I never really decided to retire, but rather was taking some time off from work to help my elderly mother get situated when the pandemic hit. My mother-in-law started having some dementia issues and needed a lot of help during the pandemic, so I jumped in there as well.
My wife left her position, in early 2023, not planning to retire either. One thing led to another and neither of us have ever returned to the job market.
In the interim, both of our mother’s passed away, and as the oldest children, we each became resposible for managing their estates and family trusts. We’re both winding down those things now, I’m filing the final trust tax return right now, and my wife has a small rental property to sell this spring after which she’ll her parents estate will be wrapped up.
The thing I miss about working is the regularity of a work schedule, the social aspects of working on a team, and challenges of keeping up with demanding software development projects.
I’ve been sort of contemplating getting back into the workforce, but frankly, wonder how possible that might even be for a 69 year old who hasn’t written a line of code for more than 6 years.
I’m curious if anyone out there has left the workforce for years at a time and later returned, and if so what the return was like.
I also know that there are several other’s on the board who have retired in the same timeframe and am curious how retirement is treating you.
I am not retired, probably 10 years off from an early retirement, but have thought about what I would retire TO (not FROM). I think everyone still needs a purpose and something that provides some level of routine or meaning. Definitely need to find a community (church, sports, hobbies, senior center, whatever - really important). I’ve wondered if I might substitute (or part-time) teach, probably volunteer/service work that has a schedule, definitely keep up a fitness routine, maybe to include something like a tennis league or something so again, it’s a certain day and time. Heck, maybe even just be a school bus driver or work at the Home Depot - no performance reviews to do, just help people find the stuff for their projects. It’d be about having something to do, not really the pay.
Once I retire, I doubt I will want to go back to work in the corporate world, but I see how the routine of projects, working with people, etc. is appealing. One note, if you haven’t coded in more than 6 years, you probably need to learn Claude (and have it be your Jr developer) but it would also be hard finding a job now.
I barely got back in the workforce. I worked part time delivering auto parts because a friend who managed the store said they needed help. Once I got on Medicare and then a year and a half later started collecting SS, I have not worked or even contemplated getting back in the work force.
To me, the nice thing about retirement is that you are almost always free. If someone says, “let’s head to XXXX on Wednesday”, you don’t have to look to see how much PTO you have.
To keep busy, I putter around the yard quite a bit, walk the dog, and do water aerobics.
I had a very solid plan in place to take an early retirement at 60 (currently 51). But after my job got DOGE’d (thanks Elon!) and I had to take a 50% pay cut last year, I’m probably now looking at retiring closer to 65. When I do finally step away, I will have a massive backlog of books, movies, video games, and board games that will receive my undivided attention for a good long while.
I’m sure I’ll jump into more frequent volunteer work or find some sort of part-time gig once the novelty of that wears off, but I’m so damn sick of the corporate world that I’d be completely fine never ever jumping back into this morass again once I leave.
I am 3-5 years out depending on how the market does before then. I am very much looking forward to not having to be anywhere on a particular schedule. I really enjoy the weekends where I have nothing scheduled and I can just read or watch movies or go for a walk or whatever when I feel like it. I hope I will be able to just retire and not have to work anymore at all.
I was fortunate enough to be able to retire at 60, just over 8 years ago. Except for a brief contract job for them in 2019, I haven’t done any work for pay since. Love it. I had goals to drop my golf handicap by two strokes (check), ski enough to justify a season pass (check until this year when it sucked so bad I willingly chose not to break even), go through a set of tires every two years on my bike (it’s been every three), and learn to play lap steel guitar (have one but I’m not very good and need to practice more). I miss a lot of people I worked with, don’t miss several specific others, and don’t miss being gone from home 11 to 12 hours a day because of the commute to Clearfield one bit.
I tell everyone, if the numbers work for you, get out. Life’s too short not to.
Due to my wife’s parents age, and my extended recovery time I needed from sepsis, I officially retired last spring. My “job” was cooking, cleaning, and home improvements. I was looking to start working again, then my wife got hospitalized with cancer. I am glad I was able to be with her all the way to the end, but I need to get to doing something to maybe feel closer to normal.
I suppose I’m “Quasi” retired. I’ve got a long list of honey-do’s for myself around the house. Nothing too big, just 1-2 a day. I’m counting down the days until the Lorin Farr pool opens up for the season so I can do PT for my knee in the sunshine @ the pool. Most importantly, now I’ve got the time to spend with my mom. Being with her is really important.
I don’t miss work, but I do miss some of the people. I’m trying to get out of the habit of using the word “we” when I refer to the company. That is really hard to do.
Now, if I can successfully fight the urge to book a bazillion trips, I’ll consider that a slight financial victory.
I’m not sure if I’m retired yet, I had to ground myself due to a condition they call deep myocardial bridging, probably out at least 9 months. That being said, I have enjoyed not having many responsibilities, sleeping in, going on spontaneous mini vacations, hanging with my family. The down side is watching my 401K and other retirement accounts shrink like a snail sprinkled with salt and not being able to work extra to compensate. Thank you for your consideration on this matter.
I never used to think about retirement ever..after Covid and the last 5 years and the rise of AI I’m now just praying I can hang on for 5-7 more…and my work in all honesty isn’t hard…I kind of wish it was but
Plan to go out in 2 years. Could go out now, but want to go with my wife who is a few years younger. My work is entirely fulfilling, but enormously stressful and physically demanding. What is disturbing is this slow degradation of the SS system Medicare and the complete inability to reign in Big Pharma and Healthcare costs. Sad that they want over 200 billion to fund a ridiculous and unclear military action when being told that the richest country on the planet cannot care for it’s own people. We can send million dollar rockets against drones that are becoming more and more abundant for the cost of a ship-box automobile.
