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I am getting ready to retire this year - any day now. I have had enough. I have worked for this place for 14 years and it is harder and harder to go to work each day. One of the owners walks in the office in a bad mood everyday he shows up and always uses foul language. I am knocking 67 and I have been working since I am 12 years old and I ask my self each day, why do you do this? I guess it is habit. I have worked so long, it is the thing to do. Ever since I can remember, I have always worked two jobs. There is no retirement where I work so it depends of what you have saved up thru the years and what SS will pay. I think I will be ok as I am living on what I will collect from SS and I am putting the rest in savings.
I knew it was time to retire from teaching when my husband almost (literally) had to push me out of the car on school mornings to get me into the building to go to my classroom. (We taught on the same campus.)
I finished college in two and a half years and started teaching at age twenty. I could have retired in 2004. I made it to 2007, was asked to come back and "help out" by teaching half-days for two years, and then my husband retired from teaching in 2009. I quit the half-days, and we've never been happier.
I worked a County job for over 20 years and with my years of service and my age I had enough to retire at 52. It was good because my Dad was having health problems and I was the only one to take care of him. My job wasn't bad, just hard work, and always out in the elements. We used to joke that we were glorified ranch hands because we mowed right-of-ways, built fence,and mostly kept the waterways clean and in good shape. It was good to get away for another reason as well. My boss was a thief, a liar, and worked hard to try to get all the " old-timers" there fired, or make them quit. My last year I filed 2 grievances against him, even though I knew the whole County was a " Good ole boys" club. I had a good laugh when the head of human resources took my second grievance and informed me that she, too was kin to my boss. I told her I guess this talk is over. HAHA. On my way out the door I just thinking about getting a check every month for life, for doing NOTHING, and it made it so much nicer. This December will be 6 years, and I am enjoying every minute of it.
Then, when the manager started telling me, repeatedly, how much more $$$ I could earn at other companies without the burdens of supervising, I saw the writing on the wall.
Sounds like age discrimination/harrassment. I would have gone to a higher power and blown the whistle.
I was employed as a non-tenure-track professor at a state university. A friend of mine who was a retired teacher told me that in every teacher's life, there comes a year when you know this is your last year of teaching. Unfortunately as a teacher you have to complete the entire academic year -- there is no giving two weeks' notice and out.
In the fall semester of 2008, I knew it was my last year of teaching. I was very tired of grading papers (I taught writing.) The feeling may have been encouraged by the fact that I would turn 62 at the end of the academic year, and a Florida state employee can retire at age 62 (or with a certain number of years of service, which I did not have). So at the beginning of the spring semester, January 2009, I had a talk with the Dean and told him I would be retiring in May, when the school year ended.
It wasn't that difficult to keep up my enthusiasm for the job even though I knew I would be out of there in May. Maybe because I knew I would be out of there in May. But I confess to hearing a lot of the Eagles' "I'm Already Gone" in my mind. ("I will siiiiiing this victory song: whoo hoo hoo!")
If you enjoy teaching, I bet there are a lot of retiree programs (no pay) that would like to have you. The one I'm in leaves it up to the instructor for how many sessions they need for a semester. You teach one day a week, an hour and 10 minutes and there are no assignments/tests/papers. Your class can be two sessions - 8 or 10 sessions, whatever you decide you need. Unless it's a hands-on class, you just lecture on a topic that interests you in the field where you have some expertise. Most come with a PowerPoint presentation.
I retired in January of this year. I felt it for a good 5 months before I left, for me the feeling overwhelmed me "I don't want to go to work anymore". For years I loved my job, 30 actually, then I just had enough. For me it was budget cuts, one after another to the point I felt like one of those stretchie gumbie dolls"! Tomorrow it will be 5 monts since I left, I have not regretted it for one minute. DO IT! The other thingI have learned is that we are all different, what works for me may not work for you. I have to keep busy, get out of the house. I MAY go back to work next year, but it will be something I like, part time.
DH retires at 56 next year after 30 yrs. with a civil service pension and major medical paid for. I guess you could consider us semi retired as we've taken vacations every five weeks for 11 days through out the year for the last 7 or 8 yrs. I never started a 401K nor do I have a pension. I put all of my retirement money into income properties and feel it's done way better than any 401K. DH wants me to retire with him next year but I'm addicted to making money. We have enough money now to give us a comfortable retirement but I just can't wrap my head around being unproductive. I will not work past the age of 60 as my job is highly stressful and physically exhausting. I do see myself working only part time for a few more years.
Base line plan was developed when I was in my early 50's to retire at age 62. I worked for the same technology oriented company for nearly 40 years. Towards the end I was leading a team that was designing an advanced technology product. This was a very challenging assignment not because of the technology but because of the office politics in trying to bring it to market. I knew it was time to leave when I got sick and enjoyed the hospital stay and recuperation time more than going to work. I stayed for another year and then at age 60 volunteered for a reduction in force that provided a nice separation package.
My husband ran a jail in South Central Los Angeles. He was enrolled in the Drop Program for 5 years. When we maxed out on that, he retired and we moved two days later, kicked up our heels and moved to Kentucky....Drop was the determining factor as to when we retired.
That's the type of ridiculous over-the-top program that gives all public employees everywhere a black eye.
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("I will siiiiiing this victory song: whoo hoo hoo!")
