now that i am getting older, i see the error of my ways.

[vash]

nobody to blame buy myself. i hang out with a bunch of coworkers my age. most of them were good students, and came out of college with a plan. work, save, buy property, etc.

they are retiring at 55. happy, healthy, comfortable.

i joke that dating ballet dancers derailed my early college days, but really that is just an excuse. i just didnt take life seriously. i started my career at age 29, not 22.

now? i'm just going to retirement parties, making killer goodbye speeches. i just found out one of my coworkers retired quietly. she filled out her papers and left..just quit showing up. she was 55. damn it!!

damn ballet dancers..they were so flexible!!

my brother is 4 years younger than me and he will retire before me. nothing better than a well laid out plan, executed properly. FAACK.

somebody invent a time machine. i just want to send back a note to myself.

but no regrats. none.

[masraum]

I feel ya. I'm right there with ya. (well, other than the ballet dancers, unfortunately)

[GH85Carrera]

In that note put in message to buy lots of Microsoft and Apple stock!

My dad got his commission into the Air Force when he was 24. He retired at age 51. His retirement pay was a very comfortable package and with great health insurance. He put in 27 years, traveled the world, and did his part in serving the country.

After being retired for a few months he was bored to tears, and went back to school and got another degree and worked as a drug and alcohol counselor trying to help people beat addiction.

[ckelly78z]

My retirement plan is getting shaken to the core at 56.5 years old. As of 7-1-2022 The major Japanese corporation that I work for will be selling our division to a competing major Chinese manufacturer. I am a prototype engineer, and not sure of my future with this new company, because they are building a new R&D facility 2 hours North of me that I'm not really enthusiastic about commuting to. They froze our pensions, and offered everyone older than 58 a buyout (missed it by that much). hopefully I can milk the job I currently have for another couple years to make it to 59.5, or even 62, and then retire, but have to pay my own insurance. ARGHHHH !

[white85carrera]

I turned 57 in October and retired dec 31. so for it has been a glorious 12 days. had planned on a couple more years but the numbers worked out to leave now.

Going to retirement parties is a wake up call, when you start going to funerals you missed the boat.

[craigster59]

I work in an industry where 14 hour days/ 80 hour weeks are not uncommon. Deadlines/ schedule changes add stress to the mix.

There's the typical "rumour" that the average retiree in our biz collects 9 paychecks!

On the plus side we have very good health insurance and pension plan. On the minus side, even though you have the years and hours they still want you to work until 65 to receive full pension.

I have seen friends and relatives retire that are younger than me. In fact, I have a nephew in the Air Force (E-9) who does nothing but talk about retirement and he's 42 y.o. GMAFB!

[mgatepi]

I think retirement is much more than just $$$ numbers.... for me its a decision of how I want to live, what I want to do, and have I accomplished what I want to in my career. I too have the friends that have retired young, and like to boast about it, but then I watch how they live.....and its not for me.
I like having a lot of expendable cash to do what I want, and frankly I want to do more in my career. Also, I must continue to support my Porsche fetish......

[David]

I should have bought Apple stock when the random stranger on a ski lift in 1999 said LISTEN TO ME! BUY APPLE STOCK! (true story... I didn't listen).

(also should have studied harder at UT and not partied my way through a 4 year degree in 5 years only to realize I wanted a different undergrad degree and started over at UH 5 years behind on life)

[Seahawk]

I have noticed that a lot of my fiends have either punched out of the"traditional" full time workforce or are planning too soon.

I have some theories concerning the link to CV in the BLS chart below, but no hard data.

A lot of what I am seeing and hearing is that many people realized just how little they have to spent to live well, and that a lot of the traditional post military career jobs these folks were in required a lot of travel and sacrifice: During CV, there were a lot of revelations concerning work/life balance.

The story behind the numbers will be interesting. I do wonder how many will re-enter the workforce.



BTW, Vash, the only thing that saved me (I may have had a couple of cups of coffee in the dancer cafe and grill) was I stuck with the financial basics I was steeped in as a kid.

Dumb luck.

That and I got very lucky, as did you, marrying the right woman.

I retired as an O-6 11 years ago and really do not need to "work" (my wife is a GS-15 set to retire in a few years) but I enjoy working on fun projects with people I like. I get asked all the time to do consulting work for big defense firms but I won't. I like my little company and have an executable growth plan based on what my partner and I LIKE to do. The GP has a cap and an exit strategy.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by craigster59

...

I have seen friends and relatives retire that are younger than me. In fact, I have a nephew in the Air Force (E-9) who does nothing but talk about retirement and he's 42 y.o. GMAFB!

When I retired from the AF, it just meant starting another job (but having a retirement check to invest). Most are just too young and too poor to stop working. In fact, I worked harder after I retired as I did a full-time job similar to my AF job but longer hours and was called back into the reserve where I worked until I aged out at 60 (ate up my weekends and vacation time). All paid off in the end though.

[A930Rocket]

I worked part time, went to school part time and partied part time in my 20s. I was without a goal and discipline and finally graduated at 29 and went into the home building industry. My degree was in management, but I knew absolutely zero about building a house. I started from scratch, at the very bottom, sweeping houses and picking up trash. Moved my way up over the years, making great money, but residential construction has ups and downs and I’ve paid the price for that.

I will either work until I die or retire, living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere.😂

Edit: my mom is 93 and in the early stages of dementia/Alzheimer’s. It’s been very difficult and it’s not getting any better. I do NOT want to live my life like that or be a burden on my kids.

[rockfan4]

Think of it this way. The next few years will fly by (They seem to be speeding up for me), and when you're hanging out with others your age, you'll have the memories of those ballet dancers, and they wont.
My brother is 5 years younger than me, retired a couple of years ago when he was offered early retirement. His wife is quite a bit older than him and is also retired. The last time I talked to him, he said he was bored and was thinking of going back to work.

My original plan was to retire this April, but I think I need to wait. Not for the money, but the wife is younger than me, and I'm counting on being on her health insurance until I'm eligible for medicare, and if I quit she's going to want to as well. She's in healthcare and burnt out, so I get it.

[creaturecat]

Originally Posted by craigster59

I work in an industry where 14 hour days/ 80 hour weeks are not uncommon. Deadlines/ schedule changes add stress to the mix.

There's the typical "rumour" that the average retiree in our biz collects 9 paychecks!

On the plus side we have very good health insurance and pension plan. On the minus side, even though you have the years and hours they still want you to work until 65 to receive full pension.

I have seen friends and relatives retire that are younger than me. In fact, I have a nephew in the Air Force (E-9) who does nothing but talk about retirement and he's 42 y.o. GMAFB!

older filmworkers drop like flies, when approaching retirement here, as well. Grips don't last long. Lotsa carps suffering/choking from medite dust. 17 hour days for many of the drivers - certainly not pretty. lotsa them die at work, in the cab. 1 so far, this year. 3 or 4 last year. i saw a driver drop - in the lunch line-up (on Psych) they covered the body, start yelling "walk around him, get thru that lunch line, we're losing the light"

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I will either work until I die or retire, living in a van in the middle of nowhere, down by the river!

I had to edit

Originally Posted by rockfan4

Not for the money, but the wife is younger than me, and I'm counting on being on her health insurance until I'm eligible for medicare, and if I quit she's going to want to as well. I'm going to start another thread about it.

Please do. I just went through the TRICARE to Medicare switch (interesting in that I didn't have to based on my wife's GS insurance, which is incredible) and I was very impressed with that agency and their advice.

The Social Security folks as well...I'll be 66 later this year and plan on getting the benefits, if available, at 66 and 6 months.

Sorry Vash!

[911 Rod]

I'm sorta in the same boat, but doing pretty good with assets. I don't want to sell our home on the water to cash in, but will probably have to at one point.

Time is going so fast now .......

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

...

Dumb luck.

That and I got very lucky, as did you, marrying the right woman.

Me too. I met the girl for me when I was still a teen. No oats to sow after that. We married young and started investing early as I did not expect to ever make a very large salary (came of age in the 70s recession where even dishwasher jobs were not available in my hometown). After enlisting, I was suddenly wealthy with money to save. E-1 pay was $4,492.80 a year ($374.40 a month plus benefits) and the wife and I could live on less...as we already had everything we needed (each other). Everything else had to fit in the trunk of my old car as the military did not pay to move folks under E-4 (over 4 years) back then. "If they wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you one."

[LWJ]

An opposing argument is this. While my buddies went skiing, drinking, and bought new cars and stereos, I worked on my rentals and remodeled my home(s). I burned YEARS of free time in my side-gigs.

Today? Things are pretty peachy. I am still working but sort of "on the fence" about whether to continue or not. The only thing that is any sort of issue is housing cost. I live in a home that is larger and more costly than makes sense for a retired person.

My career was launched in the Oregon Recession of the 1980's. I was a super low earner for many years.

If I had to do it all over? I could have worked far less and had similar results. But since we can't go backwards, all we can do is re-assess and go forward.

Parting thought: Financial independence is all about balancing income with expenses.

If I move to a lower cost location I would be wealthier. Extreme example, I was in Turkey in October. It felt like being a Billionaire.

There are options.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife retired a few years ago. I now own my own business, and we are making money, but not super busy.

I have never worked at anything except photography since I was 15 and I shot my first wedding for $20.

I came real close to going to work for a major oil company in the corporate world of the movie Office Space. I ended up staying with what I know. I had to fund my own retirement savings.

My big break in life was finding my wife. She 30 years ago.

[Wetwork]

I retired 13 years ago after twenty years in the CG...I was 38 when I went back to the family ranch with dandy pension and bene's. When I look at all my classmates and family members around my age I feel pretty good about myself. The Last Crusade you know where the knight tells Indy he chose wisely yup that's me..-WW

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

I had to edit



Please do. I just went through the TRICARE to Medicare switch (interesting in that I didn't have to based on my wife's GS insurance, which is incredible) and I was very impressed with that agency and their advice.

The Social Security folks as well...I'll be 66 later this year and plan on getting the benefits, if available, at 66 and 6 months.

Sorry Vash!

This was a difficult decision for me. Wife and I both retire with subsidized Fed insurance (BCBS). We also had Tricare (Tricare for life now which is essentially Medicare). I never expected to spend much for Medicare, but the first year was almost $500 a month each. (plus each of our Fed BCBS payments). I am sort of afraid to drop any as of these as they paid everything when my wife had cancer a couple times (early diagnosis) and the bills I didn't pay were massive. The BCBS pays then Tricare/Medicare (so we generally pay nothing).