After the positive responses and congratulations on my Retirement thread, the idea came to me that there should be a thread that helps everyone prepare for the eventuality of retirement.
There were many great ideas, comments and great suggestions that came out of the conversation. What I would like to do is put this here as a repository for information for anyone who is:
- Ready to retire
- Close to retirement
- Beginning to plan for retirement
One of the things I came to find out is that no matter how much I had thought I was prepared for retirement, there were still things I had not pondered or prepared for.
So this thread is for all your questions, comments, advice to help others that are close to retirement.
I mean....this board is about a year and a half away from being around for a quarter of a century, and many of us who have been around are there already.
So, please feel free to contribute!
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Originally Posted by ChiTown:
I’ve been thinking about retirement a lot lately. It’s different when you work for yourself. You keep telling yourself that you can do this another year, or keep a few clients of whatever. I’m 57 and could have easily retired at 50 - so $$ is not the issue. It’s the what’s next. I’m not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of growing old.
Working keeps my brain active and inspires me to get out of bed and get moving. I’m wrestling with the idea of what will motivate me everyday going forward when work can no longer be the motivator. I think the answer might be to never fully retire, and to keep a client or two (or a project) for as long as my brain and body hold up. Lots to think about in the coming years. I have a project I’m committed to for the next 3 years that will require about 10-15 hours per week. My thought is to maybe just do that and nothing else and see if that satisfies my need to stay busy/relevant. :-)
I have years to go for retirement, but I've thought about a semi-retirement plan... just getting by on something I really want to do that will either get me out of the shitty parts of IT or out of IT completely.
OTOH, I've already seen that backfire for my dad, who went back to work part time/remotely and now complains just as much about all the BS he gets roped into after saying he'd only come out of retirement do so much and only the things he wanted to do, and it would only be on his time, etc.
OTOOH, people tend to think you are who you are by the time you're 40 or 50 or even 60, but studies have shown you change just as much or more as you get older... so, you never know what you could pick up as a new interest, and trimming down hours in one thing may open the door to acquiring new passions elsewhere. And of course it wouldn't feel as jarring in terms of figuring out what to do with life.
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