# Countdown to retirement **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2023, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653 "2023-03-25T17:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/381 "2023-07-01T04:40:59Z")
Especially if you’ve been feeling root-bound. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/382 "2023-07-01T12:40:55Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Today on “All Things Considered,” Melissa Block announced her retirement after 38 years at NPR. She said that a friend described the change in her life as “being repotted.” I understand, and like that term. This is how I describe my retirement to folks: You feel like you’ve just won the lottery, except you can’t go out and buy a private jet. mmm ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/383 "2023-07-01T14:30:30Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > moving somewhere more relaxing than Silicon Valley That’s what we’re going to do, too. Silicon Valley is exciting, and it’s fun to be where the action is (technologically and financially speaking). But relaxing it is not. And it’s expensive, too. I have a retired friend in Aptos, and she loves it. She was born and raised there, though. We’re moving to the wine country region of Oregon, we hope in a month or so. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/384 "2023-07-01T21:55:48Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > I was hoping to get another year out of this job, but I was informed today that my services are no longer needed. It was not entirely unexpected, but a shock none the less. Did they give you any money for kicking you out? Companies have been known to screw people close to retirement, and you’re in a protected class now. For most people it isn’t worth making a stink since it might affect their next job, but we don’t have to worry about that. Santa Cruz and environs are nice, but I hate Highway 17 so much I’d never move there. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/385 "2023-07-01T21:58:38Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I hate Highway 17 so much I’d never move there Just don’t go to San Jose, all good. 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/386 "2023-07-01T22:25:32Z")
No extra money, but the job wasn’t working out and it was time to go anyway. I was planning to leave soon, they just advanced the timetable by about 6 months. > [@squeegee](#): > > Just don’t go to San Jose, all good. 🕶 That sounds like a good plan. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/387 "2023-07-02T01:14:31Z")
I’ll sneak in and mention my last work day was yesterday June 30. I’m fortunate that I got to choose to retire (they actually talked me into staying 3 months longer than I had planned), and I know many don’t get a choice. Law enforcement then teaching law enforcement then software development. I feel lucky to have come of age in a time when you could get into computers simply by being interested and inquisitive. While working as a training sergeant in 1983 at a 400-person organization they dropped off a big box with a computer inside; I volunteered and the rest made a career. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/388 "2023-07-02T02:06:13Z")
Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/389 "2023-07-02T02:47:46Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > I’ll sneak in and mention my last work day was yesterday June 30 Congrats to you! Many happy returns, relaxing days, and new explorations! > [@Raza](#): > > I feel lucky to have come of age in a time when you could get into computers simply by being interested and inquisitive Agreed. I taught myself to program at age 11 in 1973. That led to a great career without ever getting a degree and I retired after 40+ years getting paid to do what I loved: write software. I’m not sure that’s even possible now. Well done to you, hacking a career! Sweet 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/390 "2023-07-02T04:19:36Z")
You don’t have to sneak in! You’re retired now! Swan on in wearing Bermuda shorts and your loudest Hawaiian shirt and discuss Medicare with us! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/391 "2023-07-02T10:47:00Z")
Congrats, @Raza! Don’t forget to schedule regular N.A.P. meetings. mmm ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/392 "2023-07-02T12:36:51Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > discuss Medicare with us! Yes, learn from our questions and mistakes over in the “America’s Elder Crisis etc.” thread! It’s fun on a bun! ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/393 "2023-07-02T15:02:08Z")
I learned so very much from that Medicare thread - it really helped me make truly lifetime decisions. Thanks for the well-wishes. It hasn’t fully sunk-in yet, because the planning and execution thereof (Medicare, SS, IRA distributions, portfolio rebalancing, and all the training of my replacements at work) have been going on for months. And, like many, I had been working from home since COVID struck, so I haven’t been commuting for quite a while. It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago that I finally came to an emotional revelation that this **will be life-changing** , but in my optimistic view a very positive one: I realized I’d never again have that continuous low-level but always-present angst about work that most of us probably have…I mean, had. I’ll now get to dive-deep back into some of my hobbies, like photography and genealogy (I’m a data guy after all). I also enjoy writing, though I’m not skilled or talented, but I enjoy it anyway; I find it therapeutic. I decided yesterday to start a retirement blog, as therapy if nothing else. > [@squeegee](#): > > I taught myself to program at age 11 in 1973. During my late high school/early college (mid-1970s) I worked part-time at a mid-high-end stereo retail shop, at a time when those things existed (Sansui, Teac, Marantz, Gale, many others I can’t recall). They sublet about a hundred square feet to a computer kit hobbyist who sold IMSAI 8080 kits and assembled units. My same-age coworker and I would spend our voluminous downtime learning/experimenting/programming BASIC into it, like basic Blackjack or dice generators. There wasn’t a tape drive connected to it, so our daily work was wiped at power-down, but it was hella fun, and neither of us had any prior programming exposure or, really, significant interest. Hi, Mike Taylor! For the last 20 years of my IT career I had worked at a senior technical level, and nearly everyone at my level had education in something outside of computers/IT: my CIO had a Masters in Psychology; two of my co-workers in Electrical Engineering, one in Mechanical Engineering. My perception is that the 1980s/90s was a peak time where someone who was educated and trained and experienced in pretty much any industry could still slide into “computer work” without a formal background in it. Software development was, and IMO still very much is, a field that requires logic, enthusiasm\*, inquisitiveness, ambition, and self-sufficiency. I see some young people getting IT-related degrees that have very few of those attributes or attitudes, and I can’t see them being successful. \_\* I still remember many, many times working late or on a weekend to solve a problem or explore alternatives or ideas, and we did it _not_ because we had to or were expected to, but because we simply _wanted_ to - it was exciting and interesting. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/394 "2023-07-02T15:56:52Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > I still remember many, many times working late or on a weekend to solve a problem or explore alternatives or ideas, and we did it _not_ because we had to or were expected to, but because we simply _wanted_ to - it was exciting and interesting. This strikes a chord for me, too. I’d work 60+ hour weeks because I _liked_ to. Nights and weekends because it was just fun to craft software. I was well paid, no complaints, but I’d have done it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/395 "2023-07-02T17:26:07Z")
A lot of it, for me, was that I have a creative streak, but have no talent. I don’t succeed in learning an instrument (I’m sure I could brute-force it, but mediocrity is the best I could hope for), I am a marginal singer with a narrow range and poor ear, I can’t draw a decent circle, and have no special eye for color or design. Software development lets me be creative, and produce things that are useful and occasionally elegant. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/396 "2023-07-02T17:45:04Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > I also enjoy writing, though I’m not skilled or talented, but I enjoy it anyway; I find it therapeutic. I decided yesterday to start a retirement blog, as therapy if nothing else. Look around for a writer’s club around you. The one I’m in consists of mostly retired mostly self-published writers. The slogan is “Writers helping writers” and we sponsor monthly talks and some critique groups and writers salons. And congratulations. I thought for sure I’d be programming for fun, but I’ve done very little of it, despite loving to program. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/397 "2023-07-02T19:50:59Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > I realized I’d never again have that continuous low-level but always-present angst about work that most of us probably have…I mean, had. Yeah, it took me a little while to realize that I didn’t have to _rush_ all the time. Rush to get ready, rush to make breakfast, rush to pack a lunch, rush to get on the road, rush to get my work done, rush to get lunch eaten and errands run simultaneously. I now slow myself down, but I have to do it consciously. Someday it’ll be automatic. In fact, I propose a theme song for this thread: _Bidin’ My Time_, by the Gershwins. Bidin’ my time, ‘Cause that’s the kind of guy I’m, While other folks grow dizzy, I’ll keep busy, Bidin’ my time. Bidin’ my time, ‘Cause that’s the kind of guy I’m, Beginning on a Monday, right through Sunday, Bidin’ my time. Next year, Next year, Something’s bound to happen, This year, this year, I’ll just keep on nappin’. Bidin’ my time, That’s the kind of guy I’m, There’s no regrettin’ when I’m settin’, Bidin’ my time. [And here’s Nat King Cole singing it how it should be sung](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7z5M4ZjMNU). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/398 "2023-07-02T22:41:26Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Look around for a writer’s club around you. The one I’m in consists of mostly retired mostly self-published writers. I thought this place _was_ a writer’s club. I’ve published nearly 2.5 million words here. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/399 "2023-07-03T01:16:52Z")
This morning when I got up, I forgot to put my watch on. I didn’t realize it until dinner time. Very liberating. I have a couple of years before I have to worry about medicare. I will be using the regular market until then. Thanks Obama! ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653/400 "2023-07-03T01:39:49Z")
[quote=“Voyager, post:396, topic:981653”] Look around for a writer’s club around you. The one I’m in consists of mostly retired mostly self-published writers. The slogan is “Writers helping writers” and we sponsor monthly talks and some critique groups and writers salons. [/quote] This. Trust that you are more creative than you think you are. Even professional creative people don’t just pull ideas out of midair. Most of us learn to be creative inside a box of rules, which is what programmers do, too. Most writers just use different boxes than the ones around programming language. > [@](#): > > And congratulations. This too. I am in awe of all the retirements. Still counting down the years, but at least I’m in single digits now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countdown-to-retirement/981653.md?page=21)