Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum For the retired folks

Worst part of my disability is called exercise intolerance. Fancy words for just about useless and decrepit. That's the worst part mentally not being able to do what you know needs done. Took about a year to get through that and you've got to have a plan to keep strong mentally. No matter what your insurance Medicare/caid social security WILL try to mess with you simply because they know you can't do anything back to them legally.(Yeah that sounded like a Backwards Cowboy sentence.) Whatever you do just do something make ammo pick up a hobby throw fertilized kudzu in your work places lawn just anything to do and not allow negativity to creep in

I’m 61 and have been retired over a year. I have a 10 year old son. Baseball and football keep me busy. The wife loves it. She still works. When she gets home dinner is ready. The house is clean and clothes are washed. I have a great pension also. Call me Mr mom. Folks tell me it must be great to sleep all day. BS. My day starts when momma goes to work. It could be 0245 or 0545 at the latest. Do I miss my old job? No. The newer employees sucked. My advice is do nothing for 6 weeks and get a plan. It’s not hard.

Retired in January at 57. My knees forced me to. Now my knees are in better shape than they’ve been in years because I’m not walking miles and miles everyday on concrete. So far I love it. Do want I want when I want to for the most part. Stay as busy as I want to be. I’ll probably get back into doing bow work and string building next year, if I feel like it.

I have coffee with buddies every morning. Every time somebody asks what I’m doing today, I say I’ll tell you tomorrow. 90% of the time I have no idea

my 53 birthday is this month. As I type this this iam trying to get through "what the doctor thinks" is yellow fever; been sick for 7 days. Two weeks ago I was lifting the most weights I ever lifted in my life, today iam finding it hard for my neck muscles to hold my head up. i'll be back but there ain't no guarantees after 50, every day is a gift from God. it could all change in one day.

Best decision I ever made. Don’t wait! Retire as soon as you can!

I love that place. Used to fish it with my son. Would love to take my daughter there.

I’ve been retired ten years and highly recommend it! I’m in the woods, on the water, or traveling most of the time.

i will be elligible for retirement when im 48, im 32 now…and if my math is correct..with inflation compounded…i will make just enough money to buy gas to drive to my new job

Yeah. That would be my main concern. Health insurance alone pre-Medicare ain’t cheap.

I’m sure Aaron (the guy that runs the place) would allow that. He loves kids and loves to have folks at the camp. I can talk to him if you’d like.

I retired at 63 and my wife unretired me the next day. Remodeled the kitchen then the laundry/ guest bath area. New siding and gonna build a new deck when my knee gets a little stronger. I do take long breaks whenever I want.

It's not as much fun as you might imagine. Make sure you have something to do.

I know several men who have worked till they die for one reason.
They are not spending 24 hrs a day with the old lady.

Retired 5 years ago at age 50.

I take consulting jobs, almost exclusively out of the country, whenever I want to. I turn down more than I take. The money is GOOD.

Stay busy doing...things.

72 tomorrow. I left the corporate world when I turned 61 and started working for myself.
Still have one customer that I do cad work for but that’s it.I'm fine with that.
I’m able to fish during the week which is a huge blessing. Wife retired at 60 when she was laid off.
We do stuff around the house, garden, work out and fish among other things to stay busy.

Being a homeowner and landowner I can’t imagine I’ll ever worry about not being busy. Work gets in the way of taking care of the place now.

I retired at 62. I loved my job and I was very good at it. I was a Civil Design Lead for a very large power utility company and managed in the neighborhood of 70 projects a year. I had a team of about 6 contractors that all worked for me doing design and engineering work. I managed all the work, everyone's portion of the work, I went to the field and measured everything, made sketches of what I wanted from everyone, supervised the final product. checked most of the work myself, and provided on site technical support, and when I wasn't completely covered up with that, I also did most of the structural inspections of all our power plants. It was a lot of work, but I loved it. I had a great team and a great bunch of people to work for, both in engineering management and the folks I worked for at the power plants. At least two guys took over my job when I left.

Why do I say all of that?

I say all of that to emphasize the point that a lot of times we as human beings derive a lot of our self-worth and who we are by what we do for a living. Think about it, you meet someone new at a party or a bar or a get together and what's one of the first things you ask about a person or that person askes about you... "Hey man, what kind of work do you do?" It's just a natural thing. So a lot of people are kind of apprehensive about retiring and giving up their job, because for many folks, who are naturally driven people, their job is part of who they are.

I've seen guys retire from our company and the a year later you see them back at the company with a contractor's badge on making way more money than they did working full time, so I know the money is a draw, but then you ask them, "Why did you come back?" and their like, "I just got bored..." I'll be honest, I faced some of that too. I remember at my retirement party one of our vice presidents (She was a friend of mine at work) told me, "You'll be back as a contractor in 9 months." i was like, "No I won't either."

It was a weird thing to just walk away from a great job, a great bunch of folks, a great career at the height of my earning potential and with more power and autonomy than I had ever had as an employee. It was a difficult decision. But I never realized how much stress I was under all the time managing that many high dollar projects that were critical to our power infrastructure. I remember walking away from my retirement party and singing that song in my head, "Because I'm free, free as I'll ever be..." and that's honestly the way I felt. And I still feel that way.

What you have to do is take all that energy and drive and instead of giving it all to "The Man" is to now turn around and give it all to yourself and I will be honest, it's a unique experience and a unique transition. I work on a lot of projects around the cabin, I have a huge list of projects and stuff i want to do like, learn Spanish, start playing the guitar again, shoot more, hunt and fish more, i love to ride my motorcycle, kayak, exercise, hike, etc... We spend a lot of time travelling too. I try to take something, just one thing, everyday and work on it It keeps that feeling of accomplishment everyday. And when you do work on a project, you have to pace yourself, because now you have a lot more time to do it, and the key is not to get in a rush anymore, because there's always tomorrow.

What I try to do now is to not overschedule anything. I pick small tasks or if we are travelling just a few places that we are going to try to go to that particular day, and leave time for a nap, or just relaxing, having a cocktail and talking about things with Mrs. Irish. I mean I've kicked ass at work for 50 years, you deserve some time to do the things you want to do at a pace you want to do them.

I hope that helps.

I will be retiring next summer at the age of 67. I stayed longer because my job now allows me enough off time to keep the properties and the farms running on track. I always had a grass cutting side gig that paid very well and was pure cash in my pocket. I plan to pick some of that back up just to pay for my “toys” I pick up along the way. I would like to travel some with my son to help him with the rodeo productions they do and this would allow me to see places I never was interested in. I don’t fish, but I have plenty of land to hunt on that I can control. I’m still in good mental health but the physical is now slowing me down. I just have to go a little slower in order to last all day. I’m going to have some fun-I just don’t know what it will be.

I feel your pain.