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On Retirement And Hats

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
My initial plan was to have been done by right about . . . now.

But things happen, outside of the workplace, and I am still on-the-job, probably for another 5 months, give or take.

I wear a fedora everyday, no matter what, and will continue to do so after I am retired.

I plan to work part-time, and if I'm lucky, it will be a job where I can wear a hat all day. ;)
 

Blackthorn

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,568
Location
Oroville
I retired seven years ago and life has been phenomenal. My first year retired I visited Thailand, Bhutan, Tibet and China. Other places in between, but this year the wife and I spent two weeks in Austria and two more in Ireland. Work always got in the way of my adventures, but now I'm really living.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,794
Location
New Forest
There's been a modest easing of the lockdown here in the UK. The amount of folks that I saw out and about yesterday. Cabin fever seems to be running parallel with the corona virus. So many times I have heard people say, and this is a paraphrase, "I can't believe that I would miss work so much," and another was, "never again will I desire a moment's peace & quiet."
Funny old world!
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
There's been a modest easing of the lockdown here in the UK. The amount of folks that I saw out and about yesterday. Cabin fever seems to be running parallel with the corona virus. So many times I have heard people say, and this is a paraphrase, "I can't believe that I would miss work so much," and another was, "never again will I desire a moment's peace & quiet."
Funny old world!

Some folks don’t know how to enjoy quiet. Some folks don’t know how to enjoy work. I have plenty of interests and hobbies that I’m sure I won’t miss work.

This economic downturn has had be running my retirement numbers every other day. So far I’m opting to wait it out and go in five years, but if the economy takes years to turnaround...? My wife and I just tonight went over the numbers tonight and decided we be fine going now, but in five years we hope to be making the same retired as I am now working. If I enjoyed work that would be one thing, but I’ve lost my taste for it and I’m just marking time.
 

Rmccamey

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,872
Location
Central Texas
My thoughts exactly.

Some folks don’t know how to enjoy quiet. Some folks don’t know how to enjoy work. I have plenty of interests and hobbies that I’m sure I won’t miss work.

This economic downturn has had be running my retirement numbers every other day. So far I’m opting to wait it out and go in five years, but if the economy takes years to turnaround...? My wife and I just tonight went over the numbers tonight and decided we be fine going now, but in five years we hope to be making the same retired as I am now working. If I enjoyed work that would be one thing, but I’ve lost my taste for it and I’m just marking time.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,794
Location
New Forest
Retirement is very different, in different parts of the world. Some are still working at the age of 70 or 80. Whereas the situation with the people from mainly developed world countries is different. They are fit and healthy yet retire much earlier.

There are some who would like to work for as long as they need. There are several arguments that are conducive to this. Older employees have both knowledge and experience which is good for the business and those attributes will be lost when they finally retire. Older employees tend to be more loyal, less belligerent and are flexible and willing to put company policies into practice.
Some put off retirement simply because of society's attitude to retirees, undervaluing their contribution now that they no longer work.

However, age cannot guarantee good abilities. For example, younger employees are experienced with information technology, they have grown up with it. It's been part and parcel of their lives. There are older people who have spent most of their working lives in the same area, place or job, not as flexible as previously argued and there are those people who will continue to work because they didn’t plan anything else for their life. They are hardly likely to contribute the new ideas that a younger person can offer.

Finally, and this is probably why many don't retire, older people need to be provided with a decent pension in order to enjoy their retirement without financial worries. How to do that can be debated for ever, and no doubt, will become something of a political football, so best not to go there.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,081
Location
London, UK
LIke many academics my age, I have come to accept that an affordable "retirement" for me will probably mean relying on my pension to be able to cut back from working 6/7 days per week on average to three or four. All in,were I financially independent, I could go now (I'll be forty-six in September). My skillset lies very much in the teaching side of things, which has been vastly undervalued in the last twenty years - essentially, in these times where the university is no longer a place of education but a profit-making business, while teaching continues to be valued as a profit-making exercise, those of us who deliver it are simply regarded as an annoyance and a cost at best. Were I able to afford not to work, I'd fill my time with travel, and I'd get into the things I always wanted to do more of, primary acting. I was good at it, but I've always been far too petty middle-class to feel comfortable taking the leap into such an insecure profession. I'd be perfectly hqappy spending my days on sets as a 'background artiste', even if I never got noticed as a character actor (the dream). I'd also spend al ot of tiem with my guitar, or on the back of a motorcycle. I can't imagine I'd ever be bored. It won't happen, of course, but I can dream!
 

Tukwila

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,382
Location
SW of Antifa Central (PDX)
We'll probaby both retire in about 7 years. Earlier if the shill for precious metals is right about a correction in silver, lol, to $700/ounce. Last night it was at $17.30... Gold, however has gone up some $450/ounce in the last 4 months to over $1700/ounce.

Im to the point where everything is paid off, and old enough, to put away $19-25k annually with pretax dollars in my 457b deferred compensation plan.
 

Bagelstreet

New in Town
Messages
11
Location
London, England
There's been a modest easing of the lockdown here in the UK. The amount of folks that I saw out and about yesterday. Cabin fever seems to be running parallel with the corona virus. So many times I have heard people say, and this is a paraphrase, "I can't believe that I would miss work so much," and another was, "never again will I desire a moment's peace & quiet."
Funny old world!

I've been on furlough just about two months now and not missing work at all! (And I'm a sports journalist - not exactly an arduous job).

I'm really enjoying peace and quiet, for now at least. Different strokes for different folks!
 
Messages
10,855
Location
vancouver, canada
18 months retired for me. Went to a 'driveway' party at my ex bosses house last Sunday. 7 of us sat in his driveway the requisite 6-8 feet apart and drank his whisky. To his credit he is keeping all his staff on full salary even though business has slowed to a trickle. He did warn them that once the lockdown is lifted to be prepared as the shit will hit the fan and they will be running to meet the pent up demand. To me I passed the first retirement 'test'.....I did not have even the slightest thought of returning to work to help out.....nada, nothing, no pull whatsoever......and to me a sign that I really have left work behind...or at least that work. Now I dabble in largely unpaid work but it is on my schedule!
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
We'll probaby both retire in about 7 years. Earlier if the shill for precious metals is right about a correction in silver, lol, to $700/ounce. Last night it was at $17.30... Gold, however has gone up some $450/ounce in the last 4 months to over $1700/ounce.

Im to the point where everything is paid off, and old enough, to put away $19-25k annually with pretax dollars in my 457b deferred compensation plan.


Are you in a new pension plan with your employer? If so, how long until you vest? I hate leaving money on the table, but there will always be some carrot dangling.
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
I have legally mandated retirement age of 60, so there’s a definite end.

In our current economy I wonder if my “single highest year” is behind me and if a slightly early retirement has much of a downside. I have money in a 457b and a 401k, but it’s my pension that I’m really counting on. Sadly, defined benefit pensions are getting to be pretty rare anymore.
 
Messages
10,855
Location
vancouver, canada
Are you in a new pension plan with your employer? If so, how long until you vest? I hate leaving money on the table, but there will always be some carrot dangling.
My wife worked two years longer than she wanted to but the reward was being fully invested in the pension/benefit plan. It includes travel insurance and paid prescriptions. We talked/struggled with it but in the end she toughed it out for those two years. It was a tough decision for her as she was done with work and the unrelenting stress of it. The pension wasn't a 'must have' but a very nice thing to have so we made a decision and lived with it.
 

Tukwila

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,382
Location
SW of Antifa Central (PDX)
Think you’ll go at five years? They’re talking pay cuts at my work due to the downturn. If it happens I’ll work three years to get back to where I am now, and five years is my maximum. Time to sharpen the pencil again.
Five years (1 down, 4 to go) is my minimum, and 7 years max. Sandra wants to retire at 63, that means I'll be 68 if i hold out that long. As it stands, i figure i might as well keep working if she does... my feelings on that may very well change in 4 more years.

The governor is talking 17% budget cuts to all state departments for 2021 because of revenue lost from the shutdown. That will mean furloughs and layoffs, I'm guessing.
 
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Redshoes51

One of the Regulars
Messages
278
Location
Mississippi Delta
"Retirement and Hats..."

My weakness for guitars has translated to hats... some of the hats I've bought, I've been very pleased with... others, not so much.

Retirement...I retired at the end of June, 2018 after teaching in the university system here in Mississippi... and within two weeks, I hurt my back seriously enough that I wound up having to have back surgery... that took three months for the pain to reside, and THEN developed an infection (MSSA) that almost killed me... hospitalized in ICU and the hospital for a month... then a slow slow recovery... surgeries... learning to walk again... etc etc etc...

Social distancing has not been an issue for me... my infectious disease doc warned me to stay away from anything that might set that infection off again... so the past few months have been easy for me...

One more back surgery to undo the damage that the initial surgery... and maybe I can start enjoying retirement. I have an order in with Phoenix for a hat I want... one through another hat-maker...

I love my hats and guitars...

~shoes~
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
"Retirement and Hats..."

My weakness for guitars has translated to hats... some of the hats I've bought, I've been very pleased with... others, not so much.

Retirement...I retired at the end of June, 2018 after teaching in the university system here in Mississippi... and within two weeks, I hurt my back seriously enough that I wound up having to have back surgery... that took three months for the pain to reside, and THEN developed an infection (MSSA) that almost killed me... hospitalized in ICU and the hospital for a month... then a slow slow recovery... surgeries... learning to walk again... etc etc etc...

Social distancing has not been an issue for me... my infectious disease doc warned me to stay away from anything that might set that infection off again... so the past few months have been easy for me...

One more back surgery to undo the damage that the initial surgery... and maybe I can start enjoying retirement. I have an order in with Phoenix for a hat I want... one through another hat-maker...

I love my hats and guitars...

~shoes~


Sorry about the health issues. Anyone who has had back problems can empathize.

So who is the mystery hatter?
 

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