with regards to the phrase "you're lucky", I actually don't have a problem with it, because well to be honest, I AM lucky to be where I am, at this point in life. While sacrificing, living below my means, being smart enough to invest, think long term, etc, played a significant role in it, there are just so many things that could have gone wrong over the years, to derail it. For instance, I got out of a bad marriage before it truly destroyed me. I've never been fired, or laid off. And some things were just lucky timing.
What I REALLY hate is when someone says "
you don't realize how lucky you are." That phrase will usually get you cussed out, and something along the lines of "when I want to hear what you have to say, I'll write the script and give you time to rehearse it properly."
Oh, as for boring jobs, they're not always what they're cracked up to be. My job is pretty boring sometimes, with a lot of down time. The saving grace is they've always been pretty flexible with my schedule, letting me work longer some days, take shorter days, a day off here and there, and so on. As long as the two-week total comes out to 80 hours, between actual work and vacation time, and I don't go over 10 hours in any single day. Actually, if we hit 10 hours too often, they'll start to notice, so I try to keep it around 9.5 max.
I was seriously considering retiring in early 2020. I thought my invested assets were where I was comfortable, and figured I could make it. But then COVID hit. I lost about 1/3 over the course of a month. And they had us start working from home. The investments came back pretty quickly, and I finished 2020 with a pretty nice overall gain, so I probably could have still retired. But, working from home helped breathe new life into it.
I'm still bored at work. But at least now, at home, when I get bored and have some downtime, I can find something around the house to keep me occupied. It sort of feels like stuck in limbo, between working and being retired. I do lose track of what day of the week it is sometimes. Heck, the main reason I know today is Saturday is because "Petticoat Junction" came on after "Barnaby Jones", instead of "Highway Patrol"
It doesn't feel like being totally retired, because work still has some control over my time, and is still a presence in my life. But, it still feels a helluva lot better than when I had to go in the office 5 days a week!