Retirement

[Chris & Patricia]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

This is me one day after retiring from AT&T. That was 5 1/2 years ago. I have never looked back.

Attachment 39889

Fred M.

Seems appropriate, a Green Frog, rhymes with Red Dog!

[Iowa Dave]

Well then why “Red Dog” and not “Chartreuse Frog”?
Iowa Dave

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by Dave Walter

... Just finished running my third marathon a week ago (started running five years ago) and had a finish time that will qualify me to run in the Boston Marathon in April 2020. Too bad that I won't be able to fit that trip in with a cross-country journey in the Escape. Definitely another time though.

Does that make you a "qualified success"?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

This is me one day after retiring from AT&T. That was 5 1/2 years ago. I have never looked back.

Attachment 39889

Fred M.

My last day was on a Friday. The very first monday morning, my phone chimed with a message from an associate I rarely hear from, he was pulling his servers out of the local internet colocation where I had colocated a personal server I had a whole lot of club free internet stuff on, websites, email lists, etc for a half dozen different groups and organizations (mostly amateur Astronomy related). I had like 2 weeks to find new homes for all that stuff, and it was mid December..... So my first 2 weeks of retirement were spent on near panic level internet IT stuff.

[outwiththedogs]

Timing is everything of course, and sometimes the timing is just right. I was fortunate to have a good retirement story. I left at almost 67, still happy in my work (international public health), still loved my US-based co-workers and the incredible and talented people I worked with in other countries. Indeed a blessing to get to go out on a high note.

It was almost an instant adjustment and I never looked back other than to feel amazingly lucky to have been where I was doing what I was doing. It was a pleasant surprise, as no matter how prepared you are, you really don’t know until you do it.
As Iowa Dave noted earlier in this thread, with camping there are new friends appearing—an unexpected pleasure that we are very happy about.

A toast to good health and good camping! This forum was wonderful as we ordered and prepared for our Escape, and is an ongoing resource.

Catherine

[Farther]

I'm in the throes of trying to adjust to retirement so this thread is pertinent to me. After 15 years in the fire service (firefighter-medic) and then 25 years as a first responder in hazardous materials management (local government environmental health REHS), I retired and found that my association with these "macho" professions has prepared me poorly for retirement. It's mostly my own fault for not developing any real hobbies. It also didn't help that my wife of 43 years decided, after I retired, that she no longer wanted to live with me. I jokingly say that after I retired she got too much of a good thing with me being home all the time. Other than taking the dog, she actually did us both a favor by moving out but it left more questions than answers. I signed the divorce settlement last Wednesday without hesitation.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Farther

I'm in the throes of trying to adjust to retirement so this thread is pertinent to me. After 15 years in the fire service and then 25 years as a first responder in hazardous materials management (local government environmental health), I retired and found that my association with these "macho" professions has prepared me poorly for retirement. It's mostly my own fault for not developing any real hobbies. It also didn't help that my wife of 43 years decided, after I retired, that she no longer wanted to live with me. I jokingly say that after I retired she got too much of a good thing with me being home all the time. Other than taking the dog, she actually did us both a favor by moving out but it left more questions than answers. I signed the divorce settlement last Wednesday.

Retirement to most is a point in their lives that some change occurs - but your situation is somewhat extreme! Maybe this is a good time in your life to really evaluate what you want to do in your retirement. It sounds like most of the ties with your pre-retirement life are broken leaving you free to do as you please.

If I was in your situation, I would consider selling everything she didn't take with her and find a good place to retire to have fun.

Maybe one of these spots would do.

The World’s Best Places to Retire in 2019
https://internationalliving.com/the-...ces-to-retire/

ps. My heart goes out to you. I'm sure your current situation is not the way you thought retirement was going to be.

[Farther]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

I'm sure your current situation is not the way you thought retirement was going to be.

You are correct and I have actually done most of what you suggest. I sold, gave away and left behind everything I could and sent half of any proceeds to my wife including our house of 20 years and the signed title to the SUV she took. I now live in a tiny (almost microscopic) house, across the street from my youngest daughter's family and enjoy the company of my six-year-old grandson often. Life is looking up. Now to get another Corgi and an Escape trailer.

[sturski]

Another involuntarily retired engineer. IBM Watson Health lost $500,000 in 2018 and laid off half of their staff, including myself. I intended to work another year and a half; but that's the way things go. I figure I'm at least a year behind on home projects, I'm trying to get caught up.

[gbaglo]

I'm trying to correlate all these prematurely retired engineers with the statement "there will always be engineers".

[Rossue]

Yeah, the reality is most engineers work for corporations who especially in the U.S. are known to "chew you up and spit you out" as my dad said. He was BSEE from West Point who retired from the USAF after 20 to work for Boeing at Cape Kennedy- as it was called then. They laid off a lot of folks after Apollo 15 and we had to move to Orlando where he eventually worked for Martin-Marietta where he coined the phrase. This was after he scolded me after graduation for not getting more serious about a career. "You will find yourself unemployable". Thank God he was right and was self-employed most of my adult life.

Like Red Dog I retired from AT&T- yet I was a 1099'er, which to me was way better than most of the stories I hear from those who were employed by SBC of Texas- which is really what the new AT&T is. Sold my wireless stores in 2013 and since then they have changed hands three times. First buyer had 450 stores, second 1200 (subsidiary of Gamestop-ck their story, not good) and now the current agent has 2000. Dodged a bullet!

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

I'm trying to correlate all these prematurely retired engineers with the statement "there will always be engineers".

I don’t know much about Engineers or their careers but I do know that when I was at Iowa State there were a lot of engineering students who weren’t from the United States. I’d assume that the global economy has driven a lot of jobs offshore. My son told me a while back that he was supervising 27 employees, 17 at his place of work and 10 in foreign countries. It’s hard to say where it’s all going. I advise young people to work hard while they can and sock some $$$$ away for what could be more than just a rainy day. I’m glad I worked when I did, I’m not sure I could do it again. We’ve got enough ground that food will not be a problem and I know how to butcher a chicken. Study the Mandans and the Hidatsu. Learn to like bean soup.
Iowa Dave

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Farther

I'm in the throes of trying to adjust to retirement so this thread is pertinent to me. After 15 years in the fire service (firefighter-medic) and then 25 years as a first responder in hazardous materials management (local government environmental health REHS), I retired and found that my association with these "macho" professions has prepared me poorly for retirement. It's mostly my own fault for not developing any real hobbies. It also didn't help that my wife of 43 years decided, after I retired, that she no longer wanted to live with me. I jokingly say that after I retired she got too much of a good thing with me being home all the time. Other than taking the dog, she actually did us both a favor by moving out but it left more questions than answers. I signed the divorce settlement last Wednesday without hesitation.

So sorry to hear . You are not alone and I know doesn’t seem like it now but this can turn from the negative to positive . New doors can open you never thought possible before . Sending positive thoughts your way Pat Yes get that companion and the trailer !!!

[Farther]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Study the Mandans and the Hidatsu.
Iowa Dave

When the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa freely roamed Iowa, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana people were sparse and the game was plentiful. Far different than what we have now.

[Mike Lewis]

I graduated from high school in Florida in the mid-1970s, and as Ross said the Apollo program had ended and engineers were being laid off by the thousands. So I never considered engineering as a career field. But I had no career guidance in any event.

If I were advising a young person today I would say two things:
1. Find as much guidance and advice as you can. Get mentors, talk to experienced older adults, and ask about their mistakes as well as their successes. Thinking I was smart enough to figure everything out on my own when I was young turned out to be a big mistake. The world is too complex for someone to make their way through it without advice.

2. The other thing I'd say is to learn when to quit. Despite the adage "a quitter never wins blah blah blah...", sometimes you should. A person needs to know when to leave a bad situation. Too often I'd stick things out to the bitter end when I would have been better off just to walk away and try something else. Freakonomics even did a podcast on this. It's a skill worth learning, if it is learnable.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by Farther

When the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa freely roamed Iowa, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana people were sparse and the game was plentiful. Far different than what we have now.

One of the things they did was to dry and store vegetables that they grew. I was fascinated by these caches which were on the SE side of their large communal huts where they stayed in cold weather. Covered with prairie hay they removed the hay to recover the dried vegetables rehydrated them and stayed alive in very harsh conditions. Resourcefulness and an understanding of alternative methods of survival when the chips are down should be part of our school curriculums. I saw a fencerow of blooming elderberries yesterday interspersed with a fence covered with wild grape vines and and a couple plum thickets and just knew that they would probably only be harvested by birds and small wildlife, but it wouldn’t have to be that way. That was my point. Although park squirrels aren’t bad eating and there’s more of them than people who know how to skin them.
Iowa Dave

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

One of the things they did was to dry and store vegetables that they grew. I was fascinated by these caches which were on the SE side of their large communal huts where they stayed in cold weather. Covered with prairie hay they removed the hay to recover the dried vegetables rehydrated them and stayed alive in very harsh conditions. Resourcefulness and an understanding of alternative methods of survival when the chips are down should be part of our school curriculums. I saw a fencerow of blooming elderberries yesterday interspersed with a fence covered with wild grape vines and and a couple plum thickets and just knew that they would probably only be harvested by birds and small wildlife, but it wouldn’t have to be that way. That was my point. Although park squirrels aren’t bad eating and there’s more of them than people who know how to skin them.
Iowa Dave

Hi: Iowa Dave... I wonder if those folks used the "Downed chips" for cooking fuel too!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Alf
I’m sure they burned buffalo chips and anything else that would give off heat. But here in Iowa we don’t realize the value of this non fossil fuel and instead amuse ourselves at the Iowa State Fair with a cow chip throwing contest. Again. With no respect for the past, there’s less hope for the future.
Iowa Dave

[Bea]

My heart goes out to all those struggling to adjust to a new normal. Hang in there! I feel fortunate. I retired years ago as an Emergency Room RN - loved every day I worked and felt extremely fortunate to get paid all those years for what I loved to do - helping people and working with amazingly, talented and bright coworkers.

My 2nd career choice came with, oddly enough, no training, and at times was more stressful, but in the end, I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever to become a 'Stay at home Mom'. Hats off to all you 'Stay at home parents'! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. There will always be patients to care for, but children are only young once. What a joy it was to be able to support, guide and watch our 2 full-time 'pediatric patients' grow up to discover their own amazing gifts and talents and make good choices in life.

My husband is an electrical engineer and jokingly refers to himself now as a 'Power point' engineer, same place for 32 years - enjoys it but he does have to travel A LOT . He's not ready for retirement yet so we decided to 'practice' retirement with an Escape 21 - can't wait to practice more! ....Cheers to all the forum members! May we be neighbors in a campground soon!
__________________________
Every day is a gift - that's why it's called 'the present'.

[Hilola]

Wow, there sure a lot of engineers here. I always wanted to be one.