Was retirement for you a good or not so good choice?

This was an interesting older discussion thread.

My attitudes about work and retirement can be summed up as follows:

- Work is always "just work" and as such is a necessary evil.

- Given that, being born independently wealthy is the ultimate.

- When imagining what they would have done had they been born independently weathly, I suspect that very few would honestly say that they still would have spent a lifetime showing up to do the job that they did.

- I've always assumed that the decision on "when to retire" was obvious ... retire as soon as one was financially able to no longer require the pay from their work.

- I can think of dozens of things I would have liked to have done with my life rather than report to the job that I had for over 30 years ... even though "my job" was actually a "career" directly related to the type of education that I chose.

- Work was not "my life". What I did after work, on weekends, and vacations was my life.

- I've always believed that one should work in order to live instead of living so that they can work.

Given the above ideas, while I was working myself and my DW made a whole bunch of lifestyle decisions and choices so as to ensure a rich and rewarding life when finally able to live the ultimate way .... "in retirement".

Retirement for me was a WONDERFUL choice, but I had been planning and saving for it for 40 years, and was completely out of debt and owned my home. (I will hit 2 years retired on Aug 2.)

I stopped working 27 yrs ago and haven't looked back. Nearly 15 of those years were spent full timing up and down, back and forth across this great country. That was followed by 7 yrs living and fishing on the Gulf in SW FL and now I'm back full timings. It's good.

It is awesome.....

I was forced into an early retirement...by the DW. Glad I married such a smart woman.

I spent 44 1/2 years in a truck and worked for about the last 30 years nights, the last 13 for an LTL freight company. The job was OK, enjoyed my co-workers but the company I worked for were bodily orifices. After all THEY invented the wheel. LOL. Plus the fact that they screwed me out of 6+ years of retirement, but that is another story.

The DW put the bug in my ear to retire in about February, took her several months to pound it in so we set the date as September 30/2015, just short of my 63 birthday, figured no need to chain again unless I wanted to. That sounded good then on July 3 I walked into the managers office and told him I was retiring on 7/31 at the end of my shift. At 0809 August 1 I dropped my keys and badge on the office managers desk and walked out the door. Never looked back. Don't miss it one bit.

DW still works but she works out of the house so as long as we have a decent cell connection were fine, She cut her hours to 30 a week a few months ago, so we do a little traveling, some hosting and whatever.

When we are home I stay busy catching up on the deferred maintenance, setting up the new Bounder the way I want, drive the MH 60 miles to the DD once a week so DW can help with homeschooling the oldest grand kids. I got the better deal as I get to play with the younger two.

Very glad I retired when I did, best thing I ever did. If I had a do over I would have planned better for retirement.

ktmrfs wrote:

winnietrey wrote:
I understand, and do not question, the reason folks retire. Job stress, health, want to do something different.

For some I think, it was the best thing they ever did, for others not so much.

I think, I fall in the latter category. I like my job, I have no real hobbies, I enjoy all that much. I take a lot of time off, and travel, we are healthy. I think for me, retirement could be one of the worst things I could do. Just wondering if anyone else feels the same. With my personality I think I would be bored stiff

pick the option YOU enjoy, NOT what someone else tells you to do.

Personally, I enjoyed my job as did DW, but when an opportunity came up to take retirement package at 57 I did and DW did two years later. Now we are doing other things we liked and wanted to do, traveling etc. and enjoy it. But we had also planned to be able to retire at 55 and be more than financially secure. So far our financial plan turned out to be very conservative and we can do way more than we planned and have growing investments.

I do know several folks our age that tried retiring and hated it, and went back to work. I also know several retired friends that do very very little traveling now that they are retired. If we couldn't travel I'd be bored stiff and go back to work. They are just the opposite, they do NOT like traveling and enjoy stuff around home.

We are all different. do what YOU want

Hmm.. Interesting statement.

I do enjoy what I do very much in my job, BUT, over the years my job has evolved drastically far, far way from what I started out enjoying.

Nothing wrong with that, BUT, at my current age, I have a lot to lose by finding a new job.. I would lose big time in vacation time (30 days paid time of per yr), I would lose seniority of 18 yrs and so on..

I am losing confidence with the management in my company and the direction they are heading.. Mergers and buyouts now have my company as a minority in the newest company buyout and things are looking ugly for the future of my now newly minted "division"..

Do I enjoy the stress that this new uncertainty has created? NO.

My Supervisor gave his two weeks notice, and last week they escorted him out the door, shy two days of his two weeks!..

I AM looking forward to getting off this bus ride with the mad bus driver BEFORE I get tossed under the wheels.

Looking forward to retirement is about the only way to keep my sanity going.. It IS a "goal" and when I reach that goal, I WILL set a NEW GOAL to look forward to.. That IS how life works..

About a week ago I ran into my old plant manager at a local store doing some shopping.. He retired from my company about two years ago.. He retired a bitter cranky man.. Now, HE IS HAPPY, pleasant and glad to see me, asked how I was doing, my family and how work was..

When he was the plant manager, he RARELY ever spoke to me and when he did, it was business only and didn't care about my personal life..

His little bit of advice to me was if any one gets the chance to retire, JUST DO IT!

I doubt anyone has ever wished the could spend MORE TIME on a job for someone else.. I would rather be working on my OWN jobs, they are much more fun and I can truly be my own "boss"..

winnietrey wrote:
I understand, and do not question, the reason folks retire. Job stress, health, want to do something different.

For some I think, it was the best thing they ever did, for others not so much.

I think, I fall in the latter category. I like my job, I have no real hobbies, I enjoy all that much. I take a lot of time off, and travel, we are healthy. I think for me, retirement could be one of the worst things I could do. Just wondering if anyone else feels the same. With my personality I think I would be bored stiff

pick the option YOU enjoy, NOT what someone else tells you to do.

Personally, I enjoyed my job as did DW, but when an opportunity came up to take retirement package at 57 I did and DW did two years later. Now we are doing other things we liked and wanted to do, traveling etc. and enjoy it. But we had also planned to be able to retire at 55 and be more than financially secure. So far our financial plan turned out to be very conservative and we can do way more than we planned and have growing investments.

I do know several folks our age that tried retiring and hated it, and went back to work. I also know several retired friends that do very very little traveling now that they are retired. If we couldn't travel I'd be bored stiff and go back to work. They are just the opposite, they do NOT like traveling and enjoy stuff around home.

We are all different. do what YOU want

I have been retired for 12 years now and have one major problem with retirement. I don't have enough time to get everything done around the house. Seriously, my list keeps getting longer,

Wife & I have enjoyed reading this topic...since I am deciding on retiring next summer or waiting until Jan2018. She will have a few more years to go, but I think she will minimize "few".

I'll be 59+ and want to continue traveling while I have my health. Don't want to say "I wish I had".....She's a teacher, so we can take the summers off while she continues to work....plenty of home projects..health more of a concern than $.

Thanks guys.
Mike

BCK wrote:
I retired at 55 from an IT job. On the job at the end I started thinking more about traveling in my RV. So I spent alot of time at work with spreadsheets and stuff calculating everything about my retirement. When things were just about possible, I pulled the trigger. That was exactly two years ago. Since then me and the DW have traveled about 20K miles in the RV.

After two years....

-Plan was good, finance is on target, no more, no less.
-Lots of goofy projects have been completed that I always wanted to try.
-Work around the house keeps me very busy.

I love retirement so far......Good luck....See you on the road...

This is nearly the exact same place I am. I am 52, retired Army and VA disabled so I do have a nice cushion when I get out of the work force. I spend a lot of time looking at RV's, camp grounds, routes, spreadsheets for my finances, etc. I am looking at another 5 years (getting ready to start a new 4 year contract), my wife is already "retired" and a few years older than I am. We are planning on a new Class A diesel, and spending 4 or 5 months on the road per year. Everyone I talk to says it is the best thing they ever did, and the money worked out. I am planning (and praying) on the same success.