What ER means to me.

[jeeper]

Also the other thing I've discovered is how quickly I have forgotten my "work life". After spending 27 years in Telecommunications, I seldom think about it after less than 90 days! I guess I was ready to go.

E86S54

This was the most puzzling part to me. After only five months of retirement, I rarely think of even the good people where I was employed all those years. Because I spent so much time with them I thought they would be missed, but really the only time spent with them was at the j**. Without the j**, we would not have a whole lot to talk about anyway.

 

[Disappointed]

I guess to me, time has become more valuable than money.

Sadly, I am still working on this.


While I believe I am FI I can't seem to escape the trap of the security my job affords me I think about the tradeoff constantly but can't seem to pull the trigger.

mP

 

[Stevewc]

Funny you folks bring up not being rushed.
About a week ago I basically got ugly (just a little) with a neighbor over nothing.
Afterwards I thought about the incident.
Why did I freak ?
Then I realized, I felt pushed or rushed.
I passed him the next day on the road leaving my home.
Waved him down - told him we would talk later that I felt like he was pushing me to do something I wasn't ready to do. Which he was !!!
He said he didn't mean to do that and we are OK and moving on now.
This guy doesn't even know I retired. I'm not letting many people know.
Anyway, not being pushed about anything must be high on my priorities these days.
Steve

 

[ScottFromUtah]

This guy doesn't even know I retired. I'm not letting many people know.

Now there's a topic for a new thread. Steve, how about starting a new thread. I'd love to know how many others keep it secret.

 

[Onward]

I'd love to know how many others keep it secret.

Me.

 

[Emeritus]

I'm a retired Professor. As they say, who could tell?

 

[flyfishnevada]

Now there's a topic for a new thread. Steve, how about starting a new thread. I'd love to know how many others keep it secret.

I make a point of telling people if they ask. I get some weird looks, I am only 44 and I look young (mainly because I shave my head so you can't see the diminishing gray). Mostly people are supportive, but I feel self-conscience when telling someone older that is still working. Most folks seem to envy me rather than resent me. I don't want to hide it though. I worked hard for this and I am proud of it even if not everyone understands.

It is interesting how the viewpoint changes with FI. While I chose to take on another job, it is not something that I have to do. The work environment can be, to some, a bit tense but that rolls over me. It is a "tempest in a teapot" type of thing that I have the freedom to ignore. I do my work professionally, but it does not define who I am.

Everything seems so important partly because you need to job to pay your bills. You need to really invest yourself in your job to be successful. I know lots of people that retired from my employer and continued to work or just worked past their pension date for one reason or another. Their attitudes totally changed. They don't need to work, they choose too.

 

[martyp]

It was indeed Goonie, and the rest of his lengthy post from which that paragraph is taken, is wonderful too. Here is Goonie's original post:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/er-angst-39894.html#post734830

I like Goonie's post. I just started thinking about retirement last June and struggled with the concept a little. The way I describe it is not so much kindergarten but graduating from high school. I've got a lifetime of experience but I'm not quite sure where it is going to lead me. The next phase of my life is uncertain but it's something I am ready to do.

 

[Redbugdave]

Hey there Marty! Yes, you hit the nail on the head. I feel like I am on the beginning really great! Like graduating high school, as you said, only better. For me, with getting older, life only gets better and better.

When we are young, we have job and work worries, money is uncertain, moving around can be expected, and not much seems in personal control. Retirement is the beginning of a new life. A "bowl of cherries"! 3 years to go!

 

[Blackwoodt]

Everything seems so important partly because you need to job to pay your bills. You need to really invest yourself in your job to be successful. I know lots of people that retired from my employer and continued to work or just worked past their pension date for one reason or another. Their attitudes totally changed. They don't need to work, they choose too.

My attitude changed the day I told my boss that I was good to retire, that I was financially set and could get private health insurance.
I plan on trying to hang in for another 22 months to get the cheaper retiree health insurance at 55, but what a feeling of freedom!

 

[scrabbler1]

One of the people on this forum wrote this (below)...Maybe you Khan or HaHa...it comes closest to the way I feel now of anything I have read. Whoever it was...Thank you! I think about it all the time.

"I've had friends who've asked me, "So what's retirement like?". My answer to them is, "Remember when you were a little kid...before the big people sent you to kindergarten? Remember those seemingly endless days of play? Those days when you got up and ate breakfast, then went out to play? Then you'd come in for lunch and a nap, and then go back out to play until supper time? Then after supper you'd go out to play until dark or until bedtime...whichever you could get away with? Then you'd start all over the next day? Well, that's what retirement is like!!!". "

I meant to reply to this part of Redbugdave's post but I forgot to.

For me, being retired reminds me not of when I was a little kid but of the 7 weeks between the time I graduated from college and when I began my first full-time job.

While I had some important things to do such as finding a place to live and moving into it, I also had a LOT of fun in those 7 weeks 25 years ago. I had my college graduation. That night, I moved my belongings out of the dorm I would see for the last time and the next morning leave for a 4-day car trip around the NY Metro area, visitng friends and relatives. A few days after I returned, I flew to California for a fun family gathering, my favorite trip of all the trips I made there in the 1980s.

After I got back to NY, I still had a few weeks to decompress from the whirlwind of travel and fun before moving my stuff into my new place in Manhattan. Those weeks felt like being retired, too. Other than a trip to Manhattan finalize my new living place, I had no other obligations. I had access to a car (unlike when I was in kindergarten LOL!) so I could come and go as I pleased.

Being retired the last 2 years has been a lot like those 7 weeks, having no set time to wake up or go to sleep. I had no major obligations such as work and could have all the fun I wanted. I was also mobile, being able to drive. My living expenses were taken care of without having to work, although not the same way.

 

[Emeritus]

I did a note for DW showing that we have a total of 75 years of law school, medical school and full time work equivalent. and that none of our parents, grandparents or siblings had worked as much as a couple. I think it finally penetrated her consciousness that there is more to life than the work she is doing.
Our youngest gets married next week and I actually get to be the Father of the Bride for the second and hopefully last time.
So for the first time this year she is taking all of her annual leave and dipping into her vast store of accumulated leave. It's wonderful.

I'm working 1/3 time doing teaching and research. More fun than golf.