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No need to get offended just because the description given by the poster you were responding to didn't fit you personally. It did fit large numbers of people.
Do you realize how arrogant it is for you to define so narrowly what gives meaning to other people's lives? How can you rule out work giving meaning to someone's life? I certainly do not rule out that the extensive travelling which you described can give meaning to your life. Good for you and equally, good for the poster to whom you responded so sneeringly.
Here are just a few quick examples of work which it is easy for me to imagine giving meaning to people's lives:
1. Playing professionally in a symphony orchestra (creation of transcendent beauty)
2. Healing of others and the relief of pain (doctors and dentists)
3. Inspiring and giving a helping hand to young people (teachers)
4. Advancing the frontiers of human knowledge (research scientists)
5. Creating things with your own hands, durable things such as buildings that you can look upon with satisfaction for years to come (carpenters, ironworkers, electricians, etc.)
I didn't spend any time to speak of on the above list, which certainly can be expanded.
Speaking of BS, pot meet kettle.
Sorry you did not like my reply, I did so in kind and my prerogative.
Being a meaningless retiree at the early bird special is not my idea of fun. You become completely invisible as a 60 year old man roaming around on work days and slowly you lose touch. My mother in law is same age as board members in my company and she does not use a smart phone, no clue what netflix is or twitter etc. She is caught in a style or music and fashion of 30 years ago.
I have absolutely no desire to retire. I enjoy work,
Being a meaningless retiree at the early bird special is not my idea of fun. You become completely invisible as a 60 year old man roaming around on work days and slowly you lose touch. My mother in law is same age as board members in my company and she does not use a smart phone, no clue what netflix is or twitter etc. She is caught in a style or music and fashion of 30 years ago.
Meanwhile the board members, stay hip and connected and deal with younger folk all the time and feel meaningful.
They dont do it for the money. They do it as it feels great.
Good for you that you enjoy your work. People retire early to enjoy their new work whatever it is, that doesn't necessarily meet your negative idea of being a meaningless retiree. What if things change so much as a result of some unexpected merger or buyout that kicks out the old board members and brings in new even more hip board members that make things so bad you hate work and have the desire to retire to do what you want? In that case you wouldn't be a meaningless retiree, you'd be a happy retiree.
I have absolutely no desire to retire. I enjoy work,
Being a meaningless retiree at the early bird special is not my idea of fun. You become completely invisible as a 60 year old man roaming around on work days and slowly you lose touch. My mother in law is same age as board members in my company and she does not use a smart phone, no clue what netflix is or twitter etc. She is caught in a style or music and fashion of 30 years ago.
Meanwhile the board members, stay hip and connected and deal with younger folk all the time and feel meaningful.
They dont do it for the money. They do it as it feels great.
I am happy you are so fulfilled working your job....so HAVE to wonder WHAT THE HELL you are doing browsing a retirement forum????!?!?!?!
SOMETHING brought you here.....
Keep on keeping on if you are fulfilled and not intending to leave the work force, and more power to you!
I am in education. There are no advancement opportunities for a 52 year old. I hold two advanced degrees and am not interested in taking additional courses at my own expense to make a lateral move to another subject area. The federal involvement in education has led to a highly scripted, test-driven environment that limits individual creativity. Additionally, my schedule is inflexible often requiring a wait as long as 5 hrs to use the bathroom. After years of "holding it" this schedule has made me prone to kidney stones and diverticulitis attacks. I do not plan to check out of work but plan to ramp up my part-time self employment which is currently very limited by the inflexible schedule of my current job. My dilemma is more of whether to start drawing a reduced pension that I am eligible for at 55 or forgo 5 yrs of collecting a reduced amount and delaying collecting until age 60. If I delay collecting the recoup of lost money I was eligible to collect is approximately 14 years which means the benefit of the delay would kick in starting at age 74. Staying until age 60 under the described circumstances would most likely further aggravate my health issues which are managible with a healthier schedule allowing water, exercise and bathroom breaks throughout the day.
That's the way I think of it too, Sandy Jet. Bearsdad's story about his former colleagues illustrates the folly of getting stars in our eyes about the possibility of "retiring" and then pulling the plug too early, which represents the triumph of wishful thinking over rational analysis.
I have no quarrel with those who retire at 55 and are financially ready to do so, or even with those who think they are going to crack under the strain and stress and do so knowingly - knowing that they will have a financial struggle but prefer that to life in a psych ward.
'Psych ward' there you go
I hated my job, I only stayed with it as long as I did because there was a pension. I was glad their policies forced me out onto pension.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SandyJet
I have absolutely no desire to retire. I enjoy work,
Being a meaningless retiree at the early bird special is not my idea of fun. You become completely invisible as a 60 year old man roaming around on work days and slowly you lose touch. My mother in law is same age as board members in my company and she does not use a smart phone, no clue what netflix is or twitter etc. She is caught in a style or music and fashion of 30 years ago.
Meanwhile the board members, stay hip and connected and deal with younger folk all the time and feel meaningful.
They dont do it for the money. They do it as it feels great.
My life has been the other way around.
Retiring at 42 allowed me to start doing things I wanted to do. I am not killing people for a living anymore. I got to become included in my family. Our eldest was 16 when I retired. I was not there to see most of his childhood, but I got to be the one to teach him to drive. The same with our younger children.
When we were courting we decided that one day we wanted to be able to leave urban life, and live out in the country. I took a break from my career once and we tried it, but it is hard to earn a living. So I went back to my career to get the pension. I hated every year of it, but it paid well and that is what I was good at doing.
After I retired we bought a large parcel in a forest alongside a river. I built a house and now I am an organic farmer. I am active in church, VFW, Shriners and Grange. I serve on the board of our Cooperative Extension Office and our regional Organic Certifying agency.
This [retirement] is my chance to play and have fun. My DW still enjoys travel [I got tired of travel when I was working], so next month she goes to Norway for 2 weeks.
I have absolutely no desire to retire. I enjoy work,
Being a meaningless retiree at the early bird special is not my idea of fun. You become completely invisible as a 60 year old man roaming around on work days and slowly you lose touch. My mother in law is same age as board members in my company and she does not use a smart phone, no clue what netflix is or twitter etc. She is caught in a style or music and fashion of 30 years ago.
Meanwhile the board members, stay hip and connected and deal with younger folk all the time and feel meaningful.
They dont do it for the money. They do it as it feels great.
While I was reading this post all I could think of was that he could not afford to retire and has to rationalize that he has to work and he might as well say he enjoys it.
I have been retired now for 14 years and I'm more connected, up to date on current events, and know what is going on in the world then I ever did when I was working. The difference is that I decide what I'm doing now and when I was working some one else told me what to do.
While I was reading this post all I could think of was that he could not afford to retire and has to rationalize that he has to work and he might as well say he enjoys it.
I have been retired now for 14 years and I'm more connected, up to date on current events, and know what is going on in the world then I ever did when I was working. The difference is that I decide what I'm doing now and when I was working some one else told me what to do.
If I were the poster to whom you responded above, I would be insulted, because you just called him or her a liar. What is going on here? Is it that you cannot conceive of someone liking and enjoying his or her job, so you accuse them of lying about it? That is beyond outrageous.
The poster stated that he or she enjoys working. There is no reason at all to disbelieve that. Lots of people enjoy working. Lots of people enjoy their jobs.
It doesn't matter how connected and up to date you are because that is simply irrelevant to the insulting accusation you made.
I am in education. There are no advancement opportunities for a 52 year old. I hold two advanced degrees and am not interested in taking additional courses at my own expense to make a lateral move to another subject area. The federal involvement in education has led to a highly scripted, test-driven environment that limits individual creativity. Additionally, my schedule is inflexible often requiring a wait as long as 5 hrs to use the bathroom. After years of "holding it" this schedule has made me prone to kidney stones and diverticulitis attacks. I do not plan to check out of work but plan to ramp up my part-time self employment which is currently very limited by the inflexible schedule of my current job. My dilemma is more of whether to start drawing a reduced pension that I am eligible for at 55 or forgo 5 yrs of collecting a reduced amount and delaying collecting until age 60. If I delay collecting the recoup of lost money I was eligible to collect is approximately 14 years which means the benefit of the delay would kick in starting at age 74. Staying until age 60 under the described circumstances would most likely further aggravate my health issues which are managible with a healthier schedule allowing water, exercise and bathroom breaks throughout the day.
I say leave. I know exactly the conditions you are talking of.
Could you possibly switch to part time ? Maybe become an intervention teacher or instructional coach ..a position not necessarily requiring full time presence in a classroom.
Hey..if you have to go..do it in between classes. Lock the door and let the kids line up in the hall. That you can do in middle and high school.
How many people have opted to take early retirement at 55 and forgo a more beneficial pension? I am contemplating retiring at 55 and have saved well and have a part-time job that I plan to make full-time when I retire from my current job. However, almost everyone I know thinks that it would be unwise and that I should play it safe and stick it out for another 5 years since my pension will be almost double. For those of you who have voluntarily taken the leap, would you do it again if you were given a do-over?
I had a friend who took the pay-out from his telephone company job instead of the pension.
At first it was great. There was a lot of money.
Then his health started giving him problems - and costing money.
Then the stock market tanked.
Then real estate.
Then his irresponsible daughter dumped a child on them.
Now, he is 75 years old and works as a jailer.
He wishes he had taken the pension instead of the pay-out. But it seemed like so much money!
I have another friend who once was a millionaire. Armstrong company. Back in 1999.
But he never sold the stock.
Armstrong went bankrupt. When it emerged in 2006 my friend lost all his equity, just like GM stockholders did.
If I were the poster to whom you responded above, I would be insulted, because you just called him or her a liar. What is going on here? Is it that you cannot conceive of someone liking and enjoying his or her job, so you accuse them of lying about it? That is beyond outrageous.
The poster stated that he or she enjoys working. There is no reason at all to disbelieve that. Lots of people enjoy working. Lots of people enjoy their jobs.
It doesn't matter how connected and up to date you are because that is simply irrelevant to the insulting accusation you made.
The poster you are defending made the first outrageous insult that early retirees at 55 were quitters with meaningless lives. The poster you are directing your strong words to is absolutely right that as a retiree he has a meaningful connected up to date life and that is an on point response to the insulting accusation that was first made.
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