Retirement 2

['Scales]

The R word has been back in my thoughts post turning 50 and I recalled all the great insight here a few years back so exhumed this thread:

Lots of great advice from many members, and some sadness in reading and knowing where members have since passed or later encountered issues including devastating fires and such. For the others, I hope it has worked out for the very best!

its hard to work on planning in these uncertain times, but I guess failure to plan still means planning to fail, so I need to get on with it! 

[uncle fester]

i see there's 2 ways to come at it, first is can you save enough, second is have you figured out how little you can live on and still live a happy life.  I know a few people who crunched the numbers, scaled back a little bit and took the R word by the horns.  'luck to you.

[Mutha]

Both my Uncle and Father are still working at 70, self employed as I am.

I grew up in a working yard, built,tore down and repaired any amount of stuff there and outside  over the years

The idea of sitting back is somewhat appealing but as  the Uncle says "eh, what we gonna do after?"

I know herself likes the idea but just let me have a quick look at that yoke..............

 

 

[Retired]

4 hours ago, 'Scales said:

The R word has been back in my thoughts post turning 50 and I recalled all the great insight here a few years back so exhumed this thread:

Lots of great advice from many members, and some sadness in reading and knowing where members have since passed or later encountered issues including devastating fires and such. For the others, I hope it has worked out for the very best!

its hard to work on planning in these uncertain times, but I guess failure to plan still means planning to fail, so I need to get on with it! 

Great for you when you do Scales. I really can't comment because I think you're in Australia aren't you? Not really sure how your system works over there.  Here, it's social security and I'm not certain that will be around in the future, Plus I don't get social security as I never paid much at all into it.  I draw RailRoad Retirement. I paid Tier 1 & Tier 2 into it for 34 years and 4 months. Railroad retirement pays much better than social security and we get a pretty good sum per month.  The best I could say would be to save as much as possible and put it in a good account that gains interest. But you already knew that right? Best of luck when you decide to go. 

[merciful-evans]

I had to plan double quick, because I took advantage of a voluntary redundancy offer. Us potential retirees were told we had to get proper independent financial planning advice. It was definitely exactly the right thing to do.  I could never have figured everything out by myself. I consulted two. I went with the 2nd one and get personal reviews any time like. Once a year is usually enough.

 

Not everyone takes to retirement. Some hate it. I took to it well, but it still took me about 18 months to figure out how best to adjust. The main thing is to use your time. 

I stair run before breakfast, walk minimum of 13,000 steps per day. Karate train and attend dance classes. Keep my mind active with music, sudoku, reading etc, and try to make myself indispensable to my girlfriend. 

The R haters, don't know what to do with themselves. Habits will form. Unless you take control, they may be turn out to be bad habits.

[Notes_Norton]

I don't plan on ever retiring as long as I can still play and gig. I've seen to many retire, lose a purpose in life, and die of boredom.

Besides, I love playing music, it's the most fun I can have with my clothes on. Why would I want to give that up?

I guess I'm lucky in that I earn a living doing what I would do for free. So put me in the ranks of Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett and dozens of others who love it so much they don't want to quit.

Insights and incites by Notes

[Larsongs]

Ok.. You save $1,000,000.00 over the course of all the years you worked your A$$ off...

You want to retire & live Securely off the % Interest, not spend the Principal & avoid the risk of  the Stock Market at this Stage of your life? Right? Wrong! What's 0.015% of $1,000,000.00? 

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Larsongs

[IanHenry]

Retirement looks very appealing when your working but it's not all it's cracked up to be, sure you can do what you like when you like, you can have plenty of hobby's and interests to keep you occupied but when all is said and done you become an irrelevance, you change from someone people need and relay upon and become a nobody. 

As Mutha's uncle says "eh, what we gonna do after?" basically your going to wait around till you die. 

Given the choice again I wouldn't rush into retirement.   

[uncle fester]

I think if I could, I would retire from what I’m doing, and take up what notes n is doing.  That would be a type of work I could do in retirement.

[Digger]

My retirement came suddenly and unexpectedly some 22 years ago. It was  through health and I wish I’d known it was coming so I could prepare.

In retrospect I’d strongly encourage anyone who is considering retirement to ensure they have enough interests to keep them busy.

Boredom can be a killer!

['Scales]

Great advice all round there guys.

'Plan A' for me right now is to work at what I do til 55 and then do a mix of meaningful work (lowly paid or unpaid) for those less fortunate - so Ian Henry, in my mind to actually move from irrelevant to  relevance! . Not sure if I'll still be playing music then, but will pursue other artistic and intellectual hobbies and become an enthusiastic supporter and advisor of my kids in their early careers. No pensions for me Butch but our superannuation system here sees employers and employees pay into a retirement funding system...and yeah Larsongs, it'll need to be much more.

and Digger old mate, you seem to have done a great job and given you've actually done things you didn't think you could in the earlier thread, I'd say you've made a very good fist of retiring even younger than I'm planning, so credit to ya!

[mihcmac]

I retired 4 years ago and have kept very busy. I seem to run out of time a lot, partly from my quest to find my perfect guitar. So I have been acquiring rebuilding and selling off the losers, the problem is I have thinned out the herd down to 8 that are really close and I can really only take care of 7. So now one's gotta go but which one? These are my most difficult decisions to deal with was long as Trump doesn't get rid of SS.

[Retired]

Yes, it Seems everyone  is different and has different needs. There's not really one straight answer that works for everyone. I'm glad I went at 60. The rule at BNRR was you had to have 30 years of service and age 60 to retire at full pension. I had 30 years in, but not the age so I had to keep working to get to age 60. That's how I ended up with 34 years and 4 months  in. For me, The Railroad was changing direction fast and it got worse. I had tons of guys tell me, I got out at the perfect time. I've been out for 7 years 4 months now and often I wonder, How in the world did I ever find time to go to work and still get everything done at home?  I don't think theres a one answer that will work for everyone as different people have different needs.  It's what will work for you. You have to do some serious planning for the future and get ready for that day.  I know a lot of guys at Havelock Shops that planned and were close to going out but died before that day came.  Many of them were in their 50's.  My dad was forced out at 70 by the closing of the plant and died at 78.  Good luck.

[rct]

I retired January of 2019, right into the biggest shutdown in my employer's history.  I lived.

Then came the Covid.  We have lived.

I can't even imagine what it is that causes "boredom".  I have so much to do, so many things keeping me on my feet all day, eating less, and tired as a dog at midnight, than I could ever have imagined.  I spend my time waiting for Mrs to retire at the end of this year.  And we have so much sh1t planned already, I don't know how we will find the time to do it all.  While playing in two bands at the moment.

I highly recommend retirement.  We worked for it, planned for it, and we are doing it.

rct

 

[merciful-evans]

9 hours ago, rct said:

 

I can't even imagine what it is that causes "boredom".  I have so much to do, so many things keeping me on my feet all day, eating less, and tired as a dog at midnight, than I could ever have imagined. 

 

 

That sounds about right for me also. especially during the 1st year. I spent it working on the house & garden (though still not complete by a long way).

Year two was spent working on me. Getting down to a healthy weight and widening my social circle. That is complete I'm glad to report.

This covid business has thrown a spanner in the works, but optimism prevails still. 

[uncle fester]

I'm a ways away from the opportunity to try retirement out, but I'm pretty sure i'd be good at it.  Can you say open mic circuit superstar...:)

[badbluesplayer]

I shut my engineering practice five years ago after some medical probs but I can't seem to get out of the amp repair business.  There's too many people calling me all hours of the day and night.  You'd think musicians would be all hunkered down now, but they're out there breaking their cheapo amps and asking me to fix them yesterday.  And they all have some kind of money issues.

I'll be 65 next year.  I swore that I would learn my lesson and get into a business where people are happy to hire you.  But NOOOOOOOOOO, I had to get in the middle of poor peoples' money and endorphin issues.  So I could charge half of what I used to charge and get shocked once a year just to rub it in.  One of my "good" amp customers bought a hard wired Deluxe Reverb clone or something like that from some fly-by-night builder for really cheap and nine months later he's asking me about how come the thing is making all kinds or weird sounds and is unstable.  I tell the guy "I'll be happy to help you in any way I can" when I really want to tell him "Who TF do you think you are, asking me to fix some other clown's cheap POS that you could have had me build but you had some guy in Timbuktu do it for half the price?"  

[Notes_Norton]

They used to say "Don't let the rocking chair get you"

Modern equivalent: "Don't let the TV get you."

In Japan the people who live the longest have what they call ikigai - a reason to get out bed in the morning - but more than that, a purpose in life. Whether you retire or not, don't loose your ikigai.

(Welcome back Butch)

Insights and incites by Notes

[mihcmac]

13 hours ago, badbluesplayer said:

I shut my engineering practice five years ago after some medical probs but I can't seem to get out of the amp repair business.  There's too many people calling me all hours of the day and night.  You'd think musicians would be all hunkered down now, but they're out there breaking their cheapo amps and asking me to fix them yesterday.  And they all have some kind of money issues.

I'll be 65 next year.  I swore that I would learn my lesson and get into a business where people are happy to hire you.  But NOOOOOOOOOO, I had to get in the middle of poor peoples' money and endorphin issues.  So I could charge half of what I used to charge and get shocked once a year just to rub it in.  One of my "good" amp customers bought a hard wired Deluxe Reverb clone or something like that from some fly-by-night builder for really cheap and nine months later he's asking me about how come the thing is making all kinds or weird sounds and is unstable.  I tell the guy "I'll be happy to help you in any way I can" when I really want to tell him "Who TF do you think you are, asking me to fix some other clown's cheap POS that you could have had me build but you had some guy in Timbuktu do it for half the price?"  

I think its very admirable that you find ways to help the little guys stay hooked up with working equipment. When I was doing Mac support I found my house was filling up with computers, then I changed to publishing support fixing software problems and debugging print files. But still having an excess of old Mac's I had to get creative to find ways to get rid of them. I would imagine you have a build up of old amps, which unlike computers, they are more desirable. What do you do with them?

Edited September 14, 2020 by mihcmac

[merciful-evans]

6 hours ago, mihcmac said:

I think its very admirable that you find ways to help the little guys stay hooked up with working equipment. When I was doing Mac support I found my house was filling up with computers, then I changed to publishing support fixing software problems and debugging print files. But still having an excess of old Mac's I had to get creative to find ways to get rid of them. I would imagine you have a build up of old amps, which unlike computers, they are more desirable. What do you do with them?

 

Plenty of people who worked at my old company, got part time work back there again. It could be both helpful to the retiree to ease the transition. It could also be potentially very lucrative if they were useful enough! (not me)

I know a woman who is a self employed hairdresser. She has retired, but several customers who became friends still want her services. That's also a nice way to transition.

[fortyearspickn]

"One definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results."

The last thing I wanted to do, when I hit 65, was to keep doing the same thing I'd done for the majority of my waking hours for the previous 38 years.   Or anything remotely similar.  

[ksdaddy]

July 15, 2022 I will have 20 years with the federal government. I actually have more than that, but it was like a 'temp' position and did not count towards retirement. 

August 27, 2022 I will turn 62.

I think you know where I 'won't' be on august 28th.

1 year, 11 months and 13 days.

This is a good job, I just don't want to be here. I will stay busy. There aren't enough hours in the day for me and retiring from the day job will alleviate it some. I don't know the meaning of the word 'boredom'. I can't even wrap my head around what it might feel like.

[merciful-evans]

2 minutes ago, ksdaddy said:

July 15, 2022 I will have 20 years with the federal government. I actually have more than that, but it was like a 'temp' position and did not count towards retirement. 

August 27, 2022 I will turn 62.

I think you know where I 'won't' be on august 28th.

1 year, 11 months and 13 days.

This is a good job, I just don't want to be here. I will stay busy. There aren't enough hours in the day for me and retiring from the day job will alleviate it some. I don't know the meaning of the word 'boredom'. I can't even wrap my head around what it might feel like.

 

Yep. You sound ready alright!

But there again, I have also heard 'I want out & am never returning' from retirees who were back inside 6 months. Strange but true.

[ksdaddy]

6 minutes ago, merciful-evans said:

But there again, I have also heard 'I want out & am never returning' from retirees who were back inside 6 months. Strange but true.

 

It's fairly common with this agency for retirees to come back "under contract" for a certain term, usually 24 hours a week. At this stage, I flat refuse to even consider that, but I'm also smart enough to realize things change and I may feel differently at that time.

But as for right now, let me out of here!

[gdecantoo]

Retired 3 years ago with 18 years in the government. Last 3 years was a desk job. Whenever anyone walked into my office and asked what i was doing my reply would always be "practicing for retirement"! Retired 4 days after turning 62. The door never had a chance to hit me in the a$$!