was a leap of faith....

But I know "me"...

And you know you ;)

Enjoy what you've earned....if that's what you want...jmo...

No REGERTS :)....

And the flip side is you could retire and have a great 15 to 20 year run and it be the most enjoyable time of your life . None of us knows our " sell by date " :D but we all have one . I make all my decisions by getting as much data as possible , share that data with folks smarter than me and then ultimately pull the trigger . I really never 2nd guess or look in the rear view mirror . Ask a 100 people how much money do you need to retire and you'll get answers ranging from 50K to 50 million !

Everyone's situation is different there is no broad brush right answer . My wife and I worked with a financial advisor to build our nest egg over many years . We reached a point where we felt " we had enough " and pulled the trigger on retiring . Is it possible we will run out of money sure it is . Is it possible we could wake up dead tomorrow :D yes it can happen . We live comfortable and within our means ............ the same way we lived our working lives .

Interesting thread, Hugh.

I don't plan on "retiring" anytime soon...I am 62 and enjoy what I am doing, which is key.

After four years building the company in North Carolina, we hired a person to run the day to day operations and I no longer travel to NC on a regular basis. I am on the board and still the second largest share holder but once the original business objectives were met and we became stable, I really tired of the travel. The thrill was gone.

I work with one of our former "primes" on some really neat UAS projects, helping him get his business off the ground. His company is close and we are in the development phase with a really game changing UAS...I have invested in the company and enjoy the challenges.

Again, that to me is key to me: I won't work on a project unless it makes me smile.

Best of luck...there has been some really excellent advice posted. I wish I had some!

My brother basically had been in the same place, retired about a year. He had a chance to go back, earn some good money, etc. In his case they kept calling him. So he did it, and after about 3 months he hung it up again. He told me, "all of a sudden I recalled why I retired, and it wasn't to do this!" In my own life, I had a nice retirement party, and never went back or even thought of going back, in fact moved 700 miles south to a new life.

Do what you want to do NOW!
It took 5 long years for me to sell the business and retire because I was concerned about the money and held out for top dollar. In that time arthritis crept in, and now at 69 the things I dreamed about doing in retirement are painful, and sometimes impossible. Now, I wish I had focused on my dreams at age 65 instead of the $$$.

Hugh, it is a YUGE adjustment. My retirement was forced upon me by health issues and I was troubled by "now what?". Well I found a new what, several of them. None that cost much. One is studying music at my alma mater which I couldn't do before and which now is free because I'm an old gummer.

As cool and brilliant we all are there are always new things to learn and parts of ourselves to improve. Give it time bro.

I’m 62, I’ve been retired for 12 years now. I worked a week at my old company to fill in for my replacement while he went on vacation. That was enough for me. The last 12 years have been great health wise for me, but my wife had breast cancer 2 years ago and was in bad shape for much of the year. She is much better now and is only 58. So you never know.

If you don’t need the money, why on earth would you give up the time? I’d give up quite a lot if I had to before going back to work. I’d live in a RV if it came to that. Things are meaning much less to me these days.

At 60 I had enough of the rat race of aerospace procurement and pulled the plug. Our president worked me hard to work as a consultant, telling me succinctly that he would take very good care of me financially. Two days a week, locating new sources, evaluating them and bringing them on board. Oh, and maybe some troubleshooting and problem resolution.
It took a while to evaluate everything. Then I realized that it would be more of what I had just left and there would be inevitable "job creep", meetings at the plant, calls all the time..... I declined and got on with retirement and doing what I want, when I want and not having to budget vacation time for Canada fishing, fishing at my WI place, anywhere skiing, weekends at Road America.
Give it a couple of years and get into the flow. I doubt that you will decide to dip your toes back in.

BTW (I think I have mentioned this before), we hire a lot of retired folks in NC as 1099's to do specific tasks in their respective fields of expertise.

We got a good rep from the initial guys we used and schedule around their desires for time and interest.

If you'll match what my last gig did to post on PPOT...we can talk :).

You rock Paul....

Anybody that moved 700 south in order to retire in NC.....

Stopped half-way ;)

Life's an EI beach for some :)

I'm now a 1099 guy, don't answer to anyone. Each day it's eat what I kill. It can be a grind, but then I can take off whenever I want. If I hit my weekly goal on a Monday, I can either coast the rest of the week or keep going out and looking for extra icing on the cake. I won't always be able to do this job, but it is the kind of thing I think I could always go back to with no ramp-up period, if I were to get out for a while.

What did your wife say, aside from do whatever? Surely you have discussed it a bit.