Why did you retire? (retired, gift, years, payments)

[tommy64]

Why did I retire? That's one of my favorite topics. I've actually 'retired' a few times.

I quit auto repair @ age 35 because I got tired of working with butt-kissers and shop owners who thought I was too stupid to know when I was being scammed. To get away from all that, I became an over-the-road trucker.

OTR trucking was great - I've never been lazy or incompetent, I just have little patience for non-sense. Being alone in a truck 1,000 miles from home is about as far away as you can get from people looking over your shoulder. After 10-12 years of that (300 days per year on the road) I 'retired'. At the time I thought it was for good. I'd been living cheap and investing every scrap of change I could into stock market & real estate investments and pretty much had the finances covered. But after a year I got bored. 48 years of age is pretty young to be sitting around all day, though I had some car projects and even some regular customers for auto repair going on.

So I went back to trucking, except I did local grocery store work rather than OTR.

It was a great PT job, 20hr per week with full Teamster's bennies. I'd still be doing it but I kept getting kicked out of stores because I didn't take well to some store employees who tried to order me around like they were my boss. There were some confrontations and hurt feelings. And there were politics and trash talking going on with co-workers at my own terminal, it was like a third grade playground sometimes. Three years was all I could handle, and the warehouse was closing due to new ownership so I bounced back home.

Now I'm 57, and still bored to death but know better than to go back to work, cuz it ain't gonna last and I don't want to quit in six months when my nerves get raw again.

I love OTR trucking, but my only option is to buy my own truck and hauling authority (I'll need at last 80K to start a carrier) or stay home. Companies have gotten too intrusive with spy-cams and ridiculous rules (to keep the desk jockeys busy, mostly) for me to be a happy employee. But even if I'm my own boss I still have bad weather, chippy DOT officers, grouchy warehouse clerks and irritating traffic.

Maybe this time I'll just stay home for good.

[Garthur]

I worked 30 years for the same company and then retired at age 47. There's no one reason I retired, except that I had the money and the pension so financially I was fine.

[Clemencia53]

I was in the Air Force and felt that I could not be 100% when deployed - might even be a hindrance since i was "old" - lol

Did a couple of them and in one had a hard time going over a concrete barrier to get to the hardened shelter - and didn't want anyone to want to help me and then get hurt. Due to my inability to do it by myself.

[katharsis]

I retired because I wanted to decide what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it.

IF I had a job that would allow me to come in just whenever I felt like it, I might consider returning to the workforce.

On second thought, nah, not even then.

Btw, referring to COVID, I would have continued to work for three more months (until June 2020 vs. March 2020), but as a senior, the wages I made at my part-time retail job did not, I thought then, warrant the chance I was taking as a senior working with the public. However, if I had known then what I know now (that my risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID was very small), I probably would have continued to work until we moved out of state.

[MTSilvertip]

At 57 I was in a high paid position, was known internationally in my work, and the new bosses that came in treated everyone that knew more than they did like crap.

I was just counting the days until my 60th birthday, but then I got the opportunity to buy a small ranch. I gave them my notice the day my land offer was accepted. I was 2 1/2 years from pension, but the hostile culture of the place would have probably killed me by then.

I walked out that door and never looked back. I took a part time job as curator of a small local museum, I help a couple small businesses in the area from time to time, but mostly I enjoy being retired and having the choice to do what pleases me.

For the OP, the main reason businesses lose employees is poor management. People will happily do a crappy job if they feel they're valuable, but no matter how good a job is, a crappy boss makes it pure he'll to go to work.
Money is nice, vacation doesn't count if you can never take the time.

I was good at my job. Awards, bonuses, etc. I walked away without hesitation simply because of poor management.

[BOBNCHI]

Spent about 27 years in public safety and in 2010 they made me a offer I couldn't refuse. After the 08-09 recession they offered buyouts to senior employees. It was a great package and, as I had my ducks in a row and was close to retirement anyway, I happily accepted. Zero regrets.

[davebarnes]

"Why did you retire?"
Well, at age 70, our retirement funds went from FI to FU thanks to my parents dying and leaving some money.
Called my largest customer (of 20 years) and fired them.
Went to México the next day for vacation.

[fluffythewondercat]

I'd worked from home for the last 15 years. I didn't want to retire as much as I wanted to move somewhere else, as our house was packed to the gills with hoarded junk the spouse picked up wherever he went. By 2014 I came to realize fully that that was never going to change and the only way I could have a clean livable house would be to move to a less expensive state (Arizona) and buy one. We had about a million lying around from the sale of his East Bay house, the one I had spent years of my life fixing up with help from a handyman.

Then the spouse was asked to leave his company, so that was retirement. We moved to the Scottsdale house and he took over the casita, which was about 900 sq ft of offices with a Murphy bed. Spent his days watching YouTube videos. There are many marvelous things to see and do in the Phoenix metro. We did none of them. So I went back to work, you could say. I intend to fully un-retire soon and not only sell jewelry online but write for a living. I've learned a lot from C-D and I think I can put together a compelling personal website. I've done it before.

[PAhippo]

After 30+ years in the same profession, I had maybe 5 people say thanks or show any kind of respect or appreciation.


Was used as a scapegoat by both nurses and doctors. My bosses usually sided with them.




Got sick of having to get to work in any and all weather.

Got sick of listening to patients whine about their doctor.
Got sick of the government trying to tell me how to do my job.
Got sick of waking up in the middle of the night wondering what I did wrong.





Bottom line: I retired to save my sanity.

[BalloonLady]

How about semi retire? We enjoy working and will do it, part time seasonally, forever...

Our home is the reason we can semi retire at ages 62.5 and 55 (We will be downsized in our 2nd home in 1.5 yrs when he takes SS at age 62. $1100 a month or $1300 a month before part b deduction @65)

1. Income Producing- continue to rent out the old barn on the property near county road. Later rent 2-3 other spaces on the property for RV'ers
2. Abundance of COLD Artesian springs= free house water (no water bill) free pond water to raise trout, free water under the springhouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_house &- 5k sprinker system instead of a $200 a mo. homeowners insurance that comes into play only due to wildfires. Very rare if it is utilized for anything else
3. Grow some of our own food in the greenhouse with the artesian spring providing gold fish water. Aquaponics.
4. Goats, chickens, a dog as pets. Dogfood is mostly free due to homemade trout dog food.
5. Local Library offers free Kanopy. No more Netflix or amazon prime
6. Longer drive for work part of the year YET a nicer drive.
7. Small SS check of $1100 (or about $1300 before part b) at 62 but enough to get by.investments will = 50-75% of our income. Expect 7% return on S&P500. if it's more, better yet. If not, we can survive on $1100 SS check some years if stocks plummet. +
8. The home itself, income producing, low maintanence, and low cost, fixed monthly bills >-150 transportation (DMV fees, insurance, tires & gas) & $200 prop tax, $150 security system, phone, & internet. Leaves $600 mo. for food, clothes, entertainment.
9. A solid bible church 45 min away. EBIKE riding to church and home 2x a week. Trails, Rivers, State Recreation area surrounds us.
10. Less SMOG and pollution at $2500 feet. Far from the cities. CLEAN water.
11. Very few Cops. This should be #1. No we do nothing illegal but getting framed is too common nowadays