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Question for you retired folks.


Pat Riot

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In the last few years before retiring did you find yourself pretty much sick of working and really looking forward to retirement?

 

My Nanny (Paternal Grandmother) always told me not to wish my life away, but Dangit! I am really getting tired of all the day to day BS on the job. Man, am I sick of dealing with meatheads, morons, egos and just plain ignorant people.

 

Pat (What’s just venting at 3:45 in the morning) Riot

 

 

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Pat,

 

I had a really good job and for most of the 24 years at it, I enjoyed it. Then it started (just like you said) becoming laborious and less enjoyable. I decided to retire on Feb. 25th, 2017. I also convinced my wive to resign her job. By March 30th of that year we both had moved to another state after selling our home and buying a new one. I was 62 and my wife was 58. I feel it was the best decision I (we) ever made. Sure there are some uncertainties, but overall life is so much better for us. Best wishes in your decision.

HD

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Yes.  I still love my job, but the day to day crap is draining me of enjoyment.  For the past two years, I've been looking forward to the day in 2024 that I can retire.  In actuality, the need for medical insurance has me held hostage.   

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I enjoyed my job for the most part until recently and retired at the end of 2018. Best decision ever. By moving to another town, the wife could retire as well. If we had stayed, the wife would still be working. The difficulty in the move was the loss of 1,100 sf of living space and the 3 car garage (ouch). It did cause us to think really hard about what we truly needed vs. trying to hang onto things we didn't really use. 

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I plan to retire at 62 in 2023. My boss is wants to retire in 2 years. Everyday, lately, he tells me “Tom, you are here to retire in 4 years. Just keep that in mind. All the rest of this stuff is not worth worrying about.”

Good advice but hard to heed sometimes. :)

 

Maybe I need some of those inspirational posters in my office...

 

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I didn't mind going to work, but waiting8 hours to go home was b#$^*      GW

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This is why I love being self employed! I am now semi-retired, I work when and how often I want. Keeps me busy but not overworked and I like the money. 

I'm 72 and I'll work as long as my body says I can!;)

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Pat,

I was in your position a few years ago.The day to day was such a hassle that it took all I had just to show up every day. I guess I  was lucky,I still enjoyed my profession but all the other BS that went along with it was nearly unbearable. 

But as the time to retire got closer,I  was so busy preparing for "the Big Day " that the time really past quickly.Literally before I knew it ,it was time to go.

So the moral of this story is keep your head up,eyes on the prize , and you'll get there.

Pretty soon you'll wonder how you even had time to work!

Stay strong,

Choctaw Jack 

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Being a business owner and not having to answer to a so called boss had its advantages but the government red tape that kept getting thicker over the last decade that we were in the mountaintop communication site business took every ounce of enjoyment out of it. When we sold our last site and we turned the keys over to the new owner a huge weight was lifted from our shoulders. No more power outage or break in alarms at 2:00 am to go respond to. No more outage calls as we were sitting down for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I did work mostly by myself so I didn’t have to worry about office politics or hierarchy. If there was a mistake made it was usually on me. County and state workers on power trips and pretty much clueless in their jobs were my biggest aggravation. Having to prove that my standby propane generators were indeed propane and not diesel on an annual basis was extremely annoying. It seemed like every year the people that I educated  the year before had been replaced by even more clueless, inept, moronic personnel. 

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I always tell folks that I had a great thirty six year career in law enforcement, unfortunately I worked thirty eight years . The last two years were pure hell 

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Don't retire if at all possible. It's not what people think. I have never worked so hard over the past 19 years since retiring. Wish I could go back to work so I could get more organized and get things done. But, it's your choice, you can become a couch potato, or be busier than you ever dreamed of. Gotta quit, headed to the fitness center to work out, then go and pick up the RV, get packed up and head to the Missouri State Shoot for 3 days beginning tomorrow. It's all work I tell ya, allll work!!!!

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I retired at 64 and almost 32 yrs on the job. The job had it's frustrating moments from the first day till the last but I loved just about every day. When I got to the point where I realized that I wasn't capable of getting the changes made that were needed I knew it was time to go. I also saw the handwriting on the wall that the company which was being driven by the back east divisions was going to push our division into pc crap rather than profitability and that wasn't for me. I still miss the adrenaline rush of my job!

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I retired early, if you can believe it, after 40 years with the city, having started when I was 19.

I didn't plan to, but a health issue got in the way.

That and new commissioners wanting to "Get Creative" *

I've now been "retired" for 17 years and I feel it's added years to my life.

I've taken on a number of consulting jobs that paid well,(since I was the one from 100 miles away with a brief case)and kept me current in the best practices, laws, nuances and regulations surrounding my profession.

*Translation: Forget about all the past history, learning, regulations & laws and try something new(?). (Besides I'll be gone by the time the chickens come home to roost, someone else will have to clean it up and I won't be around to face the audits.)

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Thank you all very much for the advice and the humor. :D

 

I keep remembering Danny Glover's  line in the Lethal Weapon movies; "I'm gettin'  to old for  this $#%&!"

Sometimes I say that way too often...Then I think, "At least I am getting older...the alternative ain't all that great." ;) 

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I enjoyed what I did at my job, but as I got closer to being able to retire company politics took that enjoyment away. The last several years were a struggle to put up with the bull. Retired as soon as the money guy said I could and have never regretted it! You're not wishing your life away by looking forward to retirement, it's the reward for all those years we've worked. When it comes, enjoy it!

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I worked in the aerospace industry for 40 years and loved almost every minute of it. I was never bored, compensated very well and never dreaded going to work. When I was 53 I got cancer. Had several surgeries, chemo twice and was told I had a 1 in 10 chance of living 5 years. After 5 years my Oncologist told me it looked like I had the big C wiped. My wife and I talked and decided to retire at 58. Sold our home in 3 weeks and were on our way to Colorado. Been retired almost 20 years and loved every minute of it.

 

If I had not got cancer, I had planned on working until I was 62. Work, even as enjoyable as it was, was only a means to the end...retirement and doing what we want to do the rest of our lives. We have traveled (Hawaii, Alaska, Costa Rica, Belize and Canada) and are planning an RV trip across the US next year. My Oncologist told me someone had to be the 1 out of 10 and it was me. There is a reason for it, don't waste a day in the life you have left.........

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2 hours ago, Henry T Harrison said:

I always tell folks that I had a great thirty six year career in law enforcement, unfortunately I worked thirty eight years . The last two years were pure hell 

Ditto!

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I retired in 2006 after 30 years working for the USDA.  Most of it was fun until I became a manager aka lab director.  The directives and planning civil rights , diversity, and sensitivity drove me bat $hiT crazy and it showed.   To top that off we were required to spend nearly a million bucks on a laboratory they absolutely knew was about to be axed.  I couldn't wait to get out the door and never looked back.   

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I've got 45 years in the computer business this year.
25 of those at IBM, where the first 10 years was as close to going to heaven and being paid for the ride, as it could get.

It was truly a wonderful place to be.
Every wonderful technology documentary seen on TV in those days had a small label in the bottom "courtesy of IBM".
Our innovation (at that time) was astounding.

The next 15 years saw the devastation brought about when top management changed from real engineers to soap opera stars with the little tassels on their shoes.  These are the sales guys with two interchangeable parts:  mouth and rectum.
Product research, design and manufacture was outsourced and quality went to crap.
IBM started moving very fast, because it is much harder to hit a moving target.

IBM did all the 25-year guys a "favor" and fired us.  Thousands of us.
They raped our pensions by giving us a pittance and "buying us out" so they could avoid pension obligations.
As it turned out, the loss of "pension" also happened to guys who retired properly, as IBM reneged on many of their pension promises.
I was fortunate, because no company is allowed to cancel your "vested rights."

My last 20 years was spent doing contract work at all the big name places.
HP picked me up for 5 years.. I was very happy there until management pissed off the customer so bad, they fired our entire group and kicked us to the curb.  HP is another superb engineering firm ruined by inept management.  This is a real shame.

I do miss the work and the rush of doing something important and/or ground breaking.
I do not miss the petty egos and bull**** politics.
I take care of a few private clients today, mostly for gun money and my own amazement.

The common thread over my last 45 years in this business is "inept management."
 

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11 years ago, work started to be a total P.I.T.A.  Nothing went right.  Everybody else was slacking off.  I worked harder and harder and started hating everybody else.  Finally, I just quit.  Cashed out my retirement and quit.

A couple of months later I had my annual doctor visit.  Turns out my thyroid had died.  All my struggles were symptoms of thyroid failure.  Never occurred to my that suddenly hating a job I formerly liked could be medical.  

Moral:  If you suddenly hate your job and everything in it, check with your doctor before you do something rash.

P.S.  Retirement is great.  Wouldn't go back if they paid me.

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I pretty much have to agree with UB. I worked 28 years in LE, and the last year was hell. My wife told me if I retired I would still make what I was making working.

Duh. I got my knee fixed,used up most of my sik leave and officially retired Apr.30 when my wife and I were in Cozumel. I loved my job cause my customer was always wrong if that was needed...lol.

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Too young to retire so I'm thinking of just quitting and moving back into parent's basement until I can take my 401K.

 

:blink:

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My last job lasted eleven years.  I was an independent financial services rep, dealing with clients and helping them find better ways to deal with their savings, investments, life and health insurance, and so on.  Being self employed meant I was working for a slave driving horse's ass, but even that had its advantages.

 

The first nine years were as great as I could have asked for but the market started to slip after that and I couldn't convince some of the clients that they could ride it out and not lose a dime.  The market ALWAYS rebounds.  My best friend (who never saw me as a financial expert) took all of his investments and converted them to cash.  He put nearly three quarters of a million bucks in his gun safe IN CASH and it never earned him another cent.  He had started with sixty five grand and in five years I'd managed his accounts and helped him build a small fortune. When he died his wife and her kids blew it all in less than a year.

 

At that point I just threw it all up in the air, sold out to my two partners, and walked away.  I was sixty-two years old and was no longer having fun at this trade....and it had been a lot of fun.

 

I have never regretted it for a second except that since then I've never worked so hard.  I have no idea how I ever found time for a job.  On the other hand, I've had a pretty good time of it (until my wife passed away).

 

I have to tell you, Pat ol' buddy, ol' friend, if you have any doubts about the job, your sanity, or your health you should just throw it all up in the air and walk out from under it.  here will be some adjustments, but you're flexible.. enough to adapt.

 

The invitation for you and yours to come visit is still open.

 

 

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Your body, mind, and spirit will tell you when it's actually time to retire.   Mind (logic, reason) is the last to tell you.  When all three tell you; pull the plug. 

 

I set my retirement date four (4) months before I retired.  I enjoyed my job and the folks I worked with, but after I set the date, I had the worst case of "Short Timer's" attitude I'd ever had.   However, I determined to sprint across the finish line.  That seemed to help...a little.

 

Oh, as with all major new chapters in our lives, there is trepidation about retiring.  Like largo casey above, I retired on my 67th birthday.  In two more days, that will have been six (6) years ago and I have loved every day of retirement.   Not once have I been bored or wished I still worked.   And I feel better in body, mind, and spirit.

 

A few months after I retired a friend asked me,  "Birdgun, what do you do since you retired."  I told him, "Nothing!  And I don't start that until 2:00 in the afternoon!!" :lol:

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When being a cop and you finally get the time in for retirement, you realize that you get paid such and such to be a cop. Then you figure what you get paid if retired. You take that amount against what you get paid to work and realize you are being paid $2.50 an hour to get shot at, to get into physical fights, and listen to stupid people. When you realize this, you retire as soon as possible, if you have any sense left.

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5 minutes ago, Smoken D said:

When being a cop and you finally get the time in for retirement, you realize that you get paid such and such to be a cop. Then you figure what you get paid if retired. You take that amount against what you get paid to work and realize you are being paid $2.50 an hour to get shot at, to get into physical fights, and listen to stupid people. When you realize this, you retire as soon as possible, if you have any sense left.

My last year well two years or so, was hell because of administration changes and politics. Rampant incompetence at the highest levels turned a great job into a nightmare.:angry:

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3 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

My last year well two years or so, was hell because of administration changes and politics. Rampant incompetence at the highest levels turned a great job into a nightmare.:angry:

 

Like everyone else I knew, around 2-3 years prior to retirement they, the command staff, really mess with you attempting to get you to quit so you can't retire. Then once you get over that and are able to retire stupids really mess with you. I stuck it out for another year and a half because attempts were made to better the pension. When the new pension was passed and the law went into affect, I retired the very next day. Wasn't the day it went into affect, because that was my day off.:P

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Retired 13 years ago after 34 years in financial services.  It was time to go, not because of irritation with colleagues or management, just time to go.  It's like being on the crew of an ocean liner.  The crew comes and goes, but the ship keeps sailing along.  I still can't figure out how I had time to go to work all those years.

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22 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

My last year well two years or so, was hell because of administration changes and politics. Rampant incompetence at the highest levels turned a great job into a nightmare.:angry:

Yep the new chief and his stooge wanted the old dinosaur gone to put in their own yes men so they made my life miserable. Telling them where to go was worth every minute. I haven’t walked into that building since the day I retired 

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