The best is being able to go on little vacations without having to ask anyone and not count vacation days…although I had 6 weeks. I also enjoy knowing, each evening, that I don’t have to go to work the next morning. I was really tired of living in a cube. I often felt my life was draining away looking in a gray padded cube cell.
@busdriver11 …I did feel a loss of identity. Not worth…that is completely different. But when someone asked me what I do, I didn’t know what to say. “I’m an acccountant” became so much of who I was and I was proud of that. “I’m retired” sounded so boring and I was afraid I would be dismissed as such. “I was laid off” sounded so pathetic and people would look at me as incompetent. I never got used to that during those 5 months. It’s so nice to say now “I’m a PT accounting contractor”.
That little gig paid for a lot of fun money this year…we took a lot of vacations on it. @Thumper…it sounds like we are in the same position. But I don’t say I’m retired and you do. I guess I’m retired from my formal career, but I feel I still work, just on my own terms I suppose.
When someone asks my retired husband “What do you do?” He absolutely delights in answering with an ear to ear grin" Whatever I want to do!" Although I will admit I cleaned up that response just a little bit.
He had just turned 59. The work culture had changed and he did not. Ethics were tossed aside, people were jockeying for position in the new realm. It was getting ugly. He was not ready to retire but i can honestly say I believe retiring saved his life. Health vs more money. We were lucky to be in a position to choose.
I redirected my career 3 years ago. Stopped doing part of my specialty that was very demanding and draining. As much as I loved it, I don’t miss the demanding work.I now go into the office part time, do less demanding work (no more scoring tests, writing reports, etc) and have re-certified in another field that I do also part time, typically after hours/on the weekends that is seasonal.I seem to be pretty busy, play bridge, exercise, meet friends for lunch and waste time on the computer. It fills the day. DH still works full time, but we seem to be travelling a lot too.
I am about 10 years from retiring and am looking forward to it. I am self employed and have a business that can be affected by bad weather. I look forward to listening to the weather and thinking … I don’t care!
That’s how I feel now about weather. I don’t have to go anywhere if I don’t want to. I used to commute on MetroNorth Railroad, and standing on the platform in pouring rain, sleet and/or 10 degree weather was no fun.
I’ve spent my entire adult life as a public school teacher and will be very grateful for my pension when I retire in a year or two. I find that I am worrying about whether I will feel like a contributing member of society as a retiree. I’m curious how others feel about it.
I have been a SAHM for the past 25 years. My job has been to take care of all home maintenance, childcare, and organize social calendar for H’s career. I do all home projects involving new construction and repair. I volunteered for many,many years. At 60 I am ready to share the shopping,cooking and cleaning and hoping to do more travel. H will probably retire in 3 years at 63. He just started a new job last year and is enjoying it but I see him starting to slow down. The health insurance is why I keep supporting his desire to keep working.
I am ready to ramp down my working life, but I am not quite ready to retire. I was a SAHM for many years, and I have only been back in the full-time paid workforce for 8 years. In that time, I have done well in my career, but I find myself in a position of way too much work for any human being, much less one who will be 57 in a couple weeks. It’s just too much stress at a point in my life when I quite frankly just want to look at people and say, “Do your d**n job,” “Grow up,” “Shut up,”“Get a clue,” “Are you really that stupid?” etc. I love many aspects of what I do, and I love the students at my school … but I want to remove some of the b.s. from my life. I have been looking at other options, but what I find is just less pay and less flexibility. I could put up with less pay, but the less flexibility part bothers me.
Financially, we are on track to retire in the next few years - but my dad thought he was when he retired early, and he almost ran out of money before he died. That scares me, and because I am not a gambler in any sense in my life, it makes me worry about exiting the workforce too soon. I want to have a healthy retirement, and I know that too much stress can result in not being able to fully enjoy retirement - or in not having a retirement at all. I want to travel, pursue hobbies, volunteer when I feel like it (as opposed to all the time, like I did when I was a SAHM). D will someday have kids, so maybe that will be my cue for retirement!
@rutgersmamma As a long-term public school teacher, you have banked many, many “contributing member to society” chits over the years. Thank you for that!
I am a young (relatively) retiree. I haven’t had problems with that feeling personally. I feel like I paid my dues by putting in very long, stressful hours over the years and have paid gobs of taxes over the years. I have run into a few judgmental people (often I think it is at least partially driven by jealousy). Plus, there is always volunteer work you can do - on your own schedule.
Another way of looking at it is by retiring, you are freeing up a job for a younger person looking for a career, benefits, etc. I think that is good for the economy as well.
The legal department I’m in has a number of 60s and 50s folks (small department) and retirement is a big topic for us. I really like my medical insurance. I also like being a senior person with some flexibility to call my own shots more than I could do 20 years ago. I don’t work as long hours IN the office as some of my staff, but I’m avialable and responsive 24/7. I like it that way. If someone insists on a meeting at 7:30 am, usually I can say “I’ll call in!” At 64 I don’t have the stamina that I once had for the travel and long days, but I am really good at recognizing what I need to do for ME!
Well I suppose I am a year away from retirement as I am about to turn 68 in 2017 so I suppose it is time. DH is a retired federal senior executive and he has been retired for 8 years. He does mostly everything around the house. I commute to NYC from a very close-in suburb and I really enjoy what I do in educational sales, I am good at it, I work hard at it very day and I have a comfortable income. We don’t really need my income but it is very nice to be well compensated for my hard work. I have some business travel but I pretty much can decide where and when I want to go to a conference or not. If I can work out to only work part-time or in some capacity to keep my hand in, I will continue. I do have a volunteer position waiting for me but I would only do that 1 or 2 days a week as it involves driving about 30 minutes or more each way to get there. I am concerned that I will be bored as no grandchildren to occupy myself with.We already are big museum and theatre goers, but would do more if both of us are retired and even more if we had an apartment in NYC. DH wants to have a place in FL for the winter. I am not so interested in that unless I give up my house for that apartment in NYC which was always our plan. Who knew the real estate market would be so crazy out of whack in NYC? . I’m more interested in travel and that is my big motivator as in sales it is impossible to take an extended time off like 2 week/3 week trips. I do lots of long weekend trips and take a week off in the winter, take Fridays off for the summer to enjoy my beach days. We are well traveled but there are still places that I want to go to that you just need more time to do and enjoy.
I have noticed that a lot of folks continue to work due to insurance coverage. I have seen some proposals recommending a Medicare type plan for folks 55 and over. Just wondering if something like this was implemented if you would see a dramatic swing of people retiring and even more importantly an aid for employment prospects ----particularly young folks? I know in our state when school boards offered buyouts related to pensions it resulted in many teachers retiring opening up many jobs.
I’m heartened to hear of many of you continuing to work in your mid to late 60s. It tells me you have employers who value their more seasoned (and knowledgable!) employees. Unfortunately, many employers don’t and they are missing out.
After I was laid off at age 55 I went back into consulting. I take the work I want and now make more than I did in the compnay. I plan to let my retirement come naturally as clients leave and I don’t replace them. Should be in a couple of years when I am 66 if all works as planned. We have not decided where we want to live, though, or what we want to do. Right now my income is paying for a lot of travel since I can work almost anywhere. It’s nice to have that. I have worked so long that I am not sure what my hobbies, etc woud be. Still trying to figure the retirement thing out.
I lost what I thought would be my last job (which I loved) in 2011 in the recession and at my age was not at all sure I could get another one - and moving was not an option. I am so grateful that my current employer took in this old lawyer! It’s the best company ever and the best job in my career. I never take it for granted.
I’ve done the financial work to be ready and dont worry about being busy, I usually dont have any problem with that. However its occurred to me this year how much of my social interaction is somehow tied up with my career. Guess my concern at this point is making sure I’m socially active after I leave work. At this point I’m a household o fone, widowed, children several hours away… have some ideas, volunteering, working part time at something fun, increased activity in my church. How is everyone else handling this?
@sistersunnie your workplace friends will still want to see you too. For the first few years, I was invited to every event at my workplace…holiday parties, showers, retirement parties, even special programs. I got too busy to attend!
But I still see my workplace friends who are more than happy to meet me for coffee after work,
