How did you know? (55, moving, retired, years)

[k7baixo]

Assuming you had some amount of control, how did you know that it was time to retire? What motivated you to take that step?

[Avalon08]

The company where I had worked for 20 years was acquired by a big German conglomerate. Prior to that, it was a fantastic place to work -- when I started, it had 600 employees, people stayed for years and it was like a big family. We knew it couldn't last...and it didn't. After we were acquired in 2000, things just went steadily downhill. The Germans have quite a different business culture....everything was about PROCESS and billable hours. Where we had always worked with each other in a team environment, now everybody was adversarial and pointing fingers at one another. We were all miserable and I hated going to work every day. Reorg upon reorg...removing all the management positions...felt like I'd end up as a janitor soon. Seven years of this and I finally got my chance to get out....haven't regretted it one minute.

And the really sad thing is, after buying us and completely screwing up the place, they sold us off ten years later...at a loss.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by k7baixo

Assuming you had some amount of control, how did you know that it was time to retire? What motivated you to take that step?

I reached 66, my full retirement age. Furthermore, being beyond 65, I was eligible for Medicare.

But for me, the real driver was fatigue. At 66, working in high tech, those sometimes 12 hour days were just too much. I found myself just dragging by late afternoons.

So I asked them to allow me to just work part time but they didn't want to do that.

However, late last year, I got that call, "please return part time".

They had learned the hard way that they were losing expertise when their old guys retired. So they now have several of us working 20 hour weeks to help train the new generation. That really is a sweet deal. Working just 20 hours in high tech is an easy week.

So we do engineering in the morning and drink beer in the afternoon.

[Gusano]

I was nearly sixty-two. One day I decided I had had enough of the politics, so I went to the scheduler and told him not to put me on the next schedule, but that I would work the schedule that had just been posted. Our schedules were made out three months ahead, which left my employers plenty of time to look for another person. I was eligible to continue on my employers’ health plan until age sixty-five, so that also helped me decide.

When I retired three months later, they still had not found a replacement, but I figured it wasn’t my problem. Most people give far less notice than I had given. I did feel a bit bad about the co-workers who had to pick up the slack, but who knew when the employer would find someone. They did get someone about a month after I left. I don’t know what the holdup was; there had been several applicants interviewed while I was still there—perhaps pay or hours, I never heard.

Fatigue was a factor for me as well and some health problems.

[MichiganGreg]

40 years of high tech development was enough. Time for something else.

[auto camper]

Like saving, investing and compounding the retirement approach had several decades which to prepare. Annual countdown began shortly after last parent had died, age 90. There was ease which had no hitches. Long term planning was the way to go.

[Corvette Ministries]

I was accessing health insurance data on my company website and happened upon the retirement page. It said I could retire at 60 with at least 5 years service. (For some reason, I had always thought it was 65.)

I had just turned 60 about a week prior, with 9 years service.

I ran to my wife and said, "Guess what! I can retire!"

Without looking up from washing windows, she dryly replied, "That's wonderful."

Anyway, with retirement on my mind after that, it didn't take long to make the decision.

[MI-Roger]

• Suddenly realizing you are the oldest person in the Dept.
• Noticing that the others you rely upon for support functions at work (such as Buyers) will not respond to your requests, but jump through hoops to assist those 20-30 years younger.
• Frustration that no one can understand what you consider basic engineering philosophies and methods. (This week it was appropriately selecting an air blower for a special one-off project)
• Frustration that no one else seems to care about doing a good job, they just want to complete it quickly.
• Absence of trust and responsibility.

Time to leave before I become known as the grouchy old man who yells at kids to stay off his grass.

[Paka]

Originally Posted by k7baixo

Assuming you had some amount of control, how did you know that it was time to retire? What motivated you to take that step?

Sometimes LIFE tells you when it is time to retire....I had a sister who was widowed and had terminal cancer....I had almost enough time to retire civil service (30 yrs) so....took care of her and worked as long as I had to, then took my retirement on my 60th birthday and was able to dedicate 100% of my time to her needs (I have an AMAZINGLY SUPPORTIVE HUBBY!!!!) until she passed 6 months and 2 days after I retired.

Otherwise, probably would have stayed working to retire same time with hubby.

Hopefully, your decision is not driven by such events and you can decide based on HAPPY plans.

[bbtondo]

Liked my job and the people that I worked with. Wanted to retire to have more freedom to enjoy every day. DH's job was more stressful than mine, and he was ready to go for sure! Knew it was time when we could financially do it. A lot of people told us we were too young to retire, but we didn't listen.


I retired at 55. Got the house ready for sale. DH retired a couple of weeks before the house closed. Once the house closed we drove to Florida to start our new life. Living every day in paradise and really enjoying life!