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I retired 3 months ago. The day I retired I went to a local temp agency and took the administrative tests (I was surprised they do more temp work for factory and manual labor). I told them I was looking for part time temp work. So far I've been called a few times for 40 hour a week jobs lasting 4 to 6 months. I turned them down.
I may not be able to do that in the future but its only been 3 months and I'm still enjoying doing nothing.
Turns out the few administrative jobs they get in are really an employer looking to hire someone full-time and they are just using this to check them out first. I haven't been called in awhile, the woman told me they don't get fill in temp jobs like that.
I wanted part-time, preferable not for too long, serially. I wanted to be able to take time off when I want, no expectations, not really knowing anyone or getting into office relationships, drama.
Now that that hasn't worked out I'm not sure what to do next. If I'm very careful I can live on my pensions. But I just went to FL for a week and that was very expensive and has to come out of funds. I would like to make that money up and then save for the next vacation.
My personality is such that I simply cannot vegetate and "smell the flowers", although that's what I happily did at first for a few months to de-stress and relax. I need something more, as the traveling, reading, etc. didn't fill the bill. But the "something more" I was looking for was much less than full-time work, otherwise I wouldn't have retired from full-time work when I did, at age 61.5.
I was fortunate to segue smoothly into occasional paid projects which I found both challenging and meaningful - envelope licking would have driven me crazy. I gave up those projects when I tired of them and found volunteer work that I love. In the past two years I have refused three one-day-a-week=for-a-few-hours paid jobs because I enjoy my volunteer work (three days a week) so much.
It's good to have choices, and it's good if retirement was voluntary (meaning money is not a consideration any more).
I just spent my morning mapping out my long-planned writing projects and investigating some writer's groups and workshops. I have kept a blog for about 8 years and incorporated my love for writing, photography, history, motorcycling, and the natural world into that effort. I want to expand those interests in a number of ways. There might be a little money in there somewhere, don't know. It's not the driving force behind any of it though.
On top of all this I have other interests such as seasonal flower and garden center delivery and maintaining an Ebay store selling collectibles and antiques. These are passions of mine and can bring in a little extra money and get me out and about, interacting with others and having my type of fun.
I have so many varied interests and some are just passions and some could bring in a little income. All are enjoyable to me and on top of all that I see no way for me to ever be bored or ''missing'' a waged job working for another. Pfewey on that! So I guess I've got my ''retired future'' figured out for now. I love hearing what others have figured out and done.
you know what , my buddy worked for nyc ems . he counted the minutes until he coud get his pension .
well he retired early and now takes one low level crappy job after another .
while before he had a good job ,with good pay and benefits and basically off the performance radar at this point . now he has the worst days and hours under the microscope of some grunt supervisor .
now he realizes be careful what you wish for . he had job stresses before and now he has even worse ones but with less compensation for it .
A very good point. This is why I doubt I will "pull the plug" on my real job next year when I turn 60. I do have the option to go to 3 X 8 hour days, per week, if I want to take more time off. The main reason is that I like what I do, am reasonably good at it, beyond that, I have a Russian language tutor here, would be awkward if I was not a regular badged employee like I am now.
At the same time I can see how EMS would be quite stressful, although, if I were doing a job like that and considered myself better than average at doing it, I think I could rationalize that if I do the best I can, that's better than they have a right to expect, so if a patient has a bad outcome, it aint' my fault.
life is tight retiring on only a partial pension for them . i forgot what percentage he got .
but folks forget while they have stress at work now , they can have different stresses on a low level job as everything they do is watched and monitored . now they still are stressed and getting a lot less for the trouble .
I've always figured those seemingly low level jobs "anyone can do" would be way more stressful in retirement- so to say I'd get one someday might be pushing it.
Do I want to be an engineer who can come and go when I want and gets paid pretty well, or an older guy being bossed around by some 24 year old kid, who gets chewed out for coming in 5 minutes late and has no freedom?
I've always figured those seemingly low level jobs "anyone can do" would be way more stressful in retirement- so to say I'd get one someday might be pushing it.
Do I want to be an engineer who can come and go when I want and gets paid pretty well, or an older guy being bossed around by some 24 year old kid, who gets chewed out for coming in 5 minutes late and has no freedom?
yep , that is why i do consulting work in retirement . i work when i want and as much as i want . i have no schedule really .
if we made the move to where our 2nd home was in the pocono's and i wanted to work i would be cleaning up spills in aisle 3 for low wages.
basically i put in a few hours a month and it covers my health insurance every month pre medicare
I'm 68 and I'll never fully retire because I enjoy doing what I do and I like working.
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