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YOUR BALANCE
Career End a distinct possibility in the making
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Career End a distinct possibility in the making


May 29, 2020, 11:25 AM

I have been very lucky working for several US/global companies over the years and I’ve been used to traveling since 1991, probably averaged 90-100 hotel nites annually all up and down the East coast, Texas in 1994-2002, Asia in 2002-2011, Mexico & DR scattered about, and EU maybe once a year.
The mrs has liked it except for the extended Asia trips, cause I haven’t been around all the time bugging her.
My plan has been to shut it all down on my Bday in Aug 2021, but the Covid and new Azzwhole in charge has combined to make what’s been a great 30 year gig turn into a shltty end to a very enjoyable career.

A bright side of this other than all the usual stuff is I’ll get more chances to run into and meet more of you lungers!

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Hope you get to do it on your terms, but if not,


May 29, 2020, 11:36 AM

shit on the boss' desk

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what if that IS his terms?


May 29, 2020, 11:44 AM

and/or the boss's terms....is it a glass desk??

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I thought about that after I posted and regretted not


May 29, 2020, 12:01 PM

paying TNET to edit my post.



jklol, no ragrets

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It's amazing you're still working at your age


May 29, 2020, 11:39 AM

but seriously, I hope it all works out for the best.

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I like your funny words magic man


Enjoy it, it’s been easy, make good $$$


May 29, 2020, 12:13 PM

Make sense?

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easy, huh??


May 29, 2020, 12:43 PM

are they looking for a hairy italian replacement yet?

I've still have a tad of a remnant of my NJ accent, so you know...I'm pretty versatile

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based on that last sentence


May 29, 2020, 11:40 AM

maybe you should continue working



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Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile,
Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile!!!!


Lol. My father retired. Started consulting doing exactly


May 29, 2020, 11:50 AM

what he did before he retired. It became a bidness.

That was 23 years ago. Lol.

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i've been thinking the same thing lately...granted


May 29, 2020, 11:45 AM

i'm a LOT younger than you.

like, a LOT lot.

...but without much to fall back on other than a penchant for slumlordery

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got any covid related non rent payments


May 29, 2020, 12:19 PM

i got 1 but moving this week
glad cause i don't know how you kick someone out during covid

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nope....they're all still working normally


May 29, 2020, 12:41 PM

in fact, the juan guy i was kinda concernicus about, who's been off-lease /month-to-month (but not really) for 2 years (6 years total) told me yesterday he's got not need/desire to move any time in the foreseeable future.

Last fall he'd said "at least May, not sure after that"...he's been a very good tenant, so that's good news.

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Iong ago I travelled with about that many hotel nights for


May 29, 2020, 12:14 PM

years, but mostly just Va, WVa. I didn't mind it too much at the time, but when I changed jobs and quit overnight travel except for the occasional meeting, I DID NOT MISS IT ONE LITTLE BIT. Well, the expense acct and company car I missed a lil bit, but more money and less travel overcame that.

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I am one year older than you. Had a similar situation, I


May 29, 2020, 1:18 PM

decided to go ahead and do it.

Had to come up with a few dollars to cover insurance until Medicare, but when I stepped back and looked at the big picture, it wasn't a deal breaker.

I started SS payments, and the talk about waiting to get a higher monthly amount is just that, imo, talk. I looked at the calculations from every angle, and I could not justify waiting. IE, lets say that by waiting a year your pay goes up $100/mo (I forget the amount, just using round numbers). If one assumes the decision is put it off one year, the decision is that it is better to have $1600/mo income and $0 in the bank, vs $18.000 in the bank and $1500 income. I will take the latter, no question about it. At least for me. Though of course it didn't go in the bank, but you get the idea.

I do know, from experience, the emotional difficulty. When you spend a lifetime saving acorns, the mental switch to start eating those acorns is huge. It seemed like nirvana 5 years before, but then actually doing it is very hard. The thought that every month's living expenses that goes into savings today equals several months living expenses available on the other end becomes such an ingrained value that it is hard to stop doing it. I get it. It is hard. Seems indulgent to go from saving to using.

But look, my guess is that you are familiar with the story about the man who said, "I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns so I can store my grain, then I can take my ease and eat, drink and be merry." You know the point for yourself. And, of course, working one year more or less is not the point of that story: another year doesn't put one in the place of that man. I'm just saying that for me personally, I finally had to ask, "Will another year really make a difference?" It was like I had to do the caricature head shake of, "Dude, what are you doing?"

So, all in all, worked out fine for me. I am about 8 months into it, and if I could wave a magic wand to go back and work another year, no. Not a chance. I am still committed to a few things, some for which I take a very small consulting fee, and some I volunteered for. IE, you don't have to disappear. I put all those sorts of things into 2 days per week, and the rest is me and Mrs Tulsa.

The big things you already know about: can go see the kids when we want, can drive across the state for a couple of days when we want, a guy calls and wants to play tomorrow, I can if I want, can say 'nah' if I want. Like that. But you know what the best thing is? People in our neighborhood know that if they ask if we can feed their cat or let the dog out because they have to work late, we can always say yes. So after an afternoon (which I do when I want) Mrs Tulsa and I go for a walk and do the rounds of the neighborhood pets. I know that sounds like the stupidest thing in the world, but helping people run their lives a little more smoothly, with no effort from us, is more fun that it looks like in print here.

You will make the right decision. Good luck in whatever you decide.

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Perhaps that mindset changes as one gets closer to


May 29, 2020, 1:31 PM

retiring, I dunno. But I think about it all the time. Do I have enough money available to retire NOW?

I'm 51, and if I thought for a minute I could get by on never working again, I'd probably not quit, I'd just stop showing up to stuff. Maybe drop my laptop off, or not. Whatever. They'll figure it out.

I'd stop working today if given the ability to do so, and would have no mental problem living off what I have saved. My house is for sale again, and it looks like we may have someone very interested in buying it. So I have thought about it, even recently: How long could I live on my savings, 401K, and house equity?

I plan on going out owing a lot of money, so at some point I could just start racking up credit cards or something...if only I knew how I long I was going to live.

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Re: Perhaps that mindset changes as one gets closer to


May 29, 2020, 1:50 PM

Yep, I had planned to be retired this Spring but decided to hang on till end of this year. I was going to make up the partial loss of income until I get my ex's Soc. Security started in January with some of my 401K. I had justified it with the reasoning that it could eventually put me in a higher tax bracket later if I didn't start withdrawals sooner. Kinda glad I decided to wait a few more months. This virus crap has made my grand plans for travel and fishing in the Rockies this summer kind of a no-go. Something told me not to get in a hurry!

I know the feeling of letting go from what has been the routine for so long. Awhell, they paying me to sit home and do what I was doing in the office. They moved a lot of our Divisions duties to another part of the agency so that has amounted to not doing much anyway. My garden and yard is looking good! I'll be ready to cash in my excess leave by late October and check in about one day a week until end of the year. Color my asss gone!

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I don't know why I didn't mention what you just did:


May 29, 2020, 4:22 PM [ in reply to Perhaps that mindset changes as one gets closer to ]

The best part of being retired is knowing that if you don't show up - for whatever it is - they can't do anything to you. The loss of respect is still a thing, and it should be, but to manage only that, your own internal sense of responsibility, is a great freedom. Jesus died so we could do that in all situations - sorry, not being religious, is just me - but we do still feel pressure of expectations: is just being human. Being untethered from a paycheck makes it easier to do, though the degree to which that is true reveals one's dependence on the opinion of others: back to that Jesus thing.

So, yeah, when I think back to being 51, I felt the same as you. I will say to you now: don't lose that. As you get close to age 65 you will start thinking more about "where will I be 25 years from now if I have zero income from now to then." That is a good way to think, but it has to be informed by the perspective you have now. Remember we had this conversation, and live by it.

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