I finally retired on February 5.
I put in to be in the 2020 class, but missed it by a couple months. I had planned to retire in April 2020 but due to Covid, working from home and a pending company merger I decided to hold off. We closed on a lake home in Indiana last March, closed on our house in Pennsylvania in August and then moved. I called my boss late July to tell him I was retiring and he suggested for me to just continue working from Indiana and hold out for a severance package. The company said they were planning to do a 20% reduction so I knew I stood a good chance of getting a package. The company planned to complete the merger in June, then August, then October and finally did so in November. The new org announcements kept being delayed as well.
On Sunday night, January 24, those in IT being RIF'd in the U.S. (first group) were sent a blind invitation to a meeting on Monday morning by the CIO. The meeting lasted all of about 3 minutes just to say we were being let go in two weeks. No Q&A, little details on the severance package, etc. Most of the impacted were caught off guard and totally surprised. Most did not meet with HR until the day before being terminated.
For me, I hit the jackpot. 14 month's severance including health, dental and vision coverage. That will get me to within 11 months before I can be on Medicare. Obviously, my good fortune is tempered by the bad news of others. I had many meetings over the past two weeks with my employees to help get organized for their next steps. Very bittersweet emotionally.
I am going against conventional wisdom on retirement. My new house is 90% more than the old house that I was in for 27 years. I was going to pay it off over 3 or 4 years to kind of control taxes. But, with the very low mortgage rates I will just keep the mortgage until the time I decide I am done with it. I suspect keeping the money in the stock market will far surpass my mortgage rate. I will have a tritoon delivered in the spring and I am replacing my dock (did not have a clue how expensive that was going to be). I have also been prepping for other hobbies and as a somewhat DIY'r I know I will stay busy. My justification is the quality of life I now have and the fact that my mother-in-law lives with us after having a stroke several years ago. She is mostly okay, able to take care of herself, just gets confused and tires out easily. This prohibits my DW and I from traveling as much as we'd like and kind of confines us to the house, lake and short jaunts. I don't care to have multiple residences for snow birding and decided to have one more expensive house. Touching water adds about $200K to the price.
Please wish me well. I seldom post on this forum but I watch it closely for good advice.
I put in to be in the 2020 class, but missed it by a couple months. I had planned to retire in April 2020 but due to Covid, working from home and a pending company merger I decided to hold off. We closed on a lake home in Indiana last March, closed on our house in Pennsylvania in August and then moved. I called my boss late July to tell him I was retiring and he suggested for me to just continue working from Indiana and hold out for a severance package. The company said they were planning to do a 20% reduction so I knew I stood a good chance of getting a package. The company planned to complete the merger in June, then August, then October and finally did so in November. The new org announcements kept being delayed as well.
On Sunday night, January 24, those in IT being RIF'd in the U.S. (first group) were sent a blind invitation to a meeting on Monday morning by the CIO. The meeting lasted all of about 3 minutes just to say we were being let go in two weeks. No Q&A, little details on the severance package, etc. Most of the impacted were caught off guard and totally surprised. Most did not meet with HR until the day before being terminated.
For me, I hit the jackpot. 14 month's severance including health, dental and vision coverage. That will get me to within 11 months before I can be on Medicare. Obviously, my good fortune is tempered by the bad news of others. I had many meetings over the past two weeks with my employees to help get organized for their next steps. Very bittersweet emotionally.
I am going against conventional wisdom on retirement. My new house is 90% more than the old house that I was in for 27 years. I was going to pay it off over 3 or 4 years to kind of control taxes. But, with the very low mortgage rates I will just keep the mortgage until the time I decide I am done with it. I suspect keeping the money in the stock market will far surpass my mortgage rate. I will have a tritoon delivered in the spring and I am replacing my dock (did not have a clue how expensive that was going to be). I have also been prepping for other hobbies and as a somewhat DIY'r I know I will stay busy. My justification is the quality of life I now have and the fact that my mother-in-law lives with us after having a stroke several years ago. She is mostly okay, able to take care of herself, just gets confused and tires out easily. This prohibits my DW and I from traveling as much as we'd like and kind of confines us to the house, lake and short jaunts. I don't care to have multiple residences for snow birding and decided to have one more expensive house. Touching water adds about $200K to the price.
Please wish me well. I seldom post on this forum but I watch it closely for good advice.
