Anyone close to retirement? / when do you start counting the days?

[Science52]

I noticed that several people are retiring. Some people have mentioned what their jobs were and their age at retirement. I am a teacher and have enjoyed teaching but I will be 68 in a few days.  I told my principal that I wanted to work but not have to spend my evenings and weekends correcting papers, doing lesson plans and report cards. In the last couple of years we have had many meetings after school.   Add in lunch duty and line duty at dismissal. Each teacher has to also keep their room  and hallway exciting with student work and other seasonal and subject area information. I like the last part because I like to showcase the students’ work.   Next year, 4 hours in the morning seeing 3 or4 classes to check out books and a short library lesson for some classes. Then I get to go home or run errands. I will have to go back to get my grandchildren ( their mother is a teacher in another school) but I will not have all the work to take home or have to come at6:30 am to get school work done.  

 

To to the nurses here -  my son is an or nurse and his wife works with kids who have cancer. They both have 19 years in. They have a hard time taking more than a few days of vacation at a time.  They did cruise with us once on a 7day but it took a lot for them to get the time off.

[misty57]

On 2/13/2020 at 6:24 AM, cruiselvr04 said:

You are fortunate.   I work the same number of holiday shifts as a new grad, work 8 weekend shifts in 8 weeks, get my schedule changed on their whim and take call 4 times in 8 weeks. We float to newborn about 4 times a year.

 

I'm also in a level 3 that's very busy and stressful.  I'm so done.   I have to coach myself up every morning to go in. 

 

Good luck to you and hope you can retire as you've planned. 3 more years....

I have to say that our unit tries very hard to honor the “senior” staff. I got an unexpected call this morning before my alarm that I was  being placed on standby today! Nice but always waiting for the phone to ring since it’s usually one admission or one internal,agency nurse being pulled  to make them have to call me in😝. 
 

[Science52]

Well my last quarter as a fulltime teacher is changing.  We have been off for a week and will be off this week.  DC closed schools until the end of April so we will probably do the same.  I am in Montgomery County Maryland which is right next to DC.  So we will go to teaching online. New ways to check on students.  Luckily I only have 14 students. 

[Dream1]

When I put my papers in it was for 30 days and the very next day I re-did my paperwork effective on the same day. So I guess there was no count for me. That was 10 years ago. No regrets 

[Science52]

I see that there has been very few posts since the pandemic started.  We had to cancel two trips. One land trip to visit my mom and a cruise in June. We were going to celebrate my semi retirement.  I guess we’ll cruise next year.  School looks like it will be online again.  I will know this week. 

[Covepointcruiser]

It’s strange that in Maryland, it is safe to take your child to Walmart or to a swimming pool as that is essential but education is now considered non essential.   Children will again be expected to spend hours in front of a screen instead of learning in the wonderful school buildings built by our tax dollars.    We all know which children will suffer more with this type of “education” and it’s not the privileged.    We have had few cases in our county and our rate is less than 5 per 100,000.   We have been wearing masks since March and are under severe constraints for 120+ days.   Too bad it wasn’t enough to open the schools for even two days a week.

[Science52]

I teach in a private school so we don’t have to follow the county’s decision. If the governor closes all schools then we have to follow his decision. We haven’t been told yet. We are a small school so we can do social distancing. The public high school across the street from us has 3,000 students.  That school would have trouble with social distancing. We have been wearing masks in Maryland since the beginning of the pandemic too.    In fact, I made 150 cloth masks that I gave to friends and neighbors.

[Vagabond Knight]

Please, let's not have every discussion on this site become a Covid discussion.  

[telebax51]

If it is cruise related it will be difficult to not mention covid

[misty57]

On 8/1/2020 at 11:40 AM, telebax51 said:

If it is cruise related it will be difficult to not mention covid

Yes it affects just about everything we do. Not too many things are operating in the same way. Even grocery shopping isn’t the same. Retirement plans could be changed for some due to the economic impact as well. My retirement Alaskan cruise tour may still happen in 2022 but we will see. Most likely DH and I would accept a vaccine if possible, but I’d probably wait a hot minute before being the first to do so 😳.

[Lois R]

Yes, it has affected all of us but I have to say, I still don't regret retiring back on 12/31 not one iota.   

There are days I  may get a bit bored but not bored enough that I miss work😀

[Science52]

We canceled two trips (one cruise).  We were going to cruise with friends from Australia next May but their country is not letting anyone travel. I was answering the post before mine about schools. Montgomery County schools made national news because the public schools 

went virtual and some private schools were going to do in person. The county exec closed private schools and the governor said private schools could make their own decisions.

[Science52]

Additionally, this blog has to do with retirement and how long it is until you retire.  I have been on this site on and off since it started (post number 43).  I was under read52 which had a problem so I had to use a different user name.  The end of last school year I was going to semiretire (collect pension and work parttime).  Covid did change plans. I had to learn how to teach virtually in the last quarter of my last year of full time work.  Most of all I did not go on my semiretirement cruise. I am still going to work parttime because my grandchildren  go to my school so I will still be exposed. It has changed life and it will never be the same. 

[telebax51]

10 hours ago, Lois R said:

Yes, it has affected all of us but I have to say, I still don't regret retiring back on 12/31 not one iota.   

There are days I  may get a bit bored but not bored enough that I miss work😀

Amen to that i don't miss that 4 letter word one bit

[ronpes]

I first posted on this thread probably 2 or 3 years ago, and was counting down the days first of all till Oct 2019 when I first planned to retire and I then changed my plans to August 2020. This date worked better for us and our plans to do a transpacific on Ovation ot Seas as a retirement present to ourselves.

Due to the current pandemic and my work situation, I finally took early retirement at the end of May this year and it was the best thing I ever did. Yes, these are difficult times right now for everyone, and we have cancelled all our travels for this year.

We have also moved our Transpacific trip out to early 2022 when we hope everything will have settled down by then.

Even as the current situation has curtailed all our travel plans, I still don’t miss work at all.

[telebax51]

2 hours ago, ronpes said:

I first posted on this thread probably 2 or 3 years ago, and was counting down the days first of all till Oct 2019 when I first planned to retire and I then changed my plans to August 2020. This date worked better for us and our plans to do a transpacific on Ovation ot Seas as a retirement present to ourselves.

Due to the current pandemic and my work situation, I finally took early retirement at the end of May this year and it was the best thing I ever did. Yes, these are difficult times right now for everyone, and we have cancelled all our travels for this year.

We have also moved our Transpacific trip out to early 2022 when we hope everything will have settled down by then.

Even as the current situation has curtailed all our travel plans, I still don’t miss work at all.

It is a good feeling no more alarm clocks heck no more anything related to work i have been retired for 8 yrs. now i am waiting for Europe to open for US passengers to cruise again.

[SelectSys]

On 8/25/2020 at 7:48 AM, ronpes said:

..

Due to the current pandemic and my work situation, I finally took early retirement at the end of May this year and it was the best thing I ever did...

 

I made the opposite decision.  I thought I might announce my retirement at the end of this year, but I have decided to stay on for another year until the end of 2021.   While it's best for me financially to leave on calendar year boundaries, I would consider leaving earlier if mobility comes back sooner than I expect.

[Lois R]

8 hours ago, SelectSys said:

 

I made the opposite decision.  I thought I might announce my retirement at the end of this year, but I have decided to stay on for another year until the end of 2021.   While it's best for me financially to leave on calendar year boundaries, I would consider leaving earlier if mobility comes back sooner than I expect.

Good morning, may I ask what you do?   I know when I retired the company I worked for had made LOTS of changes

and I was so ready to leave.   (they were not positive changes for me).  I was to the point where I had actually moved

up my retirement date from what I originally planned.  Now, this year has been a PITA for all of us but as for the office?

I am so glad I left!

[SelectSys]

3 hours ago, Lois R said:

Good morning, may I ask what you do?   I know when I retired the company I worked for had made LOTS of changes

and I was so ready to leave.   (they were not positive changes for me)...

I am so glad I left!

 

I work in an engineering discipline.   I also stepped back from all management responsibility focusing only on technical/process issues which makes work much more relaxed.

 

I see lots of changes where I work but so far I have been unaffected.  I would leave as well if my work environment became uncomfortable.

[ronpes]

18 hours ago, SelectSys said:

 

I made the opposite decision.  I thought I might announce my retirement at the end of this year, but I have decided to stay on for another year until the end of 2021.   While it's best for me financially to leave on calendar year boundaries, I would consider leaving earlier if mobility comes back sooner than I expect.

 

Hi, I can totally relate to your situation. I had been working a 3 - day week for some time and when the covid -19 situation arose, we were working from home indefinitely, and everything was shut down anyway so we couldn't do anything and all travel ground to a halt. (This is in the UK).  So,...I figured I might as well keep working (from home) as;

A/ it gave me something to do 3-days a week and,  B/ yes, the money was handy.

However, due to cost cutting measures my company made me an offer to leave early and it was too good to pass up so I grabbed it.

My point being, if they hadn't made the decision for me, then I might still be working from home. 

However, now that I have made that leap, I have no regrets and now that things are slowly opening again, I am enjoying the stress free life.  

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by ronpes

[SelectSys]

30 minutes ago, ronpes said:

 

Hi, I can totally relate to your situation. I had been working a 3 - day week for some time and when the covid -19 situation arose, we were working from home indefinitely and everything was shut down anyway so we couldn't do anything anyway and all travel ground to a halt. (This is in the UK).  So,...I figured I might as well keep working (from home) as;

A/ it gave me something to do3-days a week and B/ yes, the money was handy. However, due to cost cutting measures my company made me an offer to leave early and it was too good to pass up so I grabbed it.

My point being, if they hadn't been that that made the decision for me, then I might still be working from home. 

However, now that I have made that leap, I have no regrets and now that things are slowly opening again, I am enjoying the stress free life.  

 

Yes, I can relate to your's as well.  My rationale for continuing working is identical to what you stated.  I am on indefinite work from home and no plans have been made to return to the office. 

 

Fortunately, my company is doing well for now so I am unaware of any plans for reducing staff at the current time.  Maybe it would be better if they did have a problem as a package to leave sounds nice too.

 

When things start really opening up, I am done with work as this whole experience has reinforced for me that the most valuable commodity is time.

Edited August 27, 2020 by SelectSys

[Roz]

My plan was to retire at 70, and it still is.

 

I've been working from home since March 18, and I feel very isolated, as work was most of my social interaction.  I've had people ask me why I don't retire if I fee that way.  If I retire, what am I going to do?  The activities I was planning on pursuing when I retire aren't available, so I would still be isolated at home.  At least with work I have something to occupy my mind for 8 hrs. a day.  

 

If we're able to return to the office at some point, I would like to be in the office 2 days a week and work at home 3 days.  I think that would be a nice balance.  If we're forced back into the office full-time I may re-consider my decision.  I also expect I'm going to be offered a buyout without the next 6 months.  I work in state gov't. and tax revenues are way down, especially in the program I work in. 

[Science52]

This week my school started a blended schedule.  Parents could choose in school or virtual learning.  75% are in person and things went well this week.  We are a small school  and following all the precautions.  The governor said schools could open on Friday.  Most of the public schools are large and prepared.  I will be working only mornings in the library which at this point, I will be bringing books into the rooms.  It was the right choice for me to work part time because I still feel connected to the school and church.  I loved teaching but wanted a little free time to do other things.  I make good money even working part time.  Once cruising starts up again the extra money will come in handy. 

[Schlepporello]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this thread and given the inactivity on the two roll calls I'm currently in, I'm hunting for other areas on CC to spend my time and gain insights on. I recently turned 64 myself. My DW will be 70 this coming May. We plan on cruising until I retire. If the Lord provides a way for us to go on cruises after I retire, I'll not argue the point. Our current favorite cruise destination is Alaska. My DW would love to cruise Ireland, I'd like to do a trans-Atlantic to Copenhagen. If we are unable to afford cruising after I retire, there are still plenty of wonderful vacation locations here in the continental US that we can enjoy.

[crystalspin]

@Schlepporello

Watch for launch sales on lines that let you adjust your fare if there is a better sale. You lose your prior perks but sometimes it really works out, or you are adding even better perks!

 

The lines I book with are HAL and Princess... although I have yet to *sail* with Princess! Something always comes up...