Decision Made......Retirement!!

[anygunanywhere]

Mrs. Anygunanywhere and I have been agonizing over what we want to do. Over the holidays we decided that we will retire. My last work day will be June 27th.

The boss man is not going to be happy. Too bad. After 35 years of this job it is not fun anymore. I think most companies change to the point of driving away old codgers like me.

We will uproot the RV and haul it to La Grange and start our new permanent residence there.

I would like to hear from others who have retired and any advice you have.

Anygunanywhere

[jimlongley]

Anygun:

I took an early retirement offer from NY Telephone Company, back when it still existed, in 1995. The offer was so good that mathematically it would have taken until 2006 on the job, to make the same retirement. In retrospect, due to other considerations, even 11 years might not have been enough.

I stayed in telecomm jobs until 2001 when Alcatel, along with most of the telecomm industry imploded. I made huge (for me) money over and above my pension and we made some serious financial mistakes.

I have not really regretted the decision to retire, but I am still working (at Home Depot) and at one point sank so low as to work as a TSA screener for more then 3 years. I do regret some of our financial decisions, but we have passed through that tunnel and are out the other side.

Budget for the unexpected.

Budget for everything.

Spend less than you think you can afford.

But enjoy every second you have together.

[jmra]

Not there yet (you have a dozen years on me) so don't have much advice to give, but wanted to say congratulations. Can't wait till the wife and I can jump in an RV and take a trip without months of planning schedules.

[RKirkwood]

Congratulations!! Retired after 30 years in the oilfield but with a son still in college working now as a consultant in the same field (money is good but uncertain).

As said above budget for surprises. Slow down to enjoy life, I found we often run pass things without ever seeing them.

[longtooth]

I did it about 3 yrs ago.
Advice: Work every day. Just do what you want to. Some of those days will be work days. Others will be paydays.
This is fun now.

[chasfm11]

I retired in 2012 because my wife was going to have knee replacement surgery. The only thing that was keeping me working up until that point was medical insurance. Like you, any joy that I had in my job was gone since about 10 years before. I never did figure out why I was a star performer when I spoke to my boss only about every 3 months and suddenly worked for a manager who required me to check in every 3 hours. I managed a lot of people in several periods as a manager and never had an employee who required that level of scrutiny. But I digress.

Because of my wife's surgery, my transition to retirement was immediate. I went for working to being a 24hr a day nurse, cook, housecleaner, etc. Even after the first six week's rehabilitation, I still had a lot of things that I needed to do for her. Many people are not in the same situation and spend time trying to figure out what to do next. I didn't have that problem then or since.

What helped me:
- I built a spreadsheet which forecasted expenses. I did not want to take Social Security immediately and I felt better understanding what my financial situation would be over the next couple of years, given a variable inflation factor. I think having a good financial plan is an essential part of retirement.
- I have a ton of interests. We are very active in our church where we play musical instruments and I repair the church's lawn equipment. I race model sailboats. We have an RV which I maintain. In short, I work harder now than when I had a full time job. That is important in retirement because people can easily fall into patterns of inactivity and focus on the TV and the internet. I worry about things like dementia setting in due to more limited brain stimulation so I'm constantly finding new challenges. I just bought a baritone horn off Ebay (I'm normally a woodwind player) and have set a goal to play it with Tuba Christmas in December in Dallas, Ft. Worth or both.
- The thing that I missed most from my job was the social interaction with my work colleagues. I worked for my company for 38 years and had built up a wide range of contacts and friends. I've taken to social media to maintain some of those contacts but I really like the verbal exchanges, too. I'm working to create a new network of contacts where I can have similar interactions. Next week, I'll be taking a fellow who wants to get his CHL to the range to help him start that process. There is a woman friend of my son and his wife who also wants her CHL and she will be next on my list to help. I think that it is too easy to fall into a rut of limited people to talk to and I'm constantly and consciously trying to expand my list. I'm politically active and that has provided an interesting and varied group of people with whom I can interact.
- I had a good exercise regime while I was working and have maintained it in retirement. If you don't have one, I recommend getting with a physical trainer and developing one that will work for your and, more important, that you will stick with.

I can honestly say that I've never looked back. In many of my earlier jobs, I got tremendous job satisfaction and if I had left while I was working at them, I would likely have suffered. But I had learned to gain my personal satisfaction in other ways when my jobs lacked it over the past few years I think we all need to find a way to gain a sense of accomplishment and that is different for every person. I can also truthfully say that I'm much happier. I no longer of the burden of wasting my time on a range of insignificant tasks. I never was good at mindless activity just to fill work hours.

I encourage you to start planning now what you will do the first day after you no longer go to work and to set some specific and reachable goals (not like New Year's Resolutions) for the first several months afterward. I re-evaluate my week's activities every Sunday and if I don't like what is happening, I put plans in place to change it.

[Abraham]

I've been retired for over 20 years.

To stay sane and healthy: Have purpose.

Volunteer at state parks or anyplace that appeals to you. Have a wide variety of fun things to do, like kayak, wadefish, get into birding, read, practice shooting, improve your home, help your neighbors build fences, or whatever appeals to you.

I do all of the above and quite a bit more.

If you don't have purpose and think you'll enjoy doing nothing but sit in a rocker on your front porch watching the world go by, you'll die fairly soon. I've seen it happen to a number of retirees who had no purpose.

If you absolutely must, get a part time job. I did a few times, but decided my time on the mudball is limited, why spend it answering to someone else and financially I don't have to. Besides, I have plenty of imagination to have purpose. I'm not like the prisoner whose been incarcerated for fifty years and when finally set free, looks at the warden and pleads with him not to set free cuz he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

Use your imagination - Have purpose - Have fun!

[Oldgringo]

We quit working when we turned 62, 10 years ago next month. We have our SS, some investment savings and Mrs. Oldgringo has a small state pension that's about good for two trips to Wal-Mart a month. We're in pretty fair health, spend our summers as camp hosts in our modest RV on Flathead Lake in NW Montana, go to bed when we want to and get up when we want to. Life is good.

The key to a successful retirement is not how much you have coming in, it is how much you have going out.

[anygunanywhere]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice.

I have a pension and we have our retirement savings being professionally manged. We do not have much debt. The financials are really not a big part of the decision process for us, praise God.

Mrs Anygun plans on working a few days a week and I am definitely going to look for something to help pay for ammo and other stuff. I already have my volunteer path set up and will pursue it.

The grandchildren are going to be a huge part of our plans.

Lots of fish in the pond.

Lots of work around the homestead.

Lots to see and do.

Mrs Anygun and I had a great discussion last night about ensuring we set up a routine focused on what we want to do like walking and other goals. We want to have a regular routine just like we do now.

We are continuing to downsize and simplify. I still have a lot of stuff to sell. We sold off a lot of stuff when we sold our house in League City in 2012.

Anygunanywhere

[baldeagle]

My wife was terminated December 12th after 21 years with her company. So we're going to the financial planner this morning to see if we can afford for her to retire now. If not, she's going to have to find a job at 63. Sometimes retirement is thrust upon you.

[Oldgringo]

We both had very active and demanding jobs. We applied ourselves and paid off all debts including the house, turned 62 and told 'em, "...you can have it..", or something like that. I did a couple contract jobs since then, we've spent the last 7 summers in the mountains and haven't looked back. We don't have all we want but we do have all we need.

Stories are legion of folk who waited to retire and died the next day, week, month or year. What a bummer that would be, eh?

[VoiceofReason]

We both had very active and demanding jobs. We applied ourselves and paid off all debts including the house, turned 62 and told 'em, "...you can have it..", or something like that. I did a couple contract jobs since then, we've spent the last 7 summers in the mountains and haven't looked back. We don't have all we want but we do have all we need.

Stories are legion of folk who waited to retire and died the next day, week, month or year. What a bummer that would be, eh?

I figure I will die the day after I win the lottery and the day before they find the cure.

[JALLEN]

I never figured on retiring, but after being diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis a few years ago, and it getting harder and harder to go around now on supplemental oxygen, I am semi-retired. I still help my sons with the business, I manage investments for people which is not like working at all, and get calls to do expert witness assignments in real estate, title insurance and foreclosure disputes.

In planning this, such as it was, I fretted over what I would do. If I had my way, I would live into my 90's, helping my CPA son with the investment management stuff, but that isn't the way it is going to work out. Since moving here, I stay busy keeping up with reading and writing political harangues, building my ham radio station up, trying to get out and walk regularly, playing in a community band and the Longhorn Alumni Band, and a host of other activities designed to make sure I am not as dumb for the rest of my life as I was last week. Due to the disease, I don't have the energy to do as much as I would like. My wife is perfectly happy to be retired (she worked in my business; we argued constantly whether she was sleeping with the boss or I was!) so she can play piano all day. We've been here retired and semi-retired for 6 months.... so far so good!

As John Lennon reputedly said, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans" and I can see how that plays out now.

[longdog]

I retired in 2012 and don't regret it although I still enjoyed the job. I retired at 64. I never really considered that I would retire that early, but some family health issues made retirement more attractive.I ran the numbers and was surprised to find that I could do it. 3 years prior to retirement, I began looking for a home in the Texas Hill Country and found something a year later.

What I miss are my friends in Pearland and the rest of Brazoria County. I really miss belonging to PSC shooting club which I belonged to for years. We need a good shooting range near Wimberley.

Our neighbors here are wonderful and we've made many friends. I only wish that I would have retired earlier.

The surprise is that it seems like I have so much to do and I'm not even trying to find stuff to do.

I reccommend it.

[Oldgringo]

All my working life, I was the first one on the job and the last one to leave...every day. Now, I go to bed when I want to, get up when I want do and do nothing I don't want to do. It took me maybe 6 months, at the most, to get into the hang of unemployment. That was 10 years ago. My, how time flies.

EDIT:

Another thought, If you and your spouse are not best friends now, you dadgum sure won't be when you're both locked in the house all day and night every day - TOGETHER.