Don't spend your only living days working only to die 1 or 2 yrs after retirement.

[testdepth]

I've worked with a few guys that retired and a year or two later they were dead. I've watched guys in their late 60's and 70's limping through the turnstile with a cane slowly going to the office to waste another 8hrs and go home. One of these guys I sat at meetings with every day and started asking this retired Warrant Officer now a civilian at age 63 why he is not retired? He would say I'm waiting until 65. So he retired at 65 limping with his cane. At 67 and almost to the day he retired he was dead. Then there's my father who grew up in the Depression Era and he never spent much money on anyone to include himself, his wife and children. He had nearly a million dollars cash and lived in a 1930's block home for 40yrs, drove a used 2003 Camry, wore old jeans and tattered shirts. In his 60's he developed Parkinson's and in his 70's he had Dementia. He was 75 when I had to go get him. He could not remember making that money and didn't know who I was.

I'm not here to work myself into a grave so my kids don't have to. I've worked from the time I could throw a newspaper from the handlebars of my single speed Schwinn. 20yrs military, 6yrs Contractor and it will be 15yrs Government when I retire at 62. Go early guys and enjoy as the next day is promised to nobody! How much money do you really need?

 

[greg vess]

When my father retired he still went up to his office every day and stayed from 8:00 to 5:00. Consulting for other rubber companies on compounds and whatever. That man could go into a rubber production facility and do anything on the floor including diagnosing and fixing injection molding machines and everything else on the floor.

He would design batch off units. It takes rubber of big rubber Mills and takes it down long motor driven belts to cool before putting in a box. . He designed and built one for the company he was at in Maryland. Every employee in there said it wouldn't work. They said it was no way it could work. I told them I would be there when they fired it up and look at their faces when it worked perfectly. Sure enough it worked like a champ and I looked at every one of them in the eyes and replied " I told you so idiot! ". I was in my early twenties then and not the most respectful person on Earth. My father had three patents and all of them made the company's millions upon millions of dollars.

Oklahoma State University gave him a doctor's degree just on his accomplishments in the rubber industry alone. And no not condoms I mean rubber compounds for car door seals, all sorts of toy and rubber balls for racquetball, rubber basketballs, spark plug wires and boots, graphite seals for train seals, high voltage high lind wires and anything else you can imagine. He was a brilliant man!

I was wiley kid when I was young and didn't give him the respect he deserved. My mother didn't either but that's life. However, I never doubted his abilities in the rubber industry. He actually came up with the rubber compound and produced it for the rubber seals on the GM Fiero. The car was a piece of junk but the rubber seals were good. 🤣

I loved my father and I feel like I need to honor him since he's no longer here. So you'll have to forgive me for bragging about a man that I believe was one of the most intelligent men I've ever known.

 

[buellbrewer]

Was lucky enough to retire last year at 58. I work harder now that I’m home thanks to the wife’s honey do lists. I can’t wait for her to retire so I can return the “favor”.

it apparent you stay busy(aka she keeps you busy)

 

[buellbrewer]

I don't want to sit down but I don't care to keep commuting to smyrna from the southside. 10+ hours a week in the car sucks butt. Used to ride 🏍️ (which made the trip a little better)but after covid the morons on the road have multiplied exponentially. I've been hit 6 times in a vehicle since 2002 downtown Atl. Once even by a Marta bus. 7 times if including totataling my bike out..I must have a target on my back....
Often thought about taking a big cut in pay and seeing if I could get on at Eds Pawn in stickbridge. I could then commute on my feet..

 

[GFB]

I was camping one time and a guy was telling me how much he liked to read. He said he did it all the time and just couldn't get enough of it. Then I walked into his house and understood exactly why the place was so filthy. I mean that place should have been condemned and he's sitting on the couch reading. What a dumbass!

I don't think his enjoyment of reading was the problem.

 

[GFB]

I don't hear it as much anymore, but I used to key in on people who talked about "after I retire" a whole lot. It seemed sometimes like people were putting off so much of their lives with the notion they'd start pursuing their interests at age whatever. I don't think those sorts of plans work out the way they figured very often. If there's something I want to do, if I can figure it out, I'll just do it now without waiting for a retirement that may not come to work out the way I planned, if at all.

 

[GFB]

I retired in 2012 at age 50 and was offered a contract ATC job the next week working in Afghanistan for $225k per year plus bonuses. Talked to my wife about it and she said “If you want to go fine, just remember what you said about how you want to be retired for as many years as you worked (which was 30) so you could break even”.

I wasn’t worried about getting blown up but with my luck, I’d end up being the guy shown on CNN, in the orange jumpsuit, on his knees getting ready to have his head cut off. I was lucky to retire early so why push it for more cabbage.

I'm sure you would have been on a giant airbase and perfectly safe. However, if someone doesn't need the money to be comfortable, what's the point of selling a year (or more) of your life? I think you probably made the right call.

 

[Edog537]

Be thankful you can work. I spend my time as a prisoner in my body. I will die in prison.

 

[Edog537]

Retired three yrs ago due to health issues, I'd trade all my material possession to have it back and go back to work

Same. I could get all material things back.

 

[outlaw1961]

Retired with full benefits at 53. Spent next two years slowly remodeling the house. Could have went back part time but didn’t. Just spent more time with my daughters helping them anyway that I could.