Passing the Time: the Thread for Retired People

There isn't one. There are two when-do-you-retire threads, which is different. This is like that female-posters-only thread; you must be retired to post here. If you're not, you're only allowed to look in and see what it's like on the other side of the divide.

Kidding.

Since I'm on the supply (substitute, if you're American) list for next fall, you could say I'm technically not retired. But that's more like a hobby, just a way to bridge the few months before, if all goes well, I sell my house and move out of the city. I'm retired.

Everyone I see asks me what it feels like (after two or three months of asking me what looming retirement felt like). So far, not a lot different from every other summer--it won't really kick in until the fall. But the one difference is trying to shut off that internal mechanism that is always reminding you that you will--on Monday, next week, next month, whatever--be back at work, and the voice that goes along with it, saying you should have done this, that, and this other thing today, and all you did was this. I haven't been able to shut it off yet, but it does end with a new voice now saying "What's the difference?" That feels good, which is maybe not good, or at least I haven't yet become comfortable with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRLw_qyw9Bw

I am qualified to post here. On the other hand, I haven't much to say on the subject apart from my extreme gratitude that such a thing has been possible for me.

My job as co-guardian to my daughter seems to involve a fair amount of work most weeks, mainly doctor appointments, combined with a permanent state of readiness for emergencies, so my perception of retirement is very much skewed by that. If I were somewhat less tied to those grave responsibilities, I would be spending much more time away from home and away from the city, while I still have the good health, the interest, and the energy to pack up and go. Those resources are not endless.

I thought of you, Aimless, when I started this. "Is there anyone except us two?" I think I could probably guess at two or three others.

(And I knew, from other threads, about your situation, and obviously our retirements are very different.)

I think it's going to get very lonesome in here in a hurry.

It's a forward-looking thread, there for when people are ready. They can come on 10 or 15 years from now when they cross the finish line, look back at the first few posts, and think (best Norm Macdonald voice) "Oh yeah, clemenza...always talking about getting old, and then he started this thread for retired people, then, uh, then I think he died...I remember that guy!"

sup

They can come on 10 or 15 years from now

sadlol

some of the stress that I used to wrap around myself automatically every day lingers in the form of hyper-vigilance about aging parents and related family problems, but the intense feelings of urgency associated with alarm clocks, meetings, and deadlines faded pretty quickly

in my case retirement happened much earlier than I'd planned and has required a very-much-not-in-character level of risk tolerance; the next few years in particular will be financially interesting as we anticipate/postpone Social Security and other age-specific income; this situation has the weird effect of making me feel simultaneously much poorer and much wealthier than I used to be

I feel unbelievably fortunate to have stumbled through to a 20th-century style retirement and worry whether younger family and friends will be as lucky

Best wishes to everyone in this thread. Keep living the dream for the rest of us.

I, for one, will support every possible increment toward a more socialist society in the USA that can be squeezed from that particular turnip, right up to my dying day. The myth of the rugged individual standing apart on his own two feet is an insupportable delusion that must be destroyed.

I'm not there yet, but thanks to a combo of lolcapitalism, generational affluence, random luck, and widespread privilege, I hope to be doing something that looks like "intermittent retirement" within the next ten years (I'm 45). Working on putting together the elements that will allow me to work off-and-on as I choose in whatever time zone I happen to be occupying.

I've met some folks from the generation behind me (millennials, I guess) who are pursuing the FIRE thing. I guess I'm going for something in between FIRE and the boomers' "38 years at one company, sweet pension" plan.

old person dgaf swagga itt

bookmarking for 6th july 2048

My school board never deleted my Google Classroom, so I told the students to keep using it for chat until it was taken down. I took a look today, and in all my posts now I'm identified as posting from "Unknown Location 1" instead of my old school. That one hurt--I feel like Neil Young's song without a home.

very few Americans will make it here

I hope/assume you mean continued work, not early death.

Someone in my position is always going to worry that you pulled the trigger to soon. I think the timing is right, but I could have kept working another eight years, and I'm aware that one serious medical catastrophe will make all my financial calculations irrelevant.

I love listening to bitter former tory voters complaining on Radio 4's consumer rights program about how the party they've voted for have deprived them out of the pension they were expecting and they are now going to have to wait a few more years for it. EAT IT and DIE you old selfish tory bastards!

I'm still working though I'm almost Aimless old.

I was wondering about clemenza's plan to move out of the city. Is this to live more cheaply or something you've always wanted to do? I used to think I'd do this but I like having so many things to do here, and I'm in a relatively low density area of the Los Angeles megaplex.

Enjoying the video's title "Passing the Time-Cream" which sounds like it could be a Tim and Eric bit.

85% to make money on the real estate transaction--I can get a bigger house (everyone who retires downsizes, but I've got lots of stuff I need more room for) for half of what mine is worth.

But I have steadily lost interest in Toronto the past decade. As I've said elsewhere, book/record/video stores are close to extinct (or, in the case of record stores, so expensive they may as well be). Traffic becomes more of a nightmare every year. I'll miss the many rep theatres and the documentary festival. And friends, of course. But if I end up where I want to, I'll still only be a two-hour drive away.