I retired 20 years ago at the age of 50. I had worked very hard and bought myself a nervous breakdown. After that we decided to change our lifestyle. Our needs are simple and in the UK healthcare is free so no worries on that score. I sell most of what I make so my hobby more or less pays for itself.
Cheers
Ian
Cheers
Ian
Nobody wants a 69 year old cell phone designer either. I was 62 when I got "the letter" from the CEO of Motorola.
I did manage one short contract engineering job in the 7 1/2 years that I have been retired. That money kept Tubelab alive during a time when it would have died (negative cash flow).
Divorce is not the only possible unexpected expense that retirees don't prepare for. At the time that this thread went into it's long sleep the house I am currently living in was being built while we were living in a house that my wife inherited from her mother. We planned to sell it and use the funds to pay off debt's incurred from moving and building the new house.
My daughter and her family of 6 asked if they could move here from Seattle and stay in that house while they looked for a better place. They would pay rent to help us with our costs. Now over 6 years later they are still in that house, haven't paid squat for "rent" and use talk like "you are going to leave it to us when you pass, so why can't we have it now?"
So on the pessimistic side it looks like we will be subsidizing their life as long as we live, but optimistically I have 4 grandkids to play with whenever I can pry them away from their $!#ing video games.
The formula is quite simple - all it takes is third grade math. Save 50% of your income for 25 years. The only little problem is there seems to be a threshold below which attempting to save anything is pointless. Once your debts are gone (including paying for your home and car - and rent is also considered debt so you need to eliminate it) savings will snowball. Below that minimum threshold, that is not possible. And then your rainy day fund keeps getting raided by emergency after emergency, until such time as you’re making enough to overwhelm those demands. THEN you can actually save money. That seems to happen somewhere around $60,000 a year. At half that, you’re paying rent for a gun and drug infested apartment and can’t keep a car on the road. That’s not sustainable - something WILL happen to wipe out any savings.
The first 10 years of my career I managed to save a miserable $40,000 - but pay off the house. Then it was like a light switch turned on and the coffers began to fill. At this point I’m saving well over 50% - fortunate because I’m completely burnt out from working in the electronics industry. Anyone reading in all the other threads about what’s going on in the semiconductor biz theses days can understand why. And realize that it is only going to get worse and an exit strategy is required if you intend to keep your health.
As far as continuing to do DIY audio in retirement, it’s not just about saving *money*. Keeping up with all the latest trends is too expensive and not sustainable, since you need to find a way to keep expenses in check when living off savings. Retooling and continuing to buy buy buy eats into it. So I built up a “Tubelab-style” stockpile for the last 20 years where I won’t need to keep ordering stuff from Mouser every couple months. A lot of it will be unobtainium in 10 years anyway as all the thru hole stuff goes away. And no, I won’t have 3 days to move it all when the time comes - building the new place is *not* contingent on selling the old one first. That can happen up to two years later - just cost a little property tax while moving a truckload at a time, and fixing everything that needs fixed.
Since I couldn't get a job I liked any more I did the old John Galt trick. I stopped working 10 years ago at 58 and went off to live on a yacht. After 8 1/2 years of that I moved to a country property in a place where nobody wanted to live, which was super cheap. I love it here, it's a great place to sit out the zombie apocalypse.
Just started a company at the beginning of July because I was bored. It's also meant to supplement the pension, but hasn't made much money so far. On the other hand it doesn't take up much of my time either, now that I have stock levels and accounting sorted out.
Just started a company at the beginning of July because I was bored. It's also meant to supplement the pension, but hasn't made much money so far. On the other hand it doesn't take up much of my time either, now that I have stock levels and accounting sorted out.
When I was in my early 30's we rented a home in Jamaica that came with 3 servants. Wow, I loved it. I tipped them very heavily at the end of our holiday, they had earned it. By the time I was 36 I was married had 1 child and the house was paid for. I thought I could retire at 45. We had another kid and she wanted a bigger house to match her sisters' houses and country homes. Retirement went out the window. I did save like crazy and we lived a comfortable lifestyle in a large home on 2 acres, with a pool 3 fireplaces etc etc. No servants though. I paid off the house with the annual bonuses and overtime pay in 12 years. I was able to leave fulltime work when I was 51. I became a soccer/football referee for the local amateur clubs and the money from soccer (about $5,000 a year, 100-130 matches a year) bought new cars and toys for myself. I had to quit refereeing due to health issues when I was 63. I have a small company pension, government pension and my investments keep me financially comfortable. Not rich, comfortable. In the past 20 years I have gone to about 4 funerals a year.. Too many friends, former coworkers and sadly children of friends have passed away either through illness or accidents. Every day I wake up is a great day regardless of the weather or the politics. I encourage everyone to set realistic goals, enjoy life and stop chasing the $$$$ as tomorrow you might not wake up.
I think I'm going to enjoy this comparison:
I am 58 and will be retiring soon.
We have a trailer.
I am selling my company because I am bored.
Our only pensions are our investments but both the Mrs and I are doing well enough.
By stock levels, do you mean you are retailing? I sold only information, no product.
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You are just down the road from my parent's favourite place in the world, Copeton Dam. Based on what they've said, you've chosen a great spot!
I retired in 2015 at age 56. Got bored and worked part time at the university where my kid was a student at.
They wanted to lay me off for the summer. I said how about no, I'm retiring. Sold the overpriced house, bought another home for half the price with cash.
Anybody who says you need $1 million to retire is nuts. One price doesn't fit all. It depends on your personal situation. No mortgage, no other debts- you don't need $1 million to retire.
I used to tell students to start a Roth IRA as soon as they start working. Max out the 401k if one is offered. Have a work-life balance. Don't miss your children's school activities, sports, music, school meetings- you never get that time back and no amount of money will compensate you.
Part of the reason I like DIY is to have some of the things I couldn't afford earlier in my working life. I've bought the stereo gear, cars, etc., that I always wanted and learned how to repair/maintain all the stuff I wanted. Funded my wife's Roth IRA, paid into my 401k and 529 college fund so the kid could graduate with zero debt. Never went on a cruise, except a US Navy WestPac cruise
Every day is like Sunday...
They wanted to lay me off for the summer. I said how about no, I'm retiring. Sold the overpriced house, bought another home for half the price with cash.
Anybody who says you need $1 million to retire is nuts. One price doesn't fit all. It depends on your personal situation. No mortgage, no other debts- you don't need $1 million to retire.
I used to tell students to start a Roth IRA as soon as they start working. Max out the 401k if one is offered. Have a work-life balance. Don't miss your children's school activities, sports, music, school meetings- you never get that time back and no amount of money will compensate you.
Part of the reason I like DIY is to have some of the things I couldn't afford earlier in my working life. I've bought the stereo gear, cars, etc., that I always wanted and learned how to repair/maintain all the stuff I wanted. Funded my wife's Roth IRA, paid into my 401k and 529 college fund so the kid could graduate with zero debt. Never went on a cruise, except a US Navy WestPac cruise
Every day is like Sunday...
I had always thought it’d be a good thing to retire at age 55, had started collecting rental properties in my twenties to get financially stable, but went back to school in an attempt to find more challenging and lucrative work.
Starting a family and a more demanding job lead to the rentals being sold off, but am lucky to be at a job I like doing, and that makes a big difference.
A motor home is likely in the future, and possibly a move. I’ll know when it’s time to stop working…
Starting a family and a more demanding job lead to the rentals being sold off, but am lucky to be at a job I like doing, and that makes a big difference.
A motor home is likely in the future, and possibly a move. I’ll know when it’s time to stop working…
I worked my way from factory tech on the assembly line up to electrical engineer with only a high school education. As the market uncertainties of the late 80's rippled through the plant causing constant cycles of laying off and hiring a couple of high level bosses made me a deal. Go get a college degree at the company's expense, or risk being laid off. So at age 37 I went to college.
Since I "knew everything" (yeah right) about electrical engineering, I chose computer engineering to learn some new skills like programming. After 3 1/2 years of evening classes I had a BSCE degree at age 41.
A couple years later some friends in the research department, where I finished out my career, encouraged me to get an "advanced degree," again at the company's expense. This time they would negotiate for me to get time off with pay since MSEE classes were not taught at night.
Let's see, I could sit in front of my PC at work and have it laugh at me, or I could hang out at a "party college" at Motorola's expense......even a dumm blonde doesn't have to think too hard on that one. This one was on my terms, so instead of full time school and full time work (50+ hours a week) while raising a teenager, I took one or two classes at a time whenever a class that interested me came along. At age 49 I had a masters degree in electrical engineering and found myself enrolled in the PHD program. That ended when Motorola killed funding for employee education.
Did all of that school give me any useful skills? At least it raised my status and salary a bit among the other "real engineers" and convinced me that software engineering was not a career choice that I wanted to make. Motorola could not find software engineers that understood how a complex two way radio or cell phone worked, so they were trying to get EE's to join the software teams. There were times in my career where I had one foot in each camp.
In the cell phone group I was the systems integrator, hook all of the individual blocks together and make them fit on a PC board. In the research group I worked my way into a position I actually liked, I built all of the prototypes. Motorola sells police radios. Research guys make paper (OK Powerpoint slides) I turned the paper into prototype products. Both of these didn't really require a MSEE, or any degree at all, just some of the skill set that many of us here have learned from a lifetime of building stuff.
Now that I have been retired for 7 years, I find that those 1990's programming classes fit right in with the Arduino makers stuff of today. Some of my nearly 30 year old "C" code actually compiles and runs on a Teensy board (small Arduino compatible board with a serious ARM CPU). I have been designing digital music synthesizers, I now have 5.....could an Arduino controlled tube amp be coming?
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One of the advantages of working in a big company is that there are many opportunities to move around within the company to do something different or learn new things. I changed jobs within the company every two to three years with the exception of two 10 year stints in jobs that I liked.
Motorola had as many as 8 facilities operational in south Florida at their peak. I worked in 6 of them at one time or another. They occupy part of one leased building in the original 5 building 800,000+ square foot facility today which they no longer own. The old plant is now an office park called Plantation Pointe.
On a similar note IBM built an even bigger facility in Boca Raton where the first IBM PC was born. Over 10,000 people worked there in the 80's and 90's. it closed and was sold some time ago, and is now the Blue Lake Office Park.
Motorola had as many as 8 facilities operational in south Florida at their peak. I worked in 6 of them at one time or another. They occupy part of one leased building in the original 5 building 800,000+ square foot facility today which they no longer own. The old plant is now an office park called Plantation Pointe.
On a similar note IBM built an even bigger facility in Boca Raton where the first IBM PC was born. Over 10,000 people worked there in the 80's and 90's. it closed and was sold some time ago, and is now the Blue Lake Office Park.
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Yes, that is a nice progression into a better job category. Very cool to actually have paid leave to work on a degree too, unheard of these days for companies to do that.
I work as a tech, however, am performing the same work as the other engineering staff that share the office. I am lucky to be where I am without an advanced degree.
My manager said that I run circles around the better engineers, and that was less than a year after I’d been hired. I continue to develop my skills as I always have, and it always seems to land me the hot projects. It’s good to be desirable I have always thought.
I work as a tech, however, am performing the same work as the other engineering staff that share the office. I am lucky to be where I am without an advanced degree.
My manager said that I run circles around the better engineers, and that was less than a year after I’d been hired. I continue to develop my skills as I always have, and it always seems to land me the hot projects. It’s good to be desirable I have always thought.
I thought I was going to be drafted when I started high school in 1972, so I joined the Junior ROTC program in high school. The draft ended in 1973, but my stepfather told me after I turned 18 I was a guest in his house, so I enlisted and went to bootcamp one week after high school graduation. The last thing he said to me was what would happen if he didn't work for a week? The recruiter was waiting at the end of the driveway, so I said, I don't know, why don't you try it, and walked out the door.
First job I had after graduating from college with a BSME degree was with Motorola MOS-12 in Chandler, AZ. I loved that company, but the cyclical nature of the business caused Motorola to close the plant and me to move with my wife and young son back to Albuquerque, NM. Worked for Intel Corp for a couple years. I knew a layoff was coming and got a job at Sandia National Laboratories. The HR guy at Intel said that there was no future in nuclear weapons. All I can say is that I never worried about layoff's and retired after 31 years. I don't personally know of one single person who retired from Intel or Motorola. Sandia Labs always said their number one asset was their employees and they walked the talk.
First job I had after graduating from college with a BSME degree was with Motorola MOS-12 in Chandler, AZ. I loved that company, but the cyclical nature of the business caused Motorola to close the plant and me to move with my wife and young son back to Albuquerque, NM. Worked for Intel Corp for a couple years. I knew a layoff was coming and got a job at Sandia National Laboratories. The HR guy at Intel said that there was no future in nuclear weapons. All I can say is that I never worried about layoff's and retired after 31 years. I don't personally know of one single person who retired from Intel or Motorola. Sandia Labs always said their number one asset was their employees and they walked the talk.