I turn 55 today, and FIRE on Thursday!

[USGrant1962]

Well, actually I'll semi-retire. Is FIsRE (or FISRE, FISE?) an acronym around here?

I have 33 years with Megacorp, all the same one. I was a college hire and after Friday my vacation will run until June 25; which is 33 years to the day since I joined the company. I'm an engineer and rose to a VP level, but it became clear a few years ago that I was not on track for a senior executive level. You see, I have a life outside of the company.

After June I'll remain an hourly employee of Megacorp on an on-call status. We'll see how that goes, or I might hang out a shingle and do some part-time consulting. I'm done with 60-hour weeks and 50%+ travel, but do want to stay engaged in my industry.

Financially we did well and we are not big spenders, so all of my bonuses and DW's income pretty much went into our portfolio. Investing has been a hobby of mine since 1985, so I'm self-managed. Neither DW nor I have pensions, so it is the portfolio and SS for us. We did pay off the house in January, which will help cash flow a lot.

I've been lurking on early-retirement.org for about 3 years now, just absorbing the wisdom, the ideas, the worries, and the inspiration. My other inspirations are much the same as folks here:

• FIRECalc and now ORP,
• Clyatt's "Work Less, Live More",
• Zelinski's books,
• Ferri's "AAAA" - he's working on a 3rd edition,
• ER blogs, and
• Original papers (e.g., Bengen, Trinity Study, etc.).

My concerns are also reflected throughout these forums, things like:

• The transition from 60-hour work weeks to leisure - will I get bored, miss the social aspects of work, etc.
• Portfolio performance going forward with high current valuations
• Managing AGI and taxes

On these I"ll continue to learn from e-r.org and other sources, and am confident all will be well.

Regards,

USGrant1962

 

[chris2008]

Happy birthday and enjoy!

 

[Whisper66]

Congrats! I retired 2 yrs ago at 55 and have never regretted a minute of it. Wish you the same!

 

[ttvjef]

Awesome! Congrats, very good planning. After being engaged with w*rk for so long, you may have an adjustment period, but that's expected. Enjoy. I hope to be joining the ER early 2018.

 

[Big_Hitter]

congrats - scratching my head on 33 years with mega and no pension?

 

[exnavynuke]

Congrats

 

[harley]

congrats - scratching my head on 33 years with mega and no pension?

I'm a bit surprised about that myself. Most of the biggies didn't stop their pensions until the past 10-20 years. I took the lump sum at my mega, but could have had a pension even though they had frozen contributions before I left.

Well, no matter. Congrats on your ER, and I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I have. Best decision I ever made.

 

[USGrant1962]

congrats - scratching my head on 33 years with mega and no pension?

Pensions are not common in my industry, but we have a very good 401(K) - it matches dollar for dollar up to 6% and adds a profit-sharing contribution. So between me and the Company I've been putting away ~20% of my base salary for 30 years.

 

[Calico]

Happy birthday and congratulations!!

 

[davismills]

Happy Birthday and congratulations.

I retired about 4 years ago and am an engineer much like yourself. There will be an adjustment, but you'll do fine. The first year, I was all velocity and no vector. I settled a bit after 10 months or so.

 

[Dash man]

Happy Birthday and congratulations! I retired four years ago this month and love it! The sound of the ocean as I wake up each winter or early spring morning is worth it. Soon headed back to PA for the late spring, summer and fall months with lots of travel planned.

 

[woodguy00]

Happy birthday and congratulations. I'm one year behind you.

 

[euro]

Well, actually I'll semi-retire. Is FIsRE (or FISRE, FISE?) an acronym around here?

I have 33 years with Megacorp, all the same one. I was a college hire and after Friday my vacation will run until June 25; which is 33 years to the day since I joined the company. I'm an engineer and rose to a VP level, but it became clear a few years ago that I was not on track for a senior executive level. You see, I have a life outside of the company.

After June I'll remain an hourly employee of Megacorp on an on-call status. We'll see how that goes, or I might hang out a shingle and do some part-time consulting. I'm done with 60-hour weeks and 50%+ travel, but do want to stay engaged in my industry.

Financially we did well and we are not big spenders, so all of my bonuses and DW's income pretty much went into our portfolio. Investing has been a hobby of mine since 1985, so I'm self-managed. Neither DW nor I have pensions, so it is the portfolio and SS for us. We did pay off the house in January, which will help cash flow a lot.

I've been lurking on early-retirement.org for about 3 years now, just absorbing the wisdom, the ideas, the worries, and the inspiration. My other inspirations are much the same as folks here:

• FIRECalc and now ORP,
• Clyatt's "Work Less, Live More",
• Zelinski's books,
• Ferri's "AAAA" - he's working on a 3rd edition,
• ER blogs, and
• Original papers (e.g., Bengen, Trinity Study, etc.).

My concerns are also reflected throughout these forums, things like:

• The transition from 60-hour work weeks to leisure - will I get bored, miss the social aspects of work, etc.
• Portfolio performance going forward with high current valuations
• Managing AGI and taxes

On these I"ll continue to learn from e-r.org and other sources, and am confident all will be well.

Regards,

USGrant1962

Congrats, and come back often to update!

 

[Katiek]

Congrats, sounds like you're all set and I'm sure you'll find plenty to fill your free time.

 

[Cassius King]

Congratulations and Enjoy!

 

[kimcdougc]

Congrats and welcome to the rest of your life!

 

[USGrant1962]

Congrats, and come back often to update!

As I left work tonight I sent a farewell email to 60+ coworkers. I've already received 9 responses, all positive and encouraging. More encouraging than my portfolio today! It's OK, I have free-board until I get down to 100% success, with a bunch of conservative assumptions on top of that.

And people are buying me drinks both tomorrow and Thursday night. I should early retire more often.

 

[TexasRider]

Hey Grant - Congrats.
My plan is to go out at age 55 as well. That's 3 years from now.
Many of same concerns especially the shift from work-intensity to low-intensity.
Keep posting and let us know how the transition goes.
Enjoy!

 

[USGrant1962]

I did my last "working" time card on Friday (though as a "semi" I'm still a full-time employee though June and hourly after that).

As I thought about my feelings, what came to mind was the end of a spring semester in college. Leaving campus for home with a summer ahead of me. Not knowing exactly what was coming.

But in this case, God willing, it's a 40 year summer

 

[USGrant1962]

It's getting real now

Big day at the USG household. Last week I signed off on my last magacorp paycheck. Paid time off ended up running to July 5 which was very cool - I got paid for the Independence Day holiday and don't have to start COBRA until August. But that's it for my w*rk income!

The bigger event was that DS#1, who graduated from college in May, left for his first full-time job. He's moving about 3 hours way, so is still in the area. But it is quite an adjustment for DW and I.

A ton of mixed feelings - he's launched on a great job, but leaving us, but will save us a bunch of money, but leaving us, but is a successful young man, but leaving us, but...

I'm sure all you parents out there get it.

Regards,

USGrant

 

[rodi]

Both milestones are great - retiring and launching the kid.

I've got quite a few years before my kids are launched... a freshman and Jr. in high school...

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Big day at the USG household. Last week I signed off on my last magacorp paycheck. Paid time off ended up running to July 5 which was very cool - I got paid for the Independence Day holiday and don't have to start COBRA until August. But that's it for my w*rk income!

The bigger event was that DS#1, who graduated from college in May, left for his first full-time job. He's moving about 3 hours way, so is still in the area. But it is quite an adjustment for DW and I.

A ton of mixed feelings - he's launched on a great job, but leaving us, but will save us a bunch of money, but leaving us, but is a successful young man, but leaving us, but...

I'm sure all you parents out there get it.

Regards,

USGrant

I get it, my son asked me for a knife a while ago, as I handed it to him I told him"OK papa, Be careful its sharp" He told me OK pop." He is 33 .

 

[Bigdawg]

Big day at the USG household. Last week I signed off on my last magacorp paycheck. Paid time off ended up running to July 5 which was very cool - I got paid for the Independence Day holiday and don't have to start COBRA until August. But that's it for my w*rk income!

The bigger event was that DS#1, who graduated from college in May, left for his first full-time job. He's moving about 3 hours way, so is still in the area. But it is quite an adjustment for DW and I.

A ton of mixed feelings - he's launched on a great job, but leaving us, but will save us a bunch of money, but leaving us, but is a successful young man, but leaving us, but...

I'm sure all you parents out there get it.

Regards,

USGrant

I'm there. DD graduated college in May. She is in Melbourne Aus for an internship. DS is progressing well in the USMC. Don't know how but they have both turned out fine.

Good luck USG

 

[MBAustin]

Congrats on getting DS launched. Enjoy it while he's only 3 hours away - we had that privilege when our DS first graduated (both kids went to college thousands of miles away and DD has never moved any closer). Unfortunately for us, DS is now in grad school in Atlanta, so we're back to a really empty nest.

 

[Walt34]

I'm sure all you parents out there get it.

No kids here, but even I realized it after I changed positions with my employer, moving from an outside job with some hazards to an inside job with virtually no hazards other than getting paper cuts.

Mom was so relieved!

I realized then that, to her, I would in some ways always be five years old.