Know anyone that had to 'un-retire'?

[Carpediem]

Just curious if anyone knows someone whose retirement plans went sideways and had to 'un-retire'? If so, what caused it?

 

[athena53]

I had a coworker who retired to do day trading (yeah, I know) and came back to work part-time. According to the listing in the directory of my professional society he's still working.

 

[2017ish]

Wow, Athena. Was he also an actuary? Would think he'd have known better.... Maybe false confidence because of his quantitative skills?

 

[Big_Hitter]

I know several actuaries that "retired" and went back to work. Not sure if they "had" to or not.

 

[MichaelB]

I know quite a few people who retired, then returned to work after their finances failed. Bad math skills were one cause, plain old bad luck another.

 

[eytonxav]

I retired when I was 54, but was unprepared for how I wanted to spend my time, so ended up going back to work. Finally retired for good at 63.

 

[Carpediem]

I know quite a few people who retired, then returned to work after their finances failed. Bad math skills were one cause, plain old bad luck another.

MichaelB, Are there any lessons or learnings to be gained from the need to return to work you mentioned ... other than "save more money"? ;-)

Thanks.

 

[bigcmagor]

I don't think multiple shots at retirement should be stigmatized, even if what is called a "failure" is due to financial over-optimism. Some just won't know if retirement is what they expect for a number of reasons. It's better to have tried it and found you need or want to work again than to be a member of the carried out feet first gang.

 

[user5027]

My boss use to attend a bi-annual meeting in Florida of colleagues from his former employer. Basically retirees. One year (must have been 2000 or 2001) he returned and said guess who I saw. It was someone I graduated with and they would have been 42 or 43. He was retired. I was shocked and learned he'd made a fortune in Level 3 stock.

A few years later, I was at a meeting and ran into someone that supplied to the segment of the industry that my former classmate worked in. I asked if he knew him and he did. I commented that he was retired and he replied, "Oh no, he is back to work. The Level 3 stock tanked."

He never sold. Opened my eyes about indexing and diversification.

 

[Carpediem]

I don't think multiple shots at retirement should be stigmatized, even if what is called a "failure" ......

Good point and I have modified my reply to MichaelB to replace the word "failures". My apologies to anyone who may have been offended by that word usage.

 

[H2ODude]

Was surprised that a former boss, same age as I, retired about 2007. We're engineers and had been in consulting firm together. I returned to public utility management and was shocked to get a call from him sometime after 2008 from him looking for clients as 2008 had pretty much whacked his plans. I'm sure it was tough as he was a longtime vp in former firm and it's hard to shoehorn yourself back into a consulting firm at a high level.

 

[Senator]

When I was a bartender, a gentleman by the name of 'Tex' would come in. He was ~50 or so. Drove a big Cadillac. Always with women in their late teens or 20s. Drank $50 a shot Remy Martin cognac in 1984 or so. Tipped real well.

After seeing him many times at the bar, I found out he won ~$400K in a settlement. Later, when I had not seen him in a while, I heard he was a security guard.

Fast money in, fast money out.

 

[Amethyst]

Still, "Tex" got to live "the dream" for a little while, and that's worth something.

When I was a bartender, a gentleman by the name of 'Tex' would come in. He was ~50 or so. Drove a big Cadillac. Always with women in their late teens or 20s. Drank $50 a shot Remy Martin cognac in 1984 or so. Tipped real well.

After seeing him many times at the bar, I found out he won ~$400K in a settlement. Later, when I had not seen him in a while, I heard he was a security guard.

Fast money in, fast money out.

 

[Senator]

Still, "Tex" got to live "the dream" for a little while, and that's worth something.

It was. It made me a bit jealous. I was ~25 at the time, and ran around with girls about the same age. I always wondered why I had to work so hard at it, and it seemed easy for him.

Looking back, now I know.

 

[athena53]

Wow, Athena. Was he also an actuary? Would think he'd have known better.... Maybe false confidence because of his quantitative skills?

Yes, he was. I met him when I joined the company in 2002, so it was the dotcom bust that did him in.

I remember an item on the actuarial discussion board I frequent that featured a news item about another actuary who had retired just before the housing bubble burst and had to go back to work. There was some scoffing about how he should have known better, but I remember what those years did to my portfolio. It was partly just really bad luck that he retired before the market tanked.

 

[MichaelB]

I don't think multiple shots at retirement should be stigmatized, even if what is called a "failure" is due to financial over-optimism. Some just won't know if retirement is what they expect for a number of reasons. It's better to have tried it and found you need or want to work again than to be a member of the carried out feet first gang.

I don't think anyone here is stigmatizing a return to work. Some members here have had to do that, and shared those painful moments with the rest of us. There are many reasons, but financial plan failure is a distinct possibility for many here I don't think we should hide from either that possibility or or the term "failure". After all, it's the plan that fails, not the person.

MichaelB, Are there any lessons or learnings to be gained from the need to return to work you mentioned ... other than "save more money"? ;-)

Thanks.

Lessons? You bet. Bad things happen to good people, Man Plans and God laughs. You always need to have a "Plan B".

 

[RunningBum]

I worked with a guy who had come out of retirement and joined my project. Someone who knew him from before said he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so he retired, and set out to enjoy what time he had left. Turns out they found a cure or somehow the cancer went into remission. But he had been eating too many rich foods and had a heart attack, and he had also gone through much of his money. After he retired from the heart attack he returned to his job.


I didn't really interact with the guy, but he seemed like a good guy, and seemed productive. Just had a bizarre run. Didn't seem bitter at all about having to return to work. After all, he did get his life back.

 

[pb4uski]

None here that I can think of... I run wirh a pretty slow crowd.

 

[Dawg52]

No. Most I know never retired.

 

[chilkoot]

The wife of a friend retired last year from her position as a bank manager but recently returned to it, ostensibly on a temporary, part-time basis, but they seem to be slowly reeling her back in. I cringe every time I hear about them adding "just one more thing" to her list of responsibilities.
I honestly don't think she needed to, nor that she particularly wanted to. It seems to be more of a case of a delayed OMY syndrome.

 

[travelover]

None here that I can think of... I run wirh a pretty slow crowd.

Someone here was living on bank stock dividends when the crash hit. As I recall, he had to go back to work.

 

[W2R]

I know of several people who discovered that they wanted more discretionary money after they retired, but didn't want to pinch pennies to get it.

The solution was a part time job doing something more enjoyable (and paying less) than previously. Is that un-retiring? I don't know. They would not have taken these jobs if they had more money.

To some people, this would be a continuation of retirement but keeping busy with less stressful employment. But to me, that means they retired too early and needed to go back to work. So, are they retired, or not? It doesn't really matter what you call it. It's just a situation some people end up with.

The best way to avoid this happening is to keep track of spending before retirement, and to realize that you may want to spend more when work is not taking up so much of your time. So, plan for this.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I had a friend that retired 3 different times. Then he was offered a VP position for a security firm and since this was his specialty he could not pass it up. He took a struggling company and made them profitable and loved it. He got terminal cancer and worked up to the last year because he loved it so much. Although not very old at 67 he and his wife had traveled for years so no regrets.

 

[Jack_Pine]

Still, "Tex" got to live "the dream" for a little while, and that's worth something.

Buy experiences not things......................

 

[dixonge]

Can I plead the 5th?