Clearly not all forum members are yet retired. A number have voiced concerns about impending retirement. Here's my own personal slant on this. Not yet retired, or even going back to very early-on, one of the biggest daily stress factors in life are getting up in the morning, looking at and fighting the clock, can I get to work on time, brave the rush hour, avoid an accident at all costs, get there a bit late, brave the boss's dour look, or worse, bust ass to meet requirements, look forward mightily to lunch, maybe have to skip it depending on pressing factors, afternoon hours DRAG out, go home worrying again about the dangers of the commute. Get home seeking peace for the day. May or may not encounter it. Sleep eventually brings peace, but not always. Getting ready for a repeat of the previous day. Am I close? It's been my lifetime of employment to live stressfully, nearly constantly. You LEARN to expect stress in your daily life. Now, approaching retirement, eagerly at first, then less so as the uncertainties arise, concern for finances, free time, lost friends and acquaintances at the workplace, insurance, innate fear of old-age, it's looking like the approach of the "end of the line", right? You folks getting close to that prospect, listen up! The single best thing in your adult life will be your retirement! Believe me, I tried it early, at age 41, not by choice, but rather chance, out of work, no offers of employment in sight, so "dropped out". Lived in the woods with little else of high value than plenty of firewood! Best life yet, up till then. Next attempt came at 57, forced to drop out due to moral commitment to never pay another dime in Federal Income Tax to the likes of Bill Clinton, 1999. Life was for the first time pretty stress-free, in Missouri, we had sold our Phoenix house, bought a farm, lived off the nest egg awaiting my age 62, the S/S vault would magically open doors, showering back the funds forcefully stolen from my paychecks for 40 years. That finally happened in 2004, after 5 meager years. But, in retrospect, I did NOT pay a dime of income tax between 1999 and 2004, nor have I since. Unpatriotic? Come on, if you think that, you belong back in SF (Seniors Forums), where paying in to support an ever-consuming government is the "patriotic" way. Some upon retiring will "invent" various stressful attitudes, to replace those lost to the missing "time-clock". It's only a natural reaction. Spend a lifetime in servitude, it's routine becomes missed. Take my word for it: retirement will be what you make of it, to be sure. But if one carefully counts the numerous blessings of "stresses-lost" compared to "stresses-present" during your previous 40 years of drudgery, one easily concludes the Best is yet to come! I have. I LOVE being retired!! Thanks for reading! Frank
First of all, depending on how much a person likes their job and boss will depend on how much stress they have concerning the job. I liked my last job as well as liked my boss. Now, one of my co-workers did give me some (a lot?) of stress, because he had Dyslexia and worked in our warehouse. Whatever he received into stock, he wrote down the location of where he put it. Due to his Dyslexia, he transposed numbers quite a bit. Not the type of person a company would want working in their warehouse. This drove me nuts, because part of my job was Inventory Control Management and I would have to put into a database the amounts/locations he wrote down about each product. When it came to issuing product, the location in the computer didn't always match where he put it / wrote it down. Talk about stress and driving me nuts. Unfortunately, the company didn't give any potential employee a Competency Test for filing, math, etc. or they would have caught the problem he had. Our boss, the Director/Supervisor, simply had too much compassion and let his problem go. He ended up getting fired for failing a drug test and the guy that replaced him done the job super, As far as not paying taxes, I've "been there, done that". I actually went Exempt on all taxes for a few years. During those years, I started a Savings Banking Acct., but the IRS found out about it and took all funds I had in it. Thank God, I only had a few hundred dollars, I was also threatened, by a letter from the IRS, to have my wages garnished at a few jobs and had to quit those jobs and find a new one. On my last job, I got a letter from the IRS, again threatening a Garnishment if I didn't call them and make some kind of arrangement. Let my wife know what I had done and what was happening/about to happen and I called the IRS. We made monthly payments for a year and that totally took care of the Federal Tax I owed. The monthly payments were $100 per month and that year-end total was much, much lower than what I originally owed. The State Tax I owed came out of a Stimulation Check we got back in 2008 (everyone got that from the government). So, my advice is.........pay taxes or.......... One thing for sure, money issues can certainly be a problem in retirement. Yes, it's fun/cool/enjoyable going to bed when you want, getting up when you want and not having to mess with Job Force traffic on streets and freeways. But, if a person doesn't have a nice retirement package coming in each month and/or have saved enough for retirement, LOTS of stress came accompany that situation. Your life will definitely change and not necessarily for the good. To have a descent life, at retirement, a nice/safe place to live, good/descent health insurance and plenty of money to cover it all, plus have some fun is most definitely needed. Retirement can definitely be fun and stress-free, but if health issues and lack of money get into the picture, that "fun" can be gone and "stress" can definitely show it's ugly face!
I loved my working career 42 years in all. Do you know what I enjoy most retirement. I moved to another country and now live my life stress free and keeping myself busy with friends and hobbies It's just another phase of my life beginning.
Another thing, some people out there simply don't make a good enough hourly wage to put some money away for retirement. I know I didn't. When I was going Exempt on my State and Federal taxes, I was able to put a nice little chuck of money away, but used every cent of that to try (and notice the word "try") to relocate to another State/Town that I was more comfortable with. Done this twice, but neither time worked. Now, generally, people on a salary can save, because those on salaries generally make $35k and more a year. For whatever reasons, not everyone can, or wants to, stay on a job for 20 plus years and get a nice monthly retirement. What I'm basically saying here, and did say at the end of my last posting............MONEY is the "name of the game" when it comes to retirement. The more a person has, the more enjoyable retirement can be. At least that's the way I see it. Yes, it's all about those cool things that a person can finally do, and not have to do, when they retire, but MONEY plays a major part in retirement.
We haven't got great pensions as we retired early. So a few years away from our state pensions and on smaller private pensions through divorce ..We just enjoy a simpler life. I can highly recommend it.
In all honesty, I already want to retire and be free from the pressures of my office work. Right now I have a bad cold and didn't go to work for 2 days now. My husband said that it might be the stress in my job that weakened my body's immunity hence I was hit with this cold. I'm still 6 years away from the retirement age of 60 and what would I do if I would retire now? Besides, the pension from the social security comes in at age 60 so I will be left with nothing. And for what to do when I finally retire? I still don't have a clear idea but I'm sure I will have my hands full in the first few months for I have many wishes to do like a general cleaning of the house and rearranging the furniture and everything. Places to go, not abroad though, but places here like the famous Divisoria market in Manila where everything is cheap, some churches in the city, and other places. Definitely I would be busier than now so maybe I would have no time to think of that so called mid-life, er, old age crisis.
SS will make it very clear to anybody that SS was never/ever meant to retire on. However, many only get SS, like myself and, when my wife finally does retire, her also. We just thank God that, if we both stay healthy and don't have to spend it, will have some 401k savings to help out. Like I say and will always say, "to make retirement nice, it's about money".
Money is the name of the game at any age and especially at retirement. It's not easy living with a fixed income. There are sites like benefits.gov to see what other good benefits you can receive at any age. There is LIHEAP a govt. program for low income people, lifeline help for telephone payment help for low income people too. There is no shame in seeing if you qualify for these programs. There is lots of help today like the Medicaid and Medicare integration that we all can take advantage of just as long as your policies don't overlap and no double payments made, then you'll be okay. I still work part time self employed to get my social security benefits too. As long as you got your social security card and pay your taxes you'll be safe and can get social security benefits. Take care and hope retirement be safe and prosperous for you!
A while ago my husband and another engineer went first to Ravenhead Glass company an hour out of Liverpool England. There was a technical agreement with them. Then decided to visit France. They wanted to know what was the key reason people were so faithful and loyal working for a French glass company our competitor. Of course they weren't let in to see there operation. Although they were able to ask the maintenance crew some questions. Come to find out all the employees were guaranteed a job for life. If they wanted to retire fine or with the wanted to work longer they weren't going to be penalized for doing so.