[FONT="] 58, retired 6 years now. Made about $1.5M in the bubble and bought a 600K apartment. About 1 year later got fired from my high flyer, do-nothing, job and decided never to work again come hell or high water. My wife agreed that we cut our expenses to any extant necessary so that I never have to return to work but so far we had to cut just a little. I always felt uncomfortable in the presence of inequality (hierarchy), never liked power either to have or to be confronted with. So I did not look for a job. Instead, I started going to poetry classes and from there to study literature and creative writing in the university. After the first year I realized that exams are not for me. They limit the amount of subjects I can take in a given semester as every subject comes with an exam. So I joined a special program they have (mainly for older people) where you can go to a variety of classes, no exams and only half the price. Suits me fine. I am quite superficial anyway. By now I have finished all the poetry courses and switched to pre-historic archeology plus some other odd class (Buddhism, Globalization, and Postmodernism in the Cinema etc.). I have always maintained that we are (at least I am) a prehistoric mind living in a postmodern society so understanding the dichotomy can tell us a lot about the problems we see today. I spend about 14-20 hours a week at the university. During vacations DW and I do bicycle trips. We have been to Austria, Check Republic, Cuba and France. We normally sleep in camping sites (carrying our camping gear on the bike). My friends, mostly high flyers, found it hard to understand at the beginning but with time and when they see the results they are becoming more and more [/FONT][FONT="]envious[/FONT][FONT="]. Most of them define themselves by their work ("who are you?...I work at ….doing….") so will not retire although they can afford to. Regarding finance I have to carefully control it. Son still in college. Have also daughter, SIL , 2 grandsons and 8.5/9 granddaughter.
See you all around
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See you all around
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