I Am Free At Last!!!!!

[Dreamer]

After 32 years and 8 months, I retired today! I can't believe that I don't ever have to go to work again (unless I get bored) and I hope that does not happen. I am usually happy to just putz around on my time off and I hope that continues. I keep feeling like I am going to wake up and it all be a dream.

I want to thank the members of this forum for all of their encouragement and advice and life examples. I don't know if I would have had the courage to pull the plug without knowing that there are people who have done it ahead of me and who are getting along fine, no better than fine, in this world.

I am taking off tomorrow with my DD and her boyfriend for VA. We are going to visit relatives and do the DC tourist sites a couple of days and then go to Kings Dominion Amusement Park. I am sure that I will feel like I am on vacation next week.

So thank you again especially to Dory for having this great site and to all of the members who so graciously give of their time and knowledge!

Dreamer

 

[REWahoo]

Congratulations Dreamer! Welcome to the club!

 

[flipstress]

Dreamer, congratulations!!!  

Was this your biggest dream?  Now, it's your reality!

Have fun with your trip and with retired life!

flipstress (who is still a dreamer)

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Congrats.

Keep us posted on the adjustment phase!

 

[73ss454]

All the best Dreamer, I can't wait till it's my turn.

 

[Sheryl]

Congratuations!!! Have a wonderful trip - it will be so much better knowing you don't have to go back to work when you get home. Or ever!

Are you going to change your handle now that it's more than a dream??

 

[KB]

Congratulations Dreamer. REW beat me to it, but welcome to the club.

Enjoy your freedom.

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks everyone! I like the sound of this club. I probably won't change my handle, because I will still be dreaming about other things, like traveling to different places. I can't wait to travel to some other countries and see some old castles and churches and the like. I have always been somewhat of a daydreamer!

Dreamer

 

[Nords]

Congratulations, Dreamer!

I can't believe that I don't ever have to go to work again (unless I get bored) and I hope that does not happen.

Well, now that you're a member of the club we can give you the rest of the briefing:

Even if you're bored, you still don't have to go back to work! Just turn on the TV, watch the rush-hour traffic cameras, and very quickly you'll remember some task that has to be done.

 

[cj]

Have a wonderful trip - it will be so much better knowing you don't have to go back to work when you get home.  Or ever!

Dreamer - congrats from another new member of the club!  Ditto what Sheryl said - going "on vacation" when you are RE has a much more relaxing feel to it.  I took a week long trip shortly after I was done working, and it was SO nice knowing I didn't have to hurry home to get ready to go back to work!!!  It really lets you relax and enjoy the time.

Enjoy!   

CJ

 

[Lancelot]

Congrats Dreamer! May you never look back!

Your "Free at Last" subject line made me chuckle...

Not related to your situation, but a co worker once echoed your words, but in the vein of just getting divorced.

He WAS free at last, LOL!

Lance

 

[MJ]

Congrats to you Dreamer. You are right, ERing does not stop you from dreaming about attaining your continuing R goals.

 

[laurence]

Dreamer, I'm so happy for you. From your posts I can tell you will do well, you have a great spirit and a lot of joy, and won't have any trouble keeping "busy" : in ER-land. I've got 12 years down, possibly 19 to go, just keep posting about the good life and keep me focused on that FIRE!

 

[Michael Moore]

I can't believe that I don't ever have to go to work again

You'll have periods of thinking that for some months ahead. And then after it starts to seem real, you'll have periods of thinking "it sure is really nice that I don't ever have to go to work again".

There is a very noticeable sense of freedom, and I think that is something most of us, while working, just aren't used to and that is why it seems so strange.

Enjoy!

cheers,
Michael

 

[Enuff2Eat]

I envy you. tons of congrats...

can NOT wait for my turn, just hope i won't die a week before or after my retirement. btw, what's your nest egg and how are you handling the finance issue. i am sure you got everything worked out. i am just being nosy and want to hear, learn, copy and admire your retirement.

again, congrat to you. cheers....


enuff

 

[Eagle43]

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s.  Now go enjoy the rest of your life.

 

[Dreamer]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for the congrats! I am now back from vacation and it is very nice not having to rush back to work.

Retirement is not for sissies! I was bitten by something on my neck and was advised to go to an urgent care or same day clinic by my BC/BS nurse within 6 hours. My neck reddened and the redness started spreading from the base of my neck up to my ear and was swelling slightly. I was put on 3 days worth of steroids. The swelling went down and it is starting to fade, so I am hoping that it is going away. I wore new tennis shoes while walking around DC and the first day we walked over 10 miles and the second day over 21,000 steps and now my big left toenail is black and blue. I have switched to open toe sandals. I am home and plan on taking it easy this week. My daughter and her boyfriend went with me and they left yesterday afternoon for the beach in NC with his family. They will be back on Friday and his graduation/going away party is Sat, he takes his last PT test on Tues, goes to Pitts on Thurs and flies out 6/23 for basic training with the Navy. It has been his dream to be a Navy Seal. Please keep our family and Josh in your prayers, because it is not going to be easy for any of us. Tara and Josh have been joined at the hip since September. I am so glad that I will be home with her.

Enuff2Eat:

I am relying mostly on my Fed gov pension for my retirement. I looked to see if my spouse were to die, if I could live on my pension, and I determined that I could. We are very fortunate that we do not owe on anything and the majority of my daughter's college is already paid, even though she still has her senior year of high school. I do have money in my Thrift Savings Plan, gov 401K, and in Roth IRAs and my spouse has his 401K, IRA and Roth IRA. I do not plan on touching any of this money for years. We do not have near the money that some people on this site do. However, it is enough for us. I need to review all of our finances now that I have more time. I know that most people do this before they retire, but I know that my pension will be enough. I am a very frugal person by nature. Also, my spouse is still working at a job that he enjoys, and we are putting away the max into his 401K and Roth IRA. I almost had the max for my TSP this year and will put the max into my Roth IRA this year. I will be checking to see if I can put some money next year into a Roth IRA. I think that I have read in the past about a spousal IRA and will check that out for next year.

Again, thanks for all the kind words.

Dreamer

 

[bow-tie]

Rock on, Dreamer. That's great news. Congrats.

 

[Nords]

Welcome back, Dreamer!

They will be back on Friday and his graduation/going away party is Sat, he takes his last PT test on Tues, goes to Pitts on Thurs and flies out 6/23 for basic training with the Navy. It has been his dream to be a Navy Seal. Please keep our family and Josh in your prayers, because it is not going to be easy for any of us. Tara and Josh have been joined at the hip since September.

My first thought was "ruh-roh", but this'll certainly test the strength of their relationship. Life will be interesting.

Have you read Dick Couch's "Warrior Elite" or "The Finishing School"? Dick is one of the first Navy SEALs and a very insightful writer who was given complete access to the BUD/S course for his research. The first book should be a mandatory read for any SEAL's family/friends and the second one goes a long way toward explaining what the future holds.

 

[Dreamer]

Josh has both of those books and has read them. I started reading the first one when he had it here, but he took it back. I personally think that one has to be nuts to want to be a seal from the little that I read. Also, while we were in VA, my sister has the Dish TV and there is a military channel. Josh was looking at the schedule and there was a show titled Navy Seals-Buds training on the next morning from 6:00 am to 9:00 am. Josh and I watched it and it was very interesting. It took you up to the start of Hell Week. I wish that we could have seen the rest of it.

I have no idea if their relationship will work or not. I will not be holding my breath, because I think that my daughter is still pretty immature about some things. She is against him going into the military, but he had already signed up before they started dating. However, he just switched his school or whatever it is called to Seal Operative, so that he is guaranteed to be able to try out for Seal right away and earn a bonus if he makes it, but he had to sign up for 2 more years, so he has signed up for 6 years. All of my daughter's tears and pleading did not change his mind at all and he signed the new contract. I hope that he makes it, since it is his dream. He told me that after basic training, he will go to CA and will spend his time training until the BUDS class starts in March 07. We live in WV, so it will definitely be a long distance relationship.

Dick Couch has a third book out regarding the Navy SEALS. I don't remember the name of it, but my daughter is planning on getting it for Josh. I am going to check the library to see if they have his other books and read them and try to get my daughter to read them. I would like for her to see what he is going to be up against. I am afraid that she is going to be negative and complaining and he will not need that in his life.

Dreamer

 

[Nords]

I personally think that one has to be nuts to want to be a seal from the little that I read.

Nuts? Probably. Competitive? Definitely. Whether he makes it or not he'll definitely become a better, more focused person.

Dick Couch has a third book out regarding the Navy SEALS. I don't remember the name of it, but my daughter is planning on getting it for Josh. I am going to check the library to see if they have his other books and read them and try to get my daughter to read them. I would like for her to see what he is going to be up against. I am afraid that she is going to be negative and complaining and he will not need that in his life.

I've heard of "The U.S. Navy SEALs" and "Down Range" but I haven't chased them down yet. I doubt either of them will make her happy...

One of my career frustrations was that the Navy never sponsored studies on the actual divorce rates of the submarine or SEAL communities. I bet it'd be very illuminating.

 

[Dreamer]

I am glad to hear that you think that he will become a better, more focused person. He is really a very nice sweet person and I was afraid that it will change him into a harder person.

My niece has a friend whose spouse was a Navy Seal. Supposedly, he was told that Seals should not be married and he divorced her. I don't know if that is true or not. A study on actual divorce rates would be interesting.

How long were you in the Navy? Is your spouse in the reserves? How does your daughter deal with her being away?

Dreamer

 

[Nords]

I am glad to hear that you think that he will become a better, more focused person.  He is really a very nice sweet person and I was afraid that it will change him into a harder person. 

Uhm, you may be seeing sentiments that I didn't express. By better I mean more physically fit and a more critical thinker, someone who'll know how to identify a goal and chart a path to it. He'll have unbelievable stamina and a high tolerance for pain. He'll be unlikely to lose his temper or to take unnecessary risks (just the ones that he deems necessary). He'll be surprisingly creative & persuasive and he'll avoid confrontation. He'll be a very healthy eater, able to consume an unbelievable amount of food and perhaps go through 5000 calories/day in heavy training. He'll be able to sleep anytime anywhere, although when he wakes up he may be a bit jumpy at first. Nothing will nauseate him or gross him out, although his sense of humor will be permanently bent in that regard. He'll pick up enough first-aid training to rival a rookie paramedic.

Unfortunately part of that package is, I believe, a more pessimistic view of human motivations. He may turn "harder" after BUD/S but it'll probably happen after his first deployment. To me that means he'll probably be a lot more skeptical and even cynical. I think he'll lose all sense of humor about combat and the media's reporting of it. He may be unsympathetic or even angry with people who don't seem to be trying hard enough to reach their goals (or at least straighten out their lives). He may have a seemingly unhealthy fascination with edged weapons and hand-to-hand combat techniques. He'll probably tell liberals that "gun control" is all about sight alignment and a steady trigger finger.

My niece has a friend whose spouse was a Navy Seal. Supposedly, he was told that Seals should not be married and he divorced her. I don't know if that is true or not. A study on actual divorce rates would be interesting.

SEALs spend a lot of time away from family and their training messes up any attempt at a regular schedule. It's extremely hard on a marriage. However Dick Couch mentions that the SEALs have learned that marriage & family makes better, more mature SEALs. Unfortunately their operational tempo is pretty high right now, one of the reasons that they let him enlist directly for that training. They can't grow them fast enough to keep up with the expanded missions.

How long were you in the Navy? Is your spouse in the reserves? How does your daughter deal with her being away?

Four years at USNA plus another 20 in the submarine force. Spouse did almost 18 years as a meteorologist/oceanographer and is in the Reserves now, drilling mostly at Pacific Command HQ (a couple ridgelines away from our house). She's on the cusp of retirement but these interesting jobs keep sucking her back into the vortex. This month's duty is PACOM's contingency planning for the human outbreak of H5N1 pandemic influenza.

Neither one of us has been away from our daughter for longer than 16 days (I finished my last deployment before we started a family). When she was younger she didn't enjoy the separation so much, but she got through it. When she was ten years old we left her with Grandma & Grandpa while we spent a couple weeks in Bangkok and she did fine. Now my spouse is rarely away for more than two weeks at a time and our teen's sentiments are more along the lines of "How much are you getting paid?" and "Whadja bring me?"...

 

[Dreamer]

It will be interesting to see if he actually makes it and whether their relationship makes it.

You and your wife have contributed many years to serving our country. I thank both of you for your service!

I have spent much more time away from my children than you have with yours. Your daughter sounds very well grounded from your comments about her.

Dreamer