61yr old Industrial electrician forced into retirement due to injury

[MrBig1]

Greetings all,
New at this every day is Saturday thing. Getting settled in and having to develop a new strategy for living in retirement. I was planning to work until full retirement age to give my portfolio more time to grow and I really liked my job. I just want to check you guys out and perhaps ask a few questions from time to time. I'm not in bad shape but it can always get better.

 

[street]

Welcome! Sorry to hear that injury has taken you from your lively hood. The one positive thing is you aren't far from getting SS if you need that boost in retirement.

A lot of great people here with a lot of the answers, just fire away.

 

[Hermit]

Greetings to you! Sorry to hear about your j*b situation. It wouldn't hurt to read the http://www.early-retirement.org/for...-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html article which is in the FAQs. Fire away with questions you may have on SS, Medical Insurance, or any other areas of concern. There is also a lot of info on the forums that you can find with a little searching.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Welcome to the forum! Sorry about the injury. It's truly to my mind the best retirement forum. boggleheads.org is good too for purely financial questions/discussions. But this one has a nice mix of life the universe and everything.

 

[Brat]

Welcome MrBig1. I wouldn't write off my employment opportunities just yet. What you can offer an employer is your wisdom and experience, work with an engineering firm. Whether or not you want to go that route is another matter entirely.

 

[MrBig1]

Appreciate the welcome. I've been investing only about 20 years, I started late in life. I have a plan to downsize my life and start living. Being tied to an employer severely limits the living portion. I'll ask questions if I need help and can't find information by searching the forum. I also live by the adage "Free Advise Is Worth What You Pay For It". All information learned must be carefully researched and understood. I promise I'll do my best not to waste your time.

 

[Brat]

... I promise I'll do my best not to waste your time.

There is no such thing as a dumb question and remember many/most of us are retired so the expenditure of our time is no waste.

 

[VanWinkle]

Welcome MrBig

 

[davebarnes]

Can you work as a residential electrician?

 

[flintnational]

Welcome MrBig1. I wouldn't write off my employment opportunities just yet. What you can offer an employer is your wisdom and experience, work with an engineering firm. Whether or not you want to go that route is another matter entirely.

+1 Another option, if you are interested and can do it, would be instructing at a vocational tech school. Your knowledge is valuable. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Walt34]

+1 Another option, if you are interested and can do it, would be instructing at a vocational tech school. Your knowledge is valuable. Welcome to the forum.

You beat me to it. The tech school near here has a (I hear) great certificate/AA degree program for electricians, including a class for power company linemen.

My father was an electrician and although he worked for the power company inside, on weekends he'd do side jobs for what he called "beer money". The first dollar I ever earned was for pulling cable.

 

[VFK57]

Welcome MrBig1. I also retired from HVAC tech job due to combination of major injury earlier and osteoarthritis at age 55. Management of a company I worked for created conditions for that too. First I wanted to find a sedentary job in related field but being 55+ is not easy to do so. During my almost 35 years carrier I met only twice HVAC technicians who were working at 60 and planned to retire that year. Both were working for Union with pension payments at that age. Enjoy your retirement.

 

[mistermike40]

Welcome, and sorry to hear about your injury. If you're looking for retirement information from friendly and knowledgeable people you've come to the right place! I know I've learned a lot reading these forums.

 

[gayl]

If you are medically unable to work does SSDI help out as you are not SSA eligible yet?