Slow Slide to Door on Career

[qman56]

Well I have been reading threads from this site for at least 10 years, and just now registered. Always interesting discussions , but never contributed as was not retired yet. Now I am . Was on the bubble to be fired for final 10 years of my career and stressing on if I could financially afford to retire if my company pulled the trigger on letting me go. All said, been very diligent on personal finances for last 20 years maxing out 401k every year , staying out of debt and dialing in payments on my mortgage so I own my home when I retired. Was fortunate that my company retired me AFTER I reached financial independence… a real spike the football moment when arrived that only my wife and I appreciated as sharing this kind of info is not something one normally tells to everyone they see at grocery store and Starbucks .. lol. Hopeful I can contribute some of what I have learned in my journey so far . All my best. Mark

 

[GoBirds]

How did you keep your sanity in those last ten years at work?

 

[qman56]

How did you keep your sanity in those last ten years at work?

That’s a good question. It was tough. On any given Friday could have got my notice. That said what I did not realize was what I did what no one else could do … so they only let me go after they sold the last discontinued operation I supported and was a few years after I was ready for them to retire my old butt and give me a nice severance package.

 

[COcheesehead]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Gremlin]

Welcome! Congratulations on surviving those ten years.

 

[audreyh1]

That’s a good question. It was tough. On any given Friday could have got my notice. That said what I did not realize was what I did what no one else could do … so they only let me go after they sold the last discontinued operation I supported and was a few years after I was ready for them to retire my old butt and give me a nice severance package.

So they let you go and you got a severance package?

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Welcome aboard!

 

[engineernerd]

Welcome, and congratulations! Your "spike the football" moment deserves a happy dance

 

[pacergal]

Welcome to the forum. Hope to hear more from you about your journey and plans for retirement.!

 

[Cujet]

Welcome to retirement. I love it and you will too. I retired at age 60 and not a moment too soon.

Seems like you have your finances in order and planed well enough.

In my case, the stress evaporated on the long drive home (1350 miles) and my health improved a bit over time. Or maybe when I was not physically well, it was no problem to crash on the couch, instead of forcing myself to work and crash on the aircraft hangar floor. Anyway, the relief from stress was epic. When my ex boss would call or text, the stress came right back, and I realized just how severe it was. Blocked his number. Problem solved.

I do a bit of contract work to keep myself current. It is wonderful to not have the pressures, but still enjoy my line of work from time to time.

 

[TickTock]

Was fortunate that my company retired me AFTER I reached financial independence… a real spike the football moment when arrived that only my wife and I appreciated as sharing this kind of info is not something one normally tells to everyone they see at grocery store and Starbucks .. lol.

Yes. It is nice to be able to discuss such things here.

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[qman56]

Welcome, and congratulations! Your "spike the football" moment deserves a happy dance

Thanks …. Yes retirement in it terms deserves a happy dance !

 

[Koolau]

Feel free to share as much or as little about your situation here. We're a bit nosey but also discreet.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[chris2008]

Isn't it nice when preparation meets opportunity?
Enjoy!

 

[VanWinkle]

Congrats for joining those of us that can no longer be fired!!!

 

[street]

Great to have you here. I never realized stress was such a powerful thing till I ER. It is was a big deal.

 

[qman56]

So they let you go and you got a severance package?

Yes, was deal I was able to work out with them . On one side I was in a very exposed position for getting let go as my company liquidated its discontinued operations … good news /bad news is they kept giving me more operations to support liquidation even after I reached my financial independence threshold … after that they had golden handcuffs in that with more than 40 years with company I was entitled to a year severance if they let me go on a reduction of staff basis . So I ended up being let go at 67 … two years later than preferred but easily 10 years later than I could have been let go, so all in I count myself very fortunate in trade off at end of the day.

 

[qman56]

Isn't it nice when preparation meets opportunity?
Enjoy!

Yes it is … spent more than 20 years with objective to reach financial independence…with continued tweaks throughout the years eventually meeting my goal. Actually being on the bubble to be laid off for such an extended period of time forced me to work scenarios on what I would need to do if laid off in any given Friday. So as my action plans started with staying heavily networked in my industry ready to work my contacts… slowly sliding to only needing to doing contract work with health insurance benefits if let go .. to not needing to work if cut back on living expenses… to actually making as much now in retirement as I did at my job. Interesting journey … now need to figure out how to reinvent myself with another purpose now that I am out of job force and do not need to renter anymore.

 

[Cassius King]

Welcome aboard and congrats. Fear of losing one's income is a great motivator for Financial Independence.

Ten years is a long time to endure. Curious as to why you didn't change jobs/companies? Does your skillset transfer easily to another company or kind of niche where you were?

 

[Exchme]

Congratulations on financial independence and retirement. Sounds like you found a niche to stay valuable enough to hang on and reach your financial goals and get a good severance package to give you a nice sendoff.

Welcome aboard, feel free to dive in to lots of discussions.

 

[qman56]

Actually that was a very thought provoking debate I had with my wife over the years Net/Net at the time I had more than 30 years experience in a large corporate environment… with all the benefit goodies that come with tenure . Also, being in my mid 50s at the time starting the exposed to layoff period … not a lot of good opportunities for a white male in a niche industry. So my conclusion and action plan was to try to make myself indispensable as long as I could knowing that if and when they pulled the trigger on letting me go … I had a severance package , per company policy of a year… which would offer me hopefully a soft landing during which period I would hopefully be able to find comparable work . I succeeded in being categorized as .. I don’t know exactly what he does .. but we need him to solve problems no one can figure out .. so evolved into a curmudgeon insurance policy of sorts cleaning up messes and doing work no one wanted to do .. not pleasant work but it got me to finish line .

 

[Koolau]

I succeeded in being categorized as .. I don’t know exactly what he does .. but we need him to solve problems no one can figure out .. so evolved into a curmudgeon insurance policy of sorts cleaning up messes and doing work no one wanted to do .. not pleasant work but it got me to finish line .

Or "Break Glass in Case of Emergency."