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Every day is Saturday.....

Yooper_Bob

Yooper_Bob

Socially Inept
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Member Number
126
Posts
193
Location
Da' UP, eh!? (Upper Michigan)
Exactly one year ago today, I officially retired from the work force.

Since then...every day has been Saturday (well...except for Sunday....I put on pants and go to church most Sunday mornings).

It's hard to believe that it's been a year already. I was very fortunate to be able to retire at 58. I say "fortunate", but it took 35+ years of hard work, planning, and saving.

I don't know how I ever found the time to work. The past year has been filled:

- week long spring break in Gatinburg, TN.
- 35 days riding the Trans America Trail
- 10 day fishing trip to Canada
- several weeks at the lake house over the 4th of July
- spent a week at the Central Adventure Rally
- two weeks in Utah

Whew! I'm tired just looking at that list. But...gotta get ready for a 10 day trip to Tellico Plains in two weeks for some riding! :ricky

Let's hear how your retirement is going. :ear
 
I was an adherent of Dave-Ramsey-esque philosophy long before I heard of the guy. This enabled me to retire the first time at 43 and spend time with my kids during their early adolescent years. As they reached their mid-teens, they started developing outside interests and were less enthusiastic about doing Dad-things.

I re-joined my old company and worked there for another 16 years. I re-retired four years ago - right before the COVID shutdown. Now my focus is grandkids, exercise, guitar, travel, motorcycles & cars: started doing HPDE track days and continuing work on my '65 Mustang restoration. I'm trying to get back into flying after selling my Cessna T210M back in 2004 - if I can talk the FAA into giving me a medical again.

I am fortunate to (mostly) have my health. My brother died at 46 due to a seizure. My Mom was ill for 15 years before passing at 64. Dad was a Jeweler who passed at 77. He rarely took a vacation - after all, someone had to keep the store open. He quit working to spend two weeks in Hospice before he passed.

Plan for tomorrow, but live for today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed.
 
30 years of hard work, planning and saving allowed me to retire in 2015 at 56. I could have retired earlier
but was never sure about "having enough saved" (I did).

First year I was all over the place, I wanted to do everything, motorcycle, travelling, bicyclie, camping, kayaking, museums.........
didn't work out too well as I did a BIT of everything. So put a plan together and now I lay out specific times for my hobbies - usually
following the warm weather.

I spend 120 days per year away in my toy hauler with my "toys" - usually close to a BDR. A slower pace allows me to concentrate
on specific activities. When I am home, time is spent with odd jobs around the house, working on my classic car, finding
new mountain biking trails, road riding., kayak, enjoying the Shore .........

I don't have kids, so my wife joins me 70% of the time, we both enjoy "me" time, so it works out.

I currently planning for a 2? month trip to Canada around the great lakes this summer, then enjoy the Fall
at home and off to the South-West for the winter (maybe Baja for 1 month).

I had a health scare last Fall, and realized I have to get through my bucket list while I am mobile.
As I have told myself for many years " i can't buy time".

Everybody is different, 2 of my siblings are "nesters" and 2 are "gypsies" - but we are all happy with our
choices.
 
Soggy Biscuit said:
I'm going to be working until I drop dead. Every day is Monday.
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I think I'm in the same boat, and I actually fear retirement somewhat. Every person I know that has retired has developed serious health issues shortly thereafter, mostly due to becoming inactive. I get stressed when I don't have work to do and will dream ( literally )about doing jobs. Getting back to work after a slow spell improves my overall everything. I'm not happy if I'm not busy.

Congrats to the guys in here that pulled it off, though! 👍
 
Shinyribs said:
I think I'm in the same boat, and I actually fear retirement somewhat. Every person I know that has retired has developed serious health issues shortly thereafter, mostly due to becoming inactive. I get stressed when I don't have work to do and will dream ( literally )about doing jobs. Getting back to work after a slow spell improves my overall everything. I'm not happy if I'm not busy.

Congrats to the guys in here that pulled it off, though! 👍
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We're going to be paying the dues for the elite until there is no more money to go around. My relatives retired in their late 40s and became fat slobs. They're still alive but their health is waning. One of those uncles is married to the VP of a large healthcare company. Not sure who is gonna go first: her or him. My cousin's cancer saga took a lot out of the both of them, especially my aunt.

When I was on injury leave 10 years ago, the main thing was extreme levels of boredom. I couldn't do anything due to having insurance people surveil me. Even if I wanted to, all the good shit was pretty far away. I'm constantly bored shitless while on vacation. Work keeps my mind occupied. It's like a bubble from everything else in the world.
 
Shinyribs said:
I think I'm in the same boat, and I actually fear retirement somewhat. Every person I know that has retired has developed serious health issues shortly thereafter, mostly due to becoming inactive. I get stressed when I don't have work to do and will dream ( literally )about doing jobs. Getting back to work after a slow spell improves my overall everything. I'm not happy if I'm not busy.

Congrats to the guys in here that pulled it off, though! 👍
Click to expand...
One of my brothers retired 1 year ago in march at 63. He's had it rough since. He had a displaced vertabrae in his lower back that needed to be realined and held with a plate and screw. That was last summer - less than 6 months after he retired. Less than 2 months later he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He got surgery in December. Everything went well. Doctor prescribed him with a round of chemo just to be on the safe side. The chemo led to sudden death syndrome about 1 month ago. His heart just stopped. Luckily for him, a neighbor found him outside where he collapsed almost immediately. EMS was super quick and they were able to bring him back. About 10% of people who suffer a cardiac arrest outside will survive it. My brother did not only survive but did not suffer any long time side effects. Doctors recommended a defibrillator which he had put in a couple of weeks ago.

My brother has been active his whole life. He rides motorcycles too. He had been looking forward to retirement but life has taken a different turn for him. He is reassessing life altogether. While he doesn't remember anything, he knows he was dead for about 10 minutes. That thought in itself is hard to deal with.

What happened to my brother is food for thought. I have a few more years to go before I can retire. I am not planning on working extra. Not one day.
 
I retired 7 yrs ago at 59. Little Wife and take a 5-8k road trip every summer , and I do 8-12k miles on a motorcycle a yr. Mostly 150-300 mile loops. I still have cattle so I still feed in the winter and bale hay in the summer. I bow hunt from Oct 1st thru Jan 1st almost every day.

All and all , I enjoy being retired. I plan on turning the cows over to my son in the next couple yrs. Than I'll spend some time in the winter in South Texas.

Life is good , we only have 1 shot at it , be happy , all we have that can't be replaced is time. Enjoy the time.
 
Health is definitely the #1 concern in retirement in my opinion. Even more important than money. You can always earn more money....no way to "earn" more time.

I have seen lots of people retire to the couch where they sit for the next 20-30 years. You HAVE to stay active! I walk 3 miles a day 5-6 days a week, and try to do weight training a minimum of 3 days a week.
 
So.... this was interesting and something I didn't know pre-retirement.

I made my first withdrawal from my 401K back in November. It was pretty easy to do myself online. There were 3 options available to me on the screen:

  • withdraw a little
  • withdraw it all and close the account
  • roll the entire amount over to something else

I chose "withdraw a little", and had my money for the next month or so.

The wife did NOT go crazy at Christmas, so didn't need any money withdrawn in December.

January came, and I jumped online and again....easy peasy.... withdraw enough for the month.

Since the market usually does pretty well during first quarter, I only withdrew enough to get us through the month. I want my money working hard and not me!

First week of February the bills are rolling in, so I again go online to fill my coffers.

Hey! Wait a minute! Where did option 1 go?

I don't want all of it and I don't want to do a rollover. Thankfully Fidelity has good customer service, so I dial them up. Why can't I just withdraw a small amount like I did twice already. Oh...your 401K is set up such that you can only make a withdrawal once a quarter. This rule was established by the employer.

Gee... that would have been super helpful to know before I made my January withdrawal. Now I have bills and no money!

Thankfully, years in the independent consulting industry taught me to keep a really big emergency fund. So, I tapped that to get me through until I could make another withdrawal in April.

It was very annoying that while making my withdrawals that no warning message popped up stating this quarterly restriction. I have a money market account that limits the number of free transactions per month and gives you a count down each time you use one.

I also read through all of the fine print available to me about the 401K account, and nowhere could I find anything about the once a quarter limit. But Fidelity customer service had that info available in seconds after I called.

Learn from my experience and check any withdrawal limitations BEFORE you start depending on them.
 
I've been retired for nearly 3 years since stress nearly killed me. I'm in the camp of being busier than before I retired. I have decades of accumulated projects that I never got around to while working, partly because when I got home from work I was stressed and tired. Some of those projects need to be done, and some are things I'd like to get done. Then there are non-projects that I'd like to do. I'm not bored unless I choose to do something boring.

My health has improved due to reduced stress, and I'm losing a bit of excess weight that's been bugging me for years. I get more exercise just working on/playing with projects than I ever got at work. I hear that the guy who took over my job isn't great at it, and various people wish I was still there. Too bad. I plan to stay retired.
 
I retired 5 years ago at 61 years old. I thought that every day would be Saturday except for Sunday. In some ways it is but Saturday is still ride day because most of my friends are still working. I don't miss working but I do miss the paycheck. I'll get a big raise in June when I start collecting social security.
 
klaviator said:
I retired 5 years ago at 61 years old. I thought that every day would be Saturday except for Sunday. In some ways it is but Saturday is still ride day because most of my friends are still working. I don't miss working but I do miss the paycheck. I'll get a big raise in June when I start collecting social security.
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What bike are you buying in June? :D
 
I'm still riding my 2016 Africa Twin. Bought it new as a left over spring of '17. First new bike I've ever bought.

I really wanted a new T7, but they were still 2 years out at that point.... and I wasn't willing to wait. Now that I've got it all set up, I'm sticking with it.

My goal is to put 100K miles on the bike. I'm almost halfway there. :ricky

Getting ready for a 10 day trip to the Tellico Plains area next week. That'll rack on a few more thousand.
 
Yooper_Bob said:
I'm still riding my 2016 Africa Twin. Bought it new as a left over spring of '17. First new bike I've ever bought.

I really wanted a new T7, but they were still 2 years out at that point.... and I wasn't willing to wait. Now that I've got it all set up, I'm sticking with it.

My goal is to put 100K miles on the bike. I'm almost halfway there. :ricky

Getting ready for a 10 day trip to the Tellico Plains area next week. That'll rack on a few more thousand.
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Awesome! If you’re passing through the Utica area and have a minute let me know and I’ll buy you lunch. 👍🏻
 
How could I be a fireman, a climber and have a feeling of standing on top the world if I did not work yesterday. My boss wants to retire. But he had the biggest smile ever saving his dream/retirement from going up in smoke. Most able-bodied people never retire here. They just switch to work they like more.

the coolest thing about working is getting to play with all the tools
 
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