Turning 55 in May and pondering about retiring at the end of July / 2017

[Teacher Terry]

3 of my good friends died between 59 and 67 so life can indeed be short. I always used to say when I was working that if I died before I retired I was going to be pissed off.

[Carpediem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry I always used to say when I was working that if I died before I retired I was going to be pissed off.

I told DW *exactly* that last night!

[VFK57]

I retired at 55 due to health problems are in direct conflict with physical fitness of top level required to do HVAC work. I tried to get a related to my training and experience sedentary job with no result. I am sure that age discrimination is wide spread almost in every country and US is no exception. I would rather be healthy as it was in my 30s but there is no regret that I had retired. I have seen many friends and relatives who died before retirement while detailed planned for it. Enjoy your life while you can.

[supernova72]

Another FWIW here. My Megacorp retired me at 55 which was somewhat unexpected so my 60 days to prep for it were not quite enough for me (I wanted to work 2 more years).

Now 8 months into *ER* I"m still adjusting to the free time after 31 yrs of M-F and commuting etc.

What I've found is there are jobs out there if you want to work retail for $11 an hour or if someone would bring you back on full-time corporate again---but seriously age discrimination is real.

Our winters are long here in Seattle so I chose to start traveling some which has been very cool. You meet folks who don't talk about work much at all (I was in Nicaragua, Colombia next).

My other advice which others have mentioned is having a landing spot hobby wise or PT job wise. For me the best part is more family time and sleeping in a bit after getting up at 6:30am for 31 yrs. I don't miss the Seattle are commute either or going to Costco on a Wednesday at 2pm. Ha. Cheers!