Did any of you retire when the next day at work did not sound fun?

[freebird5825]

The "pain" happened to me in 1997 when a reorganization placed me in a group that clearly did not like "outsiders". I had enjoyed the j*b from the day I hired on in 1988.
I stuck it out until 2007, a very long 10 years. I kept my eye on the ball at all times.
I used that time to save a very good portion of my salary, building and building up a TSP 401(k) and an independent retirement portfolio, concurrently.
The day I submitted my voluntary resignation letter was one of the happiest days of my life. I chose April 1st as my official separation date.

 

[scrabbler1]

Funny...for the first 15 years or so for me, when I was late for my train and see it on the platform, I'd make a dash and catch it on time without hardly breaking a sweat. In the latter years, dashing to catch that train, I'd sweat like crazy and feel like I'd keel over from a heart attack.

Guess that should have been the indicator of time to call it quits. That I just callin' in "Sorry..missed train, gonna catch the late one..."

I did not have as many mad dashes in my early years on the trains. But later on, I had more of them and I was often huffing and puffing to barely make the train. I had to climb a long staircase to get to the elevated platform, so after a sprint to get to the station that made the final leg even tougher. I was often close to vomiting (and passing out) after that sprint and climb.

 

[scrabbler1]

The day I submitted my voluntary resignation letter was one of the happiest days of my life.

Same here. I still like to view the resignation letter I saved on the PC. It was short and to the point. My favorite part was one small sentence, "I am retiring."

 

[M Paquette]

The 'next day at work did not sound fun' was a significant factor for my retirement.

I'd been doing a whole bunch of performance tuning and bug fixing for a couple of software releases of a major desktop product. This was important to do, of course, but it tends to be deadly dull, tedious work full of fiddly details. Shave 1% off the execution time of this, make sure no side effects or behavior changes are introduced; Now figure out why THAT got 1% slower...

Then The Management announced that for our next major software release, rather than work on new features, tools, or interesting security enhancements, that we would be concentrating on performance tuning and bug fixing. Oh, joy. A couple more years of doing what I had done for the past several years.

This did not sound fun. Since I had the Financial Independence part done, the Retire Early decision came fairly easily.

 

[Meadbh]

I love some parts of my job, and dread others. Of late, the dreaded parts have become more onerous as we are short staffed. I recently resigned. I am not retiring yet, however, just moving to a different job. It is natural to make a change when frustration reaches a critical point.

 

[Nords]

Then The Management announced that for our next major software release, rather than work on new features, tools, or interesting security enhancements, that we would be concentrating on performance tuning and bug fixing. Oh, joy. A couple more years of doing what I had done for the past several years.

So has it come out blazingly fast and flawless yet?

I'm just glad you weren't at Intuit...

 

[M Paquette]

So has it come out blazingly fast and flawless yet?

I'm just glad you weren't at Intuit...

Nah. They just shipped Mac OSX 10.6 instead.

Still waiting for a newer version of Quicken 200[-]6[/-]7 for Mac. The New Improved Nearly There Version 2011 can't quite manage to track cost basis or do complex stuff like capital gains/losses. Math is hard...

 

[DeborahB]

I retired about 2 years after the next day at work didn't sound like fun. Wish I could have done it sooner!

 

[Nords]

Still waiting for a newer version of Quicken 200[-]6[/-]7 for Mac. The New Improved Nearly There Version 2011 can't quite manage to track cost basis or do complex stuff like capital gains/losses. Math is hard...

My daughter's used Quicken for over six years on a PC, and she was highly pissed to discover that Intuit has no respect for Macbook users...

 

[BUM]

Work became toxic. Thankfully I saw it for what it was and bailed.

 

[MDJO]

Ah yes - Sunday nights. I, and many of my friends, have this same feeling of dread. I don't sleep well on Sunday nights (actually, I don't sleep well at all right now because of work). The only thing that keeps me going is my firecalc projections that show I could probably retire now.....and so everything that I save now is gravy. I am planning to give it 103 more weeks taking my just into January of 2013. Counting down the weeks amuses me and keeps me focused on planning what I will do in retirement.

 

[traineeinvestor]

There was no single thing which contributed to my decision to take early retirement (possibly as early as Feb 2012). It was an accumuation of mostly small things combined with a growing realisation that my career should not define my life.

One of the things was the rise of Fridayitis - the frequency of clients or colleagues giving me things to do on a Friday which are sufficiently urgent that they just have to be done on the weekend. Often they were urgent for no better reason than someone had sat on it for too long. I actually dread Fridays more than Monday.

I have better things to do on my weekends.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I used to have Sundays like that, however, now I only work 4 morning a week so the pressure of getting through a 40+ hour week is no longer there.

It has been a big change and I really don't mind going into the office. So far it has been a good way to ease into retirement. I am 58 and I will probably continue this for a about 2-3 years. I am really trying to top off my 401k and have the health benefits for couple more years. My FT benefits got carried over to this PT position.

I feel fortunate to have this flexible employment arrangement.

 

[ohyes]

Thanks for all the responses; some of you sound like you know exactly how I am feeling. I told the principal that June 2012 is my retirement date (maybe I already posted that?)

Anyway, it feels great and this big smile will not leave my face.

The part time arrangement some of you have sounds like a perfect solution for you....though i am shying away from that...not that it would be easy to work out in my situation even if i wanted to w*rk partime.

Now the forum posts will be all-the-more-interesting! ~ with a set retirement date. The personal observations and encouragement are much appreciated.

 

[Meadbh]

I told the principal that June 2012 is my retirement date

OHYES!!!

 

[KingB]

I knew it was time to RE when it became harder for me to get up from bed during weekdays but rises up early on weekends.

6 more working days till retirement! Yeah!

 

[Tractor guy]

Congratulations!!!!

For me, the trigger was the untimely death of a co-worker. He was much younger than me, in great physical shape, and one of the best people you could ever meet. He was diagnosed with melanoma just before Christmas 2008 and passed away Jan 2010. His passing, and the firestorm of unpleasant duties at work in late 2008 through 2009 caused me to start researching retirement finances. I'd been saving and investing all my life but had loved my job and had no intention of retiring so hadn't really looked at the finances. I was surprised to find that I could retire in late 2009 after I was fully vested in my pension. I waited 6 months after I decided for financial reasons. This was frustrating. The waiting period finally ended & one of the best day of my life was the one when my boss came to me and told me to start working on next year's budget & I told him: "No, I'm going to retire."

Lorne

 

[Danmar]

It started when I had trouble sleeping on Sunday nights. This was about 3 years before retirement. A very long 3 years. Once I decided on a date ( deferred a few times) it got worse. Took a long time to get over working as I was heavily invested emotionally in my career. Been 4 years now and enjoying it big time. First step is to get the money required, second step is deciding when it isn't any fun anymore. If you reverse the steps not as good.