So who are you people? (physically, moving, community, anniversary)

[katharsis]

I’m 65. Born in Akron, Ohio, but my family (working class) moved to Hawthorne, California when I was nine. Moved here to the western Denver metro area in 1986, and I have been here since except for living in Maine from 2004-07. I also lived almost a year in Montgomery, Alabama when I was 19 years old.

My bio dad died when I was four months old, and my mom remarried. Had four half-siblings, but my brother died of muscular dystrophy when he was 21. I was a carrier of muscular dystophy, which is why I didn’t have my own biological kids, but we adopted two older special needs kids (severe emotional and behavioral problems) when they were four and six. Lots of problems with my kids, especially my daughter; and then when my son was 19, he was either murdered by his psychopathic/sociopathic girlfriend or committed suicide. (An OTC overdose, which was investigated as a homicide because my son had broken up with her the day before.) This was five years ago.

I have been married three times, and I have been very happily married to my current husband (an electrical designer) for 30+ years.

I have had several careers, first in retail management, then in office management, and then working with special needs kids. However, after officially retiring, I still worked retail part-time jobs – first as a bookseller for Borders, and now as a wine consultant because I very much enjoy those kinds of jobs.

However, right now I prefer to concentrate on the future, and the greatest news is that we have just bought a lot (it closes in three weeks) in rural Wisconsin on which we will build our retirement home in two or three years. Personally, my interests include U.S. history, true crime, Sudoku, reading, posting on City Data, taking hikes and walks with my husband and our Golden Lab, baking and simple gourmet cooking; and I enjoy watching old movies and BBC dramas. I am an agnostic Deist, political moderate, and an INTJ (but very close to being an ISFJ).

[jim9251]

Age 67, retired in 2009 after 35 years in law enforcement, last 5 years spent with a federal agency tracking down and arresting violent fugitives.


Divorced, I'm a conservative, my favorite food is rib eye steak, and I like long walks in the mountains.

[mathjak107]

i think most know my story already . but for those who don't :

i am 66 , live in queens in nyc . my dad was a pro drummer and my mom was very sickly , with huge medical costs . we were forced to live in a nyc housing project . that was a life i hated and i promised myself i would do everything possible not to raise my own family in one .

i was a pro drummer up until my mid 20's . i shifted careers in to being an hvac tech when dee jays started to replace live music in venues . .

hated it and became a climate control specialist for the malls and theaters .

moved on to selling electrical supplies and i became a motor control specialist . i retired 3-1/2 years ago .

i still teach controls 1 day a week and love it .

my wife and i love photography and have a little photography thing going on selling files and our photos .

once i retired my wife pushed me back in to trying the drums again . bad move , she gave a recovered druggie , drugs .

now i am obsessed with drumming again and she created a monster and i think she may regret what she created ha ha ha .

she gave me a shirt that says " you think i am listening to you , but i am really playing my drums in my head "

now i put hours a day in and have a famous drummer as a coach who loads me up with material to learn .

the best thing is after not playing for more than 35 years i accepted an offer to do some songs with a very well known group on their 50th anniversary tour .

so needless to say with our 6th grand child on the way life is very hectic , they all live local .

[Serious Conversation]

I'm 32. I use the boards as a sort of "office watercooler." I get bored a lot at work and chat on here.

I've seen all sorts of theories about why I post on the retirement boards, but mainly it's because it serves as a catch-all for a lot of different types of conversations. I've met several C-Ders in real life and have added a handful to my Facebook. My life is nowhere nearly as interesting as some people would make it out to be.

[GreenGene]

I retired at 55 after 33 years of federal service. My wife worked at the same agency, and we retired on the same day - the last day of March in 2008. The next day we were on a plane to Las Vegas.

That was more than 10 years ago. We both love retirement.

We stayed in the house we had lived in for many years in Northern Virginia (we worked in DC). Staying there was easy - knew the stores, the parks, some of the neighbors (there was a fair amount of turnover), and we were very comfortable.

A little over four years ago we moved to Maine. It had always been a dream of mine, and it became a dream for my wife as well, after several visits over the years.

We moved from fairly crowded suburbs to lots of elbow room in rural Maine, and on a lake.

And we really like it here.

The adventure continues!

[mrs.cool]

I'll be 60 on Monday. Husband is 62 1/2. We live in the countryside 15 minutes from a major college town/capitol in the midwest. We have been going to Florida for 10 years, and have finally bought a house there and are finally retiring and spending our first winter there.
Hubby has a pension and has filed for Social Security, will start collecting in January, as he's retiring following surgery on December 10. We're leaving the snowy midwest for four months following our last band gig on December 29. We'll be back the first of May for our first gig on May 5. The rest of the band is looking forward to a break as well, they played every weekend, if not twice or 3 times, for the past nine years. We'll miss it a LOT but we already have 3 gigs booked for next summer.
We may snowbird, but we are for sure selling our house next summer when we get back. If we decide we miss it too much here, we're going to look for a small house/condo on the water somewhere here to buy or rent.
We have one daughter, she lives in NYC with her attorney husband and our first grandson, 7 months old.

[Purple Tess]

I am almost 59 and have been reading this forum for years, only recently have I posted. I work as a government lawyer in the pacific NW. My job is very interesting and challenging. I have 4 grown (but not yet fully financially independent) kids in their 20s and an almost 15 year old step daughter. I look forward to retiring in approximately three years. I was not a great saver until my mid-40s when I went through a divorce and realized I'd better start saving for retirement. Luckily I did start saving then and will also have a decent pension (although not as good as it could have been since I worked in the private sector for a number of years before joining a public employer, and then worked only part time for years while my kids were growing up). Still between what I/we have saved (I got remarried 9 years ago, my hubby is 10 years younger) and my pension we will be fine in retirement as long as we are prudent.

My interests are travel, cooking, reading, yoga, running, hiking, dark "noir" type tv shows (British, Scandinavian etc.), my family, recovery/spirituality, close friendships and thrift shopping. When I retire I would also like to get back into gardening.

[GeoffD]

I'm an artificial intelligence love child of Echo and Alexa. They were real Amazons and I'm the Apple of their eye. I'm Primed to meet you, Siri-ously.

[Beach Sportsfan]

Great reading this thread.
I am 60.5 planning on retiring at 62. Originally a Chemical Engineer and then switched to teaching high school chemistry for the past 35 years.

Living with my partner in Miami Beach for the past 20 years. Love hiking, all sports, traveling and having good discussions. Have been looking at retiring in North Georgia mountains so been checking area out for past 5 years.

[joee5]

Retired little over 2 years after a 25 year LE career.
I hate NJ and wanna leave like yesterday. Just waiting on the wife is all. Few more years she says........