T-Minus
Recycles dryer sheets
I have 139 days left, before I FIRE. I'm lookimg forward to being able to answer your question.
Two years.
My criteria personal is this: if you feel like every day is Saturday/vacation, you're still looking at it from a work context.
Once you stop feeling like that and begin a "this is how I live" feeling, then you're 'really retired' and moved on from the work perspective. YMMV
It took DW, who ER'd at 58, at least 6-8 months to get over the toxic workplace she left. I imagine if it was a happy place it would have been less. There might be some residual effects still one year later. It takes a while sometimes to get over mental trauma.
How long did it take to realize that you were retired? It has been a week and I still feel like I have to go to work.
Then at a recent party (now 5 months since ER) with some work friends, the kind you've known across decades, and some of them started the inevitable "so and so's got me working on xyz now" and I had the knee-jerk of "ugh him? that? No!" and then 10 seconds later, back to ... yah i don't care lol, but I hope that works out for you.
About four hours. I sneaked away from work after lunch on my last day before terminal leave. If anyone had noticed, I doubt they would have cared.How long did it take to realize that you were retired? It has been a week and I still feel like I have to go to work.
About four hours. I sneaked away from work after lunch on my last day before terminal leave. If anyone had noticed, I doubt they would have cared.
As for that "have to go to work" feeling, I strongly recommend that you lay down with a pillow under your head... until the symptoms pass. Repeat whenever necessary.
I had a ret ceremony from the AF which was great closure. When it came to the airlines I did what you did and slipped away.
Two weeks into FIRE the feeling is going away. New Years I lit off fireworks. I hadn't done that since I was a kid. We are going to our happy place the end of Jan, Maui!
I'd watched way too many steely-eyed killers of the deep sobbing their eyes out on the podium during their ceremony, and I wasn't going to be one of them.I had a ret ceremony from the AF which was great closure. When it came to the airlines I did what you did and slipped away.
I'd watched way too many steely-eyed killers of the deep sobbing their eyes out on the podium during their ceremony, and I wasn't going to be one of them.
I also saw way too many man-hours wasted on getting ready for ceremonies, parading the ego-fest, and cleaning up afterward. During the 1990s drawdown it got so bad that some commands were doing retirement ceremonies 2-3 times per week, and larger commands were reverting to weekly group "retirement recognition ceremonies".
My shipmates and I chose a lunch BBQ followed by early liberty.