How do you train yourself to endure your last few years before retirement

[Markola]

Good to see this string surface. I posted above in January when I was at a different organization, which was tanking and still is. Also my inept manager, the CEO, had no business having direct reports. I wanted my resume to reflect at least three years on the job so, at 18 months in, I bought a little notebook and counted down months to 2016, when I'd launch an aggressive search.

It worked! I landed in a much better situation in May. What a difference a job change can make! To paraphrase someone else on the ER Forum, "What matters most for job satisfaction is the quality of one's direct supervisor." I have definitely found that to be true. So, one way to end the count down agony is find more enjoyable work.

 

[Redbugdave]

I kept a good sense of humor to get me through the last years. That helped a lot. I am a happy person by nature and it is up to you to control your feelings. Only you have control of you...not anyone else. I also volunteered to do new assignments and it helped stave off boredom and kept me occupied. If you stay busy, the time goes faster. Most important...I have kept my work life and real life totally separate from each other. I would go into work and switch on the "Work Switch". When I walked out the door to go home, I switched on the "Real Life Switch" and did not think about the job when not there. You have work friends and real friends. They really do not mix, and there is a switch for them, too. Get out and do the things you love when off from work. Don't be afraid to use your sick leave to get out and do stuff. You want to be near zero on sick leave balance when you bail. Remember to stay involved with investment learning and the perks of the company when you are at work. After you retire, your new job will be handling your investments to the best of your ability. You will discover that real friends and relationships are even more important after you retire, so cultivate those while still working. Life really is a fun ride so just hang on and take the work thing in stride and have a laugh or two. You are one of the lucky ones.

 

[Pellice]

Senator, I used your formula, and it came out exactly the same as my back of the envelope calculations, which is great! Markola, yes, I agree, a good boss makes a great difference. When I do my OMY, which will start July 2017, what will make it bearable is the return of a good boss, and my extra vacation days. And also, the knowledge that at that point, retirement is possible at any point, even if "the plan" calls for another year.

 

[scrabbler1]

I did one pretty big thing as my ER plan was falling into place in 2007-2008. I was working part-time (3 days per week) and was becoming sick and tired of the commute form LI to Jersey City, New Jersey. Right after I received my annual bonus, I asked my boss to have my weekly hours reduced from 3 days (12 hours) to 2 days (12 hours). I did this in the anticipation of being able to ER by the end of 2008. I would become ineligible to remain in my company's group health insurance plan but I could go on COBRA for 18 months. I asked to be either allowed to remain in the HI plan or to have COBRA extended beyond 18 months but both were denied.


I was also told when I asked to have my hours reduced that it would likely not be reversible. That is, I could not go back to 20 hours and get back on the HI plan. I thought to myself, "No friggin WAY I want to go back, I probably will go to ZERO soon!"


I worked 17 more months at 12 hours a week. It was better than 3 days a week, as I also arrived home an hour sooner on those 2 lousy days. I saw my ER plan fall into place in those 17 months, thanks in part to the quickly declining stock market in 2008. I remember asking myself over and over in 2008, "Why am I still working here?" I hardly had a good answer.


By July of 2008, the last pieces or my ER plan had fallen into place. I was working on one big project I wanted to finish and I predicted that I would finish it by the end of October. At the end of September, I gave them my notice. I did finish that project, barely, on October 31st, 2008, my "Declaration of Independence" Day.


In 6 days, I celebrate the end of my 8th year of Independence.

 

[FrugalMcDougal]

I'm in the same boat. Some days I don't think I can make it another day- others I think I can make it a couple more years. I'm 48 and I can FIRE in 4.5 years. Sooner, if my old company sells. I am fixated on that stock selling!! I've actually considered medication. So, I'll follow this thread, and hope to pick up some useful tips. "Not caring" and "Coasting" aren't options for me. I'm just not wired that way.

 

[Pellice]

Frugal, I can feel your pain through the electrons! You don't give enough details for people to offer advice, because different situations, different temperaments, different timeframes call forth different approaches. Are you working too many hours to have a separate life for yourself? Are your weekends free? I can say for myself that I have a hobby that is more like a passion. It has kept my sanity, brought me friends, and gotten me into the outdoors, which is THE antidote to work madness. What is your hobby? Do you have a family to keep you focused outside of work? Is humor a viable approach for you? Philosophy?

Can you make a 5 year roadmap to retirement? Develop a retirement budget, think about preparatory steps, such as planning a vacation to the area you plan to retire to, consult with a financial planner, start learning a language or a sport? Meditation instead of medication? ( And don't entirely discount cynicism!)

Know too that as the time passes, your anxiety lessens and it becomes easier to get your head above water and make plans. I would be interested in hearing your ideas on getting through the next years.

 

[devans0]

I stuck my day-dreaming head in the sand and focused on the task at hand, one day at a time. I was burning out from a difficult situation.

The decompression from w○¡~k was good, once out but I was behind on building a transit to a new life. I signed up for college classes that started on my first week of freedom. I treated it like a chance to re-explore for my next phase.

 

[Options]

I'm in the same boat. Some days I don't think I can make it another day- others I think I can make it a couple more years. I'm 48 and I can FIRE in 4.5 years. Sooner, if my old company sells. I am fixated on that stock selling!! I've actually considered medication. So, I'll follow this thread, and hope to pick up some useful tips. "Not caring" and "Coasting" aren't options for me. I'm just not wired that way.

If you can't shift into not caring or coasting, at least disengage. You can care about your work product and output and add value, but nothing says you have to be engaged with all of the dysfunction inherent in work groups, departments, divisions, and organizations. Not engaging (in whatever way that means for you) represents a direct threat to your ER plans, as one day you might just decide you can't "make it another day" and quit on terms you didn't plan.

In the final year before I retired, you bet I watched that frog boil (counted days down first on a sheet of paper behind the computer monitor, then used a counter always visible on the computer screen). At work, I considered myself a hologram--in the place but not of it, there but not there--a vacant specter. I skipped every meeting I didn't want to go to, walked out of meetings (or read this/other forums during meetings I attended), and literally walked away from any conversation that was the least bit petty. I could do all this because I had produced so much value and was known as the guy who produced results.

After I left, everything I had accomplished collapsed, with three people eventually hired to take on what I had been doing. I've recently heard it has all become a colossal mess, with internal clients telling my ex-boss there'd never been any problems when I was there.

 

[MRG]

All I did was to drink too much.

 

[bclover]

one thing that helped me was that I really loved my coworkers. A few were with me for 15 or so years. they were a great support system.

 

[Pellice]

You can care about your work product and output and add value, but nothing says you have to be engaged with all of the dysfunction inherent in work groups, departments, divisions, and organizations.

Options, these are words of wisdom I will ponder. Right now I am enduring a dysfunctional new financial "system" which is mostly NOT working, as in really NOT working. Some vendors are not getting paid. Reports are unavailable. Etc. Now, this "system" was implemented from the top, with the involvement of multiple millions for contractors. Although, for the moment, my work is actually lessened (because little can be done), I can foresee an avalanche rolling down ahead. Plus, the sinking feeling that our raises are flying out the door to the contractors, and that top management responsible for the fiasco won't suffer the slightest penalty. And I've been raging, mostly to myself, about this: "how could they;" "didn't they see ..." etc., etc.

Disengage. Disengage. Every moment spent dwelling on the unfairness of it all is a moment not given to ER preps and dreams. I could be implementing preliminary actions. It's amusing to see such complete fiascos originating from the same management lecturing us on being "change agents," a few months ago, but it is ultimately unproductive to keep turning it over in my mind. I shall endeavor to disengage.

There is an avalanche coming, but also a beckoning FIRE at the top of the next hill!

 

[DrRoy]

I posted on this last January. At that time I was counting about a year and a half to go. Since then I revised my date to 3/31/17. I have been counting months to go since then. They have gone by OK. Counting every day would make it longer for me. Perhaps soon I will start counting weeks to go. The recent stock market rally has certainly been comforting. It looks like I will RE in good shape. DW scheduled a cruise for the first week.

 

[Ronstar]

Over the last several years before retirement, I gradually reduced work hours, working 4, then 3, then 2 and then 1 day a week. For me, enduring the last few years of work was easy because I didn't do much work - just trained my replacement and wrapped up a few things.

 

[Chuckanut]

In my last year of teaching I tried to concentrate on doing the best I could for my students and avoid all of the DRAMA over test scores, special projects, new curriculum, an administrator who thoroughly disliked by teaching partner, etc. Alas, they kept trying to suck me into that stuff. I just kept telling myself "Just XX more weeks. You can do it." And, I was right.

 

[Clone]

Now, this "system" was implemented from the top, with the involvement of multiple millions for contractors.

I remember seeing a quote in a trade magazine from one of mega-corps IT managers.

"We paid these guys (one of the large outsourcing/consulting companies from India) 3.5 million dollars to implement SAP, and we got absolutely nothing!"

 

[FIREmenow]

I am counting down the remaining number of yogurts I'll have to choke down for lunch.

 

[Options]

Options, these are words of wisdom I will ponder. Right now I am enduring a dysfunctional new financial "system" which is mostly NOT working, as in really NOT working. Some vendors are not getting paid. Reports are unavailable. Etc. Now, this "system" was implemented from the top, with the involvement of multiple millions for contractors. Although, for the moment, my work is actually lessened (because little can be done), I can foresee an avalanche rolling down ahead. Plus, the sinking feeling that our raises are flying out the door to the contractors, and that top management responsible for the fiasco won't suffer the slightest penalty. And I've been raging, mostly to myself, about this: "how could they;" "didn't they see ..." etc., etc.

Disengage. Disengage. Every moment spent dwelling on the unfairness of it all is a moment not given to ER preps and dreams. I could be implementing preliminary actions. It's amusing to see such complete fiascos originating from the same management lecturing us on being "change agents," a few months ago, but it is ultimately unproductive to keep turning it over in my mind. I shall endeavor to disengage.

There is an avalanche coming, but also a beckoning FIRE at the top of the next hill!

You have to realize the great degree to which most of what occurs in organizations is all a game, with many in so-called leadership playing it by ear just as much as anyone else. The game for them is to look good, "implement" strategy, change, plans, goals, "metrics" (a favorite game), all to make each person at each level look good. Why? So their fat paychecks keep coming. It's a most insidious game, based on greed (of course no one will admit to this, much less tell you).

I saw so many of these massive change efforts either fail outright, change radically in midstream after enormous amounts of money had already been spent, or get implemented only to get completely dismantled a few years later when a new regime came in (with a whole new slew of money-grubbing overpriced change consultants in tow).

Here's the key: none of this is your problem. Knowing the above and knowing none of it was my problem was exactly what facilitated my total disengagement, while keeping my conscience clear. People could say the most stupid things to me, and it went right through me (as if it wasn't even said--I was probably thinking of some aspect of retirement anyway). Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to focus single-minded on ER. Regarding work, do what you can, with what you have, where you are, adding value to your personal standards. Then forget about it.

Remember, every moment you don't disengage from the morass that exists in almost every organization, every minute you don't release anything and everything over which you have no control, you are putting your ER plans at risk.

 

[Pellice]

Options, I am cutting and pasting your wisdom into a note for frequent consultation Thank you!

 

[youbet]

I really need something inspiring to help me get through my last few years.

I'm always saddened to hear about folks who are unhappy doing whatever it is they are doing to support themselves. Most of us have to do something to earn a living. For many, this is not misery. For others, they're unhappy and mostly spend their precious hours on earth wishing their lives away.

I agree with all those who say it's important for our young folks to learn about finances and putting together resources to support themselves when they no longer want to or just plain can't. But it seems just as important for career beginners to position themselves so they aren't totally subjected to the whims of employers, that they have choices and that they generally enjoy the hours they spend bringing home the bacon.

Can you possibly find an alternative to what you're doing now? Or have you painted yourself into a corner and absolutely must grind it out despite your pain and dissatisfaction?

 

[timemoveson]

I remember seeing a quote in a trade magazine from one of mega-corps IT managers.

"We paid these guys (one of the large outsourcing/consulting companies from India) 3.5 million dollars to implement SAP, and we got absolutely nothing!"

I can assure you for $3.5mm dollars, in anything resembling a typical setting, you will not get an adequate program plan or PMO in place to manage a real SAP implementation.

 

[Johanson]

I must be super lucky. I actually enjoy my job. I'm a tech that covers the western half of the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) that is able to basically set my own schedule. When I'm not traveling, I "work" from home. I have no office politics to deal with because I'm never in one place long enough. I'm generally the white knight who comes in to fix serious issues. But even with the high status in the various loyalty programs I belong to, being a road warrior is tough on the body. I'm not nearly in the shape I used to be. Perhaps better discipline on my part is what is lacking. But it's a common trait among RWs and why I'm looking to get out as soon as I know I can live comfortably in retirement.

 

[retiredtuna1]

An unbearable finale: is it burnout or something else?

"How do you train yourself to endure your last few years before retirement"
Just how old is the person who asked this question?
It is possible that the original author may be suffering from burnout. I was aware of the term and even read up on the 'signs of burnout' but I did not recognize it in myself until after I took an 'early retirement'. I took an E.R. package, relocated and began working part-time at a couple of jobs which had less pressure and which I enjoyed. Had I been aware of burnout, I might have been able to negotiate a 3 month sabbatical, taken some therapy, etc. To ensure: seek a change in assignment or tasks. On my part, I also created a simple excel spreadsheet which automatically counted down the number of days to retirement eligibility. I opened that worksheet fairly frequently .... . This may sound trite or overused, but I found that worklife was also a heck of lot more bearable when I had regular workouts that included my favorite sport.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I definitely have burnout- I just don't have to go back to work when I'm done at this job- ever if I don't want to. I'm getting close though- during the course of this year I cut my expected retire date from 4 years to a little more than one. Yesterday at work I got a "save the date" email for the annual spring meeting. I smiled as I put it on the calendar because its the last one I ever have to go to. There will be lots of "last time I have to do this" in the course of the next year and I will try to savor every one.

 

[retiredtuna1]

I definitely have burnout

Madame, du fait que vous parliez francais, je t'écris dans la meme langue. C'est dommage d'avoir reconnu qu'il y avait du 'burn-out". Dans le processus de quitter votre travail, j'éspère que vous aviez pris en compte les besoins financière de la famille. Que Dieu te benisse.

 

[FrugalMcDougal]

All I did was to drink too much.

Yup, I can appreciate that! And eat too much! And exercise too little. Lol