Does anyone have a job they stay at simply because they enjoy it?

[Ready]

I know we all spend a lot of time counting down the days until we FIRE, talking about time versus money, and expressing frustration at all the things that happen at work that drive us crazy. But I'm curious to hear from folks who are in a position to retire but continue working because they simply enjoy what they do and would miss it if they stopped.

I have always generally enjoyed the work that I've done over the years. There were two things that made me not want to work anymore. 1) I do not like going into an office and having to be there all day. 2) I can't stand putting on dress clothes and sitting in them all day long.

I stopped working full time four years ago, but I continue to work part time, from home now. I feel like we are financially more than well positioned to stop working, but I have to admit I would miss the challenges if I did. I enjoy the interactions with customers and employees. I enjoy problem solving. I enjoy negotiating business deals. And...I guess I just enjoy seeing money deposited into my checking account every two weeks.

Does anyone else have a similar situation?

 

[mystang52]

Not me, but my next door neighbor is a civil engineer for City of New York. He's 68, and has no intention of retiring.

 

[Which Roger]

I'm sure there are people like that, but if I was one of them, I wouldn't be hanging out on an ER forum.

 

[HillCountry]

I am the minority who love my job.

I work on engineering problems, don't have to deal with any office politics. My commute is about 15 minutes, and my route never has traffic. And I have flexible hours.

I will hang out till my younger kid leaving for college.

 

[Johanson]

I also love my job. I pretty much fly every week and when I don't, I work from home. I never have office politics to deal with either and my hours and workdays are flexible. But, it's not keeping me from retiring. What's keeping me from retirement is not having enough money accumulated yet and the fact that most of my retirement is in my 401K and I'm only 52 so retirement isn't an option for me right now. I'm very thankful that I don't have a job that I dread going to for at least the next 3 years.

 

[Gumby]

I like my job. It is interesting and socially useful, my colleagues are very nice people, and the pay is decent. However, it takes up too much of my time; there is a lot I want to do before I check out. So, I really won't mind walking away from it in two years.

 

[38Chevy454]

I like my job, just like not working better! As an engineer, my current job is pretty low stress, and being part-time it is even less.

Also have a small home-based business that I do related to my old car hobby, and that is what i consider as fun work. It will continue in retirement, in fact I plan to spend more time on it and potentially grow the business a bit. It is primarily a tax benefit for me now.

 

[Out of Steam]

I have enjoyed my work that much from time to time. But with a long commute and work that hasn't matched my abilities well in recent years, I'll pack it in shortly after I become eligible for regular retirement in 2019.

Doubting that I'll stay retired, but I'm done with full-time office work.

 

[Marita40]

Me. University professor and administrator. I love my job, the vast majority of days.

 

[NW-Bound]

I loved my job. Being a technical guy, I worked part-time in design, or was called in to help find and fix tough problems that megacorp full-time engineers needed help on. The pay was good too, and I was able to make a 6-figure a year before tax, and working on/off with plenty of time for travel. I was doing that for 9 years before quitting for real.

Alas, even with part-time work it was not easy to get away from company politics. There was still envy and rivalry, even though I was not trying to get anybody's job, or applying for any management position.

Eventually, I decided that the money, while it was good, was not worth it. If they offered more to make it worthwhile I might have stayed. I could be bribed. A couple of places did contact me afterwards, but my answer at that point was firmly no once I had a sudden health issue.

 

[RobbieB]

Not interested in working again. Full or part time. Not even "hobby".

I have enough hobbies as it is and I have to pay to do them.

 

[ivinsfan]

That's my DH..at 68 starting our 45th year of farming..if he could swing it he would go from the tractor to the undertaker...no nursing home or rocking chair for him.

 

[Luck_Club]

I enjoy the interactions with customers and employees. I enjoy problem solving. I enjoy negotiating business deals. And...I guess I just enjoy seeing money deposited into my checking account every two weeks.

Does anyone else have a similar situation?

I love money coming into the accounts on a monthly basis also. I also think I know exactly where you are coming from. 5 years ago, I never imagined there would come a day when I wouldn't want to continue selling.

It sounds like you are in sales related career, which I also have been practicing all my life. I agree with loving the problem solving, customer interactions, and negotiating business deals. But in the past few years, I've found customers don't want the help. They don't want to see you to review the application of the product even when they first contact you for information.

Even landing a $100K in new business @ 5% commission isn't getting me jazzed because I know that $5K is going to cost me valuable time and effort getting the account up to speed.

I would love to stay working forever if I could only work on company provided leads of $50K and higher, and didn't get pestered with the famous questions: "So what are you doing to grow sales of XXX?" "What happened at XYZ account they used to buy, but haven't lately?" I constantly finding myself comparing the earnings from my time allocated to rentals to the always on call nature of sales, and eventually the rentals are going to win.


Alternatively, I've toyed with the idea it would be fun to open a brand new overseas market with a big fat company check book.

 

[ocean view]

I'm an accountant and I loved my job when I actually got to do accounting. Meetings, office politics, HR bs and a long commute made it less fun. Now, 2 years retired, I fulfill my need to "account" by volunteering at my local food bank in their small finance team. I'm there 4-5 hours a week during the hours I choose. I take weeks off whenever I need to. At first they gave me clerical work, but once they realized I could reconcile (quickly & accurately) they gave me more meaningful accounting work. I love it and they are so appreciative of my help it makes it a win-win for all.

Would your area of expertise lend itself to a role with a nonprofit?

 

[novaman]

I'm a 53 year old dentist in practice for 29 years and love my job. I actually could have retired 6 years ago but didn't even consider hanging it up, mainly because of my desire to keep things the same while my kids were still at home. Instead I cut my schedule to 3.5 days a week and this past year to only 3 days a week and have started taking frequent trips.

I am now an empty nester and have been thinking hard about stopping now- not because I dislike what I do but because I realize that I have a great opportunity now to move to different places, try different things, and explore this world while I am still relatively young.

OTOH- its crazy the amount of money I am still able to make working only 3 days a week, so its tough to give it up.

 

[Walt34]

I have been retired for 14 years but I stayed with my job for four years after I could have retired. I was working in the then-new field of computer forensics and enjoyed working the cases and educating others about what we could do. Very often I thought "I can't believe they're actually paying me for this!"

I retired because of the two issues that funding for new equipment and software was getting harder to get, and the traffic in the area we lived in meant planning your life around the traffic. I found both issues extremely frustrating and when I looked at the numbers I realized I could make more money selling t-shirts out of a van, so I pulled the plug.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

my brother in law LOVES his job

he owns some sort of food distribution business, works at least 12 hours a day 5 days a week ,is out of the house for 14 because of the commute to his office. he gets calls on the week ends for problems but not too much, i think he is 61 now, he will die in the office , has zero thoughts of leaving, he is happy, my sister(his wife) is happy, he brought his only son into the business, and made it clear unless he drops dead he is coming to work till the very end. i wish i found that in my job. i didnt so i left

 

[euro]

I'm sure there are people like that, but if I was one of them, I wouldn't be hanging out on an ER forum.

+1.
I had a great job and enjoyed it immensely. Made great money too. Still: ER is even greater - no contest.

 

[Dawg52]

I have a couple of friends who will continue to work because of their flexible schedules. Both are salesmen and are giving up some accounts so they can work 3 days a week. Not a problem giving up the accounts as other salespeople are glad to pick up the extra income. It's a good way for these two to ease into retirement w/o going cold turkey. I was a bean counter and ready to exit full time.

 

[24601NoMore]

You guys are lucky. While I like what I do overall, it's also totally impossible (without working 80-100 hour weeks - and that is NOT fun).

Thinking of pulling the plug end of this year. The "fun" part of my job is negated by the incredible stress (big company politics..can't keep anyone happy) and very long hours. Aint' worth the $$s. I'd rather hang it up, live off my piggy bank and call it a day.

 

[6miths]

Quit my high stress/high pay job and took a low stress/low pay job that I would do for free and likely do forever if permitted. Which likely will be if I stay up to date.

 

[fh2000]

I am 61 and still being paid for a full time IT job. I am already HI.

I work from home so there is no commute. The skills required to do my job is what I acquired decades ago and I can do this in my sleep.

The amount of work that requires me to do each day, I can do them in less than 2 hours. I watch news, youtub and visit a lot of forums the rest of the day.

Though I can't say that I love my job, I just can't find a reason to give up this job other than the fact I still need healthcare. I do not have retirement healthcare benefit.

 

[Travelwanted]

I'm a 53 year old dentist in practice for 29 years and love my job. I actually could have retired 6 years ago but didn't even consider hanging it up, mainly because of my desire to keep things the same while my kids were still at home. Instead I cut my schedule to 3.5 days a week and this past year to only 3 days a week and have started taking frequent trips.

I am now an empty nester and have been thinking hard about stopping now- not because I dislike what I do but because I realize that I have a great opportunity now to move to different places, try different things, and explore this world while I am still relatively young.

OTOH- its crazy the amount of money I am still able to make working only 3 days a week, so its tough to give it up.

Somewhat similar situation for me. I contemplated full ER 2 years ago. Decided to try PT. I'm working a brutal 10 hours/week now...lol. I still enjoy the work and make a lot of money for just 10 hours. Some of the peripheral stuff is annoying but as soon as it starts to bug me the week is over already!

 

[Carpediem]

I am 61 and still being paid for a full time IT job. I am already HI.

I work from home so there is no commute. The skills required to do my job is what I acquired decades ago and I can do this in my sleep.

The amount of work that requires me to do each day, I can do them in less than 2 hours. I watch news, youtub and visit a lot of forums the rest of the day.

Though I can't say that I love my job, I just can't find a reason to give up this job other than the fact I still need healthcare. I do not have retirement healthcare benefit.

I could've written this exact thing - work from home, a low stress job that requires about 2 hours a day, do other stuff like mowing the yard the rest of the time. I too don't love my job at all. In fact, it's very irritating to always be monitoring instant messages and emails throughout the day. I'd rather be doing lots of other things but I too need to keep working for now due to the HC benefit.

 

[Ready]

I'm an accountant and I loved my job when I actually got to do accounting. Meetings, office politics, HR bs and a long commute made it less fun. Now, 2 years retired, I fulfill my need to "account" by volunteering at my local food bank in their small finance team. I'm there 4-5 hours a week during the hours I choose. I take weeks off whenever I need to. At first they gave me clerical work, but once they realized I could reconcile (quickly & accurately) they gave me more meaningful accounting work. I love it and they are so appreciative of my help it makes it a win-win for all.

Would your area of expertise lend itself to a role with a nonprofit?

I would like to do some volunteer work. The senior center started a new program offering to help people to establish a budget and teach basic money management skills. I offered to help, but was told they were cancelling the program because nobody was signing up.

If I do volunteer work it needs to be mentally challenging for me. I'm not interested in driving the senior center bus around the neighborhood. I guess I haven't found the right opportunity yet.