As a military retiree (USN, 28+ years) I often hear, "You military retirees are so lucky to be able retire so young and get such a nice pension." There was a time when I would mention how lucky we were to get to move every 2-4 years, spend time at sea, have overseas duty, have to move kids from one school to another, etc. I've mellowed over the years and now I just smile and say, "Yes, it's very nice."
Funniest Comment Someone Has Said About Your FIRE?
- Thread starter Kickernick
- Start date
As a military retiree (USN, 28+ years) I often hear, "You military retirees are so lucky to be able retire so young and get such a nice pension." There was a time when I would mention how lucky we were to get to move every 2-4 years, spend time at sea, have overseas duty, have to move kids from one school to another, etc. I've mellowed over the years and now I just smile and say, "Yes, it's very nice."
Offgrid Organic Farmer
Full time employment: Posting here.
Many times people have told me that I am 'lucky' to have served 20-years.
I am a submariner, within the bubblehead community we have an extremely high divorce rate. I was very lucky to have found a wife that stayed married to me, and who managed our investments while I was underwater for months at a time.
HI Bill
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2017
- Messages
- 2,556
The most common question I get when I tell someone I'm planning to retire early, is "how can you afford to do that?"
When I tell people I'm retired they look at me and say "Must have been a really long time ago."
I cross paths with the person who hired me at MegaCorp 40 years ago. I tell folks that 'This guy hired me, and I accepted the offer. I think we both screwed up!!"
This is killing me
Here's what I hear:
#3: You are too young to retire (Yawn, but still catches me by surprise. Once I replied that retirement is wasted on the old. Rather unkind, but it reflects a my understanding that time waits for no one.)
#2: You smile so much now!
#1: You've stopped cursing all the time!
Early retirement has been very good to me!
Here's what I hear:
#3: You are too young to retire (Yawn, but still catches me by surprise. Once I replied that retirement is wasted on the old. Rather unkind, but it reflects a my understanding that time waits for no one.)
#2: You smile so much now!
#1: You've stopped cursing all the time!
Early retirement has been very good to me!
Related to the interview process, I w*rked with a departmental team to interview candidates for tech positions. We stumbled on the formulation "must be smart enough to do the job, but dumb enough to take (accept) it". We got tired of our top choices turning us down, presumably for sexier gigs on the west coast.
Got me thinking, though, that perhaps I too was dumb enough to take it and keep on taking it year after year, forever the good soldier. Had enough of taking it and FIRE'd with my young trophy wife a few years later.
Lawrencewendall
Full time employment: Posting here.
When DS turned 15, DW calculated that I had more time away from home then at home. Can’t get it back.
folivier
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2009
- Messages
- 2,025
The one I got frequently was “how can you be gone for so long?” when we would mention we were going somewhere for a month or longer.
calmloki
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Many trades risk their lives on the job. Not to slam a military or police/fire career, but as an Oregonian I'm real aware of logging, farming, and fishing deaths and injuries. To say nothing of roofing and construction jobs.
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/high-paying-dangerous-jobs
SheitlQueen
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2017
- Messages
- 629
My mother was happy when I retired, but made the comment it made her feel really old when her kids were starting to retire.
MRG
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2013
- Messages
- 11,078
+1
I spent 10 years logging and in mills. I remember two times when I really thought I was going to die, I came very close. Both were on the logyard, one of the most dangerous places to work. There's probably 100 more that could have been fatal but weren't.
My best friend worked with us for a while, his pant leg got caught in the saw arbor spinning 600 RPM. Luckily his jeans split on the seems and he was able to get free. Otherwise it would have been a very bad day, the diesel turning the arbor wasn't going to stop. Poor SOB was standing there in his tidy whities shaking, he never came did back to work.
I can't remember all the folks who died on the job, but there were a bunch. One logger I'll always remember, he'd been telling me about a huge walnut tree he was trying to buy from the landowner. Last time I saw him he told me he'd be bringing it by in a week or so. He died trying to skid it out, too big for his equipment and he rolled his tractor over.
The funniest thing someone said about fire to me? Someone here found out I did IT in KC and they asked if I wanted an IT job. I laughed for a long time.
Last edited:
Still, of the many professions available, most do not involve significant risk of death. And in my mind, military, police and firefighters provide a huge public service. You couldn’t give me a big enough salary or pension to go fight a war.
I imagine drug-dealing would be high on the list.
Last edited by a moderator:
aja8888
Moderator Emeritus
Handing all that cash would make one a target for the bad guys!
SumDay
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2012
- Messages
- 1,862
I'm retiring in 63 days, and as the word has gotten out around Megacorp, I've been asked more than once: "are you 65?" Me: "Nope". Them: "then how can you retire?" Like you have to ask the retirement police for permission or something. And, in the industry I'm in, it's shocking how many are asking that question.
athena53
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 11, 2014
- Messages
- 7,378
One person here said their manager's reaction was "But.... you're not old enough to collect Social Security!"
Ed B
Recycles dryer sheets
I got a lot of this. They knew I wasn't 65 but they were seriously puzzled as to how anyone could retire before Medicare. Several of the ones who asked me that are seriously uninformed about options and how to budget for healthcare cost before 65, and others are totally unaware of the nice features we have with our Megacorp 401k plan for pre-59.5 retirees.
Several could retire today with enough in assets, pension, etc. to enjoy about 100k annual income stream with very minimal risk but they haven't investigated it enough to understand and are frozen in place over the perceived risk of walking away from nice 6 figure salaries with good benefits.
The one individual that truly concerns me is a gentleman in very poor health, which is getting worse as I type this. He is well within the 18 months cobra window to carry megacorp healthcare to Medicare. He is brilliant in the nerdy sort of way where he can deconstruct huge data to the atomic level and spin out lots of metrics, but he has little idea what benefits he has already earned and are available to him.
His primary excuse for sticking around until SoSec full retirement age is he doesnt want a decrease in his lifestyle. It is no exaggeration when I say his odds of reaching full retirement age slim and getting worse.
LuckyDog
Recycles dryer sheets
An old friend gulped: But that is not fair! She has no idea...
Brat
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
NRG: I am the granddaughter of a shingle mill owner: Dad would say that there is no such thing as a dumb logger, they are killed the first month in the woods (applied Darwin), also guys who work in a shingle mill have short fingers.
I got comments when I retired at 48 but won't repeat them here.
I got comments when I retired at 48 but won't repeat them here.
Yeah, hard to equate drug dealing with police/fire/military in terms of benefit to society.
Last edited by a moderator:
I ER’d just after turning 56 from a company that didn’t offer “early retirement” until 63 and didn’t have any healthcare benefits post-employment. People seemed amazed and said “but how will you get healthcare?” Duh - DH had already been buying his own insurance for years, so I just went onto his policy. Many don’t seem to realize there is insurance available for purchase out there - you only need money to buy it, but don’t have to have a job!
Offgrid Organic Farmer
Full time employment: Posting here.
When DS turned 15, DW calculated that I had more time away from home then at home. Can’t get it back.
No doubt about that.
I averaged 7 months a year living underwater for each boat I served on. After 20 years that adds up.
