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View Poll Results: Where do you draw the line at the term, Retired?
I don't have an opinion, I just enjoy voting. Show me the results! 18 10.34%
If one considers themselves Retired, fine. No skin off my nose. 59 33.91%
Low-stress, part time work can count as retired. If one is retired from their career/profession, then one is Retired. 35 20.11%
As long as the work is enjoyable, at your leisure, and the extra cash is nice but not needed, then that's Retired. 45 25.86%
If a hobby generates money as a happy by-product, well, that certainly doesn't count as work. You're Retired! 45 25.86%
Gardening is hard work. Eating vegetables you grew in your bay window means you're a subsistence farmer. You are not Retired. 3 1.72%
One who does Due Diligence in their Active Investing or any frequent research, fiddling, or fine tuning of their investments is no better than a stock broker or FA. You are not Retired. 1 0.57%
If thou pickest up any object greater than a fig, thou art doing work. Thou shalt not call thyself Retired! 11 6.32%
Other opinion. I may or may not say in comments below. 7 4.02%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 174. You may not vote on this poll

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Retirement Police Poll
Old 06-07-2018, 05:45 PM   #1
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Retirement Police Poll

I doubt this will settle anything, but I'm curious where we generally come down on defining retirement, ratio-wise. I'm especially curious about the percentage of strict retirement police that are among us.

Apologies in advance: I couldn't find a previous similar poll (though a fair amount of discussion), and this is my first effort at developing a poll since junior high. I will not take offense if the mods shut this poll down due to redundancy or poor execution.
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Old 06-07-2018, 05:48 PM   #2
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Are you asking me if I am a retired law enforcement officer?
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Old 06-07-2018, 05:53 PM   #3
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What would be the poll-choices?

something like:

- I'm a fervent ER cop, even your blog is working. pfft, FERBs!
- I draw the line at W2 income, but a rental or a blog or an Etsy side gig... eh, nbd
- IDC what you call it, it doesn't impact me one way or the other
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Old 06-07-2018, 06:05 PM   #4
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X) I don’t care if your retired, I only care that I’m retired


That’s how I vote, I’m furthest from policing that you’ll find, I hate cops
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Old 06-07-2018, 07:02 PM   #5
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I'm in the no skin off my nose.

I consider myself retired - since I resigned from a career as an engineer after a few decades of work. But some would argue that I'm a stay at home mom and not really retired since I still have minor kids under roof that I have to schlepp from here to there... And I'm a landlady since we rent our granny flat out. But I was doing the mom and landlady thing while working... And cutting out going to work is major lifestyle upgrade for me... Less stress. No bosses. I can (mostly) plan my life to avoid traffic. Did I mention no bureaucratic bs?

I'm retired. And I don't care if a) others don't consider me retired and b) whether others fit a neat tidy black & white definition of retired.
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Old 06-07-2018, 07:27 PM   #6
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X) I don’t care if your retired, I only care that I’m retired


That’s how I vote, I’m furthest from policing that you’ll find, I hate cops
Really? Hate cops? I'm kinda slow at times.... Hoping it's a context issue.
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Old 06-07-2018, 08:03 PM   #7
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I'm in the no skin off my nose.

I consider myself retired - since I resigned from a career as an engineer after a few decades of work. But some would argue that I'm a stay at home mom and not really retired since I still have minor kids under roof that I have to schlepp from here to there... And I'm a landlady since we rent our granny flat out. But I was doing the mom and landlady thing while working... And cutting out going to work is major lifestyle upgrade for me... Less stress. No bosses. I can (mostly) plan my life to avoid traffic. Did I mention no bureaucratic bs?

I'm retired. And I don't care if a) others don't consider me retired and b) whether others fit a neat tidy black & white definition of retired.
+1
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Old 06-07-2018, 08:20 PM   #8
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I don't really care one way or the other. If you want to call yourself a ham sandwich, that doesn't affect me. So have at it.
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Old 06-07-2018, 08:43 PM   #9
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Hmmm, interesting definitions.

DH is retired - left career and gets a pension. Not interested in returning to any kind of work.

I left a career (accountant) at age 29 to be a stay at home mom in 1984. I didn't think of myself as retired. I started working very part time in 2006 (age 51) as a school crossing guard specifically to finish my last couple of Social Security credits. I don't need the money and I continue doing it because I enjoy it. Many of the other crossing guards are retired from careers and they do the job for the money.

School is out for the summer. So am I on vacation? Unemployed for the summer? Or retired?

Not feeling retired. Could be denial!

Whatever. Life is good!
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Old 06-07-2018, 08:51 PM   #10
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I like the W2.

If you get a W2, you're not retired.
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Old 06-07-2018, 09:07 PM   #11
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I don't really care one way or the other. If you want to call yourself a ham sandwich, that doesn't affect me. So have at it.

I don't eat meat, so would rather think of myself as a grilled cheese sandwich. But seriously, these were my thoughts too. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to spoil anybody's fun, but now we've started, I'll say what I was thinking. I'm struggling to see why this is important.


I'm a grilled cheese sandwich! I'm a grilled cheese sandwich! And I go shopping in my pajamas!
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Old 06-07-2018, 09:23 PM   #12
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I'm struggling to see why this is important.
Well, it’s not that important. Notice the silly, perhaps even glib, voting choices. Except i do believe it helps communication if we have common definitions of words. Or at least appreciate that our definitions differ and are nuanced.
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Old 06-07-2018, 11:44 PM   #13
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If you are having to go to a place every day to perform something for a paycheck, you aren’t retired... you may be “financially independent” but not “retired”

I’m retired; with my pension you could even say that I’m paid to stay away
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Old 06-08-2018, 01:55 AM   #14
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I didn't say anything because I didn't want to spoil anybody's fun, but now we've started, I'll say what I was thinking. I'm struggling to see why this is important.
Careful!
Using that definition would shut down many of the posts here....
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Old 06-08-2018, 01:58 AM   #15
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If you are having to go to a place every day to perform something for a paycheck, you aren’t retired... you may be “financially independent” but not “retired”:
"Having to go.." wouldn't that imply that the person isn't financially independent?

Perhaps if those people "choose to go..."
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Old 06-08-2018, 04:23 AM   #16
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I don't care if people consider themselves retired, semi-retired, or whatever. I only care that I'm retired.
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Old 06-08-2018, 05:11 AM   #17
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I don't care if people consider themselves retired, semi-retired, or whatever. I only care that I'm retired.
ok, have to agree with retired is not a precise term. Perhaps it used to be more precise but what about a rancher or farmer ? Even if they pass along to next generation they still spend time each day helping out here and there.

More of a mindset than a state of how you classify your daily activities.

3 months from retirement for me, that is I'll quit working every day for da man, no more paycheck from megacorp, I'll be responsible for a paycheck each month. Guess I'll be the boss now so is that just changing jobs ? Full disclosure, we do get 3 retirement checks so guess we still get a paycheck of sorts.
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Old 06-08-2018, 05:28 AM   #18
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IMO being retired means that you don't have a job and you're living solely on passive income: investments, savings, pension and/or SS.

If you have a two day a week hobby job for fun or to get out of the house and make eighty bucks a week, that's ok.

Exception: My trust funded friends who've never worked are NOT retired even though they say they are out of politeness. You need a job to retire from to be retired!! If they've retired from the family business, they're retired; retiring from that money-losing gallery you own and call a job isn't!
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Old 06-08-2018, 05:49 AM   #19
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I think I might already be retired, even though I still work. I know I could quit my job at any time, and I contemplate it frequently. I view retirement as a state of mind.

One downside of this unconventional view is I have been on the lam from the retirement police ever since I mentally retired.
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Old 06-08-2018, 06:10 AM   #20
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I must be retired. That’s what I wrote I was doing in my resignation letter five years, five months and four days ago.
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