The official "Retirement, how's it going?" thread

Miscellaneous
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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.

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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.

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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.

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4

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. :slight_smile:

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.

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5

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.

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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.

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7

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.

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8

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.

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9

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.

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10

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 :man_shrugging:t2:

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11

Technically I can retire in 475 days.

I probably won’t, but if I did I’ve got at least another 10-15 years before I hit actual retirement age haha.

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12

Oh, it will hit you soon enough. We’ll be kind enough to not say “I told you so” too many times.

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13

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.

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14

I’m not young, but apparently on the younger side here. In critical points of my adult life I’ve had 9/11, the Great Recession and Covid. Covid destroyed my business (well actually Trump policies after it that overheated the housing market and then the subsequent rate increases that froze the market did that). Now having kids approaching adulthood and realizing that owning a home is likely a futile dream for them for a long time will add to that burden I think.

I have no faith in any of the social safety nets existing when I’ll actually need them.

So, I’ll likely never be able to retire. Eventually Walmart will likely have to call my kids to tell them to come pick up my lifeless greeter body.

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15

Yeah…if AI is half as good as the great minds say it could be, you will never have to worry about Walmart calling your kids because you keeled over at the front door greeting shoppers. They will have a robot for that. Yes I am a purveyor of the dismal science.

I’m more worried my kids will get the call from the Landfill saying they found my body in a dumpster and have called the PD.

Yes, this whole mess is a FUBAR of Old Testament level proportions, and God can’t be blamed for this one. This one sits squarely on the unabashed greed of the upper classes. When you really think about it, it’s always these same bad actors pulling this ■■■■. You know, if the laws in this country were applied in a more equitable way, maybe these FUBARS might slow down a bit. Maybe they just stop happening. Not likely, though.

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16

…this is SOOOO frustrating…

I’ll post my thoughts on the reasons for this one day when it’s early enough to recover and get to sleep that evening …

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17

The problem is this country is being governed by a bunch of Gordon Gekko and Thurston Howell wannabes. Whatever they have is never enough!! They are manipulating the market and manipulating oil prices, and unless you are on the inside, you’re getting hosed. I also believe this war is a huge wagging of the dog in regards to both the mid terms and the Epstein files!
Sorry I’ll get off my soapbox.

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18

100% it is wagging the dog over Epstein. I know some people who have been spending the past few months, night and day, digging through the Epstein files with AI to get a grasp on it all. The DOJ has intentionally obfuscated things to make it is as difficult as possible. They won’t win, too many people are working on it. The depth and breadth of it all is astounding, and somehow the child predator stuff…

Hell, I don’t even know how to say it because things become so depraved that there is no scale. I was going to say the child predator stuff wasn’t even the worst of it, because it is. It is just that there is stuff in there that somehow is equally bad, and that hasn’t even been exposed yet publicly that I’ve seen.

And it is a network of the ultra-wealthy and powerful, and it involves governments, and unthinkable amounts of money, and spycraft and more.

And as I’m typing this, I’m thinking that I sound like some nut conspiracy theorist. But it is all in there, and the only saving grace of the DOJ is their sheer incompetence, which is allowing people to connect the dots.

But the reason that nothing has happened over all this time is that these people are all over the files, and they control everything and have bought everyone. There is a reason why Epstein still had influence and connections even after his first conviction. And some people were directly involved, others who had knowledge and did nothing, and others who were being bought and controlled. And it goes way beyond Trump, but he’s definitely in deep.

But it touches a lot of people in power, and it is unspeakable. And they’ll do anything to keep people off of it, including distract, pay off, and kill.

If I had my way, I’d remove every elected official down to your local school board, and seize the assets of everyone beyond $500M and start over, just like how you remove cancer. You keep going past the edges into healthy tissue to make sure it is all gone. Then we set up trials across the world and find out what these people have been doing not just with Epstein, but to corrupt the world with money and greed. They desperately want us to pay off their debts and are completely happy to mortgage to common human’s future.

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19

I’ll have you know that was Thurston Howell III ! ! !

I long suspected he and “Lovey” weren’t working real hard to help the Professor find a way off the island because they found some kind of plant that elevated their “sense of wellbeing”… so to speak.

But the Professor kept trying and trying… as both Ginger and Mary Anne were just begging for attention. Such a pity.

That show was my first exposure to really poor alignment in effort and outcome.

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20

I’ve never thought of it that way.

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