Now in the seventh month of full retirement, I have determined the following to be an indisputable truth:
RETIREMENT IS THE GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE!*
Additionally, I have come to the following conclusion:
THERE AIN’T NUTHIN’ BAD 'BOUT RETIREMENT!
I just thought it was important that I let everyone know in case anyone had any doubts.
That is all.
(*this is not hyperbole)
"Additionally, I have come to the following conclusion:
THERE AIN’T NUTHIN’ BAD 'BOUT RETIREMENT!"
all depends upon the person.
Forced early retirement can certainly cause issues with lack of financial resources, having to retire on less money that expected, loss of friends (co workers), etc
Others had their social life at work…and will have a hard time adapting while their friends are still busy working and they have five days a week to ‘kill’…
Not everyone is ‘ready’ for retirement. Heck, some just keep on working and working, enjoying their work.
On the other hand, if you’ve planned well, retire when expected, it can be the greatest thing ever, especially if you’re still in good health to do the things you want to do. Plus have other interests and hobbies outside of ‘work’ environment.
My dad had 13 years of retirement. His dad had about six - and still worked part time as a crossing guard to make ends me.
My uncles and aunts, who made it to retirement age, had nice retirements - dozen to two dozen years. One nearly 30 years.
SO far, I retired early at 52 1/2 and been retired 24 years. Had the resources to retire comfy and never looked back. Healthy enough for lots of international travel and fun, trips around the country, etc. Slowed down a bit in my 70s and the pandemic didn’t help the big trips. Still having fun and enjoying myself.
Had friends at work who couldn’t imagine retiring. too accustomed to work routine, probably not financially set yet, had few outside activities, or loved to go to work to escape the spouse/family for a few hours a day…LOL… Many had moved up in house size as family grew and not ready to downsize, or couldn’t afford to retire to get the kids through college, grad school, etc.
On the other hand, quite a few people now by 65 are not healthy. 50% overweight or obese, many on the verge or having diabetes and other major issues. Most seniors take TEN prescription meds a day! Ouch! Some will have to go out on ‘disability’…
Most people won’t get a pension, either. Only fed workers and state/local gov’ts for the most part have pension agreements any longer.
t.
https://www.washburn.edu/sobu/broach/badboy.html
Somehow this story crossed my mind after reading the first two comments in this thread
–Anon
“THERE AIN’T NUTHIN’ BAD 'BOUT RETIREMENT!”
halco,
That’s total nonsense. There’s almost nothing that doesn’t have BOTH upsides and downsides.
If a person hated his/her job, then --for sure-- they would be happy to escape it. But there are many of us retirees who were very good at what we did to earn a living and who’d be happy to return to work, because we miss its challenges.
I retired from the waterfront in '08. Current incomes are 3x current expenses. AUM are $1 million plus. So money isn’t a reason I’d return to work. But I do miss having trouble-shooting problems dumped into my lap and the satisfaction of being able to fix a mechanical problem everyone else had given up on.
Yeah, once retired, one can try to find other challenges, such as boat-building, fly-rod building, gardening, a daily bike rise. But those aren’t high-stakes, multi-million dollar projects that lives depend on. If they get done or not, it just doesn’t matter.
Yeah, some days at work were totally brutal. Godawful hours. Miserable working conditions. But other days, the weather would be balmy. The sunlight would be rippling on the water, and you knew you were part of a crew performing your next mechanical miracle. We’d say to say to ourselves,
“And they’re paying us to do this? Holy Smokes! Life is pretty good.”
Arindam
If a person hated his/her job, then --for sure-- they would be happy to escape it. But there are many of us retirees who were very good at what we did to earn a living and who’d be happy to return to work, because we miss its challenges.
I had this very discussion with someone yesterday. She stated something along the lines of wanting to keep working while she was still healthy enough to do so. I suggested that no matter how much she loved what she does, (reporter,) that she may want to consider spending time with her DH, who is older and in less than stellar health, would be best done while she was still in good health. Since she didn’t need the money, why throw away her healthy years on work, particularly because she had already said she wouldn’t do it without being paid for it?
People fear change, IMO. Some never find that replacement activity for all the hours spent at work, making them feel the void more deeply. I tend to echo my dad, in that I am not sure how I ever had time to work with all there is to do.
IP,
who recently felt required to support DH’s brief efforts to resume his career for a career crowning position, but happily he realized just getting his resume refreshed for consideration was too much like work and he dropped it
That’s total nonsense.
Naaaa, what’s total nonsense is your pedantic, Debbie-downer response to a post obviously meant to be silly and fun.
BTW, Mr. Literal, you forgot to point out that my first statement is pretty much the definition of hyperbole.
Next time I’ll include some smiley faces just for you. Lighten up.
“But there are many of us retirees who were very good at what we did to earn a living and who’d be happy to return to work, because we miss its challenges.”
That’s sad if there is nothing else in your life to provide challenges.
My retirement phase started when I and a co-worker had some daily discussions about what it would take to ‘have enough to retire’. There were half a dozen retirement planners on line at the time (similar to FireCalc now) that would let you run all the scenarios. You could adjust inflation expectations, expected market growth over inflation (putting in both inflation and expected portfolio return), allocation, etc.
One conclusion became quite obvious. If you had ‘more than enough to comfortably retire’ using all the scenarios you set up (assuming an outcome no worse than at any previous time in history for portfolio survival), then
YOU WERE ESSENTIALLY WORKING FOR FREE. Yes, If you didn’t need your salary to accumulate more to retire…you were WORKING FOR FREE, earning money you didn’t need.
Even worse… YOU WERE WORKING TO PAY HIGH ANNUAL TAXES AND EVENTUALLY PROBABLY large estate taxes. (at the time, Uncle Sam took 55% of everything over $650,000 in your estate - some states even more)…
So you die earning more money for Uncle Sam to confiscate - when you die, plus years of FICA and FICA2 at nearly 10% of your earnings, plus of course regular income taxes both fed and state.
So…why should I work ‘for free’? That’s what many are doing when they could retire and don’t.
Too many wait till they have health issues, or spouse has them.
My BIL took a nice early retirement at age 60 - after layoff from IBM at 50, then ten more year of work. My sis went back to work at age 55 and enjoyed her work a lot. She kept working till she was 68, when my BIL suddenly came down with pancreatic cancer. Dead in a year at age 69. My sis had to take care of him the last 9 months…in and out of hospitals, operations, surgery, home care nurses. Really bad. They were looking forward to a nice retirement. She would have retired at 70. So it goes. You never know when the grim reaper arrives.
All you can do is take care of your health. Stay healthy and eat a decent diet, exercise, don’t smoke (13 year loss of years for smoking), do drugs, etc.
When an opportunity came up to grab an early retirement package at age 52.5, I took it. My boss couldn’t believe I’d leave ‘my professional career’ so early… Ha…Been saving 1/3rd my salary for 15 years.
Been retired 24 years now.
Not all can retire early but to keep working because of the ‘challenge’ is perhaps taking those years away where they could travel in good health, get really involved in hobbies and activities, etc. Then they get sick or have disability problems and don’t enjoy retirement the way they could have.
I’m sure all the stress of ‘an important job’ solving problems isn’t the greatest for longevity either. Those bad days at work total up. The smartest thing you can do is transfer your knowledge to the next generation of workers so they can do just as good a job as you! Then retire!
t.
I was fortunate enough to be able to transition into self employment about 1/2 way through my working career. I can remember being able to travel and set my own schedule. At first it felt like I was doing something wrong, not punching a time clock and all, but what freedom that brought. I was able to work at what I loved, under my own rules, at my own pace. I was able to adjust things to attend events and things important to me. Now at 68 I am still doing basically the same thing, just slowing down the pace. Now my plan is to focus more on things that can help others, and in preparation of the next life, which is much longer.