April Fools Day.

[Water Warrior 2]

This is not, repeat "not" a joke. Seven years ago today was my last day of work. Retirement was hard earned as most will agree. Would I ever go back to work? NEVER. But I did do some vacation coverage here a year after retiring and made some nice travelling money. Other than that I wonder how I survived all those years. Thankfully I had an employer with a decent pension plan and the money was wisely invested. For all the young and old alike, it is never too late to invest and it will never be too early to invest. No amount is too small and no amount is too large. I have friends here who are retired and spend $100,000 travelling every year. Also friends who are 65+ and still working to make ends meet. Quite a reality check.
I am very fortunate and count my Blessings everyday. Life is good for an old guy who is retired and 67 years young.

[dentheman]

I second what WW said! I am also happily retired. While it is never too late, you will be better off if you start a retirement plan early in life.

After my wife passed away in 2005, I decided life was to short to spend it working, so I retired. I was 55. Now that I am 62 and have started collecting social security, that social security check and a few hundred a month from my pensions (I get two each month for the rest of my life) go straight into savings.

I have a more enjoyable standard of living now than I ever did while working!

[jonathan180iq]

This is not, repeat "not" a joke. Seven years ago today was my last day of work. Retirement was hard earned as most will agree. Would I ever go back to work? NEVER. But I did do some vacation coverage here a year after retiring and made some nice travelling money. Other than that I wonder how I survived all those years. Thankfully I had an employer with a decent pension plan and the money was wisely invested. For all the young and old alike, it is never too late to invest and it will never be too early to invest. No amount is too small and no amount is too large. I have friends here who are retired and spend $100,000 travelling every year. Also friends who are 65+ and still working to make ends meet. Quite a reality check.
I am very fortunate and count my Blessings everyday. Life is good for an old guy who is retired and 67 years young.

:plus1: for you, my man.

[Water Warrior 2]

Interesting facts that helped me make a decision to retire. I had enough years in to pick up a full company pension. I was a shift worker. Shift workers normally have a life span 10 years shorter than regular workers. I am a life time smoker. Knock off another 10 years. Every day you work past 65 years of age shortens your life by 2 days. Hmm. Why go near that age for retirement? I should have and probably would have expired if I hadn't changed some conditions in life. Got rid of my most stressful factors. Use your own imagination on that. I had a bucket full of factors. Older members can probably relate a lot easier, we have had more time to screw up our lives. LOL.

[alantf]

What a lot of people don't realise is that when we started work, and through most of our working lives, there were none of the health & safety rules in place. For instance, when I went for my hearing test, & the audiologist found that my deafness was most likely industrial deafness, he asked me why I hadn't worn ear protectors. I had to explain that, in those days, nobody gave the problem a second thought. The company didn't issue hearing defenders, & we just accepted that we'd go deaf eventually. Similarly, when I went for a breathing test, they found that I've got chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I have to take a variety of sprays etc, just to let me breath normally. This goes back to the ten years or so That I spent in the coalmines, as a young man. We never even thought about dustmasks or respirators. All this, and the British government is phasing in a plan to increase the retirement age. Not bad if your job consists of sitting on your arse in an office in Westminster. Not much fun if you've been doing a physical job all your life.

[blaine]

All this, and the British government is phasing in a plan to increase the retirement age. Not bad if your job consists of sitting on your arse in an office in Westminster. Not much fun if you've been doing a physical job all your life.
Our government here in Canada is doing the same thing.Increasing from 65 to 67.
:skeptical: :cry:

[Water Warrior 2]

Oh yeah, our brilliant leaders have this stupid idea that people want to work longer. Not likely. They just want to cover the fact that government has mismanaged the pension funds for decades and can't deal with it. Meanwhile the politicians will probably get a bonus for this wonderful scheme to work tax payers to an earlier grave and also save more money by doing so.
Just recently an Alberta politician retired and left public office. He was awarded a $1,000,000 bonus to help with his transition to private life. SAY WHAT !!!!

[mrlmd1]

Talking about how people have abused themselves earlier in life - like smoking. exposure to noise, alcohol (?), there's a great quote by the famous and great Yankee centerfielder Mickey Mantle (remember him?) at the age of 61 when he had his liver transplant --
"If I knew I would going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."

[Water Warrior 2]

I'm sure Mickey realized all too late that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

[mrlmd1]

Hard to convince someone of that when they are partying so hard that it feels so good.

[alantf]

"If I knew I would going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."

No, you wouldn't live longer..........It just feels longer. :crackup

[jonathan180iq]

..........It just feels longer. :crackup

That's what she said.

[alantf]

Not to me she didn't :oops: :crackup

[Water Warrior 2]

..........It just feels longer. :crackup

That's what she said.
Yeah, on April Fools Day. :itsokay:

[greatmaul]

That's a great reminder and very true. I started investing in my 401k about 15 years ago, but I wish I had started doing that when I got my first job. It adds up almost exponentially, and time is the key factor in all that. I'm hoping to impart all that to my kids, but it's hard when you're young to think about retirement.

[Water Warrior 2]

I worked with a fellow who invests as much as he can. One year he made a 10,000 dollar loan just to buy RRSP's. Doesn't sound smart until you realize it is very smart and good money management if you can get the loan at a lowish rate. He plans on retiring as a millionaire and golfing his years away. He still has nice vacations every year and lives in a fab house that appreciates due to it's location and design. That said, he also drove the same car for 15 years and avoided payments.

[greatmaul]

That said, he also drove the same car for 15 years and avoided payments.

Ha! amen to that. My current car is a 1990 Honda with 226,000 miles on it, and it replaced a Toyota that died with 260k+ on it. I think our truck which is a diesel, has over 300k, but I'm afraid to look. So long as they're still running, I'm not big on buying cars and paying for them.

[Water Warrior 2]

I absolutely love new vehicles and have a past history that involved a new set of wheels every 11 months on average. Oh yeah.........young and stupid. Now I keep them long enough to get tired of looking at them but can't quite come to grips with actually buying a new one when the present vehicle is barely broken in after 4 or 5 years with minimal kms. My present Ranger is a 2007 with only 40,000kms(25,000 miles). It is the wrong color and I should have bought an automatic tranny for comfort but it does the job. If I still worked and drove every day to a job the gas mileage would not be to my advantage but I don't mind being retired and just going out and about now and again.