My dad is retired and has been for about 7 years He works part time now. He got so bored after the first year that he decided to go back to work, just working less. Unless you have a huge savings account, you can't travel all the time. I don't think people realize how much structure work gives to their lives.

I also got my car worked on a couple of weeks ago. There was an old guy there who drove me to work. I talked to him during the ride, as we were the only two in the car He told me that he started doing that job because he also was bored being retired. It was his twelfth year back on the job. He said that of the guys he knew who retired at about the same time he did, 4 were dead. The others spent their mornings at MacDonald's nursing a coffee until the afternoon soaps started up on the tube.

When I started working at 22, one of the guys I started with was about to retire. All he talked about for the last year he was there was how happy he would be to retire. Finally, the day arrived. He was retired about a year before he came back to work, again part-time. He said that he got bored with travelling and that he didn't have the money to keep doing it all the time. So back to work he came.

Last one. I knew another guy who retired at 70. Stayed on until he got the max pension possible. Rich guy already. He lasted about a year until he died.

Sorry to be so morbid, but from what I've seen, retirement isn't all its cracked up to be. Its not the summer of your eighteenth year anymore. It seems pretty reasonable to me to work, but less, as it gives you some structure, more income, a sense of value, and or what not, also with plenty of time to relax.

As far as my own view of work goes, I can't imagine retireing. I can imagine changing careers to what I want to do, and then working until I drop. Also working less. I am very unlike MB--I want to do something valuable with my time an collect a paycheck for doing a good job, not just for showing up. I don't see work as hindrance to everything else. It simportant in its own right. Since I am an engineer, I thnk that's the right attitude to have, because the projects I work on have serious implications for the public at large. There is no way I would be happy sitting at home reading books, or endlessly travelling. Its not in my blood.

Good luck to you Donald, and congratulations on reaching a major milestone in life. But don't be surprised or dismayed if retirement isn't all its cracked up to be. You might just find out you like working just a little, or a lot less, but still working. Enjoy it now, but keep it in mind.

Posted by: s on September 2, 2006 7:25 PM

While in many respects lazy, I have nonetheless spent most of a full career climbing one greasy pole or another. No stranger to long hours, me. This accounts in some measure for my lack of contribution to this weblog--a promotion came along and I find my brain nearly fully occupied. I come here to read and to savor, but I find myself curiously unable to come up with much to say.

But I liked this posting, Donald. It hit home. I took what was for me a long vacation this summer--two weeks!--on a very nice lake in the woods. After decades of thinking of my career--and my life--as stretching out forever (or at least till way, way over the horizon), for the first time I could peer over the horizon, and realized it was pretty darn close.

It felt pretty good, all things considered. Odd, too, for a guy whose self-image has been so bound up by professionalism for so long. I think I have been fearing life without that attachment, and maybe now I realize there's less to fear. Maybe I'll get back to blogging.

Fenster

Posted by: fenster on September 2, 2006 7:27 PM

Retirement, unless we win the lotto, will be when they pull the grass rug over our heads and we become food for the worms.

"Welcome to Wal-Mart! Would you care for a buggy? Yes ma'am, shoes are on aisle 10 - to your right. What a cute baby you have!"

I'm practicing.

Posted by: Cowtown Pattie on September 2, 2006 10:40 PM

"What's not to like, when every day is Saturday?" I've never really adjusted to Saturdays since I became too old to chase leather balls about muddy fields. Perhaps dogs feel the same?

Posted by: dearieme on September 3, 2006 10:48 AM

Retirement is one thing for people of traditional retirement age. Today, however, many people are retiring at younger and younger ages; 55 seems to be the new 65, and retirement as early as 50 is not unheard-of. I would imagine that coping with retirement is much harder when you're still young and vigorous. These 50-year-old retirees might find it a lot less pleasant that they had expected.

Posted by: Peter on September 3, 2006 10:59 AM

Plenty of views on retirement (and work!) in the comments so far; thanks for your interest.

Clearly, retirement is what one makes of it, given physical and monetary resources available -- not to mention one's temperament.

Re Prairie Mary, my retirement income isn't all that great in itself, but I'll be able to pool resources with Nancy, which will help. And I spent about 25 years of my adult life on really tight budgets, so I truly appreciate the opportunity to blow a little money on travel.

Barring a serious financial crisis or some unexpected client direct-depositing 30 pieces of silver in my bank account, I have no plans to get even a part-time day-job.

For one thing, my 2Blowhards gig is fun and keeps me mentally active. Plus, it can occupy an hour or two a day.

Then I want to get back into oil painting. I started that a couple of years ago, but then 2Blowhards and wedding planning came along and squeezed out that bloc of time. Now I have that time back.

I also have a wad of hisrorical demographic data from around the world and think it might be nice to get some of that on the Web in some form (and possibly bring in some shekels).

Not to mention travel and social stuff.

Health permitting, I should be okay.

(I know that other folks -- especially career-oriented men who lack outside interests -- can have serious adjustment problems.)

Posted by: Donald Pittenger on September 3, 2006 11:53 AM

Wow, Donald! Painting sounds great! You seem to have a good eye and a feeling for line, just judging from the glimpses we get online. Who knows where this might go? I hope it makes you deeply happy, because I think that's the secret to good health.

Prairie Mary

Posted by: Mary Scriver on September 3, 2006 8:28 PM

Donald -

I hope your retirement is everything you want it to be.

A number of my relatives were either self-employed small business owners or small ranchers, so I guess when I think about it, I see myself working until I drop, inheriting from these relatives a view that working and living are intertwined. On the other hand, I also ruefully note that most of the people of my parents' generation retired from their jobs, while many of my contemporaries have had to jump from job to job because of corporate layoffs and downsizing.

Ran across this recent yahoo news story, oddly on topic:

100-year-old Briton keeps on working 'to avoid boredom'

Britain's oldest worker has enjoyed a day off to celebrate his 100th birthday but explained he would become a "miserable sod" if he ever had to retire for good.

"Buster" Martin, a mechanic for a south London plumbing firm who has 17 children and 70 grandchildren and great grandchildren, tried giving up work at the age of 97 but couldn't face the boredom.

"Boredom is a big killer of men," he told the Daily Telegraph. "I went back to work because I like to keep active," adding that if he ever retired he would become "the most miserable sod you have come across."

The centenarian, who grew up in an orphanage and first married when he was 14, joined the Grenadier Guards and served in World War II before switching to the Navy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britainagelabouroffbeat

Posted by: Alec on September 5, 2006 3:11 AM






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