End of an era

[oldodge41]

My full time employment era ended today. I won't be actually retired until 11/30, but today was my last day of actually getting up and going in to work. I will be on vacation thru the 30th. It has been 49 years since I last had no full time schedule to fulfill. Looking forward to more garage time, maybe more me time and definitely more us time with my wife. First grandchild due to arrive in February too! 

[1950 Special Deluxe]

Congrats

i am a few years away yet

[plymouthcranbrook]

Congratulations for making the long climb to the top. Now enjoy the view and you might be like many retirees who often wonder how they had found time to work.

[Worden18]

Congrats!  Gives me hope ?

[keithb7]

Great news! Congrats. It takes determination and focus to make this retirement thing happen. Good on ya!

[TodFitch]

Welcome to the retired!

 

2 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

Congratulations for making the long climb to the top. Now enjoy the view and you might be like many retirees who often wonder how they had found time to work.

So true!

[plymjim]

Congrats, mate. Enjoy your free time.

[Plymouthy Adams]

congratulations....nothing like mailbox money.....

[Plymouthy Adams]

well my buddy always says that in retirement you pulled off the first step.....going home with benefits....the second part is outliving the bastards.  My father retired with 30 years service and received benefit for the next 33...very much the success story...wishing you and well, all of our members the same success.

[Pete]

My retirement started on 1/1/2021. People keep congratulating me on being retired. I'm not quite sure how to take that. Is it the fact that I outlived the bastards, or the fact that I'm not dead yet...

 

Pete

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

it is the fact you can now spend a few days doing items you put off because of the demand from the man.....time for relaxing, having fun, being with family, enjoying a hobby or two and maybe even travel a bit before easing into that satin lined box.

[318Polara]

Enjoy, sounds like you will have plenty to do with grandchild on the way. I will be retired 6 yrs on Dec 1, enjoying every minute of it. 

[LazyK]

My last day in the office was 4/1/21 (official retirement 4/30). people ask me how retirement is,  my response is what is there not to like about 6 Saturdays and a Sunday every week.

[plymouthcranbrook]

I left the Land of Evil on December 31, 2012.  Kept a variety of part time jobs until this year(Six Flaggs train operator and school bus driver) until this year when I was determined to be in too bad a condition to drive the bus. So now I am at home most of the time especially with winter beginning to show its face.  Still better than the Land of Evil.  And although I no longer have weekends to look forward to, I also no longer have Mondays to dread.

[greg g]

Some one asked my father liked retirement.  He said

 

When I was a youngster, I lived at home and my parents told what to do and when to do it, and it was OK.

 

When I joined the navy and lived ashore or on the ship, the navy told me what to do and when to do it. And it was OK.

 

When I got out of the navy, I got a job, and the Forman told me what to do and when to do it, and that was OK.

 

Then I got married and when I was at home, my wife told me what to do and when, and that for the most part was OK.

 

Then I retired and there was no one to tell me what to do and when to do it.  And you know what, when you figure it out, it's way better then OK.

 

Good luck getting it figured out.  Just think to yourself your week is now six Ssturdays and a Sunday.

 

RELAX, BREATH, ENJOY.

Edited November 21, 2021 by greg g

[Dan Hiebert]

Congratulations on reaching retirement!  One of those things that make you go "hmmm".  Some don't know how they're going to get there, some (like me) had a plan from the start.  Some figure it out about halfway through.  Some don't ever figure it out.  The "congratulations" in my book is that you figured it out...hopefully on your terms...now you get to enjoy your idea/plan for retirement...not mine, "the man's", your neighbor's, etc. 

[oldodge41]

Dan Hiebert, what you say is so true. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to retire on my terms. I got to decide when I would retire and planned accordingly. My plan involved continuing a similar lifestyle after retirement. I think I didn't over or under estimate my needs. I just planned to keep on keeping on, so to speak. Time will tell if that was a good plan. I think I did it right for "me". One size does not fit all and the more I talked with coworkers, the more I realized that.

Edited November 22, 2021 by oldodge41

[keithb7]

You guys say you planned for retirement. I am interested in hearing some of the ideas that you set out years ago . Plans of success to get you to the point where you could walk away, retiring on your terms.  I'm 50 and have some years to go but I am interested in hearing what you did. What worked well? What didn't.

 

[Bryan]

Didn't really plan for retirement..knew it was time to relax some. Was overseas (1984 - 2014) mostly managing construction projects in Israel and Korea.  I stay busy with projects but hard to complete some of them. Step-son's problems keep popping up. He's a good kid but keeps getting into issues with others distracting him..not bad things just time consuming.   Wife and I were planning to travel more..got her son's problems straightened out, my step mother had health issues where we had to help out..now it's Covid.   Sometimes I just want to drive and see the USA..   But even hanging around here sure beats arguing with Contractors and listening to Israelis screaming at each other in meetings.

[TodFitch]

1 hour ago, keithb7 said:

You guys say you planned for retirement. I am interested in hearing some of the ideas that you set out years ago . Plans of success to get you to the point where you could walk away, retiring on your terms.  I'm 50 and have some years to go but I am interested in hearing what you did. What worked well? What didn't.

 

For myself, the first part was having a good idea of our current expenses. Then adjusting that number based on what we expected for additional travel, medical, etc. including long term care.

 

Second part guessing how long were were likely to live based on current health conditions, family history, etc. and then adding a lot to it (having an estate left over is less of a problem than going broke before you die).

 

Third was figuring out how we were going to cover those estimated expenses over the estimated life time. Since defined benefit retirements didn’t exist for us this means just Social Security and savings/investments. SS was pretty easy, they have tools to tell you where you stand and estimated monthly based on when you retire. Savings/investments are much harder as they are at the whim of the financial markets.

 

Since I was a software engineer, I ended up creating a number of tools to model expected outcome based on the historical probability of various past results for inflation and market returns for various portfolio mixes that fit our risk tolerance. Eventually that led to basically a table that said for any given retirement age how much money we needed in investments.

 

That all sounds daunting. So there are no end of “financial planners” and/or “retirement planners” that will separate you from some of your money to do the above estimates. But if you just sit down with your spouse and work through things piece by piece it isn’t too hard, especially if you consider portfolios that fit the Bogelhead concept and use some simple formulas for withdrawal rates (no need to go over the top like I did with Monte Carlo modeling).

 

Your situation is likely to be quite different than for someone in the US as your healthcare costs are very different. I suppose there is some equivalent to our Social Security. And maybe you actually have a defined benefit pension, a rarity in the US for non-public service jobs.

[plymouthcranbrook]

I have what is now considered an oddity. A Union Pension.  And I worked so many hours during my time that I was able to have a fairly high Social Security payment. My job was a very physical one, what I liked to say involved picking heavy things up and then putting them down as fast as possible. It was getting harder each year to work 50+hours a week. There was a decrease in early retirement benefits from the Union as Commercial Printing is a dying trade.  That said I ran the numbers and figured out that I could get about 80% of my working  salary retired.  We would go on my wife’s  insurance until we got to 65(I left at 62).  That went to bleep as her company decided to close down all their offices nationwide except Texas and California.  That was exciting but we made it through.  There is some long term money put away but so far we haven’t had to touch it.  We live modestly but don’t do without anything we really want.  I would suggest saving as much as you can and deciding where you want to live and what you want to do after you get out.   That way you have some thoughts and ideas already.

[oldodge41]

I worked 24 years for a company that closed up when I was in my mid-forties. Real wake up call as far as retirement goes. My wife and I started thinking about our future a lot. I had a 401k that I hadn't really done much with and my new employer had a company match plan that I now took full advantage of. I only worked there three years. When I left I rolled both of those plans into an annuity. Why an annuity? Because for me I was more concerned about not losing what I had than growth. Fortunately my financial advisor got me in a product that provided both a no loss guarantee and growth. My new job offered a choice of a pension plan or an investment plan. I opted for the pension plan, again more concerned with guaranteed money than growth possible. We decided I would work at least 15 years as that would allow me to keep my employer based health care until Medicare eligible at age 65. But in reality, 65 was a target for retirement. So with this info I could run the Social Security estimator, my pension estimator and I already knew my guaranteed minimum income from my annuity. That allowed me to plan, based on "known" future income for retirement. As it works out my annuity has grown more than I ever thought it would. The numbers worked out that at the completion of my 15 years at my latest employer I could retire at 63.5 years old. My net income will slightly exceed my working income and my living expenses should slightly decrease allowing me to continue my current lifestyle, which is far from extravagant, but is comfortable. I feel very blessed. I talked with a lot of coworkers who have totally different visions than me. Some are working out very well and some are not. No regrets, I did it my way, and I am content with the results. I owe a lot to my financial advisor who got me in the right plan 15 years ago.

Edited November 23, 2021 by oldodge41

[cheesy]

Congrats. I was supposed to retire on Halloween but extended it to June 30 of next year. The powers that be at my employer screwed up royally by not planning for my retirement on their end. I'm the senior guy with 25 years field repair experience. I have 13 years over the next guy but his experience is limited to a couple machines, whereas I know the whole range. They offered me stupid money to stay on and train some more guys. I also get a ridiculous bonus on my last day. And I got it in writing.

 

Once the dust settles and I cut the ties, Mrs. C and I are going to use all my frequent flyer miles and hotel points to take a first class trip somewhere, then never set foot in an airport again. After that, we'll see.

[oldodge41]

17 minutes ago, cheesy said:

Congrats. I was supposed to retire on Halloween but extended it to June 30 of next year. The powers that be at my employer screwed up royally by not planning for my retirement on their end. I'm the senior guy with 25 years field repair experience. I have 13 years over the next guy but his experience is limited to a couple machines, whereas I know the whole range. They offered me stupid money to stay on and train some more guys. I also get a ridiculous bonus on my last day. And I got it in writing.

 

Once the dust settles and I cut the ties, Mrs. C and I are going to use all my frequent flyer miles and hotel points to take a first class trip somewhere, then never set foot in an airport again. After that, we'll see.

I gave 18 months notice. They drug their feet thinking I might change my mind. My replacement finally starts next week now that I am gone.  I know him, recommended him for the job, and will assist him via phone if needed. I was asked if I would stay a while longer, but if 18 months notice wasn't enough I didn't see them doing anything if I agreed to stay. No hard feelings on either side, we all did what we felt we had to do. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

thought of following in my father's footsteps...bail at earliest age...55.  At 55 I said I could do this job standing on my head....as I had retired earlier from the AF Reserves...my next plan was to bail at 60 when I would also draw  my reserve pay and go to Tricare which was a huge chunk of insurance savings...windfall payraise....go home making more money than if I stayed....BUT...7 months prior to my age 60 they said here is 25k incentive if you leave now and can be gone in 30 days....yeah, throw me into that briar patch....have loved every day of my retirement....looking back with all this free time, constantly busy and such I wonder today how I ever got anything accomplished about the house while working for the man.  I was ready long before, they put the icing on the cake as they say.