Apparently I retired!

[gearhead]

I knew it was coming. With low oil prices all my post retirement work has dried up. The boss called yesterday. He was told to stop using contractors, including retired company contractors. That would be me. He said he hopes he has a job.
I will say I enjoyed it. I worked at the same location for 35 years. After I retired they asked me to go to Seattle, New York, Laredo Texas, to Ohio and many places between. I made significant additions to my toy collection.
But now I'm free. Hooking up the Montana for a short trip to Louisiana next week. Rock on!

[Alpine]

Congratulations for sure! We retired two and half years ago...and have been fulltime and loving it!

[Pmedic4]

I'm there in 7 weeks. I took a retirement incentive program, and have to leave by 12/31/15, so I know the feeling. I was probably facing the same status if I didn't, but the program guaranteed I wouldn't be laid-off, so here we are now.

My SO and I are already planning on heading out in January, weather permitting - of course it's to Florida. Lots of travel plans, just need to do it!

[Steve S]

I retired at 45, I had enough and had no reason to make anymore money.
My biggest problem is that I wish I had a job again as now I have way too many things to do but it's all good as it keeps me busy

[bsmith0404]

The one thing I noticed after I retired is that I don't have enough time to get everything done. I needed to go to work to relax a bit, so I started transporting RVs. Unfortunately, I'm out of work again. They kept dropping the rates to the point that I refuse to hook up to one. Now I'm officially retired again and have too much to do. Need the kids to hurry up and grow up so the DW and I can hit the road with the Alpine.

[gearhead]

Yes, when I officially retired 6 years ago, I sat on the couch for a week just catching my breath. It was a weird feeling to have the stress and fast pace lifted. We spent the first year of retirement building a new custom house. That sure kept me busy. Then the part time work for my ex-employer started. Sometimes not so part time...sometimes 80 hours a week for several weeks. With the oil prices falling, new projects were halted and the company is operating with extreme budget constraints. So now I'm retired again. I'm good with that. I've had enough. On to living my life as I want.
My then boss once said; "when you have enough, and you've had enough" you will retire. He retired a few months after me.

[JRTJH]

In 2009, the insurance companies and Medicaid/Medicare announced a new "rate cut" for payments. Several of us had a meeting to make plans on how to stay afloat with expenses and still make enough money to keep our practices open. A few days after that discussion, I was in the office seeing patients, a stethoscope in my ears listening to a heart murmur with my eyes closed, for some reason, I uttered, "Damn" and the patient asked what was wrong. I said, "Oh nothing, it's just time to retire." That was in June, we put the house in Louisiana on the market, flew to Michigan that weekend to get started on building a new house here, and in August, loaded the flatbed trailer with the last of the "stuff" and headed north. That was a "busy 60 days" to say the least !!!

When we got here, the house wasn't quite finished, so we parked the trailer off to the side and headed to town to buy a new ATV, a couple of snowmobiles and to check in at the local Hampton Inn. A week later, we moved into our new home here... The rest is "history."

I've pretty much adapted my brother-in-law's philosophy, "Do ONE chore a day, once winter gets here, things get busy watching the snow fall."

Life is good !!!

[GaryWT]

Good luck and have fun. Wish I could retire but too many bills and I don't want to wish my life away. Enjoy.

[Pmedic4]

Originally Posted by GaryWT

Good luck and have fun. Wish I could retire but too many bills and I don't want to wish my life away. Enjoy.

Always said the same thing, "Don't wish your life away!"

Somehow or other, 40 years have disappeared since I started working. Didn't wish for this day, but it's here, and I'm glad I'm still healthy.

What else could we want?

[chuckster57]

I retired from State service on Halloween 2008 after 25+ yrs. Found rather quickly that I don't deal well with having to stay indoors in inclement weather. So I went back 1/2 time for another 4 years.

An election and unexpected passage of a bill in 2012 let 30,000 inmates out of prison and laid off a large number of officers, so the DW and I were caught a bit off guard. So here I am a tech on RV's and climbing out of the hole we made. At least I can say I really like this line of work, was asked this week by the boss to be one of two techs dedicated to Newmar Motorhomes. Guess my history with Tiffin is paying off. Anyway what is it they say "if you like what your doing it isn't really work"

[gearhead]

Yeah Chuckster I enjoyed the last 6 years. Probably because I knew I could always say NO. The first 35 years...eh, they were Ok. The machinery issues were fun, some people and the bureaucracy, maybe not so much.
John, my daughter is the manager of a state certified rural health clinic. Oh what a mess we have made of that industry. And, she finishes her Masters of Public Health from University of Texas Houston Health Sciences Center in a few weeks.

[cruisegrandma]

I retired a little over a year ago on Halloween. I didn't care for it much at first (don't retire when winter is near... short days and darkness abound), but then the sun came out, we traveled to Oregon and Alaska and noticed all the campers on the roads. The rest is history. I'd be camping all the time, but alas, the DH keeps me grounded and reminds me we have family and other commitments. Enjoy that retirement.

[Desert185]

I retired for the second time October last year. It felt good, even though when I went to work it wasn't work. It was like a hobby that provided income. I just had an offer that was hard to refuse, so I'm back in the saddle again as a part-time contractor with a schedule that I control. It's a good feeling to have the benefit of both worlds.

[talk2cpu]

DW and I retrired this Sept/Oct. Packed up the Passport and headed west. Visiting relatives, friends and places we wanted to see, and finding so many place we are loving. So far 3500 miles and only made it 1400 miles from home. Finding great places and great people.

Looking forward to the next 5 months as we don't want to go home and shovel snow so will spend some time in Oregon and head south as the weather pushes us. Will go home when the ice is off the Minnesota lakes.
Tom

[roadglide]

I retired 2010 at 56 sold my house to my son that works for the same coal mine. My girl friend retired from a bank in 2014 at 60. It was entertaining watching her around the yard and she fell right into my pattern. We started rving last year .

[Tbos]

My DW and I looking forward to retirement in another 4 years or so. Enjoy.

[T3/T4 Hybrid]

Congrats on a second retirement.

After reading all of the posts it looks like the ending for retirement is never 100% completely written. As long as you are having fun in what you are doing at the moment that is the most important.

[notanlines]

I have enjoyed all the above comments. Congrat's to all who retired, and to those of you who retired to part time jobs. I'm not sure what the situation is called when you go from working 40-60 hours or more a week to working 30 hours a week, but I don't think retirement is correct. I don't want to listen to employees whining about "can't make it on time today" or customers not paying on time. I'm done, equipment is sold, employees work for other companies now and I don't give business a thought EVER!

[zuley]

As the months and weeks get closer to retirement I'm thinking everyone has a little aprehension or outright fear. I'm 55 and had given a retirement date to my boss of August 2017. I was starting to get somewhat scared; monies good but what if...
A few weeks ago the president called me into his office for a closed door sit down. He asked what I had in place for succession. Told him I didn't realize it was my responcibility to find my replacement. Apparently even though I've been at my job for 32 years I still dont know everything and it's going to take more than 21 months to train someone. I ened up hiring my oldest son and will fast track him into my job along with an offer I couldn't refuse to stay on for five more years.

[bsmith0404]

Originally Posted by zuley

As the months and weeks get closer to retirement I'm thinking everyone has a little aprehension or outright fear. I'm 55 and had given a retirement date to my boss of August 2017. I was starting to get somewhat scared; monies good but what if...
A few weeks ago the president called me into his office for a closed door sit down. He asked what I had in place for succession. Told him I didn't realize it was my responcibility to find my replacement. Apparently even though I've been at my job for 32 years I still dont know everything and it's going to take more than 21 months to train someone. I ened up hiring my oldest son and will fast track him into my job along with an offer I couldn't refuse to stay on for five more years.

Any offer is refusable when it comes to retiring I walked out the door with a promotion in hand. If I would have agreed to stay 3 more years I would have been making an extra $10k per year while working as well as an extra $1k per month in my retirement income. I saw my mom continue to push her retirement off based on more money, more money, more money. Finally she retired and is enjoying life as much as she can after 2 knee replacement surgeries. I'm 45, retired and loving it. It's also kind of cool when you fill some paperwork out that asks for occupation and you write retired