Old Folks Thread

Warp daddy said:
I was very fortunate because I could draw my pension and got my health insurance so it was a very sweet deal.
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I don't have a pension but I knew that going into this business. Insurance is one expense that I didn't consider, but early on in my working life it wasn't as big of an expense as it is now. This is one thing that could keep me working for longer than I may want to. Insurance costs are out of control, as we all are aware of.
 
Harvey said:
I think about that too. For me, retirement might be about getting the RIGHT amount of work where I still feel retired. If that turns out to be zero, then so be it. But I'd like to start with maybe 15 hours a week to see how that feels. A cherry job, where the client knows I am going to consistently deliver, and gives me the flexibility to ski new snowfall, and write about it.
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My path to an early retirement started by working part-time. Officially 32 hours a week but I averaged 40 hours. When full-time I averaged 50 hours a week. I only worked at one company after finishing grad school.

I went to work Mon-Fri but not until 11am or so. Having worked part-time most of the time I was in grad school, I knew that was the way to avoid having stuff pile up. If people know you will be back in a day, the tasks just wait instead of getting done by someone else one way or another. I actively avoided working on weekends. I didn't work at home, even a few tasks could get done using a dial-up modem. :)

Eventually shifted to 20 hours a week. Didn't need benefits like health insurance being married to an IBM'r. I took advantage of having started with my company when it was a startup, so there were executives and senior management who knew me. Not many middle managers in a company with 20,000 people can work half-time. I had a Director title, no direct reports, and did special projects internally or was the project manager for small short-term consulting projects for clients.

The next stage was being fully retired while enjoying being a full-time parent with elderly parents close by. My husband thought I'd get bored and go back to work after the kid started school. I knew from the start it was a retirement.

My boss "retired" when he and his wife had twin boys. He was older and she was mid-career. He got bored when his sons started Kindergarten. Went back to work, but not as a Sr. Director with management responsibilities spanning multiple locations. He was much happier as a Sr. Analyst doing actual programming, as well as some project management. He joined the company at the start when there were only seven people.
 
Warp daddy said:
Yeah that's exactly what did in a 5 yr "bridge " approach from Ft work to full retirement.

Worked Only Tues, Wed and half day on Thurs ,strictly during the 30 week academic calendar

Added bonus I w was working for myself,not the college

I had a partner and the college joffered us the office space and the overhead.

We gave them a share of our bottom line and also established Endowed Scholarships .

The college also made coin from food service rev.and dorm rev from our in residence seminar series for executives from business, industry and the health professions.

We did 15- 20 (3 day sessions) a yr, each with 40-50 professionals. The money was great, approx 2 and half times what my former salary was

Was a win win and a helluva transition to just ramp down and slide into real retirement and we skied our asses off Mon and Thurs and Friday 😁

I was very fortunate because I could draw my pension and got my health insurance so it was a very sweet deal.

I GOT a life
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I am truly happy for you @Warp daddy. Just one question: What's a pension?
 
They gave me 6 weeks vacation (not counting holidays/personal days) after 20 years.
Took most of it as 1/2 days golfing and skiing. EZ-peasy.
Once the internet got good enough ya could control instruments and process data from anywhere with a secure connection.
Twas fun.
 
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Peter Minde said:
I am truly happy for you @Warp daddy. Just one question: What's a pension?
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LOL Pierre🤣. It's One of the "things" that attracted me to public higher education and kept me there from 22 yo to 52 😉. we also had pretty damn good insurance and 403b plans.

I may have told you guys I AM a weirdo 🤣.

Hell as an economist I started planning and investing for my retirement the day I started at the college at 22 yo.

I understood the Miracle of Compound Interest from an early age and my plan was to bolt by 50 ,well 52 was close 😏.

Was lucky had zero college debt and at 22 yo we had a yooge Polish wedding 😉the guests all pinned $$ on my tux and The Queen's wedding dress. So we had 3 k the day we married and I invested that and in 1965 that WAS pretty decent coin.

BTW I had NEVER been to a Polish wedding so THIS was a total shock 😵‍💫but it was a good start for The Queen of The Hop and I🙏
 
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Harvey said:
Something your parents have, if you are lucky?
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Or if you're married to a public school teacher (now retired) like I am 😉 Our medical benefits are also exceptional.

She's gonna start some part time work soon to be busy. The key requirement she has is being able to take time off whenever she wants so we can travel. Something we couldn't do when we were tied to that darn school calendar.
 
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