Wife is OK with whatever decision I make. We struggled as newlyweds as I had just bought my house while still single and was living paycheck-to-paycheck as a young engineer to pay the mortgage at that point so we started out very modestly. We spent 20 years driving old cars with high repair bills, eventually refinanced with a 15 and paid it off in 12 years by living very frugally to pay down the principal and haven't had a mortgage payment for 15 years which was a huge step towards FI. Max'ed out 401-K my whole career, put it in SPY-like investment available in the plans and over 30+ years it grew as expected, even with the bumps in the road.
We travel 2-3 times per year which seems to be enough, splurge on business class tickets for long stints. No additional travel sought or desired, I guess. I was a road warrior early on and travel now is like a job for me.
What does your spouse/partner/family say?
Do they want you to retire to spend more time together, to travel or are they resigned to your continued working...ie, are you handcuffing someone else to this desire to keep chasing the carrot you no longer need?
You know, as a young boy my mom would always tell me I would graduate college so I didn't have to work hard to be successful and make a nice salary. My parents were not college grads and it was very important to them that we graduated college and secured white collar careers.
I have networked my entire career, changed jobs multiple times as failed start-ups and downsizing took its toll but was never out of work for more than a few days as it always seemed to happen during good times, for that I am blessed. I checked my SS records and have never had a down year in terms of earnings with one exception when I had double salary one year due to taking a buyout package (voluntary).
Achieving peak earnings now is something I'm quite proud of, my CPA (who is also a close friend from college) says I am the most successful "grinder" of his generation of friends. He defines "grinder" as a routine salaryman who didn't make a big score at a startup, didn't inherit a huge chunk, didn't sell his company for a big payday, etc. He told me that for me to be in high demand and earning my package at age 66 is something to be proud of. Never thought of it that way until he pointed it out. So now I'm actually proud of something.
What motivated me to ask about this is that obviously, a lot of my friends and colleagues are retired or retiring now. One very close friend is quite wealthy from selling his company but all he talks about these days is what he and his wife are watching on Netflix. He never had any meaningful hobbies so I guess that's to be expected. Funny story, my wife asked me if I wanted Netflix and I told her no way, it seems to be so seductive but also brain degenerative and I associate with all things wrong with retirement.
I am quite consciously avoiding (and fearing) becoming a couch potato, alcoholic, the cynical crazy uncle, selfish grumpy neighbor and all of the other stereotypes I detested about people my age now. It would be hypocritical to become that but I reserve the right just in case it happens.
I have some hobbies including cars, amateur radio, home improvement projects and writing code. My first goal in retirement is to get a vanity app published in the iTunes store. I have never written anything in Apple's Xcode IDE or Swift language so it will be my Job One challenge when I call it quits as it will be escaping my comfort zone once again. I have intentionally done nothing with this so it is something I have to look forward to.
Hello Route246,
Welcome to the forum.
Your reason for staying is bipartite - Satisfaction/ enjoyment received from your job - plus achieving peak earnings.
So, you have explained why you are tempted to stay - but what motivated you to ask your initial question in the first place?
We know something about your work life - can you tell us something about your personal life, i.e. family, hobbies, interests?
Lastly, living in Silicon Valley exposes me to some very wealthy people, friends and ex-coworkers mostly. To a man and woman, the one thing they tell me about being wealthy is it changes nothing about your life except for one thing, that being you never have to worry about paying bills. They still have the same troubles, the wife/husband and kids still nag them, health issues are no different, personal struggles are no different, the same burdens and chores exist (assuming you don't hire servants), the car still breaks down the same, etc.
The more I think about it the more I realize that the vast majority of workers out there are working in order to pay bills. I remember cringing every time our old car was in the shop for some expensive repair and how we would set aside the funds to pay for transmission repair or other major repair.
I'm trying to splurge more now we're at that point but it comes slowly. One of Bob Brinker's mantras is that once you achieve critical mass you need to transition from saver to spender and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
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