I'v.e been very fortunate to retire at 54 (actually 53 & 362 days). Have never been happier. I enjoyed my career and all the people I've been involved with, but the opportunity presented itself and I've never regretted it. The honey-do list is never ending but there's always time for all my "other" jobs. Definitely time to enjoy the efforts of 40+ years of working. Just not sure whats going to happen when the better half retires in 3 years
Turned 64 in November and both my wife and I are retiring Dec 29th. 18 more working days and Im done....got a fully rebuilt flathead 8 and 39 trans to do a power plant swap in my avatar, scheduled to start Dec 30th A.M.......Cant wait
I retired at 66 and worked on everything I'd put off until retirement. That slowed after six months, then money woes got in the way, and I went back to work as a substitute teacher locally. I love it, and still have time several days a week to work on my long-term (since 1974) '29 AA project. Lack of money will always drag down progress, but my health is good, and so is my attitude. I'll be 69 in March.
For most people my age and younger, full retirement doesn't seem like a possibility. Most of us don't expect to get much from Social Security, as it is in deficit spending now and all projections seem to be that is only going to get worse; which will necessarily lead to increased retirement age and cuts in benefits. I'm planning on not getting it, so if there is any there for me, that will be like a bonus. I've got a pension coming, plus a couple of 401K and IRA's. Still, I expect to not fully retire when I do quit this job. I figure I will most likely take a part time job consulting for a few years, will hav eto be careful to not let it take too much of my time. And I've had a small side business for years servicing, repairing and modifying vintage tube style guitar amps. I plan to keep that going and can probably pick up more work doing that then I care for. That and the occasional gig should bring in enough pocket money to fund the music Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). Hope to be able to keep playing with cars, that's going to depend on economics. I've had a company car for 30 years, getting a new car on average every 3 0 4 years. When I quit this job, I think that will be the end of new cars for me. Gonna have to maintain a modern DD for the wife, than it'll just be the old cars for me.
I'm fortunate to have had a good career with the same company since 1981. It got weird 6 years ago when I got a new boss who ran the department into the ground. In the last 2 months I'm working for a younger guy who knows how to utilize people and their skills, but too little too late. I have one guy in the group, he has said f#$% it, he's out next May at age 65. So I pick up the slack? I hope not. My exiting boss gave me a bad review (payback thing) and it took $$ out of my pocket. They can go piss up a rope. I can go out at 63, take the lump sum and do something else to fill in the gaps. I'll be able to hold off taking SS until 66 and not dip into the 401k. I'm staying healthy since my 2016 heart attack, in the gym 3 or 4 days a week and eating better, new girlfriend too, she even has a decent 401k. We have a lot of common interests, the future could be a lot of fun.
I'll tell you what is going to happen: a whole lot of togetherness will happen. You absolutely have to have your own interests or you will be the guy sitting on a bench at the mall waiting for your wife to come out of a clothing store.
I'm retiring in April 2018.I will be 66.I have 2cars to finish,a 62 Ford Galaxie Xl 500 and a 56 Ford Victoria!My wife is gonna work with me,as long as our he holds up!
After many years of marriage she knows just how "accommodating" I can, have, and will be waiting in the mall. NOT!!! Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I retired for good in May 2015 from a 2 day a week job . I worked with younger guys and enjoyed it. I just turned 71 last week and my wife retired 6 years before I did. It is nice to go out to eat , shop or whatever, whenever you want to. We babysit our 2 year old granddaughter 2 days a week what a joy she is. I have 3 new car friends since we moved 250 miles away from our long time home. We also have a great church family and do the giving back things which are the most rewarding !! We spend less than we take in and have every thing we need. I bought back into the old car thing this year and that has been wonderful as well. I couldn't imagine going back to work AGAIN. As previously stated there are no days off and ALSO no holidays or paid vacations when you are retired. Later Bill
I'm 67 and just retired in August after driving truck for about 35 years. Was hoping to go for a couple more years of getting SS and working too, but the company "outsourced" the trucks, so I took my severance pay and small retirement and ran. Still getting used to it. Between puttsing around in the garage and Ham Radio, I have enough to keep me busy. Also I use to shoot my guns a lot and reload but haven't done that in a while.
I'm feel like I'm so far behind I'll have to work until lunch the day of my funeral. We were thrust into raising another kid because his parents were too sorry to raise him, long story I'll not get into other than to say I love my Grandson, just didn't want to have to go through raising another kid, but it is what it is, and he now has a good home. My wife had to take a medical retirement several years ago and she has SSI as well as a State pension of a few bucks, but I won't have anything but SS to look forward to. I've been self employed for 23 years now, I used a 401k from my previous job to start my business with, and although I've made a pretty good living, I've never been able to save anything for long, something has always came up that drained the savings, nothing ever left over to put away for retirement. And we don't live fine, either, we drive 10 year old or older vehicles, have a small house payment, and we don't waste money, just exactly the opposite, we squeeze dead presidents until they cry uncle. I don't spend household money on the toys, I do side jobs when I have time for extra cash, and buy and sell and trade stuff. My business has it's ups and downs, but we're getting by. I wanted to retire in 3 1/2 years when I turn 62, but not sure if I'll be able to or not. May have to go to 65 or my full age is some weird shit number like 67 3/4, but hope I don't have to go that long, I'm burnt out now. I could walk away today if the money would let me. Figure I'll still have to work part time two or three days a week for a few years to wind everything down anyway.
I've been catching up on my housework. Converting from wood heat as the sole form of heat to other methods, the wood cutting is awful slow and kind of on the dangerous side for me these days. An old dizzy guy that has trouble walking with a chainsaw, when I do fall over I have to hang on tight to the saw and watch where the blade is so I cannot catch myself and the landing is kind of rough, I can fall over on level ground on a sunny day with no breeze. What used to take an hour now takes all day or more. A friend gave me a load of wood the other day, my daughter's boyfriend went up with me to pick it up. My friend and daughter's boyfriend and I loaded it up. They loaded most of it, these days I know what tits on a boar feel like. My old pickup couldn't have held much more, I unloaded it myself, took me 3 days. Fortunately I had the foresight to buy several electric baseboard heaters when they were on sale at Menard's 20 some years ago and I have them stored in the barn, still unopened in boxes. I'm in the process of installing them after that I'm going to work on putting in propane stoves. I have a couple of nice stoves a 20,000 and a 30,000 btu stored in my barn that I bought last year when a heating and cooling business went out of business. Mom thinks I should hire someone to come and put the chimneys in but that kind of goes against my grain. I've always done everything by myself and just don't like the thought of hiring somebody else. Mom and my wife think that I'll have to change my views on that but I still hate the thought of sitting and watching somebody else do my work. I'm also in the process of redoing our water system, there are parts of it that always freeze when it gets bitter cold. I'm rerouting all the pipes and when I'm done we shouldn't have any more problems with freezing weather. Also I bought a new small water heater that I'm planning on installing under the sink in our master bathroom. It's far enough away from the main water heater that we have to run out over a gallon of water before the hot water reaches back there. The little water heater should solve that problem giving us almost instant hot water in our master bath. I'm planning on remodelling that bathroom also so I might hold off on the auxiliary water heater until then. My back door is shot and I can see light under it but I have 2 brand new doors in my barn that I bought a couple of years ago, one for the back and one for the front. The back one needs to go before January. and I'm tearing off the old deck in the back and planning on building a porch back there with the steps inside the porch. Slick steps are treacherous in the winter and as we age and have a harder time getting around we need to plan ahead to what our future needs will be. A few years ago I insisted upon the steps at my Mother's house to be inclosed and she is glad I did. My wife is on vacation this week and I'll probably be getting a lot done while she's home. Then I'll be able to start on the Courier. But nap time has gained a lot of importance with me, I never understood that at all when I was younger and had things to get done, my thinking back then was that I'd get plenty of sleep when I was dead.
I can relate to crash farmer. Im still healthy and able to cut my fire wood. But having a different source of heat in addition to the wood is something I need to do. Frozen Pipes I routed all our water pipes next to the walls not under the house. And they don't freeze any more. and no more crawling under the house to fix plumbing. We are still planning on moving. Our place at Hardy Is currently occupied by our youngest son and his family. It has baseboard heat. I want to build on to the east and add a handicap accessible bathroom and a small garage to install a wood furnace. My wife just bought a house at Ash Flat Ark. It needs some work . So We gotta fix it up and The son will relocate there. She bought the house at a Tax sale for $400. That's correct Four hundred dollars. There isn't any spare time at present .
Well 5 more weeks to go and three of them are holidays. Going to miss my students but substitute teaching is paying very well these days if additional fun money is required. We have my healthy RSP and my wife's gov't pension guaranteed for life for both of us. So after some quiet (snoozing time) in January I'll be at my projects. Have to finally hook up my radiant heater, finish a LBC, then start a '56 Meteor ht or the '32 5W. I've already been approached about substitute availability. However, my wonderful 8 month granddaughter comes first. Looks like I'm going to be busy!
I have 8 years to go (I'll be 55), then move to a less congested and cooler area, somewhere with land for a shop. I want to go more rural, I'm tired of watching this area get more removed from the suburbs I moved to in '94. I've bought all the parts and projects I'll need to keep me busy until well past death . We have no kids so it will be someone's else's project if I don't finish it all. Build and drive on my own time, I've been a late night person in a morning persons world for far too long.
Never really wanted to retire. I liked what I was doing for Boeing and what I had done in my years as a shop Iron Worker, and ship yard manager. I was 63 at the time of 9/11 and teaching Manufacturing Engineering courses for Boeing in the Seattle region. My manager asked if I'd consider it, to save the younger folks a job as it was sure the company would be laying off because of the attack. Took me a year to get it together and so with a good severance package I retired January 9th of 2003, my anniversary date of discharge from the USAF in '62. Well like some have said, at first I didn't know how I ever had time to work, for the first 3 or 4 years or so anyway. Then even with the 34 to build, there were times that cutting the grass and cutting the grass got to be old. (money/parts on the 34 were limiting). A former manager of mine at Boeing saw me and said he needed help and offered my M.E. job back as contract labor, this in 2008, which I did take, but not for him, but as Flight Test M. E. at Seattle's Boeing Field. Absolutely was crazy in **** (hate the word "love" for expression of how one feels about anything other than person to person feelings) with the job, people and environment. Well like all good things, "they" must come to and end. So that put me back out in the garage on my toy, in the yard with the grass and my faithful little friend Max. But I could go back to work in a heart beat to that job.
I loved my wood heat when I was fit enough to do all the work myself. I could heat my house all winter on 3 to 4 gallons of gas through the chain saw. I split it all by hand. It was cheap and by the time you cut and split a winter's worth of wood, you're in shape. I was never into this going to the gym stuff, I had work to keep me fit. I took a few minutes out of my day today on this nice warm December day to do just a little flying. I can see about the whole farm without leaving my chair, isn't technology fun?
Walked through the cemetery and looked hard but could never find an epitaph that said "Wish I had worked a few more years". Retired on 8/31/2010 and never regretted it.
Just returned from our place across the river. cut and hauled a load of firewood. Removed the tailgate from a 49 pilot house dodge bed that's setting and rotting there. Shot a fat red squirrel with my 22 rifle. It took three shots before I hit him and he was setting still. it is a boar. Got it skinned and dressed out. I will cook it really slow in a electric skillet and it eventually will get tender. I tend to do everything myself. Its part of being self reliant and not beholden to others. there is a saying (the self reliant person never has to wait upon the time and pleasure of others to get things done). Us farm folks have to be jack of all trades. We have water pumps and machinery and do our own electrical ,plumbing ,carpentry , roofing , concrete work , Vetenery , Butchering welding and anything that needs attention. And lots of times that stuff needs fixing on weekends and holidays. Be careful with your drone fly it over the wrong place and it might get shot down.
I dunno flat ground and no big rocks . You likely have more than 6 inches of earth before you hit bedrock too! Its handy to have steep hillsides and plenty of rocks. You use the rocks to scotch the wheels on your vehicles. And with a stick transmission you can roll start off the steep hills. We think we have a bumper crop if we get fifty bushel of corn per acre. You guys are disappointed if you don't get 200 bushel per acre.
I retired at 55, promptly moved from the big city to a small town, otherwise I couldn't have retired, too expensive. BEST THING I EVER DID, I work at my trade when I want, don't got a lot of money, but have enough, the extra work pays for the extras, had a heart attack a year and a half ago, in better shape than I been all my life, but it made me realise that I'm not gonna be here forever. So, if you're considering retirement, get on with it, find a way to live cheaper, it's not about the money in the bank, it's about how much life left in the bank, take a tape measure, run it out to 8 inches, (80) years, see where your finger lands on the tape according to your age, and count what you have left. NOT MUCH. Most of the inches on the tape are used up, so take advantage of the few inches left.
I'd planned on retiring at 59 or 60. Divorce 12 years ago changed that. I'm 62 and probably have another 4 or 5 years to go full time and then will keep working part time for a few more years. People keep telling me I'll get bored but I have four car projects waiting for me plus 3 1/2 acres in the country to take care of. Might have to do a little fishing too.
When I was born 67 years ago God gave me a list of things to do......... I am so far behind I will NEVER DIE! Retired at 64: Play every day (Hopefully with your wife). Take care of your family, friends, and pets. Enjoy your dinner and Jack (Daniels). Try to take a nap. Never say "should 'a, could 'a, would 'a". Have a cool ride!
Crashfarmer. You sound like the salt of the earth. Good for you!! Nice plot of land. Never been to Iowa. Musta cut all the trees down for corn planting years ago.
I retired 3 years ago after working 33 years for a major defense contractor. At 61 my health is great and I've been involved with tinkering in the garage since I was a teenager. Plenty of car projects to keep me busy. Of course I did sell my house in a hot California bay area market which allowed me to build and outfit my 3200 sq ft dream garage/shop with everything I need to weld, fabricate, machine and paint until I get too old to do it. At this point a I feel I have many productive years ahead of me. I still get excited to get up and get in the garage every morning. The only problem now is how fast time seems to be flying by. My advice is to retire as early as you can and stay busy. Retirement is a blast I wish it for everyone.
Counting down, getting out at 62. I worked 22 yrs at a School Dist. As the primary Plummer. Took care of over a million and a half sq. Ft. of facilities. Certified pool operator for two Olympic pools. Did most of the roof repairs and some HVAC work as well. Never told anyone I could repair something. Worked construction for 15 years before on large commercial projects, water treatment plants, hi rise build in SF, and BART right of ways. The School Dist. wants me to come back and teach a apprentice program (part time) which I am inclined to do. Also may start a home repair mentoring program on the side. Looking to join the ranks of all you fine gentlemen if you will have me.
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