Yahoo Finance - Dead is the new RE!

[DougViages]

retire-and-be-happy: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Dead is the new retirement. OK, that doesn't sound appealing, but working till you drop is a heck of a lot better than playing crappy golf at the country club, eating chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and complaining about your gall bladder.
At least, it is if you can find a job in retirement that brings meaning and happiness. So says Marshall Goldsmith, whose blog entry "Brett Favre and the Difficult Art of Retiring Successfully" appeared last August on the Harvard Business Review's Web site...

A shot across FIRE's bow.

 

[Midpack]

I think the article is on the money. People who retire with adequate $ resources and no other plan for 'what to do' all day are risking disappointment. Some people are lucky/smart enough to naturally have meaningful activities and relationships in place and do well without conventional work, but many are not and it takes them by surprise. I'd encourage reading How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free AND Work Less, Live More several years before retiring. 'What to do' planning is just as important as $ planning IMHO but many people only focus on the latter.

 

[bbbamI]

Dead is the new retirement. OK, that doesn't sound appealing, but working till you drop is a heck of a lot better than playing crappy golf at the country club, eating chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and complaining about your gall bladder.

I don't complain about my gall bladder since I don't have one anymore. Anyone wanna hear about my back aches.....?

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - like mastering meditation on the sound of one hand clapping I have yet to attain guru status in the art of doing absolutely nothing all day.

But I have worked very hard at it for 15 years. Us lefthanded INTJ's never say die.

heh heh heh - 16th year I'll get it - you'll see. Not so sure about the Saint's upcoming season though.

 

[growing_older]

working till you drop is a heck of a lot better than playing crappy golf at the country club, eating chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and complaining

Wow - I understand this premise may be appealing to some people, and there is some appeal to the idea of "doing something meaningful" while retired. But the notion that ER would leave me drifting without meaning and forced to participate in sports followed by leisurely lunches just to fill the time is both laughable and wrong. Besides I think I could even spend quite a few years doing so and enjoy it much more than wasting my time in a maze of cubicles following directions from clueless and mean spirited managers, ruled by a timeclock. This author doesn't seem to have worked at anyplace I ever did, but then I wasn't CEO or QB like the examples cited.

 

[Khan]

I'd rather be dead than back in the cube farm.

 

[W2R]

retire-and-be-happy: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Dead is the new retirement. OK, that doesn't sound appealing, but working till you drop is a heck of a lot better than playing crappy golf at the country club, eating chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and complaining about your gall bladder.
At least, it is if you can find a job in retirement that brings meaning and happiness. So says Marshall Goldsmith, whose blog entry "Brett Favre and the Difficult Art of Retiring Successfully" appeared last August on the Harvard Business Review's Web site...

A shot across FIRE's bow.

Let's dissect this. If someone doesn't like chicken salad sandwiches, they shouldn't eat them for lunch whether they are retired or working. If I want to complain about my gall bladder (which was removed 15 years ago), I would do so at work if I am at work.

That would reduce the argument to "working till you drop is a heck of a lot better than playing crappy golf at the country club".

I would suggest that we all should have the opportunity to pursue our dreams sometime before we die, and retirement is a good time to pursue them. Who is to say that golf is an unworthy dream?

Work involves doing what you must do to earn a living, whether you happen to feel like it or not. If someone prefers work to pursuing their dreams, then maybe they need to do some more introspection and self questioning about what their priorities really are.

If someone's work and their dreams coincide, more power to them. But I think that is not generally the case and when it isn't, retirement is not only justified - - it is something that we owe to ourselves.

 

[Martha]

Now I am hungry for a chicken salad sandwich but I gave up chicken.

 

[ls99]

I'm no golfer. But I'd rather learn to be a really bad golfer, country club or not, than be an empl*yee anywhere.

OTOH if I can make a buck at my leisure, in a nice non-demanding enterprise of mine, i'd do it. Fat chance of that.

Though selling off unused [-]crap[/-] valuable stuff from my vast collection on Craigslist or Ebay comes fairly close to low effort $making. Takes care of coffee and [-]donuts[/-].

 

[HFWR]

Doo-doo, ca-ca, poo-poo...

 

[ziggy29]

Doo-doo, ca-ca, poo-poo...

And good old Number Two!

 

[CuppaJoe]

Doo-doo, ca-ca, poo-poo...

You said, it, Buddy!

"You think it sounds good until you do it,"

Been retired nine months, he is right, it is not a good idea, now it sounds like an excellent idea.

"It's a disaster. Wives and adult children aren't waiting around waiting for you to grace them with your presence."

Disaster schmaster, call it anything you want, still sounds excellent to me. I see those kinds of folks on the old schedule, after 6 p.m., thank you.

would-be retirees should scope out what they want to do

Huh, I don’t even understand this one. That’s the whole point of RE, you can do what you want, planned or not.

Sorry, I couldn’t read any farther, the idiot blogger started using the “W” word (W*rk) repeatedly.

 

[freebird5825]

from the article..."Doing nothing isn't an option. In fact, it's a bad plan. Experts don't disagree about that."

Darnit, I was just perfecting the art.
Oh well....

 

[freebird5825]

I don't complain about my gall bladder since I don't have one anymore. Anyone wanna hear about my back aches.....?

Wanna borrow mine (gall bladder)? Special weekly rate this month.

 

[youbet]

Anyone wanna hear about my back aches.....?

Look at the crappy posture those boots/heels is causing. No wonder your back hurts! Wear something sturdy and practical and your back woes will vanish.........

 

[clifp]

from the article..."Doing nothing isn't an option. In fact, it's a bad plan. Experts don't disagree about that."

Darnit, I was just perfecting the art.
Oh well....

Obviously the author never read Nord's the fog of work.

 

[ziggy29]

Look at the crappy posture those boots/heels is causing. No wonder your back hurts! Wear something sturdy and practical and your back woes will vanish.........

Where's the fun in that?

 

[friar1610]

Wives and adult children aren't waiting around waiting for you to grace them with your presence

Reminds me of a corny joke I saw the other day in a magazine: A newly retired guy was quoting his wife who said. "He retired. We have half the income and I have twice the husband. And I'm not wild about either."

 

[bbbamI]

Wanna borrow mine (gall bladder)? Special weekly rate this month.

Ahhh...now you are a great pal! Let me think it over.......

Look at the crappy posture those boots/heels is causing. No wonder your back hurts! Wear something sturdy and practical and your back woes will vanish.........

The back woes will vanish, but...ummm...nah, it's not worth it. No pain, no [-]fun[/-] gain.....

 

[MJ]

Hmmm - like mastering meditation on the sound of one hand clapping I have yet to attain guru status in the art of doing absolutely nothing all day.

When I tell people I no longer work, the next question they usually ask is "what do you do all day?"
Well, I look at them with an exhausted smile and answer, "I'm soooo busy doing nothing all day, I just don't have time to do anything else"

 

[Kroeran]

People who retire with adequate $ resources and no other plan for 'what to do' all day are risking disappointment

as I get close I have been trying out various things. I got involved in the neighbourhood association and dabbled in national politics (well, our little corner of it). Found the same politics and BS as at work, but wasn't getting paid for it. I think I am done with the volunteering thing.

then, just when my numbers start to make sense to leave, I get the best boss in the universe (3000 miles away) and actually meaningful work that is effortless for me to do. Nice problem to have though.

 

[Kroeran]

wasting my time in a maze of cubicles following directions from clueless and mean spirited managers,.

for those still in the system, I think boss shopping is far more important than the type of work.

 

[freebird5825]

for those still in the system, I think boss shopping is far more important than the type of work.

I was given this book by a co-w*rker many years ago when I was in a negative boss situation after a reorganization.
Reading it really gave me some tools to deal with...well, you know.
Amazon.com: How to Work for a Jerk: Your Success is the Best Revenge: Robert M. Hochheiser: Books
I passed it on to a very deserving friend when I FIREd.

 

[W2R]

boss problems!

I was given this book by a co-w*rker many years ago when I was in a negative boss situation after a reorganization.
Reading it really gave me some tools to deal with...well, you know.
Amazon.com: How to Work for a Jerk: Your Success is the Best Revenge: Robert M. Hochheiser: Books
I passed it on to a very deserving friend when I FIREd.

I used to have a "negative boss situation" too (love the phrase! so I borrowed it). A co-worker transferred to a different section two or three years ago to get away from the negative boss situation, and I had the opportunity to do so as well. I turned it down because I would have had to start over from scratch over there and really wasn't suited to that job opening, but it was a tough decision.

But, that horrid boss of mine got promoted to a job in another part of the organization, and NOW I have the best boss I have ever even heard of, much less had. Life is a bowl of cherries.

The relatively nice boss of the transferred co-worker retired, and now she is working for the Devil himself - - the worst, most psychologically abusive boss imaginable.

So, I think boss shopping isn't necessarily helpful. Outlasting a negative boss situation is a very satisfying experience, though.

 

[Kroeran]

yes, I have witnessed that...fleeing a negative boss situation, only to have the negative boss transfer into your area or to be your boss

the fellow in question had formally grieved a promotion competition that the boss had mangled, and made an enemy for life. that guy ended up having to leave town to finally get away

my other tips are:
- try to work for bosses that match your profile as closely as possible, ie. if you are a female latino, find a female latino boss - leverage bias and prejudice in your favour
- try to work for bosses at least 2 pay grades above yours, so that they have room to promote you within the group
- try have lunch or a coffee with a prospective boss. If they cannot pull off an hour of human conversation with an underling, forget it. Remember that many open positions are positions that the locals won't fill because of the boss. Then again, if you have a very strong stomach, some people get ahead by specializing in such situations.
- try to find a boss who is not looking to get promoted.
- avoid bosses younger, shorter (men), less attractive (women) than you are, that might be threatened or jealous of you
- avoid bosses with no personal life, who love overtime panics at the office, or who get too close to their staff.