Retirement Police Poll

[cooch96]

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.

 

[LOL!]

Are you asking me if I am a retired law enforcement officer?

 

[Aerides]

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

 

[97guns]

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

 

[rodi]

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.

 

[Red Badger]

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.

 

[Dtail]

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

 

[Gumby]

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.

 

[Sue J]

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!

 

[RobbieB]

I like the W2.

If you get a W2, you're not retired.

 

[Major Tom]

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!

 

[cooch96]

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.

 

[FI_RElater]

flashing red and blue

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

 

[brucethebroker]

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....

 

[brucethebroker]

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..."

 

[Ronstar]

I don't care if people consider themselves retired, semi-retired, or whatever. I only care that I'm retired.

 

[RetireBy90]

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.

 

[marko]

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!

 

[Montecfo]

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.

 

[Dash man]

I must be retired. That’s what I wrote I was doing in my resignation letter five years, five months and four days ago.

 

[gauss]

Perhaps our legacy notion that being retired is a binary choice that is causing the trouble.

It seems that being retired is more of a continuous spectrum.

And before you ask, no, I don't want to propose the grading scale!

-gauss

 

[bingybear]

If thou pickest up any object greater than a fig, thou art doing work. Thou shalt not call thyself Retired!

I guess I'm not retired by this definition. I cut my neighbor's grass (1/2 acre) (and my own. The neighbor has diabetes and has both legs amputated above the knees. But I don't charge him.

 

[gauss]

I guess I'm not retired by this definition. I cut my neighbor's grass (1/2 acre) (and my own. The neighbor has diabetes and has both legs amputated above the knees. But I don't charge him.

Sounds like volunteering to me. If that were the criteria, then I surely would not be considered retired.

 

[Doribe]

After 40 years of work and now collecting a pension, yes, I am retired. I have my hands in a few things, some of them generating income. I may pick up a W2 type job in the future to get enough SSI credits.

 

[Amethyst]

"As long as the work is enjoyable, at your leisure, and the extra cash is nice but not needed, then that's Retired."

OPM considers me Retired for pension purposes. So long as that check hits the credit union the first of each month, what anyone else thinks is immaterial.

As for the money, we have been steadily spending it.