Forced to Retire
Dryer sheet aficionado
I think the poster below has pretty much figured me out. Good job.
I have always been an outsider and an eccentric. While I spent the majority of my time in Corporate America working in conservative offices with formal bland people who did not get me, I wonder if it was the right thing for me. At times I made great money and some of my bosses loved me. But other stuffed shirts did not know how to interact with me and felt that my eccentric approach to life was a threat to them and the organization.
I made lots of money for a number of years by hiding my eccentric personality and through hard work and creativity. But as I got older, it became harder to accept corporate normal. It is painful to be someone your not and try to figure out how others want you to be.
That is the great thing about retirement. I won't have to spend all day being with the corporate stuffed shirts. I can spend my days with my self and people who appreciate me.
I just have to survive the year and get out of my lease. Which I signed shortly after losing my job. (Why? I thought I would be rehired in a month.)
(On that front I am meeting with an attorney who understands real estate law next week.) This after being told by every one at my apartment there is no way to get out of my lease. (No sublet, no putting the apartment on the market, no two month notice, no, no, no!)
I have always been an outsider and an eccentric. While I spent the majority of my time in Corporate America working in conservative offices with formal bland people who did not get me, I wonder if it was the right thing for me. At times I made great money and some of my bosses loved me. But other stuffed shirts did not know how to interact with me and felt that my eccentric approach to life was a threat to them and the organization.
I made lots of money for a number of years by hiding my eccentric personality and through hard work and creativity. But as I got older, it became harder to accept corporate normal. It is painful to be someone your not and try to figure out how others want you to be.
That is the great thing about retirement. I won't have to spend all day being with the corporate stuffed shirts. I can spend my days with my self and people who appreciate me.
I just have to survive the year and get out of my lease. Which I signed shortly after losing my job. (Why? I thought I would be rehired in a month.)
(On that front I am meeting with an attorney who understands real estate law next week.) This after being told by every one at my apartment there is no way to get out of my lease. (No sublet, no putting the apartment on the market, no two month notice, no, no, no!)
I don't know the OP, so this is just an observation that may be entirely off the mark:
- If we've worked in a large office, we've worked with somebody that was clearly benefiting from a special, niche situation. Everybody else on the team might wonder how "Bob" ended up in that job, making a lot of money but maybe not fitting in with the other members of the team. Most would have agreed that "Bob" would be unlikely to find such a good situation again, for whatever reason. Maybe "Bob" suspected that, too, but maybe not. But to be "Bob" and actually lose the job and find out, for sure, that you're really not a "$100K guy" (because no one will hire you at that pay), well, that's a kick in the gut. If I were "Bob", it would probably take awhile for reality to set in, and when it did I wouldn't feel very good about myself (reduction of self-regard, regret for poor resource decisions made in the past when things were rosy, etc). These feelings would be more serious if the job was really most of what my self-worth was dependent upon (no consuming hobbies, not a social animal, few family ties). I might be shell-shocked for awhile.
So, enough groundless analysis.
Sooner or later the OP is going to hit some situation that prompts him to act. It might be the realization right now that he's burning through assets quickly and he needs to act, as each day the boat that needs to take him to social security and beyond (his savings) takes on more water. Or, he may wait and defer dealing with the situation for a long time---clearly he could continue to pay his present rent and live as he has been for three more years, then he'll have no resources, be evicted, and then he'll take action. I think taking action right now will do two things: 1) Stop the resource hemorrhaging and allow him a better quality of life 2) Benefit him emotionally by directing his thoughts and energies in a positive direction. Fixing his situation becomes his new "work," and getting his ship in order will provide a sense of personal satisfaction that is probably lacking right now. But, only the OP can take choose which path to take.