I, too, am in the home stretch. I have 4 1/2 years (or less if I decide to take a reduced pension). Just knowing I am that close has been extremely liberating for me. I know I have options. I have enjoyed lurking on this forum---lots of good ideas.
In the home stretch
- Thread starter steinj
- Start date
REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
With only 9 days to go to eR, I'm wondering why on earth I spent all those years stressing about work. If the previous 324 months were as good as this last one has been, I would never have considered retiring early.
My advice: If you can't get to ER as soon as you want to, at least adopt an ER attitude as soon as you can. Sure, you give up all chance at promotion and walk around with an annoying red dot on your forehead, but what the heck. (Attitude? What attitude?) Life is good.
REW, 9 days to eR
My advice: If you can't get to ER as soon as you want to, at least adopt an ER attitude as soon as you can. Sure, you give up all chance at promotion and walk around with an annoying red dot on your forehead, but what the heck. (Attitude? What attitude?) Life is good.
REW, 9 days to eR
C
Cut-Throat
Guest
Yup, when you're all done with work, you'll look back at it like stressing over finger painting in Kindergarten.
Reading posts here has helped me a lot with keeping the right perspective on work. I'm not quite in an ER mindset, as I have over 14 years to go, but the sense of empowerment is invigorating, and I enjoy my weekends a lot more!
AltaRed
Full time employment: Posting here.
I am also in the home stretch of somewhere between 150 and 350 days- give or take X days. Made the decision a year ago when I turned 55 and was eligible to retire that I would hang up the spurs somewhere between the end of my ex-pat assignment obligation (Nov 05) and spending 35 years in the energy industry (May 06). Timing will depend on what kind of housing we will re-patriate to in Calgary, Canada. DW and I will be checking out the real estate market there in July to see whether to buy or to build.
Clearly some different dynamics at work as a result of that decision. Ticking the days off can make time go very slowly, but in other ways work isn't as stressful any more as I really don't care what management thinks any more and I don't intend to go out of my way to jump through impossible hoops to please. I find the best approach is to find more ways to relax at work, turn a deaf ear to department and corporate noise, and spend a bit of extra time with co-workers that you particularly enjoy being with. In other words, hang loose!
Clearly some different dynamics at work as a result of that decision. Ticking the days off can make time go very slowly, but in other ways work isn't as stressful any more as I really don't care what management thinks any more and I don't intend to go out of my way to jump through impossible hoops to please. I find the best approach is to find more ways to relax at work, turn a deaf ear to department and corporate noise, and spend a bit of extra time with co-workers that you particularly enjoy being with. In other words, hang loose!
OldAgePensioner
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2005
- Messages
- 1,352
AltaRed,
Just went thru my last year of work (was overseas 20 years) and you have a good handle on how to spend that next few months. I listened to guys for years saying once you can retire (money/age) things just don't matter at work anymore.
I retired and repatriate at the same time and it was stressful. Tryig to get all the retirement stuff finalized when you don't have an address can be tricky.
Good luck and enjoy.
Just went thru my last year of work (was overseas 20 years) and you have a good handle on how to spend that next few months. I listened to guys for years saying once you can retire (money/age) things just don't matter at work anymore.
I retired and repatriate at the same time and it was stressful. Tryig to get all the retirement stuff finalized when you don't have an address can be tricky.
Good luck and enjoy.
