The batt in my watch died, and I haven't bothered to replace it. Fortunately, my phone gives the *day-o-the-week* which I find useful [more useful than I like to admit].
Ain't it great?
Posted on 12/16/2017 7:02:48 PM PST by mdittmar
What did you do when you retired?
Getting close to the point that I may be able to retire.
Thinking about reselling,yard sales,goodwills,estates sales.
Always enjoyed junking,antiquing.
Gotta stay busy.
She?
Who cares if you only go 55 MPH, you WILL get there and sit in the driveway for a couple of days waiting for them to come home from school or whatever.
I am already crazy Pappy ... might as well bask in that light.
And teaching the few interested something they would NEVER have gotten anywhere else.
And no one knows about it until the days actually disappear as a meaningful element of time.
funny how that clock thing works, eh ?
“Perhaps today is a good day to die.” Whorf but stolen from Crazy Horse.
Not a bad way to go.
America has gone soft partly due to the idea of retirement which has a root of pleasing ourself.
The batt in my watch died, and I haven't bothered to replace it. Fortunately, my phone gives the *day-o-the-week* which I find useful [more useful than I like to admit].
Ain't it great?
I retired for a few years. I was bored silly. I gardened, completed a few projects I vowed to complete and then I was offered an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down. I’ll work til I die.
Retired 21 years ago.... went to work because E6 retirement pay is half of what my full pay was. Even with congress passing such hefty cost of living increases it is better than nothing but not enough to live on.
Yes, the stuff that’s been in the family for decades, or is on its third or fourth generation, is definitely a keeper.
According to my wife, all I do or want to do is hunt and fish. But I’m actually hell with a chainsaw too. Bought forestland on a mountainside in Montana and I’ve been parking it out for the last 12 years. Built two atv bridges over our creek to access our land on the other side, with plans for a third one for next spring. Then finish clearing things out in the creek bottom and put in the hiking trails I promised my wife years ago.
Working on my shooting range too. Nice to be able to drive down a few hundred yards behind the house and crank off a few rounds whenever the mood strikes.
Also cook most everything from scratch, garden and keep a tidy lawn. Reading in the winter rounds out the year.
There are some parts of your story that seem to be missing.
Nothing funny about it ! I don’t know how people deal with the daily toil.
Throughout my career I worked for a grocery store for a few months, and I worked a grill for a few months too. I was between 16-18. I also made money those years by doing V8 swaps.
I have owned my own business all my life. That means that most mornings I was up and at-em by 6 am but it was still on my terms. Even today I will set my phone alarm to go to a client site if they need me early.
but again, that’s all on my terms. My wife had to work for a bank. She had, literally, bankers hours. But still I couldn’t believe that her livelihood depended on “looking busy” and doing work based on a clock instead of work based on the challenge.
BTW Reselling is a decent living, but it’s full of challenges.
My wife is selling her rather successful ebay reselling business if you’re interested. It generates $3500 a month now (before ebay fees and shipping) but it’s all on her terms. She does about 2 honest hours of work a day to make that happen.
Lemme know ! She’s selling inventory, ebay presence, business cards, website (gorocktherack .com) and reputation. Or just inventory.
She likes it, but she wants to move on to another market.
The first year was kind of tough. Grieving the loss of the camaraderie at work. by the second year I was writing a wine column for the local entertainment magazine. Now work? What work?
Saturday and Sunday.
I don't know how I know today is Sunday, but my body clock obviously does.
Tomorrow is Saturday.
NONE of this is to imply I'm lazy or do nothing .... I'm just not necessarily in sinc with the rest of the world as they rush off to put another man's kids through college.
Not sure I’ll ever retire from the oil and gas business, it’s kind of like being in the mob. I work full time and have been drawing full SS for two years now. I do have a couple of hobbies that seem to be profitable and that’s flint knapping and refurbishing cast iron cookware. My wife enjoys going to the markets and looking for old stuff anyway so the Cast Iron refurbishing just kind of fell in my lap. I do love a good ribeye cooked in a cast iron skillet. Everybody needs at least one fine Griswold skillet in their kitchen.
We’re still a few years out, but the Travis McGee’s (Matt Bracken) approach is probably going to resonate with us: Boat, Bahamas, Sun.
I would argue every retired person should form a corporation and then find work for the corporation. The corporation is able to expense lots of stuff...... it’s the American way. (in many states you cn create the corporation your self with out a great deal of effort)
And...... a corporation looks respectable and official.
Among the jobs you have done before, there are skills that can be sold. The corporation becomes a contractor to the client
I’m not advocating working all day everyday. I got up to working on three days but have cut back to only two.
My little business is technical and my clients are large companies.
As one business, my wife is in is Archivist, Genealogical Document Digitalization. Pretty fancy description for working at your computer and cell phone isn’t it? You buy an HP scanner and a slide scanner and change old photos and various paper documents into a digital data base. She had requests and is starting to convert VCR tapes to digital files. The files created are very valuable because they can be shared with kids and grand kids and interested cousins etc.
Customers are current baby boomers that have been given all the old family records and feel guilty about what to do with them. They have money to pay you to relieve them of the burden.
When we reached 75, we decided we were still in good health and the way forward was to keep on keeping on.
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