Retirement, any regrets

[ajkula66]

I had become eligible for the earliest possible retirement on one Sunday four years ago.

By 3pm on Monday I was gone for good.

Never regretted it for a nanosecond, and truly wish that I could've done it at least a decade earlier, but am grateful for being able to swing it when I did.

 

[rocu]

The best advice I ever got about retirement was to do it the minute you can afford to. I personally waited a few more years. My only regret is that I didn’t follow that advice.

 

[johnh89]

Retirement, any regrets ?​

No .

 

[retslock]

I recently retired basically because of peer pressure and spousal pressure. I am having buyers remorse. Anyone else feel this way?

Retired from what, music or a day gig? I retired from the day gig years ago with absolutely NO regrets. I'll never retire from playing music unless I'm no longer capable and I don't see that in the near future.

 

[retslock]

Special Ed teacher for
28 years. Retired 6 years ago. No regrets at all.

Ditto for my wife - singer/songwriter/guitar player. She was in special Ed for many years and did some great work making a real difference in kids lives. Some are now grown men gainfully employed and have stayed in touch with her. She doesn't regret retiring though. It was very demanding and at times even dangerous work but she is loving playing gigs and being a musician again.

 

[hrodbert696]

I can't really envision retiring. I'm in my mid-50s, so theoretically it would be about ten years away. But years of grad school meant a long delay in starting any kind of retirement savings, and it seems unlikely I'll be able to afford to retire promptly at that point. I teach college, which has its challenges and stresses but it not very demanding physically, and which means I get to work with young people every day. My Blues Bros. tribute had a gig at a senior community recently, and it just struck me how alien that environment was from my day-to-day. It would be a really hard transition. I'd much rather be talking to students about saints and werewolves. So as far as I'm concerned currently, I'm going to stay in the saddle till they drag me off of it.

 

[turf3]

... My Blues Bros. tribute had a gig at a senior community recently, and it just struck me how alien that environment was from my day-to-day. It would be a really hard transition. ...

You know, you don't go straight from full time employment to a "senior community".

My wife and I (right on the cusp of retirement age) know many dozens of retired people in their 70s and 80s, and some into their 90s, who live in the general community just like everyone else, and have no interest in sequestering themselves in a "senior community". Most of the people who go into those kinds of environments do so because of physical ailments (theirs or a spouse's) that make it no longer sustainable to live completely independently. But such ailments are by no means inevitable.

 

[MdC64]

Ditto for my wife - singer/songwriter/guitar player. She was in special Ed for many years and did some great work making a real difference in kids lives. Some are now grown men gainfully employed and have stayed in touch with her. She doesn't regret retiring though. It was very demanding and at times even dangerous work but she is loving playing gigs and being a musician again.

That’s awesome.
I worked mostly with emotionally disturbed mid high kids and had a few come by and visit throughout the years. Some even apologized for being difficult and thanked me for not giving up and putting up with them.
My bass/guitar playing came in very handy and would often have music class with the kids. I’d bring in a cajon, tambourines, shakers etc and had kind of a junk yard band in class.
I played worship bass at church for many years but after I retired I decided to play bass locally so I auditioned for a few bands and am enjoying playing out and making some extra money.
It’s nice having more time for music, home projects, camping and fishing too.

 

[Pep]

Your retirement sounds very nice. My plan went south but I did not. No longer interested in traveling, Mrs R fan is not one to eat in restaurants, band days are over due to being just short of deaf. I have played a little golf. Other than that working on the house. Probably will look for work after my projects are done. Somewhere along the line it was ingrained in me that I am nothing without a job, for some reason I can’t shake that. Just killing time here while the Mrs. wraps up some business. I would much rather be on the clock.

I felt the same way you do for quite a while. That caused me to wait to retire until this year in March at the young age of 76. Right now I realize i could have retired by the time I was 70.
I know you said you are done with music because of your hearing. Have you given any thought to building parts basses. It’s a lot of fun plus you can make a little money if you look for deals on the parts. I’m also building a unique bass cabinet that has 4-10s in a column with the drivers stacked from the top down. I’m pretty excited about this one as it will get the bass closer to ear level.
You can find something interesting to do to give you some motivation and purpose while retired.

 

[hrodbert696]

You know, you don't go straight from full time employment to a "senior community".

My wife and I (right on the cusp of retirement age) know many dozens of retired people in their 70s and 80s, and some into their 90s, who live in the general community just like everyone else, and have no interest in sequestering themselves in a "senior community". Most of the people who go into those kinds of environments do so because of physical ailments (theirs or a spouse's) that make it no longer sustainable to live completely independently. But such ailments are by no means inevitable.

Yes, I'm aware of that. My grandmother was the only member of my family to live in any kind of assisted living and she had alzheimer's. I just meant how accustomed I am to working with young people. It actually came home to me some years ago when I worked part-time at a public library (the only teaching at the time was adjuncting), and I was struck by how rare it was to have a patron in their 20s. Stepping away from the environment would be an adjustment.

 

[FilterFunk]

Retirement suits me just fine.

I have four activities that I love and can do on a daily basis - singing, making music (including writing and recording my own songs), reading, and working out. Just making music can easily take up a whole day. And there are plenty of other daily things I enjoy, like watching sports and movies, spending time on Talkbass (of course!), and just relaxing in my backyard.

There's a nearby park in a nice, relatively new neighborhood, and it's a great place for taking walks or just sitting under the shade of a tree. During the week while school is in session, if I get to the park from early to mid-morning on weekdays there's usually only a few parents with very young kids, a couple of people on bikes, and a couple of people walking their dogs.

I've never been much of a spender, and I've always been a homebody. I'm okay with travel, but I've never had a burning desire to travel extensively. The occasional day trip or weekend getaway is all I need - preferably someplace peaceful, like a nature preserve. Interacting with family, posting here on TB, keeping up with extended family and friends on Facebook, and whatever encounters that happen while being out and about is all the socialization I need.

I've always had simple wants and needs, so a simple, peaceful retirement works for me. No regrets whatsoever.

 

[HubbardsFate]

I was supposed to be retired from the field work portion of my job earlier this year, but am out in the bush due to staffing issues. I'm currently pooping on a composting toilet, and sleeping in a wall tent 350km from the nearest paved road, up in northern British Columbia.

Can't wait to retire...

I hear your pain. I live in BC too, and spent 15 years in forestry consulting. It was fun/cool for awhile, the work was definitely interesting in some ways, but I eventually came to despise being away from home so much. Got out for good in 2016, and into a different line of work.

 

[bobba66]

Got laid off at 63. Would have liked to work a bit longer but it didn't happen.

 

[Nuisance]

I had checked out years ago. I was ready.

This is where I live. I mentally checked out a couple of years ago when I left a CEO position due to an unmanageable board. Working for another CEO now........I now have two years to go and I CAN NOT WAIT. I could probably retire now, but prefer to wait for my pension and SS to kick in before I do. Why drain the 401K unnecessarily?

I will have zero remorse. My hobbies (music, video gaming, fishing, hunting, home improvement, and long walks with my wife) align perfectly with retirement.

Talkbass is my distraction (from work) now. That, and surfing Reverb for a few last pieces of gear I want to acquire while the cash flow is still good.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Retired 07/11...my 67th birthday, but....

A month before, the powers-to-be asked "what would it take?....". You can fill in the blanks. Apparently, they had no luck nor applied themselves when finding my replacement or training the orangutan. Still seeing clients 3 days a week for beer & gear $$$.

Riis

 

[Deleted member 394181]

Much of our retirement time is spent, not complaining, on caretaking. My in laws are in need of help due to medical issues. Is this not a common thing? Unless one has no contact with elderly parents, isnt it kind of inevitable? If your planning on retiring, take into account that things will happen. Not trying to be harsh here. I love not having to go deal with idiots at work anymore.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

I feel sorry for people whose sense of self is so wrapped up in their job that they don’t know what to do when they retire. That exactly where corporate America wants us - get our “sense of fulfillment” from making them rich.

I alway thought of myself as a musician who does IT management to pay the bills, not an IT manager who plays music part time.

I cook most dinners, do most of the shopping, do part of the laundry, cleaning, my music, yard work, household bills, exercise daily. Who has time to be bored? If you’re bored, you’re probably not pulling your weight at home and/or taking good care of yourself.

This.

I took a month long sabbatical between my last job and my current one. I still woke up at 7am most days and would “work” until 5pm M-F with household chores / projects, the gym, cooking, and personal hobbies. The major difference was I didn’t have to rush through any task and if wanted to take a break or mid day nap I could, but staying busy was never an issue. Down time was actually down time and restful.

It was also amazing to discover just how much stress I was carrying daily because of how demanding modern jobs are. I’m not sure if notification fatigue has been studied, but I don’t know how more people don’t completely break under the constant bombardment of Teams pings, emails, and texts all asking for completely different and unrelated asks a couple hundred times throughout a single day. It’s genuinely madness what work has become, and I don’t know how people can handle the chaos without some form of medication.

Fortunately, my wife and I have been part of the FI/RE movement and have been saving a substantial part of our gross income the past few years. We could retire today if we really wanted to, but I have a great job with amazing benefits, so I plan to milk that another 7-10 years just to give us more margin. But yeah, I’m excited to retire and be officially out of the rat race.

 

[friskinator]

This is a huge thing, even for those of us decades away from retirement. My wife and I have employer-sponsored health insurance and we flat-out could not afford health insurance on either the marketplace or privately if one of us was to become unemployed and lose it. No matter how the pie is sliced, health insurance *individually* would cost each of us more than our mortgage payment each month. We would have to go without it, period. Scary to think about.

Yup, that's a big one. My wife is a Canadian citizen, and we've thrown around the idea of eventually retiring there since our healthcare costs would be much more affordable than the US.

 

[Gorilla Monsoon]

Much of our retirement time is spent, not complaining, on caretaking. My in laws are in need of help due to medical issues. Is this not a common thing? Unless one has no contact with elderly parents, isnt it kind of inevitable? If your planning on retiring, take into account that things will happen. Not trying to be harsh here. I love not having to go deal with idiots at work anymore.

^^^^THIS^^^^ Lost my father five years ago. My mother has since ruined our lives. She took up with the most repugnant individual imaginable. They drink. Wife’s sister just diagnosed with Alzheimers. Now i cant get out of the DC area, which I’ve grown to despise. Things like this put a kink in the armour. Quality of life diminishes. Apathy sets in. Getting old is difficult enough. Knees stop working- thats the first thing to go. PSA numbers creep up for 2/3 of us. Friends and family begin to drop off. It’s worse than you think it is. The TV news makes you want to throw sammiches. Small things- failure of appliances infuriate you, because everything is junk now- and you come to the realization that its just going to get worse. These are things money cant fix. I cant imagine having to deal with this carp and still having to work for some oligarch somewhere. Get out while you can.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Under the current rules, I'm eligible to retire any time. Under the previous rules, I wouldn't be eligible until next April.

As it sits, I'm looking at exactly 6 years from next Friday before I retire. There's a bunch of factors that may make it less than that, very few that make it more than that.