To retire or not retire?

[RSKY]

My wife retired at 55 and two years later I retired a week before my 57th birthday. We have never regretted retiring early. She has a great pension as a retired KY school teacher. I have a couple smaller ones from the job I worked at for 33 years. Our early retirement was enabled by our 401Ks. Inheritances from both my wife and my side have made us very comfortable. We don't worry about money but still pinch pennies as a life long habit. We are now concerned with what we will pass on to the next generation(s).

I was heavily influenced to retire early because of my dad. He planned to work until age 65 but my two brothers in law convinced him to retire at age 62. He and mom had a great time for two years doing some traveling, keeping grandkids, and dad was much in demand for small welding jobs and such. He passed away three weeks before his 65th birthday. He always said the guys he worked with would retire and die within a year. The problem was the asbestos insulation in the power plant he worked at. I have now lived nearly seven years longer than he did. Counting my dad and all of my uncles that were blood kin to me there were five males and only one died of natural causes. One was killed in WWII and the other three died of exposure to industrial chemicals or hazards.

My greatest fear on retiring was that we would be sitting in the house watching soap operas all day. This has not happened. During the summer if we get home before 8PM and have had supper we consider ourselves lucky. It seems like grandkids sports events, plays and programs take up a lot of our time. Even the sixteen year old grand likes to spend time at our house. Something is always going on for us to go to. If nothing is going on with the grands we find something else to do.

If you retire and just sit down you won't last more than a year or two. Find something to do that involves you AND YOUR WIFE. Keep both of you busy and you will live longer and healthier.

Just my opinion.

RSKY

 

[ultrarunner]

TV would seem to be the least of my worries… have not once turned on this entire year… never lived in a home with cable so good on that front…

Dad was the one who prevented it and we were the only kids without but dad saved $7.95 a month when it first arrived back in the 70’s.

 

[Bocephous]

Wow… 12 of my high school friends went right into law enforcement with 2 year admin of justice degrees…

All but one retired age 51-52 with no reservations.

The one holdout was chief at 50 so he was on another level.

No degree for me. I was a bouncer in Daytona Beach and a friend wisely advised me to get into law enforcement before I ended up in prison myself.

And your CRF is calling........or maybe this time of year, a snowmobile?

...and an XR650L I picked up in November. No snowmobile...yet.

I spent a weekend with a guy that worked at a federal prison.
He had some work experience's and scars that were interesting to say the least.

Welcome to the retirement club. I hope your career was less eventful.

10 years at Tomoka CI outside of Daytona Beach, FL. A high level (state custody levels-camp, low, medium, high) state prison. Mildly violent. Lots of psych inmates while I was there. Cuttings, hangings, some murders. One of my co-workers and classmates was murdered after I left for the feds.

1.5 years at USP 2 Coleman (fed custody levels-camp, low, medium, USP)-activated it. Absolute crap-hole run by the inmates. Typical SE region federal prison.

18.5 years at USP Canaan. Extremely violent. Lots of inmate assaults and murders. Inmates don't like it there as there are repercussions for their actions. Co-worker brutally murdered in 2013.

Glad to be getting out. Anyone who says violence doesn't solve anything has no experience in this type of work. It is the only language some understand and respect.

 

[Duds13]

I just decided to retire, going to open up a learing center in MN. I hear it pays well!

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

I just decided to retire, going to open up a learing center in MN. I hear it pays well!

What is a learning center? A school?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

What is a learning center? A school?

No, in Minnesota it's a Learing Center

Used to launder taxpayer money

 

[Duds13]

What is a learning center? A school?

 

[ponytug]

No, in Minnesota it's a Learing Center

Used to launder taxpayer money

And here I was imagining it was a place for getting a Lear jet centered, because nobody wants a ground Lear jet, right?

Around here, coaching centers charge students and families big bucks, but I have zero insight into their profitability.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

No, in Minnesota it's a Learing Center

Used to launder taxpayer money

Never heard anyone use the term learning center, I guess, I know there are schools and daycare‘s with schools or preschool.

 

[Duds13]

Never heard anyone use the term learning center, I guess, I know there are schools and daycare‘s with schools or preschool.

I can't tell if you are trying to pretend you dont know what's going on out there, or you really just don't know. I see you are in Central MN though so I find it hard to believe you don't know what we are referring to.

 

[subhunter]

I'm going back to work. I talked with a few farmers. I want to do parts runs, help with washing the equipment, scouting the fields for tree parts and removing them before the planter or combine comes around, moving the header cart - seed tender - fuel cart.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Never heard anyone use the term learning center, I guess, I know there are schools and daycare‘s with schools or preschool.

Literally their sign says LEARING CENTER.

It is misspelled

Derp

 

[Oaktree]

Someone said - retire so you can do what you enjoy.

I'm doing what I enjoy in my work. I really like what I do.

Same here. Technically, I "retired" in 2012, but I still do some contract work in my old field. Yes, I'm picky about what projects I'll take on, but I still enjoy what I do, and, if I do say so myself, I'm good at it.

The worst thing that could happen is you have to go back to work.

Way worse things in life than that. Yeah, it'd suck if you had to go back because you didn't plan well, or there ware extenuating circumstances, but not everyone is happy without some structure in their life.
My mother was one...she must have "retired" half a dozen times, only to get bored and go back to work p/t, in a couple cases transitioning into fulltime. Don't think she retired for good until her mid-late 80s (and health issues played a large part of that).

At one time we had extended illness bank and after decades capped at 480 hours…

To me that's just wrong, to be able to accumulate unlimited unused sick days. I can see carrying over one years' worth but beyond that use 'em or lose 'em.

 

[dodge man]

It’s not misspelled anymore, they fixed it.

 

[grsthegreat]

I'm considering retirement also. But I own my business and it's different than working for a corporation.

But I still very much enjoy what I do.

And I also realize that I'm 65 now and can't do things I could do when I was younger. And finding good help is getting to be more of a challenge, especially in my line of work. I have some decisions to make.

I retired from electrical contracting a few years ago as age related injuries made it too painful to continue. But I loved the work. It was my own company, and I had a large list of customers, so it was hard to let it go. What I did do was to keep the generator maintenance business going and eliminated the electrical and install side of the business. This let me still work a bit on the easier part of the business and not totally veg out.

Dont need the money from the generator business…I even refuse to charge some older customers for the work if there struggling. I do it cause I enjoy it. That really helps. Everything the wife and i have is paid for in full, cept taxes and insurance. We will never spend what we have invested.

It’s nice to still get out and work on something besides my property. Let’s the wife get a break from me also.

The money is good and easy to make. It helps keep my brain engaged and I think in my case is healthier choice than total retirement.

Our planned retirement hopes of world travel evaporated with Covid. I know we can now do it, but wife doesn’t want to risk Covid and world turmoil to travel. The idea of getting stuck on a cruise ship with 250,000 other people (slight exaggeration but not by much) will never happen. Airport and plane travel totally sucks now days. Only thing left is private air travel. That’s what we do when visiting family, that or long road trips.

I do enjoy retirement, cause even though I still work a bit, I choose what and when I want to work. No more 5am wake up and get going.

 

[71bronco]

Tomorrow I start my retirement after 47 years as a bricklayer. I'm gonna miss the guys I worked with but not the job. my 65 year old body can't take the daily beating.
I signed up for SS to start Jan 1 but won't get a check till late Feb. Then I signed up for Medicare and a week after I was approved they sent me a bill for 3 months coverage. Gotta love how the government works

Jeff

 

[deserteagle71]

but not everyone is happy without some structure in their life.
My mother was one...she must have "retired" half a dozen times, only to get bored and go back to work p/t, in a couple cases transitioning into fulltime. Don't think she retired for good until her mid-late 80s (and health issues played a large part of that).

That's how my parents were. And my sister is still working at 77 years old. Husband passed away a few years ago, kids all grown and gone and she has no interest in traveling. Tells me that the job is the only thing keeping her sane and keeping her from dying of boredom.

 

[Snobdds]

It’s not misspelled anymore, they fixed it.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

I can't tell if you are trying to pretend you dont know what's going on out there, or you really just don't know. I see you are in Central MN though so I find it hard to believe you don't know what we are referring to.

I guess I read it so quick I didn’t notice it was misspelled, now I get that the word was misspelled for a learning center.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Our planned retirement hopes of world travel evaporated with Covid. I know we can now do it, but wife doesn’t want to risk Covid and world turmoil to travel. The idea of getting stuck on a cruise ship with 250,000 other people (slight exaggeration but not by much) will never happen. Airport and plane travel totally sucks now days. Only thing left is private air travel. That’s what we do when visiting family, that or long road trips.

A family group of 6 took a 14 day cruise last may. The travel agent said it was safe to travel now. All 6 of us came back with Covid.