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I have been retired for 3 years.. I retired at 55.... I will be working again after my wife retires next year for a short time to get more SS points before I reach 66... So that will be the only time I work... and she will work a bit while I work and then we are both "retired"....
I'm 69 and work for an international bank in IT. I'm still going strong -- because I reinvented myself for the third or fourth time in my life at the age of 60 following a layoff. The bank is planning project management training for me next year, because they'd like to move me into that sort of a role after I'm done with my current projects. For those who are older and looking to stay in the job market: you need to be flexible, figure out what skills the job market wants, and acquire them. If you're tired of working or have no skills that can compete against the 25 year olds in your field or are unwilling to learn anything new (as has been the case with some fellow oldsters I've known who were laid off), well, that's a different matter.
As for my situation, I'm not sure whether I want to transition to my next career in 2017 or 2018 -- I'll be building my part-time private counseling practice (my non-computer career) over the next year, and that will supplement my social security along with a web design project here and there. The rest of the time, I'll pursue hobbies that I find rewarding but are not expensive. The sort of retirement that involves fishing or playing golf doesn't appeal to me. I view retirement as another career, and I have to be doing something that has meaning and significance to me. "No work, no responsibilities" as a bumper sticker I saw read isn't for me.
Sorry, but I've watched way too many of my contemporaries count the days on the calendar until they could "retire"; ie, not go to work to the job they hated/despised and were only putting time in to capture the retirement vesting and SS cash flow. Their dreams of fishing/golfing/tennis/loafing around/travel/much leisure time simply didn't keep them active or engaged with a sense of purpose any longer. With the exception of only a few, most of them didn't last very long in retirement before succumbing to serious debilitating illnesses which wiped them out. The worst of this was seeing the guys that were buried in their mid-to-late 50's, especially the ones that had built up sufficient wealth that they could live on the investment cash flow.
Yikes! I wonder if this is because they despised what they were doing so much that it caused other mental/physical health problems to fester.
If they had been happier (or at least not miserable) at their work, but had worked hard and saved their money, and just decided they were ready for a change to have more control/flexibility over their time, I wonder if the outcome would have been different.
Of if they had done something that they liked better part-time (at least in the early phase of their retirement) to give them a sense of challenge/accomplishment, while still giving them more freedom over their time, would that have made a difference?
To me, the idea of retirement means that you could not work and still be able to pay your bills and live a decent life without depending on traditional full-time, sometimes full-stress employment. Maybe you'd work, maybe you wouldn't, maybe you'd do something on your own, maybe you'd take a year off and then decide to switch gears again.
My husband retires next year at 50. He has had two job offers for when he retires and he seems interested in both...... so he may keep working. He doesn't need to and I would like to see him just relax, but support whatever he decides.
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I'm close to retirement now and plan to still work. My dad continued working long after he retired, until suffering a debilitating stroke. That obviously forced him to retire for good.
I'm a bit of a workaholic. Even after I retire, I plan to keep working 'til the Man Upstairs calls.
I'm 69 and work for an international bank in IT. I'm still going strong -- because I reinvented myself for the third or fourth time in my life at the age of 60 following a layoff. The bank is planning project management training for me next year, because they'd like to move me into that sort of a role after I'm done with my current projects. For those who are older and looking to stay in the job market: you need to be flexible, figure out what skills the job market wants, and acquire them. If you're tired of working or have no skills that can compete against the 25 year olds in your field or are unwilling to learn anything new (as has been the case with some fellow oldsters I've known who were laid off), well, that's a different matter.
As for my situation, I'm not sure whether I want to transition to my next career in 2017 or 2018 -- I'll be building my part-time private counseling practice (my non-computer career) over the next year, and that will supplement my social security along with a web design project here and there. The rest of the time, I'll pursue hobbies that I find rewarding but are not expensive. The sort of retirement that involves fishing or playing golf doesn't appeal to me. I view retirement as another career, and I have to be doing something that has meaning and significance to me. "No work, no responsibilities" as a bumper sticker I saw read isn't for me.
BRAVO!!!
I know a fellow software developer for the past 10 years or so, I've been telling him that he needs to learn other software skills. Not just the ones required by his employer. He always agreed with me, but showed zero interest or progress in doing any of it. About 18 months before his planned retirement, his employer decided to have a layoff of a few people and he was one of them. He called me up and told me how upset he was about this. He complained that at his age, and not knowing the skills that were in demand he felt he got screwed over. I just listened. He and his wife decided to greatly reduce their expenses and lived off of savings until they can start Social Security. If he had keep up his skills that were marketable he likely wouldn't have gotten downsized because the work continued without him. Or he would have been able to get another job showing he was current and if he kept up with networking he might have even seen the whole thing coming to get out of there before he was caught by surprise. It is guys like this, who complain about ageism and all that, and how unfair things are, well all the time he refused to do a single thing to help himself.
I am"retired" and can not stand to be sitting around. I work a no stress night job at a seasonal hotel. About a month after the season ends I am really bored and can not wait for next spring.
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