Anyone not want to retire?

If your gonna retire soon you had better have some good health insurance and some kind of a hobby besides watching TV,,believe me the days grow longer everyday if you dont keep your self busy.

Sure as h--l not me. I got so ticked off with the way I was being forced to travel to the Middle East all the time, I gave the company an ultimatum - either a non-travel or domestic-only travel job or I'm outta here. They ignored me, despite medical evidence of the stress (BP at 220/140). In my final year, I spent 29 weeks in the Islamic world and none of those trips were longer than 10 days. The only good side was that I had over 600,000 frequent flier miles by the time I retired. We've made good use of them.

The merged company (two major aerospace companies whose names I will withhold) told me to stick it where the sun don't shine, so I retired just shy of my 58th birthday, after 29 years with one of them. I went back twice as a contract engineer ("job shopper") to a job they couldn't find anyone to fill. I'd have accepted it if it had been offered, but they played "stuck-up, toffee-nosed bas--rds", and ended up paying my contract employer almost 3x what it would have cost them to employ me in the job directly.

Just love being retired (18 years later) and I can't say enough about the way I was treated by "Corporate America"!

we want to retire asap
hubby is 49 and I am 53. Figure about 53-54 he can retire and we are done!!!We worked extremely hard our whole life, we want freedom and we are going to take that asap!

jplante4 wrote:

PUCampin wrote:
We have also had people work literally until the day they died because they liked what they did so much.

The trouble with doing this is that you're too old and not flexible enough to kick yourself in the ass for working until you died.

HA! I certainly agree, I am not doing what I saw myself doing and am looking forward to oh 25 years from now when I can retire, but sometimes someone truly finds their niche, like some of the other posts in this thread.

This particular guy was energetic, full of life and passionate about what he and his team did helping the Navy. They designed and continue to update some of the most important equipment used aboard ships. They are constantly taking feedback and tweaking the system. If you asked him anything he would gladly talk your ear off about it. He was in his late 70's and didn't make it to work one morning (I believe heart attack)

PUCampin wrote:
We have also had people work literally until the day they died because they liked what they did so much.

The trouble with doing this is that you're too old and not flexible enough to kick yourself in the ass for working until you died.

It really depends on the person. Someone I work with just yesterday "retired" for the third time at 83. The first time he said he sat around and didn't do much. Then someone called and asked him to come back on his terms. He did and really enjoyed it, and he said all the stuff at home he had planned to do when he retired was getting done now in addition to his job. He enjoyed his job, all the projects going on, and enjoyed the interaction with people other than his wife. He then retired from that but couldn't stay away completely, he came back part time to help with the logistics of running our facility. During this time he did a lot of traveling with his wife, the job helped pay for it in addition to giving him the social interaction, mental as well as physical activity he needed. The last year he has slowed down a lot, he caught a very unusual lung infection and decided to retire so he could concentrate on getting better. They are treating it now and it is curable if he has enough strength. I am praying for him. We have also had people work literally until the day they died because they liked what they did so much.

Retire as soon as you can afford it, debt free or not as long as you can comfortably handle the debt. It will be like getting a raise when the debt is gone. I waited til we were totally debt free and I could make it w/o SS so I could delay that til full SS age. All I care about now is if it's day or night... what day it is doesn't even matter. I can finally finish anything I start without being interrupted by that four letter word! It's so wonderful!Craig

For me being retired everyday is a Saturday. If you really look forward to Saturday then retirements for you. If you aren't thinking about what you'll be doing on the weekend while you're working then retirement's not for you.

winnietrey wrote:
Most folks goal, seems to be, to retire as soon as possible.
It has been my experience, that, for many folks retiring was the greatest thing they ever did. But for others it is the worst thing they ever did. I think I would be in the latter group.

But sure seems I am in a minority when it comes to wanting to keep working. Any thoughts or experiences?

I have retired many times...The first "real" retirement came after I had been diagnosed and treated for stage 4 head and neck cancer. I found my then current job and living in Seattle just too much, I just didnt want to do it anymore.

So I went to SE Asia and built and opened my own resort hotel where I worked my ass off. But I lived in the hotel and had no commute and the pace of life was much slower. Later I ended up with no less than 4 successful businesses and I was working way too hard...This is my nature....So 7 years later once again I "retired" sold all the businesses and came back to the US. Where I promptly got back into working again...Now I am slowly wanting to give it ALL up and just go fulltiming...However (drum roll)...I am looking at Workamping opportunities as I dont think I will be happy if I dont do something at least for a few weeks per year.

The message here I guess is that for some of us the process of retirement is not so cut and dried. It is a curvy, hilly road. But the longer one goes and the older one gets I suspect the urge to just do what I want gets stronger.

Just make your own retirement anything you want it to be. But the one thing I am sure of is this. No one on their death-bed ever wished they had worked more.

I started working on a farm when I was 9 years old. Worked almost 6 months a year until I was 15. Then I got a part time job in a restaurant cleaning up. When I turned 16 started working in a factory in shipping and receiving. I had a plan to retire when I was 50. I missed it by a little. Was finally able to do it when I turned 57. the last several years I worked that was all I could think about was retiring.
I managed people and fixed machinery for most of my career. When employees get angry and upset they break things. Some of the employees attitude and personalities were very difficult to deal with.

I loved my job, and I made a lot of friends there. I still see them from time to time.
BUT!

Been retired now for 17 months. Still feel great about the decision. If I had to do it all over again I would probably go earlier.