Hopefully I can get it right this time. Last time I was retired for four days, and then went back to work for twenty-six years. If I got it right I'll work ten days in 2026 and then begin a new chapter in my life. I've spent six years growing my hair and beard, hoping they'd ask me to cut it and set the date for my retirement earlier. Last week my performance review went too well, and I had to interrupt and tell the boss that he didn't have to go over the new vacation plan that pays a lump sum in July because I didn't plan to be there in July. He was kind, and said it'd take four years to train somebody to replace me. I'm thinking they'll have a new guy in place before the wheels on my toolbox are set down in my garage. Workman's Comp will still handle my surgery and recovery for the separated bicep after I retire, so that's a plus I'm going to put my stainless steel transmission rebuild table on the back porch and add a drain at the low end so I can use it for a game cleaning and lantern testing table. Tool boxes and rolling carts will take up half of a two car garage, so I'll see what I can remodel out there to make a work space. Coleman, the lamp cat, will be happy to have me home more, or at least be able to ride along when I go places. He's been part of my retirement plan for a couple years. It's nice to have somebody to talk to that doesn't talk back. I've got a gate that needs mending, a barn that needs a new roof and a yard at the beach that I never had time to finish mowing while it was still mowing season. Might burn it off now that it's all dry. Doesn't sound like a bad gig, making my own schedule. I'm staying with the kids over Christmas and noticed that my self-winding watch had stopped at 5:45. I still got up at first light. I think I can adjust to a new schedule of morning walks, coffee and a good book at McDonald's while I watch everybody hustle off to work. Daily bike rides before lunch traffic comes home. Visiting older friends, more time range time, that Zen time in the machine shop or reloading room, and trying to maintain all my buildings and cars. Evenings I'll have time for lamp projects and relaxing with Coleman on the porch. If it doesn't get done today I can do it tomorrow, rather than trying to schedule some time on a weekend two weeks away. I like it, this new unemployment thing. I think that's the best way for me to describe this "Second Retirement." Leaves the door open for work as a contractor. I never know when I might get a job offer that sounds like fun.
Sounds like you planned your moves, and it is indeed time to move your plan. Retirement is pretty sweet, but I admit it takes some time getting used to it. My first couple of years was so filled with so many projects and hard, physical labor that I wanted to go back to work just to get out of it! I got to get me one of those 'lamp cat's'... Good Luck!
sounds like your boss needs to be paying more attention to his crew - he hasn't had a junior in the works the last few years? - even an experienced guy could use more than 6 months of co-working with the guy that's retiring ......
They'll figure it out. I'm sure they'll wonder how I did seat upholstery work without pulling the seats, or convertible tops in half the flat-rate time by myself. They'll spread around all the jobs I used to do and learn to appreciate all the little tricks I tried to teach them. I'll kinda miss stopping to check out a job in progress and say "I wouldn't have taken that out" or "I wouldn't have sold that." But I won't miss going to work in the dark, knuckleheads turning the thermostat up to 90 in the winter and then leaving doors open when the struggling new A/C is on in the summer. I won't miss four different radios playing in three different languages. Won't miss getting burned, splashed, pinched or cut. Won't miss the filth, nor the noise. Not the fumes, the contortions or the rain and A/C evaporators dripping on me. I will miss the other old timers, but I'm the last of the really old crew, and I've kept in touch with the few others who've left or retired. Let the youngsters have it.
My wife was good at farming me out, got really tired at it really fast, Cabana boy had to earn his keep!
When they start calling you to ask you how you did all your magic, tell them you'd be happy to stop by and show them.....as a private consultant, at 3x your previous hourly wage! I retired 5-1/2 years ago. Now I'm semi-retired, working the easiest job I've ever had, 40+ hours a week and making a shitload of money. Honestly, if I'd known this gig existed when I got out of the Navy in 1990, I would have gone in this direction to start with.
I retired in 2014, forced into it earlier than expected, so my pension is about half what it should have been. But with SSI, I get by. Sometimes people ask me if I'm enjoying the weekend. I tell them, "I'm retired. Everyday is the weekend.".
Yeah, you get it. Like my wife's was over at a neighbor's and the neighbor remarked, "We need to cut that tree down soon." Of course, my wife replied, "Oh, Bandit can do it for you." ... I can?
Just got my notice from Social Security Administration, for my next year (2026) benefits. My SSI amount is $45 LESS per month than this year (2025). Oh crap.
Yeah, that don't sound right but then I am not an expert on the subject of Social Security. I do know we got a COLA increase of 2.8%; however, the Medicare premiums went up also, I think mine went to $202 (was $185). Also, if you have an Advantage medical plan or something like it, that can come straight out of your SS pension also which is probably what is causing your decrease because...they went up. The medical insurance industry is going crazy right now and it will take all of 2026 to sort itself out along with governmental changes. My medical insurance plan got canceled here throughout Idaho as did many other plans. The one I got is nowhere near as good as my old one, but I had no choice so...
My Grandfather retired 3 or 4 times. About 6 months after he would retire one of his old buddies would call him up out of the blue and tell him that they were getting the band back together, in this case they were a bunch of construction workers, and he'd go back to work. These old guys had worked together for 40 or 50 years, they built TVA dams, steam plants, and nuclear reactors, and some of them worked at Oak Ridge and built the A-Bomb. Finally, he retired for good in 1985, and had a good long retirement before passing in 2000.
