Thoughts on my retirement

[Petrol & Powder]

The last thing I want is to be lying on my death bed wishing I had done something that I didn't try. So far, I've been fairly successful balancing life vs. living.
I'm not even close to being rich and due to a lack of money, I've had to put off some things until I had the funds. I've made a few mistakes, but no insurmountable ones. I've managed to gather some incredible experience along the way and even with the mistakes, I made it work.
I've met a lot of people: some evil, most average and a few outstanding. I learned from all of them.
I don't have many friends but the ones I have I would die for and they would die for me.

Life is interesting and there's no road map for it.

[tinsnips]

I always get excited when someone can retire. Good for you! My buddy who is retired says the only days that go by slow are the ones when you are doing something you don't want to. He loves retirement.Have fun everyday.

[bangerjim]

What.....me retire?????????? NOT. I drive on my tires until I see steel showing thru......then mabe I think of re-tire-ing! HA.....ha!

“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind.......I will NEVER die!”

I have a birthday on 5-9 and look at it as just another day on the calendar. But I expect VERY expensive presents from my sons!!!!!!!!!

Banger

[Mtnfolk75]

The last thing I want is to be lying on my death bed wishing I had done something that I didn't try. So far, I've been fairly successful balancing life vs. living.
I'm not even close to being rich and due to a lack of money, I've had to put off some things until I had the funds. I've made a few mistakes, but no insurmountable ones. I've managed to gather some incredible experience along the way and even with the mistakes, I made it work.
I've met a lot of people: some evil, most average and a few outstanding. I learned from all of them.
I don't have many friends but the ones I have I would die for and they would die for me.

Life is interesting and there's no road map for it.

My Life described to a T, we are Lucky SOB's for sure

[lightman]

Congratulations Waksupi! I like the attitude that you have in looking at life. I retired about 3 years ago after being an electrical lineman for nearly 35 years. I enjoyed it up until the very last few years. About the time that my health started making it hard to do my job the company started reducing the work force and everyone was worked so much that you could not get any help if you needed it. My pension allows us to have a decent life and our savings are there if needed. I have retired friends that hated their jobs and even their coworkers and won't even talk about their jobs! I really can't imagine that as I don't think I could have done my job if I hated it. I treated every late night callout as an adventure! I looked forward to going to work everyday.

[fivegunner]

Congratulations Waksupi! . I retired 9/16. just figuring out things .I have so much to do, Enjoy!!

[mold maker]

I didn't choose to retire, but rather china took my job after almost 40 years. At 64 1/2, I was allowed to explore 3 places a week to seek a nonexistent job.
There were dozens of young folks looking in an ever-shrinking (2007) job market. I constantly drove over a 50-mile radius, burning gas and filling out applications, for absolutely no positive results.
Thank goodness unemployment covered my bills until my 65 BD, and I retired in peace.
Life since has been more hectic than a routine of employment, but the last 11+ years have been totally enjoyable. With the exception of the increasing number of Dr. visits and the added responsibilites of getting 4 Grankids to and from 4 different schools, and extracricular activites, its just doing what-ever and when I please. It's what you make of it. If you've got your head screwed on wrong, you'll be seriously dissappointed. If your a realist, life will hold many pleasent surprises.

[Thumbcocker]

I have 29 years in a career that has been interesting and challenging and once in a while made a difference. I plan to retire in 2020. My career is not something that was my first choice but is a compromise. I am pretty good at it and try to give my boss (the taxpayers) their moneys worth. Mrs. Thumbcocker and I have 56 acres with deer, turkeys, woods, and scenery. We garden and hunt and have good enough equipment that we don't have to kill ourselves to do projects. We plan to buy a Casita trailer and see some country but come back to home base. Mrs. Thumbcocker is a fascinating person with a great mind and always has my back. We have seen the darkness together and come out the other side closer than before.

Congratulations Waksipi on years well lived and more to come. I would recommend that you record or write some of your experiences to share with those you choose. We are all only here for a while and learning from the experiences of others is priceless and darned interesting.

[DocSavage]

I retired the end of 2010 at 60 and glad I did,watched to many guys wait to 62 maybe 65 and a year or two later drop dead from a heart attack or some form of cancer.
Between my wife,elderly mother and stuff I do I keep busy. I do try to keep 1 day for me and that's usually Wednesday that's my movie day,2 -3 hrs where I shut my brain off and relax

[marlin39a]

I’m out at just under 62. I have bills under control, and plenty to do. Income is there. My time to live.

[woodbutcher]

Hi waksupi.Outstanding Sir.Wishing you the best for a great retirement.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[facetious]

About 20 months to go. On Dec. 3 2019 I will have been working in printing plants mostly printing news papers for 40 years. Things in the news paper industry have been heading south for the last few years and I think I have had enough. The wife wants me to go at 62, I will be 61 this summer.

[Southern Son]

When I retire is going to be easy to decide, I cannot access my pension until I'm 60, and legislation states that my employer will sack me when I turn 60. Eleven years and seven months to go, but whos counting?

[richhodg66]

I retired from the Army at age 46 after 24 years and we owned a payed for, but fixer upper house which we probably could have lived on just military pension if careful. Military retirees that do that tend to die real young it seems. So I started teaching JROTC and it's a lot of fun and I enjoy it most of the time. The little knuckle heads get to me sometimes but the good ones make up for it pretty fast and most of them are somewhere in the middle which, of course, are probably the ones you make the most difference with in a job like this.

I'm 52 now and need to do some heavy thinking and figuring for what I want to do, but retiring for good is looking real attractive when I can do it. I have my own place in the country now which means I'll need to make a mortgage payment for a long time but it gives me the ability to shoot and other stuff I like to do whenever I have time.

[DocSavage]

There is one thing I'll add here and some of the retirees will recognize this statement "you're retired you got all kinds of time". I don't know how I got anything done working 8 and sometimes 12 hours a day.

[mold maker]

/\ /\ /\ /\ Aman to that! Where does all that extra time go?

[AK Caster]

Been retired for awhile, same for the wife. There is so much to do around the home site I could not imagine ever having a paid job again.

[waksupi]

Been retired for awhile, same for the wife. There is so much to do around the home site I could not imagine ever having a paid job again.

It seems I'm still as busy as before I officially "retired". Orders for knives have been crazy, plus I have guns to build. I just do it at a much slower pace.

[MT Gianni]

That's me, I retired and then hurt my foot. i get about 1/2 done in a day compared to what I did previously but I answer to me and my wife so it's all good.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

It is difficult to believe that I have been retired for twenty five years. I had a great job but the times they were a changing. I saw bad times ahead. Hey, I found metaphors in two songs. I worked for the phone company installing telephone equipment in central offices or in private businesses. I never installed a phone or climbed a pole. I worked in every kind of business there is. There are some really bad jobs out there. I was working in a business that made sporting goods like golf clubs and baseball bats. I watched a man operate a machine that put steps in golf club handles. He would put a steel tube in the machine and step on a foot pedal and the machine would press steps in the shaft. All the time he was working his hands were being sprayed with water soluble oil. This was done to keep the press head cool. When he finished one large rolling rack full of steel shafts, they would take it away a bring him another rack. His was not the worst job I saw. One fellow I saw had the job of cleaning out the fire bricks in huge kiln in a foundry so the brick mason could install a new lining of fire bricks. He was covered in soot and crud from head to toe. I hate to think what his lungs looked like. I was working in a defense plant from time to time and on the way to the rest room one day I watched a man in a machine shop operating a huge press. He said it was a 200 hundred ton press. I asked how long he had been working on it and he said since 1941. It was in the early '60s at that time. Talk about getting bored. Along with good pay we got four weeks vacation after twenty years and five weeks after twenty five. I worked on the phone system in a mental institution for a few months. I could write a book about that place. I was 58 when I retired, I would have liked to work a few years longer but as I said the future did not look bright and as it turned out it wasn't.