25
votes
Retired? Retiring? Considering retirement?
I'm a newly retired 60-year-old, with a 76-year-old spouse. This is really hard sometimes!
I'm trying to stay active in my non-profit, non-commercial endeavors, but I'm finding myself with more time on my hands than I know what to do with.
How you doing?
I'm fortunate to be early-retired (I did well at Google), and my wife is retired as well. It took me a while to decide that's what it is, versus taking a break between jobs.
It took some adjustment. Daily routines help. I have exercise, accordion practice, and a daily video call with my mother, who lives alone on the opposite coast. We were fortunate to have this during the pandemic and we kept going. Getting outdoors often is important. We don't socialize enough and we should do more now that the pandemic has faded.
Despite occasionally getting a bit bored, I value having a mostly free schedule and wouldn't want to give it up.
I'm about to be forced out, and I think this is the route I'm gonna go. If I could have gone longer I probably would have, but given that I no longer require employment, there are so many other things I would rather derive fulfillment from, many of which do not pay.
Were you SWE by chance?
Yep.
Any tips for the system design part of the interview?
Not really, I got in a very long time ago and I don't know what people expect nowadays. Also, interviewing people was my least favorite part of the job and after a while I stopped doing them.
50. Anxious about retirement. Really don't know how people manage to retire, in this day and age. Been saving for years yet never seems like enough. But, then, my life is perhaps more complicated than some.
I'm apprehensive too. I'm 54. I promised myself, I'd start looking deeply and make plans when I turn 55, but really I'm just kicking the can down the road. It took me a while to get through college - a dozen years between my first college class and graduation, being in and out of classes during that time. My first "real" job was great experience, but not particularly well compensated. I had a young family and we were living paycheck to paycheck for many years. It wasn't until the last 10 years that I've been able to really put aside substantive amounts into savings. I'd love to retire at 65, but suspect it will be closer to 70. I'll get back to you in a year, when I finally take a hard look :-)
I’m semi retired in all reality. Done with 9-5 and being beholden to someone else. Working with a trusted partner on a small consulting startup. My partner is much younger and will carry the torch when I’m really done. Feels good to contribute. Keeping me young and engaged.
If your financial situation allows for it consider a small startup. Keep costs very low. There is surprising demand for experienced insight into business and tech.
I'm in my mid-50's and counting the days until I can retire. I'm paid well, but tired of devoting eight hours a day to a corporation. Capitalism sucks the fun out of everything.
Late 50's, and I'm semi-retired to a job that only has 50-hour weeks and monthly travel. 🤣 Spouse is on the verge of being jobless since his company's founders are retiring. He's thinking about a complete career change. We don't have kids or parents to support. That's both a liberty in terms of how we've been able to save enough to make retirement possible, and a source of stress when we think about the care we might need in future.
At this point, we're just working to keep health insurance benefits until Medicare kicks in. No matter how carefully we've saved and invested, recent health changes have reminded us that one major event like a cancer diagnosis, expensive drug, or complicated surgery could mean losing everything.
I took a year off during the pandemic, and I'm pretty comfortable with the hobbies, social life, community activities, political engagement, exercise, and casual paying jobs I came up with during that time. I look forward to that freedom again when I can ditch the 8-5.
That is semi-retired? What the *¥%# did you consider normal before??
Not to start a long rant, but I spent too much of my life as a deluded workism cultist. "More making the world a better place, please, even if you underpay me for one job and make me do three or four jobs!". I finally burned out hard when the capitalist illusion became unsustainable, near divorce from my partner of 30 years, in terrible health, and spent a couple of years fixing myself.
Now I've got boundaries and a better sense of what a life should be composed of. I chose only the aspects of my former work that I enjoyed, while earning more. I still regret the pain I caused my spouse from being so unavailable, and how long it took me to wake up.
All we can do is the best we know how at the time. We can try to wise up as we go, listening to those signals that try to advise us we're on the wrong path. If we're really lucky, we can have conversations with those sources and deepen our wisdom!
I retired recently and alot of my advice has already been covered. The only thing I'd like to add is this: Initially I had this odd feeling that I should be doing something more, almost like it was irresponsible or something. Then one day I realized it was that I had been taught early to be productive, do my share, that sort of thing. I then realized that retirement was simply part of my salary/benefits package. I've been working since I was a teenager and dammit I earned this.
I've since been just fine with it and feel much better about it all.
Same here. I've been earning my own money since age 9 and my first W-2 job was at age 14. A mix of entrepreneur and employee and public servant. I've been saying "I earned this" as a mantra and it does help to voice it. I just haven't bought it yet.
Thanks
Sounds like I'm not the only person awakening from the propaganda we've been fed about what makes a meaningful life. That "I should be doing more" feeling was constructed around working for someone else's goals, for the purpose of profit extraction. It's a warpage of our natural desires to build, care for each other, and seek community.
I'm glad you realized that you've earned freedom; I just wish more people got the opportunity to understand that they're entitled to freedom from the very first moment they start working.
Well said. I'm less then 8 months away from retirement. I have some debt to pay off or I would already be there. This is the last job and I just wanted to be a grunt, a cog in the machine.
They roped me in to more responsibilty, but not until I held out for quite a bit more $$. The work I'm doing will set up my company for success if they actually use it. But at the end of the day, I don't care because I'm not that mentally invested. I am SO looking forward to not having a schedule, an agenda or anyone else concerned with how my time is spent. Life is too damn short.
We all deserve to enjoy our time, families and that which we hold dear. We have definitely earned it.