It's a very different mindset to pre-retirement. The view of the world and priorities change and now have time to appreciate the world around us at a different pace.
Been at it for 28 years and never bored partly due to as we lose various abilities due to ageing we have to regularly reinvent ourselves and take new paths.
Been at it for 28 years and never bored partly due to as we lose various abilities due to ageing we have to regularly reinvent ourselves and take new paths.
Today, 11 years after being "voted off the employment island" I have no problem staying busy. I find that the ADHD that I have battled for life is a bigger factor than when employed as there is no boss imposing deadlines. This makes it easy to jump from "new shiny object" (project idea) to another new shiny object, without completing any of them.
I have had shaky hands forever with minor numbness, but the numbness is getting worse. This is no fun when you are trying to solder stuff, and you smell burning fingers before you feel it. Fortunately, they haven't invented SMD vacuum tubes yet. There are however some SMD parts in a Fedex truck to be delivered here today. I smell something cooking!
In Belgium you can retire when you're 67 (for official retirement) or when you have enough money to finance the rest of your life earlier. I'm 46 so i got some time to go still...
I know my father retired and started to read his collection of books he bought over the years but never had time to read, and took more time to garden. But the main thing is his life moved to a much slower pace. He is 75 now and still doing nothing special but reading a lot and gardening at a (to quote him) "old man speed" which is quiet slow. And he does a lot of small nearby trips also. But bored, he never is.
I know my father retired and started to read his collection of books he bought over the years but never had time to read, and took more time to garden. But the main thing is his life moved to a much slower pace. He is 75 now and still doing nothing special but reading a lot and gardening at a (to quote him) "old man speed" which is quiet slow. And he does a lot of small nearby trips also. But bored, he never is.
My former neighbour was 75 when his last child (now 8 years old) was born. Age does not mean nothing for that for men. But he will probally never see his youngest being an adult, and she will loose her father as child (aslo because now he is quiet sick). On that level i think getting children at high age is not good. But as a man, you can get children at high age. It's for woman that above 40 it gets tricky, not for men. I know quiet a few men in their 40 and even 50's still getting children.Whoa. You're 42 and have not had children yet? I think that boat has left the dock my friend. There was a recent study that showed that as men age, their chances of producing children with serious birth defects (Downs, etc.) goes way up. It seems that your swimmers age also... and get tired... and deformed... 😱
So, if you're serious about having kids, consider adopting, and working for them instead of you.
Spend an afternoon at a long term care home. The retirees I see scaling ravine walls in the local woods seem much happier.
Well, this thread still lives...now working on Year 17 of retirement and all is still smooth sailing and fair seas. We are, however experiencing an echo of the early retirement years. Then we were dealing with the end-of-life issues of family and friends in our parent's generation, and now it is the leading edge of our generation who start to need looking after and support and eventually a funeral service. The exception was Mom, who hung in there very healthy to age 97 so leaving closer to those in our generation rather than hers.
Retired from my engineering job in 2015 at age 56. Worked for a university until 2021. I recently applied for a job at the local community college and was interviewed by three people- two females from the admin side and one person who actually knew something about the subject.
I took photos of my hobbies and showed before my teaching demonstration to show that I was enthusiastic about the subject matter. The two women checked good to very good, the male professor checked neutral.
What it came down to is the male is less qualified than I am, felt insecure in his job position and checked off not to hire me. I made it very clear that I only wanted to teach part time and wanted to teach to give back some of what I've learned to students.
So, I gave them my middle finger and applied to another college nearby and got a part time job teaching.
I took photos of my hobbies and showed before my teaching demonstration to show that I was enthusiastic about the subject matter. The two women checked good to very good, the male professor checked neutral.
What it came down to is the male is less qualified than I am, felt insecure in his job position and checked off not to hire me. I made it very clear that I only wanted to teach part time and wanted to teach to give back some of what I've learned to students.
So, I gave them my middle finger and applied to another college nearby and got a part time job teaching.
IMO the goal is to focus on running it to the end on your abilities to care for yourself. having a house, caring for it is one of your tests. When do you give up on the snow, cutting grass?
Seems the older you get, the more you have to focus on your health, health is numero uno, everything else is secondary.
Dentists today for cleaning/check-up, get to try out my new Canadian dental plan for seniors, for me and my wife.
I always made a joke that my two Philippine nannies/nurses, being born now 🙂 would care for me, taking shifts, changing my diapers, if it so applies.
When Mom was here and we had PSW care, the Philippine nannies/nurses were the best by far, just saying, YMMV, my survey of what went on for a few years.
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Back in posts #376 and 397 I mentioned my battle with Japanese Knotweed. Several people commented on how hard it is to kill. They were right. Now over 10 years later I spent my day today destroying knotweed. Very little popped up last spring, but this year the weed is relentless.
Now I can go back to soldering my fingers.
Now I can go back to soldering my fingers.
I have some nerve damage that is not reversible but mostly good sensation all around my hands.
Numbness getting worse does not sound well.
Man I really hope you can curtail that and slow it down.
Damn.
I've lost most of my fine motor skills due to spinal cord compression at C6 but surgery in 2012 has slowed the deterioration. Soldering is now a thing of the past, using a pen or a remote control or removing tablets from a blister pack is difficult but you learn to adapt and just get on with it.
I have retired people tell me all the time, while I'm at my 60 hour a week job that they are either bored or have so little time; I tell them they are flying close to the sun and are about to be punched in the nose.
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That's a "Highway to Hell" and not a place I want to exist. Death and a "Stairway to Heaven" is a better option.
I think my post was misinterpreted as it's about doing minimal amount of tasks at the same time and taking your time and enjoying them. Unlike pre-retirement where time is limited and everything is a rush. I'm very active as I live at one of the nicest beaches (made the top 10 in Oz) in Australia so spend a lot of time outdoors. As I divorced after 50 years there are more domestic, yard and home duties than before which takes time but is enjoyable as I get satisfaction from the final result with a job well done.
Since as far back as I can remember, when I started working, while in High School, my work life has been a chain of 60 and 70 hour weeks. For a while I was also putting in 40K miles per year commuting to work.
Two years ago I decided to retire. I was gonna build myself some amps. I went to BAF23 and retired the Monday after that.
It was great, I cleaned up my house, my office, did some great cooking, smoked cigars did some small projects, got some big projects all ready, did a bunch of music listening.... I found that I was sleeping great, with no anxiety at night, no dreams about work... I'd go to bed at 1 AM and wake up refreshed at 8 or 9 in the morning. Money was not an issue... I applied for Medicare (got signed up in a month) and applied for SS (what the heck, early, but might as well get my money).
A few months later I got a call, calls, about a remote job. I figured I'd look into it. Got first interview on line... it was really good. Then got to interview the entire team. It was like we were all close cousins and brothers, we clicked. But, I didn't really want to go to Cincinnati for a whole month. Slowly the deal changed, they told me just one week, and they added a ton more money into the deal. I could work from home.
Finally I agreed and I found myself in Cincinatti on the same Monday my wife started her retirement.
Money is obnoxious. Time is precious. I was lucky to make it to BAF24 and build some thing. I still have a bunch of projects ready to go around the house... but literally no time. I've been able to buy my way out of building (thank YOU guys) some good stuff and some smookey adventures. (Thanks for the fun, ZM. seriously, you got my heart rate going.. 🧯).
So, here I am. working from home. Tied down to a doing things on my own detailed scheduled, learning some new things, teaching a bunch of others... but I'm closer to 80 than I'm to 60.
I need time to build the F5m, the YITCDAF4, a Sony P-channel VFET, etc. I need time to decide which of the 40 amplifiers I'm gonna keep. Show off to @6L6 that I can actually build stuff, not just do schematics and read design documents.
The only good thing since my non-retirement was taking a whole month to Spain last year and planning to do the same to Japan this year. Likely go back to Spain for six weeks next year... Last year was the best vacation I've had in my entire life. My Castilian is now excellent. They have a luxury train with a four star kitchen and cabins and bathrooms to do El Camino De Santiago.... My born surname in Spain means "pilgrim" so may be it's my genes.
Retire and do El Camino De Santiago in a luxo train or maybe a rented Audi SUV with a high limit VISA? Pilgrimages don't have to be rough, stinky and surrounded by noisy kids in youth hostels... dig?
Our money needs are half, or less, than they used to be when the kids were around... don't even think back when the kids were in college!
If you can afford it, retire and do the projects you always wanted to do, take the trips you never did, take your time to enjoy life. A four week vacation in one spot, in a nice AirBnB is nothing like the rush, rush of a two week trip.
After a goal oriented life, it dawned on me that walking on a nice city street, enjoying just BEING there, with nothing else to do, is in itself an accomplishment, an achievement, a truly enjoyable thing to do.
I'm still working, mostly because I'm so used to it. BUT, BUT, my wife is loving it.
I feel like I'm an idiot. I'll die rich and my son will take a picture of my stereo and bury it with me. Bum!
So, yeah, you 40 and 50 year old punks... 😉 don't begrudge us older folks... because WE already put in our hours, and your 60 hour weeks are what we were done doing by Thursday at lunch... with still two days left in the week!
Wimps, now get back to work and pay for our social security!
BTW- I'm healthier now than I was when I was in my mid 40s. So when I get a delirious tremens and I die in the middle of listening to a Bach sonata over a digital MP3 stream, I will die looking good. ;-P
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I was offered a consulting position with my former employer at a bit over 2x my rate before retiring. I decided to retire first, live it for a while and then make the choice on consulting. About 3 days into retirement, I told them NO, thanks.
Walking into a large (5000 people at its high point) electronics manufacturing plant at age 20 was a huge wake-up call. It's much like a large school, or even a TV reality show. There will be people and groups of people (alliances) who want to run the show, or control the game. Many of these have agendas and those who have power or control will do anything necessary to keep it and gain more of it. In my 41 years there I changed jobs often either because I didn't like it or wanted to learn something new. Jumping into an existing group as an outsider, requires an exercise in restraint. I learned early on do just "do your designated job" at first until you figure out who really does what, who runs the show, and NEVER threaten the alliance of power. If you could ever take the interviewer's job, you are a threat. If you are less than excellent at your job, you do what you have to in order to keep it. That includes hiring less than optimum people.
My last 12 years in the plane was spent in a research group. I came from a manufacturing group, so I was an outsider. I could have done a lot more than I did in that group, but I found a job that nobody wanted that needed to be done. I took all those PowerPoint slides that the rocket scientists made and turned them into working prototypes. It was the most enjoyable 12 years of my career. I played the Dumm Blonde Card often and rarely let people know what I could really do. I wandered into the plant in the morning somewhere between 7:30 and 9:00 and left around 5. Nobody in the whole department had my cell or home phone number.
I had always planned to work until 70. Part of my thinking was to maximize my Social Security income, but our financial advisor did some calculations that showed I could retire earlier without changing the long-term outcome. For many years I had been flying between 75-125K miles a year and spending over 200 nights per year in hotels. I liked the work I was doing, but had gotten to the point that I hated the travel, so I decided to pull the plug at 67. I set my retirement for the end of April, 2020. Covid hit one month before I retired and our company stopped all travel. I could have easily stayed another few years working from home, but decided to go ahead and retire. I haven't regretted the choice.
Within a year of retiring, I had lost 45 pounds and I was sleeping better than I had in years. Once in a while I will have dreams about work that leave me exhausted in the morning, but those are rare. My wife and I travel a lot and virtually all our friends are also retired. Still, we can't seem to get used to the idea that we don't have to wait until the weekend to go out to dinner or to Costco. Some habits die harder than others.
Within a year of retiring, I had lost 45 pounds and I was sleeping better than I had in years. Once in a while I will have dreams about work that leave me exhausted in the morning, but those are rare. My wife and I travel a lot and virtually all our friends are also retired. Still, we can't seem to get used to the idea that we don't have to wait until the weekend to go out to dinner or to Costco. Some habits die harder than others.
I think a clarification is in order.
I retired at 34 due to injuries from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. None of my friends were retired and 37 of them died there. I had too much left undone to enjoy the money alone. It’s in the perspective that the emotions are generated. We leave so many things undone. That can lead to regrets.
I’ll retire again one day but that next try will be surrounded in warmth of friends and family knowing I changed the world in some way.
I retired at 34 due to injuries from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. None of my friends were retired and 37 of them died there. I had too much left undone to enjoy the money alone. It’s in the perspective that the emotions are generated. We leave so many things undone. That can lead to regrets.
I’ll retire again one day but that next try will be surrounded in warmth of friends and family knowing I changed the world in some way.