Thinking about retiring

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by Paul T

Putting finances and health insurance aside, I think the biggest thing to ponder when considering retirement is how you plan to spend your time. It’s easy to think about all these jobs around the house that you’ve been putting off etc., but I’m telling you, you will knock those out in the first month. If you don’t have hobbies, or volunteer work, or lots of travel plans, I think it can get boring really quick - that is where it can get dangerous for some people. You get bored, you start going out and eating/drinking a little too frequently and, while fun at first, it’s just not sustainable long term for most people. We need intellectual stimulation in some form, even if we aren’t “working”. And that can be anything that floats your boat - gardening, restoring a car, boating, whatever….you get the idea. What you want to avoid is watching 12 hrs of TV a day and doing nothing - you will decline big time and faster than you think. I retired 5 yrs ago at 50 and I stay pretty busy between travel and friends, hobbies and cars, but sometimes I catch myself slipping into “lazy mode” a little too much. Just something to be cognizant of IMO.

Getting into Lazy mode is real.

I retired a year and a half ago at 54. I hit the ground running. Really didn't stop traveling and going till this year before the holidays. In between the fun trips, I also deployed twice for the Red Cross. It was very rewarding. A year and some change into retirement, I just needed to come home and recharge for a bit. I've been pretty lazy since I've been home for awhile, but it's time to get moving again.

I have friends that aren't very happy in retirement. They were defined by their jobs and really didn't have any hobbies or interests. Like has been mentioned, they didn't retire to anything.

For me, it was to the point where work was getting in the way time wise, of being able to do the things I wanted to do. Once the numbers added up, I was done.

Retiring is such an individual thing. I wouldn't ever go back. I absolutely love having time to do whatever I want to do or do nothing at all.

[NY65912]

My work load has been handed off to 4 younger guys, who frankly don't know shinola about the biz or have the connections I have made through the years. We have been having strategy meetings to "streamline" the way I did purchasing and managing my area of the business. It ha become a frenzy of who is going to do what Mike did. They will be hiring someone when they can find an individual who has the niche type of experience I have. It is kind of fun watching the "bosses" scurry to figure out something we have been planning for 3 years. It's worth retiring to see the chaos. Sorry, but I told ya I was leaving!

[Rusty Heap]

For some of you Pelican Parts "is" a part-time or full time "job"...........how else do you explain the perpetually posting of some people with 35-45K+ posts here?

I'd say get a life, but they have already chosen one.......

[Brian 162]

I retired at 55 in 2015. I worked for a large company so I was just a number. The company will survive without me.
I was offered to leave at 55 with 30 years my pension is pretty good.I also saved and I have a good investment adviser. We moved to a smaller town last year but bought a bigger house. My better half has one more contract working from home for 2 years then she will retire. She can still travel and work.
We are going to travel now before we are unable to. We were in Florida twice last year and now we're in Arizona for a month and we plan to head back to Florida in May.
Next year is Europe

[slow&rusty]

My old boss recently passed away at 68 with brain cancer, he had retired at 65 or 66.

He never got to enjoy life after working in Corporate for his entire career.

As he got older, he was getting more and more disgruntled to the point where being around him was uncomfortable. He lived simply in a small house close to the office to avoid a long commute and drove the same old Pontiac. He was divorced (but had a strange live-in girlfriend), had no hobbies (not even cutting the grass) and would sit Infront of the TV most of the weekend watching sports to pass the time.

It was a shame as I certainly enjoyed working together for many years, he was such a great mentor as well.

I am now in my mid-50s now. I am glad that I ride my bike 70-miles every weekend. Maintain my yard, get up on the roof clean the gutters, trim the trees and I have several older cars that keep my busy which I enjoy. For decades I would do lots of car work laying on my back on the garage floor but recently installed a lift. Surprisingly I still don't mind getting on my back and crawling under the car if the job calls for it.

Little things like washing and polishing the cars on a nice day with the tunes on makes me smile and thankful to be alive. My wife is very good at being our social director and plans a few fun vacations every year, it's always great to put pencils down and see the world.

[wdfifteen]

We were always on the road when we were running the business and we were sick and tired of traveling. We bought this little farm and vowed to stay home. After five years of the daily work of growing food and caring for animals we’re thinking of a road trip again. Maybe drive out to the Canyon Lands or something. Still not sure I ever want to get on another airplane.

So, bottom line - even in retirement things change.

[911 Rod]

Don't forget you can have fun in life without retiring.

[gacook]

My wife loves watching those shows where ex-pats buy property in other countries. Been watching one lately that's all in the mediterranean, and they're not buying, but renting. 1200-1800/month for fully furnished homes right off the water. It's really got me thinking. Could definitely be worth looking into for some of you retired folks that want to travel.

[dennis in se pa]

You run out of time before you run out of money

[porsche tech]

I have been retired about 11 years. At the point in time that I felt like I had enough, I told the company that I worked for I was going to get a part time job driving the golf ball picker-upper on a driving range to include free golf. Still had about 2 years before we were heading south full time. Company said work here part time (I had been shop foreman for the last 12 years). I said half day, 3 days / week and no more working on cars. They said “fine, do my shop administrative stuff and occasionally help the techs troubleshoot.” I figured out how much I made (salary plus commission based on shop output) and determined an hourly rate based on that. They agreed and I put in 2 more years like that. It was a perfect way to wean myself outta there. Now, between golf, fishing, volunteering and travel to see kids/grandkids, etc it’s tough to find enough time. Forever grateful!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by gacook

My wife loves watching those shows where ex-pats buy property in other countries. Been watching one lately that's all in the mediterranean, and they're not buying, but renting. 1200-1800/month for fully furnished homes right off the water. It's really got me thinking. Could definitely be worth looking into for some of you retired folks that want to travel.

We plan to do exactly this when we stop work, 1st country on the list is Costa Rica

[gacook]

We've talked about Costa Rica, too...I just don't know that I'm ever gonna retire.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by gacook

My wife loves watching those shows where ex-pats buy property in other countries. Been watching one lately that's all in the mediterranean, and they're not buying, but renting. 1200-1800/month for fully furnished homes right off the water. It's really got me thinking. Could definitely be worth looking into for some of you retired folks that want to travel.

I work with a guy "Digger" who's an Aussie ex-pat pro surfer. He relocated to Bali and spends 6 months working on shows and the rest surfing Bali.

He bought a duplex near the beach and rents one unit to a woman and her family who watches the place when he's gone and cooks and cleans for him when he's there. He said it runs him about $1,500-2k month to live like a King.

I said "I'll bet you have a great time with all of those Australian tourist gals visiting on vacation". His reply was "I don't even mess with those Shiela's mate. The local girls are the ones you want".

[cockerpunk]

i really doubt i would ever actually retire. change jobs, work 50%, idk, something, but i dont think i could ever retire.

a coworker of mine works 80% time, and it doesnt seem like much, but 30ish hours a week instead of 40 is a big improvement.

[gacook]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

i really doubt i would ever actually retire. change jobs, work 50%, idk, something, but i dont think i could ever retire.

a coworker of mine works 80% time, and it doesnt seem like much, but 30ish hours a week instead of 40 is a big improvement.

I get that. My wife WANTS to retire and bristles when I say I really don't plan on retiring because she wants to travel, yada yada. Told her I get well over a month vacation each year...nothing's stopping us from traveling.

My job really has no physical requirements these days, so it's not like I'm breaking my body at work. As long as my mind is relatively sharp and I still enjoy the work, why quit the paycheck?

[masraum]

What a great thread (with lots of depressing posts).

I wish we were better off financially than we are. I'm going to put the blame on us for that. We should have been more frugal. I'm not anticipating retiring early, but then I enjoy what I do, and it's a very mentally stimulating job with good people for a company that treats it's employees pretty well. I think I'd need to win the lottery to retire early. What I realized many years ago (when I was still an hourly employee) was that taking time off is (or can be expensive). When I was young, I realized that if I worked a day and made $200/day, that if I took a day off to do something fun with the missus, it was very easy to spend $200 which really meant that I was $400 "down". These days I'm salaried and we are unlikely to spend what I make in a day, but retiring early and traveling and doing what we want could get very expensive very fast. I'll keep working and hopefully won't be laid off or retired before I'm ready to go to be replaced with younger, cheaper folks.

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by gacook

I get that. My wife WANTS to retire and bristles when I say I really don't plan on retiring because she wants to travel, yada yada. Told her I get well over a month vacation each year...nothing's stopping us from traveling.

My job really has no physical requirements these days, so it's not like I'm breaking my body at work. As long as my mind is relatively sharp and I still enjoy the work, why quit the paycheck?

yup. i could do with less bull****, but being the age/position in your career that you can just leave with a few days notice, and no one can do anything about it, sure cuts down on the bull****. amazing how that works.



a rule i have for life is you are either making money, or spending money. and you need to spend a reasonable amount of time making money, even a little bit, you dont even have to make much money, just so you don't just spend money with all your time.

id drop to 50% time at my job in heartbeat if i could afford it. that seems like a better retirement plan than just not working at all. work would be more fun/better, and so would life.

[Rusty Heap]

Check out Belize to retire to....

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

a rule i have for life is you are either making money, or spending money. and you need to spend a reasonable amount of time making money,

I know what you mean. I was petrified of ending up poor. So at one time I was actually working three jobs, and buying stocks and appreciating assets. I even had school holiday jobs since about ten.

growing up our family went from being very rich to very poor, and the same again a few more times. And LOL a person is certainly happier with money.

[Rusty Heap]

I worked at Boeing for 25 years. There was a guy there that had 45 years and Retired. Company gave him some tacky gift. He was back at work after 3-4 months saying he was bored and the wife driving him crazy.

I honestly felt sorry for him. His Generation made "A man is his work" Take the work away and who is the man?