The waiting is the hardest part...

[bakerjw]

I am 57 and working at a world wide fortune 10 multinational corporation where I am well established as an expert on several of our automation products and protocols. I can be what I call a coaster, i.e. one who coasts to retirement.

An opportunity presented itself and after much flipping back and forth, a week and a half ago, I applied for it. I am overqualified in some areas but will have to come up to speed in some others. I am known to hit the ground running. This venture uses large amounts of our current products and having my expertise on board would be of great benefit to them in that regard.
If I were to be lucky enough to get it, I would be working 1,400 miles from where we live but still maintaining our home as my permanent residence. Work hours would be 12 hour days 6 to 7 days a week, so I'd be requesting a long weekend (4 or 5 days) every other month to fly home. The wife is not terribly happy about that but very understanding as to the "Why" aspect.

I am just whining about the wait to see if I even get an interview. I won't let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, but if this happens, people will understand why.

Whining off.

[Half Dog]

I wish you the best. Personally, I can’t imagine me being that committed anymore. Perhaps I’m still a little bitter about being layed-off too many times because of “workforce reductions.”

[MrWolf]

Good for you. Old enough that this would probably be your last push at working hard and then you can really enjoy retirement, assuming of course that is your plan. Good luck getting the interview.
Ron

[dverna]

Hope you get what you want and it is what you want...sometimes things can change.

I am now retired but I would have done the same thing. 57 is not very old. Good luck!!!

[Electrod47]

Buddy,
you got a solid 10 years of productivity in you and the candle burns brightest at the end. BUT, remember coasting to a secure retirement package is everybody's dream. If this thing isn't going to last for 10 years. Let me tell you from experience looking for work at 63 is not something you want to attempt. I was fortunate enough to have had 3 separate well paying careers in my life, the last one being the best.
BUT, foreign acquisition, downsizing, over 60 years of age. That becomes a slippery slope. Everybody that was so hot to get you in your 50's will look at you a whole lot different when your in your 60's. Just sayin

[bakerjw]

Thanks for all of the thoughts and perspectives.
If this comes through though....
The potential opportunity is with one of my employers very high profile customers. While sad to see me leave, they would be very supportive to lose someone to these people.

[Handloader109]

good luck either way.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[popper]

A good friend several years ago went to a Co that needed his expertise. After he trained the 'new' crew, got laid off. Only took a year to train.

[BD]

Six years ago, while at 9,500 ft hiking in for an elk hunt in Colorado, out of the blue my cell phone rang. Needing a break I sat down and answered it. It was someone that I had worked with several times in the past calling with an offer for 4 years work at more than twice what I was making at the time, plus all expenses. The catch was that the job was again 800 miles away from my home in Maine, and I was not a real fan of the client.
I was 59 at the time, and I had worked out of state for most of the previous ten years. My daughter had recently moved back to Maine and was married. I told them I'd think about it for the five day hunt and then call them back. A day or two later I was again at an elevation on the side of the divide with cell reception and called my wife to tell her about the offer. She left it up to me. In the end I turned it down.
In the five years after that call my daughter had a son, and then a daughter. Looking back from this point in time, I would not trade those years with my family for the money, and I have no regrets. Your life is different than mine, and your decision is yours to make. But do not underrate the value to you, and your family, of being around for the really productive years you have left.

[BamaNapper]

If you're looking to make a mad dash to the finish line, I hope you get the opportunity. I personally took the other path. I used to have the 60-70 hr/wk salary job with plenty of traveling and constant deadlines. That was my life for 15 years. When I was your age I saw retirement 10 years away, and decided to use those 10 years to ease into retirement. I accepted a job I knew I would enjoy, requires no more than 40 hrs/wk, has no travel, is in a rural area as opposed to urban, and pays the same as my previous job. I left the rat race of the northeast and moved to small town Alabama. I'm halfway through the 10 years now and my wife and I are loving our new life. We've even decided to push retirement out a few more years to give us a little more in savings, and SSI will be that much higher. Hopefully our health holds up, but we realize there are no guarantees. When I do retire it might be to a part-time job, or maybe a trade school to learn welding. If I stop too suddenly I'll probably vibrate like the road runner on Saturday mornings.

In fact, if I hadn't changed jobs I wouldn't even be on this forum. My previous life didn't allow me enough time for shooting and reloading. Or hunting. Or even fishing for that matter. Longer work days just moved all my chores and honey-dos to the weekends. As BD said better than I could, it's your life and your unique situation. I'm sure you'll make the best call for you.

[imashooter2]

Am I understanding that at 57 years old, you would move 1,400 miles away and, discounting the travel days, see your wife 2-3 days every other month (if the long weekends are even approved)?

That is not something I would even consider.

[Handloader109]

I posted earlier, but deleted my experience. I'll give that to you. I was 10 years plus working as a location manager for a fortune 100 company. Decent salary, just under 6 figures with 5 to 15% bonus. 50 to 60 hours a week, work time varies from 5am to 10 pm as the management demanded manager see all shifts. 6 days a week. I wanted to make it to 65, and saw the 7 or so years working out.
But life changed. Company split roughly in two. Our side became way overly demanding, bought by Irish company, (and has subsequently been bought again). They laid off one of my 2 assistant managers, (roughly half locations had this happen) demanded more and more control of systems and I had less and less control and ability to really manage my team. Roughly a year after split, they found a way to eliminate me as I was making at least a third more than most other managers due to my length of employment in that role. So out of a job at 57. I spent a year looking with zero real jobs becoming available. Age make a dang good deterent to hire someone.
But I then started a small business and life has been fine. Just not the last 5 or 6 years I planned. Financial we're fine. just not great as I expected. But I'm home with my wife who has numerous medical issues and that is all that really matters. Money ain't everything. just realize and remember that. You have only one life and killing yourself for someone else isnt best result

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[shooterg]

Retired at 56 , was at a point where I hated to go in . Spent time doing volunteer work, last 10 years(70 now) I've had a grandboy to enjoy - would not trade millions for the time I've had with The Boy !

[richhodg66]

I'm 55 and a year or so away from being eligible for a small pension on top of military retirement. I find myself more and more thinking about "how much less money could you live on and be happy?"

I wouldn't do it if I were you, certainly not more than a year or so. Did too much time as a geographic bachelor over the years and not going to do it again if I don't absolutely have to.

[Scrounge]

I'm 55 and a year or so away from being eligible for a small pension on top of military retirement. I find myself more and more thinking about "how much less money could you live on and be happy?"

I wouldn't do it if I were you, certainly not more than a year or so. Did too much time as a geographic bachelor over the years and not going to do it again if I don't absolutely have to.

Depends on where you live. When I retired from the USAF in 1997, with 24 years and a week (got the fogy raise) I got a bit over $1500 a month. A bit shy of $19K a year. I looked into going back home, and there was a joke going round. Q: What do you call a guy who makes $50K a year in Los Angeles? A: Homeless. Didn't go back to LA. Median income here in Oklahoma at the time (late 1997) was about $25K. Not wealthy, but enough to live decently here. I found a teacher's assistant job about a year later making about $16K, while I was going to school to get prerequisites for the teaching program at OU. I was monitoring kids who were in trouble, helping them with their classwork, and able to work on my own much of the day while still getting paid. Not a bad gig. Now about 22 years later, I'm retired again, and making about $43K. It costs WAY more to live in LA now than it did then, and of course more to live here, too, but I can get by. I will be interested in seeing what happens to my taxes. Somehow I don't believe that my taxes are going down all that much. And all my income comes from Uncle Sam. When the economy crashes, and the federal government defaults on their debts... It will get interesting.

[MrWolf]

At 57 I had to retire on a civil service disability pension and luckily a few years later I finally got my SS Disability. Between the two plus what I had managed to keep from the divorce, I am doing ok. No way I could work with my back/neck. I knew right after getting hurt I could not afford to live in NJ (property taxes of $12,000 per year) nor did I want to. I had to move and. Moving out here was the best thing I could do. Sometimes making similar changes gives you a life that is so much better than what you thought. I have so many projects to do and cannot understand my Father who at 82 claims he is bored. He is in good health, mobile, etc. Guess it is what you want out of life. Good luck.
Ron

[snowwolfe]

No way in the world would I work 6, 12 hour days a week 1400 miles from my house. You couldn’t pay me enough.

[TimD]

I worked for several Fortune 100 companies the last one for 13 years. I too was an expert in my area with the ridiculous salary and all of the stress and travel that went with it. I loved my job and it got most of my time and attention. The company decided my program was moving 1100 miles away. They also demonstrated they did not really care about any of their employees. I changed programs rather than move. That lasted a few years and when they downsized the 3rd time in 3 years I applied for a voluntary layoff. Several of my peers were hit by the involuntary layoff two months later, all were in their late 50's. I had lunch with a friend that got hit by the layoff about a year later. He was still having issues and had not found another job. He had also been diagnosed with PTSD. It took me two years to de-stress. My lifestyle changed drastically for the better. That was ten years ago and I would not trade any of that time for the money. Personally I think planning to coast into retirement, as early as possible, is a good thing. Life is good.

[gmsharps]

12 hour days at 6 to 7 days a week you will probably burn out in a year. Then what. You are not getting any younger and as previous posts mentioned jobs will be getting harder to find as you age.
Just saying to look at this hard before making a decision.

Gmsharps

[blackthorn]

I would suggest that you take a good hard look at how you handle stress and any major prior changes in your life. The last two jobs I had from age 43 through 65 were high stress very demanding, both time and psychological wise. Both involved making decisions that had the potential to have a major impact on the lives of the people I had to deal with. I found that I handle stress very well. I made decisions based on evidence, presented the best arguments and/or decisions possible and was able to (mostly) leave the job stresses in the office at the end of each day. Both jobs involved a lot of travel away from home to the tune of one week out of three. The last job paid very well and after I retired at age 65 I put in an additional 2 years working on contract to my last employer. Taking work such as you are contemplating will require a lot of thought, predicting your future and the effect on your family. I wish you the very best whatever you decide.

[bakerjw]

I keep an updated resume on the big job sites and regularly get jobs through my in-box for places all over the country in either IT (large server deployment/network administration) or automation engineering. Even for quite a bit more money, I'd be hard pressed to consider most of them. They are simply just jobs and nothing more.
This potential opportunity though is something completely different. This would be working as a part of something much bigger that anything that I could ever imagine.

I am trying to not get my hopes up too much and that is the hard part. Well, that and waiting.

[lightman]

Wishing you Luck in whatever you decide to do.