I don't know whether to be offended or more determined

[papadad111]

crab mentality

Sounds like she wants to drag you back down into the pot. They called the the "Crab Mentality".

 

[megacorp-firee]

That does it.

I'm buying stock in the company that makes bonbons.

You know ... I've just realized that I don't know what a bonbon actually is.
I've heard the phrase all my life (56). What is it? ... and where can I get some?

 

[igsoy]

You know ... I've just realized that I don't know what a bonbon actually is.
I've heard the phrase all my life (56). What is it? ... and where can I get some?

Bonbon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Beer man]

Then she turned to me and said “so what are you going to do when you retire from the AF in two years?” Her husband looked at me and kind of grinned because he knows the deal as we have discussed it many times. I said well I am going to retire, spend time with the family and then maybe do something or not I haven’t decided on that one yet. She looked at me like I was from Mars. And said “YOU CAN”T DO THAT you have two small kids and will be in your early 40s, you have to work another 20 yrs.

In this situation I tell people I plan to "work" on my MBA. No one really knows what it entails or what one does with an MBA, but it places you in a sociologic role that doesn't threaten them. And if you can ER you really have already earned an MBA in my book.

 

[clifp]

You know ... I've just realized that I don't know what a bonbon actually is.
I've heard the phrase all my life (56). What is it? ... and where can I get some?

I think bon bons are best eaten during movies on a hot day, when you don't want popcorn. Of course you shouldn't be eating either popcorn, or bonbons, and netflix is cheaper than going to a movies, but you only live once.

Actually I intend to be reincarnated as my sister or Purron's cat.

 

[Hillbilly]

This is a really interesting thread to read. I find it very interesting the reaction that some people have to other peoples achievements. There are some that look at another man's achievement and say... "Wow... that is great!!! How did you accomplish that? I need to learn from you so that maybe I can achieve something great as well!". Then there is another whole group of people, that look at anyone that has achieved more than they have, with absolute contempt and disdain. As in "How DARE you have more than me, or accomplish more than me?" As if somehow, you having more than they do, means that you TOOK something away from them in the process, which is certainly not true.
Remember the truth about people like that. They do not want to be rich... they want you to be poor. They do not wish to achieve for themselves, they want others to give to them. They do not want to succeed... they want you to fail. They do not believe in things like hard work and making progress towards a goal, they belive that life is random, and that people got the careers they did because of the "job lottery". What it really comes down to, is a form of dillusional escapeism. If they continue to believe that life is random, and there is nothing they could ever do to improve their lives at all, then it also absolves them of any and all responsiblities for their own actions. They attack you because you are destroying their fantasy that they have been living with for years. Attacking you is far easier than to actually accept the mess they have made of their own lives.

One of the best posts I've read this year!

Hillbilly

 

[Achiever51]

I agree that this is a very interesting thread. When I announced I was planning to retire, the reaction I got from colleagues at work varied. Some assumed (mistakenly) that I had recently come into a large inheritance or won the lottery -- and I must admit I enjoyed the rumors that were circulating about my presumed new financial status.

A few acted like I had some medical condition or personal problem (maybe a failing marriage?) that I needed to address away from work. (Uh, nope.)

And some simply didn't believe that I was really going to leave. "Yeah, you say you're leaving, but we'll believe it when we see it."

Only a few close colleagues knew that I had been planning this for years and was just living my plan.

As for family, father is thrilled that I saved enough to retire; older brother is still in denial -- thinks it's a phase that I'm going through and that I'll be getting another job any day now. I laugh and laugh at that one.

When I'm out and about now and am asked what I do for a living, I reply "I live life fully. I'm retired." And let it go at that. I love to see people's reactions, but nothing anyone could possibly say could make me question my choice to retire.

 

[Goonie]

You know ... I've just realized that I don't know what a bonbon actually is.
I've heard the phrase all my life (56). What is it? ... and where can I get some?

Boss Hogg's wife, Lulu, used to be seen eating them on the old "Dukes of Hazzard" TV show.

 

[haha]

When I'm out and about now and am asked what I do for a living, I reply "I live life fully. I'm retired." And let it go at that. I love to see people's reactions...

Well, with that statement you should see plenty interesting reactions to keep you absorbed.

Ha

 

[megacorp-firee]

Bonbon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

merci

 

[poyet]

Sorry cheap European shot...


Well if I had a 35 hour work week and 8 or is 10 weeks of vacation a year, I'd probably keep working also!

If you were a shop worker perhaps you would find that positive for some time (they only have 4/5 weeks off) until companies move abroad and you have no longer a job & then the country is stiffling with high social costs & runs into heavy debt & goes bankrupt, but if you are say an engineer or a manager you would find that unbearable. You work because you like what you do, are proud of it, and want to make money with it, eventually to ER because life is short and they are many other things to do. You do not want to be stuck with no pay rise because of "redistribution" and 35h/w rubbish.

Basically, the 35h/week bullshit and all the socialist way of thinking which prevails in France has been a great gift for me. It convinced me to raise my children so that they would leave if they wish (elder daughter/23yo already works in DC), to work harder to max my savings to ER, and to focus on managing my investments and not waste time on fighting the wave of economic negationism.

The chinese will not work 35h/w because the French find that's a good idea (nor anyone else will), the country will go belly up (we wont be alone in europe) and finally the dollar will reverse its course Matter of time !

But back to the original post/subject no one should derail you from your plans. But many will try as they cannot stand the fact that there might be other ways to do and to think.

Things are worse in Europe because retirement vastly is by "répartition" and not by "capitalisation" which means that people have no savings at all when they retire. They just count on the government to manage everything (current employees pay the annuities of retirees and the imbalance grows as people live older) and some amount is taken away from your paycheck by the social system every month (to pay for retired people) so that employees would (hopefully) later get some compensation paid (by future young workers) when they'll retire. So retirement is not thought of as an individual objective/scheme based on personal savings which can be adapted but as a social fight between unions and the government (which is supposed to decide of everything and must guarantee the well being of everybody).

Nobody would think of ER, if you are ER you are unemployed as was rightly said.
DOT.