Anyone Else Deciding NOT to retire? (coverage, retirees, graduate, payments)
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I have been at the same job quite a while and increases pile up to the point where I am well above industry norm. Calls from recruiters are really short. I am polite and ask them to keep me on their list as I can never be sure what tomorrow will bring, but it has been years since I have seen any listing anywhere close to what I am getting. The writing is on the wall, though. The gravy train is likely to pull into the station within a few years. In an odd way, it will be something of a relief if the timing is right. I am tied to this location as long as I have this job. It would force us to start taking concrete measures to adjust spending toward if not to a level that retirement income can support. If this job ends in 3 years, the timing would be right to look for a job in the location we want to retire to (assuming we can agree where that is).
Exactly, and that is the thrust of most every retirement conversation today, for "successful professionals". The most common answer, especially from the coworkers in my group that ar financially secure and we all think it would be a no brainer to retire, is "You will know when you get there".
Another common comment is that once you don't HAVE to work, and can leave anytime, there is an attitude change. Even now at 58, most mornings I am looking forward to the day at work. More than I used to. And a lot of it most definitely has to do with getting paid well. When I was in college, I never thought I would be making what I make. In fact, in retrospect I set my expectations way too low and conservative.
Every year I work past 60 through 66 will increase my pension from between $4k to almost $5k a year, and my savings roughly $80k per, in addition to another year of not withdrawing from retirement funds, to delay SS. It is very difficult to walk away from that when you spent so much of your life saving and working towards that end, and grew up with very little. I completely realize that is a non problem, and am grateful and appreciate my situation.
In a way, I wish the company would offer another early retirement package like they did 5 years ago. 2 weeks pay for every year of service, (paid monthly as salary) plus a severance, plus medical for a year, with 2 years added to your age and service for pension calculations. But SO many people took it, we ended up hiring a ton of them back as double dipping contractors after a year, I doubt they would ever do that again!
Last edited by Perryinva; 08-19-2015 at 09:47 AM..
Congratulations! But please keep it all in perspective,
After age 60, you won't have that many good years left. Only you know at what ages your parents and grandparents began to decline. Don't trade time for money...you'll never win that one.
Remember: when your time is up, no amount of money will buy you another nano-second!
I totally agree, but if the alternative is having a sub-par ertirement, sitting at home being bored, I think working is the best situation for me. Being involved, active, able to work a 10 minute walk from my office, two blocks from the YMCA to workout, catching a movie after work, etc. And having the income stream coming in. Works for me!
I'm not willing to go so far as to say "After age 60, you won't have that many good years left."
But, once I can afford the kind of retirement I want, I don't plan on working after that just to have more money. Personally, I want as many years in retirement as I can have, and feel no need and have no desire -- to work beyond that. I've got plenty of interests, and things and places to go and do, to keep busy -- when I want to keep busy.
But if others want to work until 75 or even longer.....good for them! But given that G-d forbid, anything could happen to us at any time, I just have no interest in perhaps not even getting to have any active and enjoyable retirement years. And let's face it -- the longer one works the more likely that is.
Me, I'm only working now -- to get me TO a retirement I can afford, which for me should be 65. After that....see ya!
In a way, I wish the company would offer another early retirement package
Yes, I have been wishing to get an offer for an early retirement package in the last few years!
I do not consider myself 'greedy' but it is hard to walk away from a job with good pay and good benefits which I still enjoy doing for many reasons (intellectual challenges, opportunities to apply my scientific training, well-practiced engineering skills, great teamwork/knowledge transfer, mentoring opportunities etc).
Subconsciously, I have been kind of of preparing myself for retirement by embracing many activities outside of work. Having enjoyed doing those non-work related activities more and more with time, I am certain that mentally, emotionally and intellectually, I can make a smooth transition to retirement. I have also checked the financial numbers. All the financial calculators which I have used all tell us that we have more than enough to retire.
Yet, it was still difficult for me to find a solid good reason to walk away from work. Last year, when my husband hurt his back then knee and was on crutches for 6 months, I started to think really seriously about retirement. I want to retire when we are both still healthy, capable of doing fun things like flying and travelling together. We started our relocation research, did two relocation scouting trips last year and even made an offer to buy a house in the Olympic Peninsula.
The house deal did not go through. I also felt a bit stressed in thinking of all the things that we have to do to relocate (fixing up the house, putting it up for sale, starting the downsizing process, getting rid of unused, bulky items, deciding what to keep, what to move, whether to buy or rent, how to move etc. So we are taking it easy and decided just to start with fixing up the house while I am still working. I figure it is better for me to use my salary to hire someone to do the work than quitting my job to do some of the work myself. My current plan is to put up the house for sale next spring and I will retire and relocate when it is sold.
If I get an offer for a retirement package, I will use the money to pay for all the house repairs, updates and retire right away. We can certainly pay for the work with our saving without a retirement package. However, having been a frugal person, a saver all my life, it is difficult for me to think of spending while not earning. The way things go at my workplace, it is extremely unlikely that the company will offer an early retirement package so the earliest that I plan to retire is sometimes next year.
I have that exact same mindset. Glad I'm not the only one. DW would like me to retire from full time work ASAP, and transition in to part time, so we can travel more. I think she fails to realize the real possible cost of late in life health issues, and since I'm a better safe than sorry person, it's pretty hard to save too much, IMHO. Minimum full time for me is 62, AFAIAC. I'll see how things are when I get there in 4 years.
My plan is to work two more years until age 62 which will increase my pension an extra $10K per year. While I am in decent financial shape and could retire now, unexpected house repairs last year gave me a scare. If I had been retired, the repairs would have depleted half of my travel/fun money bucket and I do not find this acceptable. I don't want to skimp in retirement so I decided to stay and build up my pension and retirement accounts to a more comfortable level.
I don't look forward to work but don't dread it. It's a good job with interesting projects, intelligent and knowledgeable co-workers, and some opportunities to travel which are enjoyable in small doses. But it can be stressful and does not leave me much extra time for other activities. Once I've completed a couple of current projects, my plan is to approach my supervisor about working part-time the next two years. There is currently a big push at work to improve employee quality of life so we'll see how responsive management is to my proposal.
Wow, $10k a year increase in your pension!! That's amazing. Who wouldn't work for 2 years for an extra $20k income for life! NICE! I too, could "make" age 60 work, but I'm of the mindset that it would be significantly more work and worry, and denial over the rest of my life, than 2 more years of full time and 2 years of part time would take. My work already has many people in even less critical positions than mine working part time, so for me, it's a no brainer. It also allows me to "test" retirement while not committing to it all at once. Haven't talked to one person yet that went the part time route here that doesn't love it and has found zero downside to it.
Last edited by Perryinva; 08-19-2015 at 02:27 PM..
Did not mean to mislead but working 2 more years will increase pension $10K/year is what I wrote (or intended to write). And it has to be 2 years because the multiplier increases at age 62. I can't work one extra year and get an extra $5K/year.
We have never had anyone work part-time in my division but the government regulations allow you to take up to 50% time off on "leave without pay" for up to two years but maintain your base salary and years of service for pension purposes (so it would not affect my high three salary or years of service for calculating pension). I will give it a try. Most of my co-workers provide the sole or main financial support for their families so have little interest in part-time work. I'm single with no kids and have paid off my mortgage and would not have a problem living on a reduced salary. I would have to cut back some on funding my retirement accounts but could handle that.
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