Eight Years Retired

[ExFlyBoy5]

Eight years ago today was the last day that I had to show up somewhere in order to get a paycheck. As others have mentioned, time has not slowed down in the least and it's down right scary how quickly the time has passed.

Of course, some may argue that since I went to law school and even took on a few paid projects that I have not truly been retired. You know what? That's OK. It's MY retirement and no one else's. I look at it this way...I *didn't* have to go to law school and I *didn't* have to take on those gigs...I had the FREEDOM of choice. Before that, I didn't have a choice. I HAD to go to w*rk for the $$$ to roll in. Now? That isn't required...it's all passive which I think is the best way to make money.

I am also happy to report that I have not been bored. Of course, there are days that are not very exciting but that's OK, I enjoy not-so-exciting days. As I mentioned in the thread about leaving the house, I can do many days at home without leaving (by car) and I am thrilled with that.

Do I miss anything about my former life of w*rk? A couple of things. It was enjoyable to hang out with most of the folks I w*rked with and when we ACTUALLY got to fly the airplanes...well, it was one of the coolest jobs to have. It was fun, never the same, and could be quite the adrenaline rush. I was happy to do it and it usually wasn't even much w*rk. Oh, and wearing a flight suit didn't suck either since it's like wearing pajamas to work. Nonetheless....

I do NOT miss the office politics, the constant barrage of meetings, traffic, endless delays when trying to get the airplanes airborne, getting up at an appointed time, commuting in terrible weather, dealing with too many folks I just didn't like...well, you get the point.

The only real thing that has been disappointing is that my DW continues to w*rk. As much as I have tried to convince her that she could do anything else she wanted, she still keep on w*rking. As odd as it seems, it seems to bother me more than it does her. She has been at the same company for many years and has a lot of time off so that's one of the nice things about it. Her j*b doesn't interfere with any of our travel. I suppose that another nice thing about spending 22 years globetrotting thanks to the AF, I don't have much need to travel these days...so it all works out OK.

Well, sorry about the ramble. I could go on and on but I will save the readers the time and effort.

 

[GravitySucks]

Enjoy!

Sent from my LM-Q850 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[pacergal]

Isn't retirement wonderful? You are in charge of your day, every day. Enjoy!
And yes, time is going by far too quickly, this month is 6 years for me.

 

[EarlyandLate]

Congrats! It's a wonderful life. I'm 7 years out from my second retirement. My 90 YO dad has been retired longer than he w*rked! He always gets a chuckle out of that.

 

[street]

Congradulations on year 8!
I'm 6 years in and don't know where my time went in the last 6 years. I left a trail and been enjoying every minute of every day.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Congrats! It's a wonderful life. I'm 7 years out from my second retirement. My 90 YO dad has been retired longer than he w*rked! He always gets a chuckle out of that.

A very worthy goal, indeed! I hope to be retired MUCH longer than I worked.

 

[Bigdawg]

Oh, and wearing a flight suit didn't suck either since it's like wearing pajamas to work. Nonetheless...."

First of all, congratulations.

Regarding flight suits: I was a young mech for 9 years before going to OCS and getting my bars. Working uniform for flight crew was flight suit and for mechs it was coveralls. For some reason flight crew could wear their flight suits anywhere. Mechs could only wear their coveralls on the flight line. On non flightline work days (training,etc...) we had to wear cami's or service C's/D's. When I checked into my first fighter unit as a maint control officer my skipper told me that when he was a JO, their skipper made them be in service C's/D's until 2 hours prior to a flight and had to change out of their flight suits one hour post flight. I thought that was a great idea. One time we were at the tower waiting for POTUS to make an appearance. We all had to be in cami's. Airfield closed for the day. After listening to POTUS speak we all headed over to the group HQ for a brief. On the way to HQ all of the aircrew B lined into the squadron, changed out of their cami's and into zoom bags. And you are curious as to why non aircrew folks think pilots/aircrew are a bunch of P$I)K'$. Some are pretty awesome and some not so much. OP, my bet is you were one of the good guys. I was authorized to wear the zoom bag but rarely did. I tried to set a good example for my troops. Even as an O, I spent much time on the flight line encouraging the maint crew.

Now back to your regular scheduled program regarding the celebration of 8 years of ER.

 

[Retch The Grate]

congrats on year 8.

 

[pjm-7]

Congratulations on eight years. I am now at 8 years and 5 months. Eight has been great!

 

[audreyh1]

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your retirement anniversary musings - those are always fun to read!

 

[Car-Guy]

I've lost count but I think I was "freed" about 10 1/2 years ago... Looking back at my ~40yr working career at 2 different mega corps, I can remember some of the highlights, mostly from International travels, but the day to day stuff is mostly a big blur now.


No doubt that time has moved faster since my retirement.

 

[Dreamer]

Sounds like a good 8 years being retired. Congrats!

 

[folivier]

I'm on year 12 now and still enjoying the freedom. Spoke with a younger guy I worked with for 27 years yesterday at grandparents day at GD's school. He said he has a couple more years then he'll retire. Also spent the afternoon visiting with my best man who is also a frat brother. Great visit with him and his DW.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Oh, and wearing a flight suit didn't suck either since it's like wearing pajamas to work. Nonetheless...."

First of all, congratulations.

Regarding flight suits: I was a young mech for 9 years before going to OCS and getting my bars. Working uniform for flight crew was flight suit and for mechs it was coveralls. For some reason flight crew could wear their flight suits anywhere. Mechs could only wear their coveralls on the flight line. On non flightline work days (training,etc...) we had to wear cami's or service C's/D's. When I checked into my first fighter unit as a maint control officer my skipper told me that when he was a JO, their skipper made them be in service C's/D's until 2 hours prior to a flight and had to change out of their flight suits one hour post flight. I thought that was a great idea. One time we were at the tower waiting for POTUS to make an appearance. We all had to be in cami's. Airfield closed for the day. After listening to POTUS speak we all headed over to the group HQ for a brief. On the way to HQ all of the aircrew B lined into the squadron, changed out of their cami's and into zoom bags. And you are curious as to why non aircrew folks think pilots/aircrew are a bunch of P$I)K'$. Some are pretty awesome and some not so much. OP, my bet is you were one of the good guys. I was authorized to wear the zoom bag but rarely did. I tried to set a good example for my troops. Even as an O, I spent much time on the flight line encouraging the maint crew.

Now back to your regular scheduled program regarding the celebration of 8 years of ER.

Ah, the flight suit. I spent 6 years in maintenance before crossing over to the "evil side" of flight ops.

The last straw came when we landed at Dyess AFB during an exercise. I was the "flying" crew chief on one plane and was quick to get the jet bedded down before the bus showed up. While the flight crew and I were standing at the front of the plane, the ops group commander came blasting up in his golf cart handing out beer to the crew. When I went to grab one, he yanked it away and made a snide remark about, "Ops takes care of ops and maintenance takes care of maintenance" and sped away. Obviously, I was none too pleased. Instead of fuming about the disparities between the flyers and "non-ers" (all those that didn't fly) I figured out that if I couldn't beat 'em, I would join 'em...and so I did.

Nonetheless, I did my best to remember my "non-er" roots and treated maintenance (and other support folks) the way I would wanted to be treated...and hopefully those that were under my supervision over the years learned to do the same.

But yes, there is a reason why flyers are often called, "zipper suited sun gods" among other not-safe-for-this-forum phrases.

 

[Dtail]

Congrats on the retirement celebration.
In year 6 myself and will never go back to work.

 

[38Chevy454]

Congrats on successful 8 years. You're exactly right, retirement is for being able to do what you like to do. In middle of my 6th year and while I also did a small part time job few years ago, no intention of doing any more.

 

[novaman]

Congrats!!

 

[W2R]

How did I miss this thread? CONGRATS!!

 

[RobbieB]

Have fun!

I'm going on 9 and hey, dunno how I had time to work before -

 

[Koolau]

Just completed 17. It just can't be. I still recall when I'd been at Megacorp for 17 years. It seemed an eternity. Retirement has sped up time 2 or 3 fold at least. No regrets on entering FIRE and few since. YMMV