Hubs & I retired the same day, May 1st 1999. We sold our Motel. Retirement has had it's ups and downs. Dottie

It will be six years this July since I retired after 30yrs. of service with the State of Ohio, office clerk at a MRDD facility. I was one of the lucky ones, the place was closing and it closed two years after I retired (!). Some employees had 28yrs. in and then either had to transfer to another facility miles away or find another job and lose all that seniority, benefits and retirement.

I was ready to leave, been there since I was 19yrs.old. It felt as though I was on vacation for several years into my retirement!It took months to not get up early in the morning "to go to work". Because I had and still have many interests and friends outside of work, retirement is easy for me. I never feel the need to go back to work and be under a boss again - except, you only get one paycheck a month and it has to stretch.

I thought I would travel when I retired - nope. Can't afford it. Thought I would remodel the house - nope, I still have to save and save for that. So unless you expect to have a substantial retirement check, you may find there will be no "extras". Of course I always manage to find the money for the garden! :)

I gave notice effective 6/1/08. They asked me to stay to train my replacement so I worked parttime thru 1/15/09. I worked for this company 20 years but it was essentially the same job description for the three previous jobs starting after college. Of course I worked at various jobs while completing my education. Everything from stocker in a variety store to sales to waitress. Anything that gave the hours I needed for school. So, I actually worked from the time I was 16 til retirement at 65.

I thought I would miss working but have discovered I love being retired. There is life after work after all.

I worked full-time, continuously for 43 years, the last 10 for myself.
Got tired of it, DH died, and I found a part-time job that was just enough to keep me occupied. That lasted 2 years, they needed me full-time, I didn't want that, and so I left when they found someone to take over.

Retired now for 2 years & 2 months.....and I could never go back.

I love the freedom, I'm involved in some activities, community social service and just plain fun stuff.

We can pick up and go away for a few days at the drop of a hat.

DH and I retired the same day--January 4, 1994. We both took an early retirement...I was 46 (had worked in the government for 28 years); DH was 52 (had worked in the government for 27 years, plus a number of years in the private sector). We both had high-level jobs, with very high stress (and worked 60+ hours a week), so we wanted to get out before we had a heart attack or stroke. Fortunately, we have excellent benefits and annuities. Before retirement, we made sure to have no bills, no mortgage, and comfortable savings. I think that is a key element of a happy retirement.

I loved my job, my staff, and my colleagues. But I love retirement much more. Plus, at the present time, I'm glad I no longer have to deal with political BS.

I retired in 1999 (I think it was) from GTE after 30 years of telecommunications work for several different companies. They kept getting bought out.

Once I got my 30 years in, I got out of there at age 48. Being a cancer survivor, I decided life was too short to have to get up and go to work daily, if it wasn't really financially necessary.

I've certainly enjoyed my retirement so far and don't regret leaving when I did.

What dept or sort of work do you do? I did numerous things in numerous locations (all within an hour away). It was an interesting and fulfilling career...not many dull moments.

Sue

I started working at age 14, in a small town department store and worked there through highschool. Moved from home, got married, worked at a hospital for three years, until just before my first son was born. I went back to the hospital for 2 years and quit when I got pregnant with my second son. The third son came along 13 months later, so I stayed home with them.

I have worked at various companies, mostly in a nursing field, until my husband died in 2007 - retired, after 5 years with a company - it's been 2 years and 2 months - I enjoy it a lot - I belong to a garden club, a community service club and work in my big yard - I'm healthy and content and get to spend lots of time with my grandchildren. I would most certainly enjoy retirement more if my DH could be here with me.

c. curl: I have been in 'plant' my whole career, always inside; never climbed a pole or went down a single manhole. Started running jumper wire on a distributing frame in a telephone office. Did that for 13 months. Got promoted to a switching title and worked on electromechanical and then electronic switching systems from '69 til '78. Started doing routing translating (the paths your call takes from one office to another); also 'opening up' new area codes and office codes so they can be reached by all telephone subscribers. For the last 10 years I've been involved with the ability of businesses to transfer their incoming calls from one location to another - during emergencies or whatever - and to bring them back when need be. I spend a LOT of time fixing / correcting bad records sent to me for this purpose. Since I do so much mistake-correcting you'd think my job was secure because of that. Not so, however...

Taught school for 30 1/2 years. Total burnout at 54, so I took early retirement. I'm 70 now, and have not regretted one single moment of retirement.

Al has a great teacher retirement system, so I'm happy! And so enjoying traveling.

Hub and I retired in 2005; he was 65, I was 57, after we were each diagnosed with cancer within six weeks of each other that winter. I intended to return to the HS library in the fall but decided against it at the last minute. Hub had gone back to work as a journalist four hrs a day for a couple months, decided to retire in August - the stress of his job, though he loved the job, was too much.

Are we glad? You bet! It's been a good five years. Cancer has not returned (yet), kids are raised, grandkids are very young and delightful. We spend almost all of every day talking to each other, reading, eating, playing. I sew, he's learning Spanish and writing poetry and short stories. Lovely!

Sherry

DH and I both retired in 1987. He had a medical from Goodyear, where he was an electrician. I retired from Murphy Mart where I was In the Merchandise office. It closed down so I just retired.
WE spent the first ten years traveling and really enjoyed it.
Now we Are getting to where we are pretty much housebound.

I retired at the end of 98,and dh retired in may 99.I first retired from Burroughs/Unisys in 87,stayed home for 1 1/2 years,got bored and went back to work,only this time in retail,a quilt store,worked there for 10 years.I left there because we got a new mngr that knew absolutely nothing about fabric,sewing,etc and continued to lie to our long time customers about how she could get them the sun,moon and stars.Her office wall was filled with sticky notes of what customers had asked for and that's as far as it got.

Customers complained to us,we complained to the owners,but they didn't listen.Finally i had had enough,so one night her and i had it out(i was asst mgr,even b4 she came,i had turned down mgr)She told me she was gonna write me up,i told her to go ahead,but i wouldn't sign it.She did and brought it out to me to sign,and i refused,we got into an argument over that,so i finally took it from her,and i didn't sign it,rather i wrote on the bottom that i refused to do so,and that i quit effective immediately and they would be hearing from me.

Once the other gals found out i quit,within 2 days 5 more quit,leaving just her and 1 other to do everything.

I came home and wrote a letter to the owners,who i had known for those 10 years and told them what was going on(had told them b4 also) Only this time it was 4 pages long on one of those yellow legal pads.I made copies for myself.

Then a couple gals called me,and we met for lunch and discussed what had been happening,so they all wrote letters as well.Long story short,when they got my letter they didn't know what to think,so did nothing.After they started getting letters from the other gals,and some of the customers they finally got on the ball and followed up on the complaints.Sent in a spy to watch her etc.Next thing we know they had fired her and decided to close the store when the lease was up the following year.

DH had a stroke in may 99,so that's when he retired for the 3rd time.21 yrs in the Marine corps,22years with Edison,and was working for a security co when he had the stroke.It was a small one and he's ok now,thank God.

Sorry kinda got carried away.
Kathi

Been working since I was 11, (47 now) if you count babysitting. Had my first "real" job at 15 working as a busgirl in a hotel/casino restaurant. Worked at various other jobs after high school and finally decided to join the Air Force to get out of my small town.

Spent 7 years there, left to follow the ex back to AZ. Worked at a few different clerical type jobs and on and off stopped working to take care of the kids. I had a small market garden for a couple years when I was a SAHM. Alex asked me the other day what I really wanted to do for a job and that's what I told him, have a mini farm and market garden.

Went back to school to become a nurse at 38. I'm burnt out already. I think I have been for a while now. I love my patients and most of the people I work with but the job is hard with not enough help or supplies. It's frustrating and I ended up having chest pain about a month ago. Scary. After I go on vacation this summer I've decided to look for something less stressful, in a clinic in the same company. Benefits are too good to leave. I also spent too much money buying back my military time toward retirement to leave.

Hopefully I can find something I enjoy doing and isn't going to kill me so I can make it to retirement. I have to be at least 56 1/2 years old to retire and have 20 years in. So, about 9 more years to go. I may have to work longer, though. I have a house to pay off before I do and I'd like to save more of a nest egg. I started late on that. If I don't stay in nursing after those 9 years, I was thinking of working in a garden center...at least it would be something close to what I love-gardening.

I retired the first time at the age of 57. I had been working at a university for 21 years and 4 years before that at a job that paid into the same retirement system. I was very unhappy with my last 2 jobs at the university and really needed to do something else. I worked at various full and part time jobs until I was 65 and quit working. I can live comfortably without working because the cost of living in Iowa is low and my retirement and Soc. Sec. are based on California wages. I started working full time at 20 when I received my AA degree from a junior college. 45 years was plenty of working for me. I love being retired. I volunteer at a hospital just a few blocks from my home and also volunteer at my church. I love sewing and quilting. My dog and 3 cats provide company and keep me busy. I never thought retirement could be as much fun as it is. I feel very lucky to be in excellent health which helps me enjoy retirement even more.

Also, I retired with excellent insurance benefits and didn't have a husband or children so didn't have to worry about working further to support them. That would have made a big difference. My monthly check covers all the bills, grateful for that; but like I said there's not much leftover for expensive extras. One good thing, a few years after I retired I actually started my first real savings account.

I rarely get bored nor do I miss the work; although once a year I attend the retirement dinners and the smaller employee get together dinners throughout the year. After 30yrs., some of those people seem like family!

I consider myself retired. I went through 4 plant shut downs in the high tech industry, then worked "fun" jobs. We put away money we can retire on, since neither of us will receive retirement plans from our employers. As of now,age 50 & 52, we could "both" retire, but we're not ready to be on a fixed income. DH has a wonderful job that has tons of benefits we're rather attached to. :0) We've already gotton the travel bug out of our system and remodeled the house to our liking. DH says he plans on working another 3 years....then will look at what he wants to do. It's nice to have options. :00

I worked 6 years in an engineering training program at a government facility. After that, it was 38 3/4 yrs with the same company. At mid-career, the company was purchased by a larger firm, but my job continued. I had planned to work until age 65 and then take it a year at atime after that. Age 67 was in my mind, but fate intervened. The company reduced our facility to about 10% of its former size. I was offered a buyout one month after passing my 62 nd birthday. I accepted. That was a little more than 10 yrs ago.

I retired in 2003 at the age of 61 and have never looked back. The most important thing is to make sure that you have your health insurance covered. It's really expensive to buy it yourself which we had to do.

I retired early age 62) from the bank mainly due to a crappy supervisor, who later got fired. So did 3 managers. I loved the job, really got along with the customers, but oh that supervisor. Tried going to college for fun courses, but got tired of driving long distance and so just stayed home. When DH retired, needed to do lots of home repair, but got another (bigger) 5th wheel and traveled all over for several years. Had a great neighbor that lived at the house while we were gone, relative gathered the mail and got to us via priority mail/general delivery (before there was online banking). Did mostly northern states, and Canada did do some southern states. Would have done more by DH's best friend wanted to travel too and had some unhappy experiences due to him being a perfectionist and insisting everything being planed out. Closest to a divorce I ever came. He is gone now, but not many good memories. BUT, now DH has too many medical problems to travel in RV, those memories are still there. And got the house sold, moved to ND where we are building more memories.
But I still miss CA, especially the northern part.