[widgeon13]

I retired at 57, blood pressure dropped to a more normal range. I stopped chasing airplanes, sitting in senseless meetings and listening to *********s spouting their ego's desires. I think anyone should retire between 55 and 60. The philosophy today seems to be to get rid of highly compensated executives and bring up the junior management. That is critical for the company to be successful, end result is companies offer early retirement packages in order to save money and avoid age discrimination lawsuits. I worked for the same company for 30 years. That will be difficult for many people today who are in their 20's and 30's. People have very little company loyatly today. 401K is critical retirement tool today. Traditional retirement plans are outdated since many people don't stay with a company for long periods of time.

I now ski patrol in the winter and do volunteer EMT duty in northern NY and read the NYTimes when I get a chance. In the summer, I fly, play golf, read the WSJ and exercise, run and bike, and some swimming as well. Drive the Pcar when the weather is nice. Bottomline is I do what I want when I want and I love every minute of it. Except I do have to walk the dog sometimes when I would prefer to sit on my a$$.

After 9/11, I decided that life was too short to spend more years working. Our lifestyle is similar to when I was working but I do think more seriously when I make a financail decision and how it could possibly effect our future earnings potential.

I enjoyed working and mentoring young people in the company. What I did not enjoy was the political BS of managing upward relationships in the company. Most North American companies are short term, results focused and consequently they are constantly making the same mistakes on a repetitive basis. This is being done to satisfy corporate boards, institutional investors and shareholders.

I don't have a solution to the near term management philosophy other than to say it has to change but I believe it will get worse before it gets better.