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Question for you retired folks.


Pat Riot

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45 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.

Unfortunately, circumstances dictate I have to work somewhere until I'm at least 65 for health insurance.  I could make it on my retirement, except for what medical insurance would cost me out of pocket.

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7 minutes ago, Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 said:

Seems that our LEO's have a bunch of knotheads for bosses.  That's comforting.

Political hacks and butt kissers at their worst. Most aren’t worth a patch on a real Officers backside 

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I loved my job.  But, I was tired.  I counted down the last 1100 days because it annoyed one of my partners who had more time to wait than I did.  I ended up having a medical issue and retired earlier than I planned.  The good thing is that I have free medical and dental, and I am making the same amount of take home pay as I made working.  I am blessed.  I retired at 53 years old.

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Retirement.  'Tis an institution I heartily recommend.  I think it was Utah Bob who once said "Retirement Rocks!"  ^_^

 

Like others, my final years working were beyond miserable.  The organization seasonally had up to 350 employees.  Only around thirty or so were men, but the male employees accounted for about 90% of the disciplinary actions and terminations.  I had been "targeted" multiple times over the years, and at an increasing rate toward the end. 

 

A friend who is a therapist said "Dude!  My advice is that you need to see a doctor and a lawyer - in that order, and soon!"

 

Another friend said "Man, you gotta get outta that place before it kills you, or someone has to read you your rights!"  

 

Sound advice.  ;)

 

Actually, I did end up in the cardiac ward - stress induced AFib.  For the next couple years (until I left) I had to have lab work several times a month - in another county.  Even though I was on FMLA (which protects an employee's job when taking medical time off) and had months* of leave time on the books, my boss told me "That lab opens at 6:00 am!  You make sure you're there when it opens and be here at your desk by 8:00 am!"  phbbbbt-or-upset.gif

 

*I had rarely used sick time, and had even donated four weeks to others.  I usually lost up to a week of vacation every year because of job responsibilities.  

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Pat I had a great job with Ma Bell, then we got broke up and it was still a great job. Then we got bought out by a phone company from Texas and everything went to hell. My last 5-7 years were awful by comparison. Everything got moved out of state and we would have to wait half a day for offices in Texas or California to open so we could get things straightened out. Then they started eliminating middle management and pushed their work down to us first liners in the field. Then they decided we needed to do at least one job inspection per day per employee--- I had 60 techs working all over the middle and eastern part of Connecticut. E-mails and Voice mails usually took till early afternoon to get done. The guys get back in about 3:00. Guess how many job visits ever happened. Pretty soon my great bunch of guys started getting knarley because they never saw me except in the morning. When I had enough time to be eligible for benefits, I retired with 27 years and moved to Vermont. Never looked back! The stress level dropped immediately and I built a house and went back to work for a third of my old pay and re-retired at 62. Never been happier. Just wonder how the hell I got anything done when I worked! Hang in there Buddy.

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They got tired of me, I got tired of them, it was time. I started drawing SS at 67, worked about a year and a half, double dipping. I have been to the range twice already this week-BONUS

 

Imis

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6 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

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.

 

 

Let me get some more healing done. ;)

I wiped out what little time off I had.

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If I stay at this job 15 more months I could walk with added monthly cash in my retirement. If I stuck an additional 2 years that would mean an additional $700 per month with medical for me but not my wife. 

 

I need to see a financial advisor. With my other retirements I might just be able to pull off leaving at 60.

 

I just keep buying lottery tickets. That’s my big plan! (Not really, but one can dream) :D

 

Thank you all so much for your comments. 

 

You all Rock! ;)

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Howdy,

I would change one thing about work.

I would take a two week long vacation every year.

Bet most of you complaining haven't taken a real vacation in years.

My Dad took two weeks fishing every year.

He had it right, smart guy.

Best

CR

ps-When you vacation don't plan to move every day. It turns the vacation into work.

 

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I  worked to live , not the other way round..work for me was a dirty four letter word that got in the way of what I wanted to do..had probably 20-30 jobs & the longest was only 5 years, yes I had some good jobs & excellent employers but generally I had issues & being  a strong Union man [  Trucks ] I was always very vocal & told many to stick there job where the sun don't shine... except for voluntary work I haven't  been in the workforce since '012 due to a payout for a motorcycle accident  in  which I lost my wife at the time..and I don't miss it with all the crap they expect nowadays !!!

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Only 15 more years until I can really retire!

 

The thing I loved most about the Navy was the constant change:  a new command every 3-5 years, constant turnover of the CO/XO/Dept. heads every 18-24 months.

 

Coming in to the same building every day for the past five years has gotten more difficult.  I really enjoy my job and most of the people I work with - even the ones I work for.  Dealing with contractors, though - that's another story.

 

As I told my wife last year, it's about time for another deployment.  We'll see what the future holds.

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5 minutes ago, Painted Mohawk SASS 77785 said:

I  worked to live , not the other way round..work for me was a dirty four letter word that got in the way of what I wanted to do..had probably 20-30 jobs & the longest was only 5 years, yes I had some good jobs & excellent employers but generally I had issues & being  a strong Union man [  Trucks ] I was always very vocal & told many to stick there job where the sun don't shine... except for voluntary work I haven't  been in the workforce since '012 due to a payout for a motorcycle accident  in  which I lost my wife at the time..and I don't miss it with all the crap they expect nowadays !!!

I had  many, many jobs, too.  One lasted an hour and a half.  I had two jobs that lasted longer than five years: The Marine Corps was nearly six and my last job ran eleven.

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I'm truly sorry for anyone who's job makes them miserable. I left one in 1985 and have done the self-employed thing since. It's been a roller coaster these past thirty-five years, but all in all, it's gone very well. At 66 I'm semi-retired and working a lot less, but like staying busy doing something I like. It also brings in money instead of totally relying on the vagaries and pirates of Wall Street. If one can even consider retiring at age 60, they've done well for themselves and are truly blessed. Not everyone has that option.

 

Besides, pulling the plug isn't permanent. If it agrees with you, great. If not, you have the luxury of time to consider other paths. Try not to stress too much about the future and things you can't control.

 

You've paid your dues and have done well and will choose wisely. My very best wishes to you pard. :)

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I know quite a few folks that have retired and work part time for the money and to keep busy. I applaud them.;)

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11 hours ago, Ozark Huckleberry said:

Sometimes you choose the time to retire. 

 

Sometimes the the time to retire chooses you. 

 

 

I retired at age 63 1/2 on December 31, 2015 at 3:30 PM (but who's keeping track).   The commute to my job was brutal, I could feel some health issues affecting me, my elderly father and I wanted to spend more time together and I got an unfavorable re-assignment at work.  I sat down and figured out how much money a month I would really put in my pocket working compared to what I would put in my pocket if I retired.  I discovered if I kept working I would put a princely additional $20 a month in my pocket.  I figured I could squeeze $20 a month somewhere and declared "I'm outta here!"

 

Ozark Huckleberry is right.  I'm just glad I listened to what was going on and was smart enough to realize that it was time to retire. 

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12 hours ago, Yul Lose said:

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. 

What finally tipped us over the edge was I had to visit the San Diego County Air Pollution Control district to provide proof for the 15th year in a row that my stand by generator was propane and not diesel. I bought the site from PacBell back in the early 90’s and they had the generator listed as diesel, which it was but PacBell had removed the generator and cleaned up the diesel fuel spill in 1995 as a condition to us purchasing the site. The county never changed their records and every year and especially after the air pollution control district came into being the annual rectal exam became more and more excruciating. On the final visit I was met by an Islamic woman in full dress including full face cover in the Pollution Control District offices and directed by her to a conference room. When we entered the conference room she immediately became agitated and told me that we’d have to meet in an adjoining open area as I was a “male infidel” and she could not be in the same room alone with me. Believe me I was at the point I did not want to see what was under her serape.

 

During our meeting she referred to my generator as a diesel generator in excess of probably a dozen times and I corrected her each time and finally I requested a supervisor or management member be present to mediate the meeting. One was summoned and he corrected the “specialist” immediately and verified that my standby generator was indeed propane. I paid my $750.00 fine for not properly logging every minute that my generator ran over the last year and as I was getting in my truck the supervisor that made the correct decision came out and told me that that department was pretty f****d up anymore and that it was only going to get worse and he was retiring in 6 months.

 

I sleep very well at night knowing that I won’t have to deal with bureaucratic nitwits that have no idea what their job entails but have been taught and trained to do everything they can to wring every single cent they can out of people like me and my wife who have spent much of their lives building businesses. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Yul Lose said:

What finally tipped us over the edge was I had to visit the San Diego County Air Pollution Control district to provide proof for the 15th year in a row that my stand by generator was propane and not diesel. I bought the site from PacBell back in the early 90’s and they had the generator listed as diesel, which it was but PacBell had removed the generator and cleaned up the diesel fuel spill in 1995 as a condition to us purchasing the site. The county never changed their records and every year and especially after the air pollution control district came into being the annual rectal exam became more and more excruciating. On the final visit I was met by an Islamic woman in full dress including full face cover in the Pollution Control District offices and directed by her to a conference room. When we entered the conference room she immediately became agitated and told me that we’d have to meet in an adjoining open area as I was a “male infidel” and she could not be in the same room alone with me. Believe me I was at the point I did not want to see what was under her serape.

 

During our meeting she referred to my generator as a diesel generator in excess of probably a dozen times and I corrected her each time and finally I requested a supervisor or management member be present to mediate the meeting. One was summoned and he corrected the “specialist” immediately and verified that my standby generator was indeed propane. I paid my $750.00 fine for not properly logging every minute that my generator ran over the last year and as I was getting in my truck the supervisor that made the correct decision came out and told me that that department was pretty f****d up anymore and that it was only going to get worse and he was retiring in 6 months.

 

I sleep very well at night knowing that I won’t have to deal with bureaucratic nitwits that have no idea what their job entails but have been taught and trained to do everything they can to wring every single cent they can out of people like me and my wife who have spent much of their lives building businesses. 

 

 

One of the reasons my job is no longer any fun is the bureaucracy and dealing with ignorant people with a little power. Couple that with an agency that was once at the top of it’s game to now see what more than 10 years of dumbassery at all levels has done is darn near sickening. 

 

This place could be a sitcom called “Morons at the Gates”. Trouble is, no one would be laughing.

 

The sunshine is nice though...

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Sounds like we are all suffering from the same health problem - extended aging in place.  If you live long enough, it's almost inevitable that the job you once loved will become unbearable.  It's the cycle of life. 

 

I started out to be an engineer, but took a detour into the practice of law.  For about 30 years, I handled primarily products liability cases, investigating and trying cases involving equipment failures, explosions, fires, electrical events, chemical events, etc.  People died in these cases, or were horribly injured; some involved massive losses of property or profits.  The folks I worked with - insurers, manufacturers, engineers, consulting experts, police, fire investigators, doctors and others - took their work very seriously; for us, it was much more than just money.  We wanted to get it right, which usually meant an extreme effort involving forensic investigation, scientific experimentation, interrogation and cross-examination of witnesses, and intensive critical thinking and analysis.  There was no room for short-cuts, untested assumptions or sloppy logic.  The process was demanding and expensive.

 

For the first 15-20 years or so, I was in heaven.  Great clients, full technical support, close working relationships with the client's engineers and safety people, unquestioning dedication to finding the answers and trying the cases.  

 

Starting in the late 1990's, we began to notice a shift.  Our traditional manufacturing clients, more and more, were being run by bean counters, not engineers.  The emphasis changed from defending the integrity of the product (and the people behind the product) to minimizing legal expenses.  Companies that had traditionally been self-insured, and so in total control of their defenses, were now buying insurance, and turning over the claims and defense roles to claims people with no experience with the product.  Outside counsel were being saddled with onerous reporting requirements, and subjected to unilateral editing of invoices without regard to the actual value of the services. It became a race to the bottom.  The cooperative, coordinated effort was gone.  

 

By 2010, I had moved as far away from working for insurers as I could.   My concept of doing a good job for the client just did not mesh with their cost-cutting and total disregard for the long-term financial health of their insureds.  But the die was cast; even my self-insured clients (whose numbers were rapidly dwindling due to outsourcing to offshore manufacturing) were hiring both managers and lawyers who were ignorant of the history and functioning of the products.  There was no longer a market for expertise or institutional knowledge.  It was the age of the MBA consultants - absolutely devoid of any understanding of the products, but absolutely certain that they could "save the business".

 

At 67, I can see the end of the track ahead.  I have a small core group of clients, but the joy of the work is largely gone.  My wife will retire at the end of this year, and I will play out the string for another year or two, while we transition to our retirement home and sell off the excess stuff.   I treasure the memories of work well done during the heyday; I have no affection for the business decisions that have gradually disassembled the integrity of the manufacturing process in so many of these companies.  I am anxious to leave it all behind, raise a sail, and head out for new destinations.

 

LL

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1 hour ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

...
For the first 15-20 years or so, I was in heaven.  Great clients, full technical support, close working relationships with the client's engineers and safety people, unquestioning dedication to finding the answers and trying the cases.  

...

Starting in the late 1990's, we began to notice a shift.  Our traditional manufacturing clients, more and more, were being run by bean counters, not engineers.  The emphasis changed from defending the integrity of the product (and the people behind the product) to minimizing legal expenses.
...
There was no longer a market for expertise or institutional knowledge.  It was the age of the MBA consultants - absolutely devoid of any understanding of the products, but absolutely certain that they could "save the business".

...

 


Your experience parallels my own.
I was on the engineering side and saw the same bean-counter shift, decline of product integrity and minimizing costs.
I learned to see a key indicator of a company in trouble:  when they put a lock on the office supplies cabinet.
The first thing a bean counter does is lock up the paper clips and pencils.

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Part of the reason I left early besides the foolishness and stress was the Obituary page in our company bulletin. Those that stayed into their late 60's+ seemed to show up on that page within a year or two and was not about to be one of them. I worked hard and wanted to be able to enjoy some life with my wife after retirement. So far, so good. And now we both play CAS together and enjoy the clean air of Vermont and the low stress level. Even being on the Selectboard in my town is way less stress than the last few years at the once great phone company. They kept cutting our pay and benefits while the new CEO was taking home 4 Billion a year. He then went on to run General Motors! Keep you head high Pat, it will come together for you in time.

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17 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

Only 15 more years until I can really retire!

 

The thing I loved most about the Navy was the constant change:  a new command every 3-5 years, constant turnover of the CO/XO/Dept. heads every 18-24 months.

 

Coming in to the same building every day for the past five years has gotten more difficult.  I really enjoy my job and most of the people I work with - even the ones I work for.  Dealing with contractors, though - that's another story.

 

As I told my wife last year, it's about time for another deployment.  We'll see what the future holds.

 

I too have grown to miss the constant change. Went over 10 years in the same job this spring. By far the longest I have spent doing the same thing. I am blessed that I currently work for an excellent management chain otherwise I would be actively looking for a new job.

 

Truth be told, my current manager is the only reason I am still here. 4 years ago I spent a several months with a couple of friends that are software engineers redesigning the system I operate and maintain to expand its capabilities and make it easier to maintain. Our design was elegant and relied heavily on modularized code that could be reused for each subsystem with only minor tweaks. AND it corrected 99% of the deficiencies that the 20 year old monolithic operating system I was using suffered from.

 

Unfortunately a couple of pin heads stole half our funding to bail out another project they mismanaged and I am left with a piece of unfinished crap that actually makes the job harder. Mostly because it lacks the real time feedback to detect issues and accurately troubleshoot them.


 

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My current plan is to retire when I am 60 and a half. That will give me 15 years plus a month or two at the same job. Fortunately the smartest thing I have ever done is the reason I can retire before I am dead. That one thing was to stick out the Navy till I could retire with 20 years.

Having retiree medical is a real blessing. It has covered three major hospitalizations for the wife and kept me from being bankrupted by them in the process.

 

Once I retire we'll start downsizing dramatically. Except that we don't cherish or absolutely need to set up a new much much smaller home base will be sold or burned if is doesn't fit into an RV. Will use the proceeds from the sale of the house to buy that RV. We haven't decided if it will be a motorhome with a tag trailer or a truck and custom trailer.  One criteria is the ability to securely carry a good selection of firearms and the ability to reload for them.

 

Our goal for at least the first year is to tour the country and take in the sights as we travel from match to match.

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On 9/25/2019 at 8:04 PM, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

One of the reasons my job is no longer any fun is the bureaucracy and dealing with ignorant people with a little power. Couple that with an agency that was once at the top of it’s game to now see what more than 10 years of dumbassery at all levels has done is darn near sickening. 

 

This place could be a sitcom called “Morons at the Gates”. Trouble is, no one would be laughing.

 

The sunshine is nice though...

We got sunshine..............and it's free.  No taxes on sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

My current plan is to retire when I am 60 and a half. That will give me 15 years plus a month or two at the same job. Fortunately the smartest thing I have ever done is the reason I can retire before I am dead. That one thing was to stick out the Navy till I could retire with 20 years.

Having retiree medical is a real blessing. It has covered three major hospitalizations for the wife and kept me from being bankrupted by them in the process.

 

Once I retire we'll start downsizing dramatically. Except that we don't cherish or absolutely need to set up a new much much smaller home base will be sold or burned if is doesn't fit into an RV. Will use the proceeds from the sale of the house to buy that RV. We haven't decided if it will be a motorhome with a tag trailer or a truck and custom trailer.  One criteria is the ability to securely carry a good selection of firearms and the ability to reload for them.

 

Our goal for at least the first year is to tour the country and take in the sights as we travel from match to match.

Tell me how that downsizing works.  We left a 1650 square foot house with no outbuildings on an 8th of an acre in California and bought an 1879 square foot house here in Arizona with a 1900 square foot shop / garage behind on a half acre for under half what we sold our California house for.

 

Howzat for downsizing?

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23 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

I too have grown to miss the constant change. Went over 10 years in the same job this spring. By far the longest I have spent doing the same thing. I am blessed that I currently work for an excellent management chain otherwise I would be actively looking for a new job.


 

I'm fortunate be with an organization that has options for movement with guaranteed return rights after a specific period of time.   I am working towards a temporary relocation now - just a short deployment for about three years. 

 

Only potential downside is not being able to shoot for that time. 

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13 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Tell me how that downsizing works.  We left a 1650 square foot house with no outbuildings on an 8th of an acre in California and bought an 1879 square foot house here in Arizona with a 1900 square foot shop / garage behind on a half acre for under half what we sold our California house for.

 

Howzat for downsizing?

 

I currently live in a house whose original foundation was done in about 1921. Since then the original house has been remodeled twice. The last remodel more than doubled the master bedroom, added a second bath with his and her walk in closets, his and her vanities, and a separate tub and shower. Somewhere along the way the original carport was turned into a garage and a 22X30 foot addition was built onto the back of it. The addition is two rooms plus a 3/4 bath. All together we have a little over 3000 sqft of living space but it is on a very small lot in a nice neighborhood with limited parking.  If I could move it out onto 20 acres I would be in heaven.

 

My dream is to find 40 or 50 acres and build a large shop that the RV can be parked in with a small 2 bedroom house inside it as well. We can live in the RV or the house as we desire and have room for visitors.  Want the land to have some isolation and the ability to have my own gun range including practicing long range shooting. Mostly with black powder firearms.

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2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

We left a 1650 square foot house with no outbuildings on an 8th of an acre in California and bought an 1879 square foot house here in Arizona with a 1900 square foot shop / garage behind on a half acre for under half what we sold our California house for.

 


We keep looking in PV, etc.
Over 85 properties now, can't find what we need.

Want 1800~2400 square feet, 4-beds, 2-baths, 3-car garage or 2-car + shop.
All we find so far are over $600k, 2x higher than our Sacramento house will sell for.
Most have HOA and the nazis that run them.

Many of these 85+ properties remain unsold.
A few play a very frequent game of both lowering and raising the price.
One is owned by a realtor, which is how he keeps his listing "fresh".

I figure we are stuck in CA until I die.
When that happens, at least my bride will be still in town with our daughters.

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I started working at age 14 in 1958 as a carry-out in a supermarket.  After burning out in private veterinary practice, I was lucky to get a job at age 58 as a Public Health Veterinarian with the USDA/Food Safety and Inspection Service.  I lasted 12 years until, at age 69 1/2 years, it just seemed to be time.  I was proud of the fact that my efforts helped keep consumers from getting sick, but the Agency philosophy and goals under Mr. Obama were evolving (remember, he directed NASA to be more friendly to Muslims...) so I decided it was time.  I was able to time my retirement in such a way that a good friend would be offered my job, so that was a bonus.

 

I was getting up between 3:00 AM and 5:30 AM, depending on the circuit de jour, driving 200 to 300 miles a day in a government car that was not designed for a 6' 5" driver.  Never regretted saying goodbye.  55 years of combined full and part time jobs was enough.

 

Geez I love sleeping late!  :D

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After Collage, I went into the USAF as a 2nd Louie; figgered four years and out!  24 years later I retired and went to work for Lockheed Martin in the F-16 and later F-22 Programs. Fourteen years later at age 60 I took Early Retirement. My Brother in Law and two best Friends from High School all died at 58 and 59 years. Spoked me; so we sold our house in Ft Worth; stored some stuff, bought a 42 foot Monaco Motorhome  and hooked a Jeep behind it and hit the road!  Thought we would travel a year to 15 months. Stayed on the road 8 years Fulltime. Covered 49 States. most of Canada, and a very small part of Mexico. Not the best Investment I ever made , but I would not take a Million for the fun we had and the great people we met.  While retired I worked two Summers for the Durango and Silverton RR (03 ,04) as a Brakeman on the Steam Train. What an experience, as I have been a Train Nut since I was 7 years old!  Now live in a great Military Retirement complex North of Melbourne , FL. Was a Charter member of a Gun Club here and still manage a lot of competitive shooting  at 78.  Cheers,  Hoss C.

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It sounds like a lot of you were in reality driven out of jobs that you liked and took pride in.    I didn't like the unfavorable reassignment at the time, but looking back I think the bosses were trying their best to keep me employed rather than fire me.   It kept me getting a paycheck albeit reduced for enough time to get me to retirement.

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It just got stupid. Too stupid. It used to be there would be one or two political hacks, but they would farm them into an office somewhere. Then they started promoting them and putting them in charge of patrol. Soon you are being asked if you really had to hit that guy to arrest him, by a supervisor that had golf clubs in his trunk, and takes out his handcuffs for his nephew to play with. That and political correctness made it hard to get up for work. When I found out I could retire a year and a half earlier than I calculated, I signed those papers on the spot. Not one milli-second of regret. Had some common sense, kick ass bosses when I started. The ones when I left couldn't run a bake sale.

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1 hour ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

It just got stupid. Too stupid. It used to be there would be one or two political hacks, but they would farm them into an office somewhere. Then they started promoting them and putting them in charge of patrol. Soon you are being asked if you really had to hit that guy to arrest him, by a supervisor that had golf clubs in his trunk, and takes out his handcuffs for his nephew to play with. That and political correctness made it hard to get up for work. When I found out I could retire a year and a half earlier than I calculated, I signed those papers on the spot. Not one milli-second of regret. Had some common sense, kick ass bosses when I started. The ones when I left couldn't run a bake sale.

 

I am back at work at an agency that used to be pretty darn good. Now it’s full of idiots with no focus on our actual role, which is to provide transit services. More time is spent on inane BS than anything else. I will be surprised if I last there.

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