If I were retired........

We're doing the best we can to cram a lot into weekends, long weekends and three weeks of vacation! We can't do the Great Loop yet, but we can sure do Lake Washington, Puget Sound, the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, Idaho lakes, Lake Powell, and the list goes on! My Dad was a prime example of what you are talking about - he worked into his 70s, all the wanted to do was get a little motorcycle and scoot around with me. He kept putting it off and putting it off. He finally bought the motorcycle at age 73, passed the written test, and on the day before his driving test, he had his stroke, which basically ruined the rest of his life. There is a lesson in there somewhere - carpe diem!

Sea Wolf":1a521b03 said:
But the Big Caveat: Don't put off all your plans until you retire. Do everything you can while you can.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
BaseCampAnne":2xg4m5ba said:
Well, when I tried this in Google I came up with quite a variety of topics, to put it mildly. Curious minds want to know what is a RG-246?
Anne

A Rosborough boat, similar in concept to the C-Dory, very different in execution. Nice boat. Les and Patrick Byrd are both dealers for this boat. Look up in the upper right hand corner of these pages and you will see their ads. :D
 
JamesTXSD":uuzhumc4 said:
BaseCampAnne":uuzhumc4 said:
Well, when I tried this in Google I came up with quite a variety of topics, to put it mildly. Curious minds want to know what is a RG-246?
Anne

A Rosborough boat, similar in concept to the C-Dory, very different in execution. Nice boat. Les and Patrick Byrd are both dealers for this boat. Look up in the upper right hand corner of these pages and you will see their ads. :D

Perhaps Anne is confused by the apparent typo "RG-246" vs. "RF-246".

I cannot find a RG-246 among the boats available at Rosborough.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Joe said:
"Be sure to retire somewhere you have lots of recreational opportunities nearby, especially at todays gas prices.

But the Big Caveat: Don't put off all your plans until you retire. Do everything you can while you can. No bigger disappointment than to reach retirement and find your health won't allow you to fulfill your dreams. No guarantees in the health world, and all the toys in the world don't mean anything unless you can play with them. "



and Pat said:
"We're doing the best we can to cram a lot into weekends, long weekends and three weeks of vacation! We can't do the Great Loop yet, but we can sure do Lake Washington, Puget Sound, the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, Idaho lakes, Lake Powell, and the list goes on! My Dad was a prime example of what you are talking about - he worked into his 70s, all the wanted to do was get a little motorcycle and scoot around with me. He kept putting it off and putting it off. He finally bought the motorcycle at age 73, passed the written test, and on the day before his driving test, he had his stroke, which basically ruined the rest of his life. There is a lesson in there somewhere - carpe diem! "

You both have made very important points for all of us to consider.

It happens more than we like to admit, and it is often a sad outcome to a long and productive career. If you are waiting for your ship to come in before you start enjoying life, you maybe should be less choosey about the size of that ship.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Harvey,

You make a good summary of the posts. We are now retired, but we started way back in 1987 by shipping our sailboat up here to the Northwest and taking 1 1/2 years off from work to go cruising.

We had such a good time, that we started taking every summer off (Nancy was a teacher) to go cruising. We called it "Retirement on the installment plan" and we would not have traded it for all the houses and SUVs in the world. If we had just kept plugging away at work, I am sure that we would have been richer in terms of $$$ but much poorer in the memory department. And the stress could have brought on early medical problems.

Everyone has to live their lives and plan for the future, just be sure to do a little "Retirement Cruising" along the way, and don't wind up like Pat's dad and not get to "go cruising".

Larry and Nancy
 
Larry,

I do like the way you put that together. One of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher was to have summers off, (at least some of the time), to travel (read cruise on my own boat). I didn't wind up teaching, at least officially, but have three kids who are, and we are trying to teach them to do the retirement on the installment plan too. We just didn't know what you called it. :thup :thup

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Dad cared for mom the last 10 yrs of their 63 years together.alsheimers!dad said" these are not my golden years,these are your golden years,go fishing". ive outlived 2 wives,never had children,bought houses at todays car prices,met and married the love of my life(a widow with 2 young girls),realized what dad meant that i would be a lonely old man,retired 2 years this month,bought a little house in the redwoods on the smith river,discovered life near the ocean,bought a c-dory,finally getting out of this sacramento valley. thank you dad! Vern
 
Thank you C-Cakes.Paula & I were enjoying the "If I were retired " thread. I didnt mean to bring it to a screaching halt. Please continue boys & girls. Vern & Paula-C-Dog
 
Vern, I agree, excellent tribute, and big steps to walk in.

If I was retired now, I'd be planning on going to the Friday Harbor CBGT, Staying in the islands :rainbow with Roger & Janet (Dreamer) and group :) and going to Anacortes the next weekend :idea , and then who knows, north from there maybe. I'd only come home to get my SS check :embarrased once a month :cry

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Hey - Harvey - that SS check is no excuse to go home. Auto deposit and plastic work great from anywhere. Have been on the go for months at a time for 9 yrs now and plan to keep it up as long as we are able!!

Marcia
 
hardee":3lwitxys said:
I'd only come home to get my SS check :embarrased once a month :cry

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

Hey Harvey, I wouldn't know what to do with a paper check. You don't even need to go home if you have it sent directly to your account (I'm sure you knew that) and do your banking on the internet. Even your fantastic "rebate", if you get one will go directly there if you received a tax refund directly to your bank account as we did. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I think I make too much money to get any back. Also paid a lot!
:roll:

Or, you could do as we have done and get one of those new reverse life insurance policies, where they give you your money now and when you croak, the kids have to pay it back!! :wink:

Charlie
 
Charlie Said:
"....get one of those new reverse life insurance policies, where they give you your money now and when you croak, the kids have to pay it back!!"

:twisted: :wink: :lol: :thup :thup
Such good ideas come from this site. Thanks so much Charlie. Hope my kids don't see this. :wink:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon [/b]
 
What is retirement?

1. Is it doing what you enjoy?
2. Is it traveling?
3. Is it no longer having an 8 to 5 job.
4. Is it doing what you want when you want, within reason?
5. Is it doing nothing? (I would be surprised if this would be any C-Brat’s idea of retirement)

Too many people look at retirement as being able to quit a job they no longer enjoy. If that is the case, find another profession/job, one you like doing. I passed the retirement age some time ago and still put in more than 75 hours a week, but I enjoy doing what I do.

If 1, 2, 3 or 4 above defines retirement, then I have been retired for a long time however, if working more than 40 hours a week means you are not retired, then I will never retire.

I guess it depends on how you look at your glass. Is it half full or half empty. I have an empty glass that I am continually filling to overflowing.
________
Dave dlt.gif
 
We quit our jobs twenty years ago -- never retired -- quit! And we loved our work. Too many other things we wanted to do in our shared lives. We knew we could keep working and retire rich at 65, or quit and have time. We chose shared time over money.

My Dad spent time talking with me in his last working years about his plans for retirement -- he died at 63, and never got to do any of them. I learned from that experience.

Now we want our g'kids to learn from us. We have been writing a 'kid book' -- Who Want To Be A Millionaire?. A little over half done, now, and hope to complete it in the next few weeks.

We meet once a week with the g'kids in their WWTBAM club. The 'book' is their reading assignment and our meeting is to talk over what they have learned. Like, What Is Money? How do you Grow It? Where do You Plant It?

They've been coming, enthusiastically, to meetings every week -- have set up savings accounts, know about compound interest (and how much they weigh in dollar bills), and that savings is dumb (they had kept money in a box in the closet) and that investing is smart.

They know about opportunity costs, have set up regular deposits from their odd jobs in their 'deep' pocket (the one for retirement), and know that if they can just put in a dollar a day (plus the meager amounts they have in their accounts now) they will be millionaires before 50 if they simply don't touch it. (they calculated it on their compounding calculators we've shown them).

Now they're learning about the difference between Treasury and Corporate Bonds, Stocks and Mutual Funds, and even how to evaluate risk and total returns -- and the youngest (and most enthused kid) is eight years old.

3% of graduating high school kids failed a simple test in investing knowledge last year. Our little tykes now know more about investing than most adults.

Our advice about retirement: like Vern's Dad, teach your kids and g'kids some of lifes lessons you've learned.
 
El and Bill,

I would be very interested in your book when it is complete. I've got two little ones, who you've met, that I'd love to introduce to that kind of information. I'm sure I'd learn as well from reading it.

Thanks,
 
Dave said:
"I guess it depends on how you look at your glass. Is it half full or half empty. I have an empty glass that I am continually filling to overflowing."

Dave, Like you, I love what I do, I may not be retired, but I would miss like crazy, not getting to do what I do. Meeting people and helping them towards a new and healthy life, and along the way making a lot of new friends. The rub comes in that I don't get to travel as much as I would like. I guess my glass has never had time to get empty.

Here's to a full glass :beer :beer

Harvey
SleepyC
 
oldgrowth":2im4ucyq said:
What is retirement?

1. Is it doing what you enjoy?
2. Is it traveling?
3. Is it no longer having an 8 to 5 job.
4. Is it doing what you want when you want, within reason?
5. Is it doing nothing? (I would be surprised if this would be any C-Brat’s idea of retirement)

Too many people look at retirement as being able to quit a job they no longer enjoy. If that is the case, find another profession/job, one you like doing. I passed the retirement age some time ago and still put in more than 75 hours a week, but I enjoy doing what I do.

If 1, 2, 3 or 4 above defines retirement, then I have been retired for a long time however, if working more than 40 hours a week means you are not retired, then I will never retire.

I guess it depends on how you look at your glass. Is it half full or half empty. I have an empty glass that I am continually filling to overflowing.
________
Dave dlt.gif

Dave,

That's some good plain talk from a good plain guy. Every now and then, you say something that makes us realize how smart you are and gives us a reason to think about things. I'd have to agree with you about spending your life working at a job you don't like. I've been very lucky to have a job that I love. Sometimes I feel like Babe Ruth - e.g. I can't believe I get paid to do what I do and I'm afraid that someone will figure it out. Of course there are the occasional bad days but overall, I love what I do and really can't imaging retiring. This is a pretty common feeling amongst scientists but not always amongst their working spouses.

I remember about 20 years ago a guy I was working with had a little party for the lab at his house. We arrived together. When he came home to his wife and child, she immediately thrust their baby into his arms saying
"You take him, I've worked hard all day!".
He responded "But I worked hard all day too".
She replied angrily - "Yes but YOU love YOUR job!"

I had a similar exchange around the same time with my wife to which I replied with, "Well I tried to get a job I hated but I just got lucky and fell into this science thing". That (of course) didn't help my argument with my wife and it was better to just do whatever it was she was asking. However, it does speak to your point about working to find work that you enjoy.

Thanks again for your insights.
 
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