|
Post by htmb on Aug 11, 2016 11:33:36 GMT
Thanks, Mossie! I'm not sure how effective a teacher I was, Amboseli, but I certainly was privileged to know some really good people. I've also known a lot of mediocre to rotten teachers, too. Because teacher pay is so low here, it's very obvious that the most dedicated, talented educators are teaching because they love the job and want to make a difference in the lives of children. Otherwise they'd move on into higher paying positions in the private sector.
|
|
|
Post by amboseli on Aug 31, 2016 21:24:46 GMT
I am now officially retired and free as a bird.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2016 4:19:28 GMT
Hooray, a new member of the club! I think that you'll find that you like it.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 1, 2016 5:15:06 GMT
Yes indeed! Congratulations, Amboseli -- I'm very happy for you.
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on Sept 1, 2016 7:41:53 GMT
I'm happy too ! I hope my taxes contributed to a huge pension ! Living in the most beautiful country in the world and being retired... what else ?
|
|
|
Post by amboseli on Sept 1, 2016 8:44:00 GMT
Thanks, all. @whatagain The words 'huge' and 'pension' don't go together very well. At least not when you've been self-employed half of your carreer. But thanks anyway for your contribution.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Sept 1, 2016 15:22:37 GMT
I'm very happy I was able to retire when I did, and hope you will enjoy your adjustment to not working just as much, Amboseli. Congratulations.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Nov 7, 2016 9:59:24 GMT
I have set a date. March 1 2018.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 7, 2016 16:52:36 GMT
Gosh, Mick ~ right now that seems far in the future. How do you feel about that?
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Nov 7, 2016 17:08:32 GMT
Retire? Whats' that. My husband absolutely refuses to retire. Says he couldn't face waking up and thinking what the heck will I do today.... I am hoping he will semi- retire. That means coming to sport afternoons to watch the grandsons, taking me us to lunch mid-week instead of just Saturday or Sunday, playing hookie and not going to work on Monday morning at 6.30am every Monday, and so on. Problem is so many people just curl up and die when there is no challenge any longer.
|
|
|
Post by lugg on Nov 7, 2016 21:21:00 GMT
Congratulations to those who have achieved retirement, those who have made a decision on a future date and also to those who are planning for the future. Your posts have given me food for thought as I am now nearly 2 years ( Feb 17) past my initial retirement date. (I am lucky that I have special class for retirement ) Unexpected changes in my personal life equate to much mulling over my expanding options but also about the potential limitations. I need to consider how I can balance opportunity but still fulfil the obligations I have.
But consider them I must, otherwise its just more of the same. Someone who does a similar job to mine said to me last week - this work destroys your soul with its awfulness . I am not there yet but don't ever want to be either. So I must not leave it too late.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Nov 7, 2016 22:22:59 GMT
Easing into the idea of retirement was ideal for me. I loved my job and, initially, I thought I'd work for many more years. However, I gradually became tired of certain aspects of my working life, and wanted to enjoy a more leisurely schedule. It's been good, so far, and I have no regrets. I wish the same to each of you!
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Nov 7, 2016 23:22:05 GMT
Yes, it is a bit odd, as I am looking forward to when I can get the Old Age Pension and income supplement, but that is a bit perverse as it means getting closer to death, and worse, to possible incapacity or loss of one's marbles, in which case I want to be sure I can access "assisted suicide". No, I certainly don't want to die, but I don't want to be a drooling braindead thing in a residence - much more so the latter. We all die. No mammal has ever averted that yet.
If reasonable mental and physical health hold up - they are fine now except some sore joints, and I cycle many km a day - it will mean I can travel more as I do have volunteering opportunities lined up that will allow that and some free time.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 8, 2016 3:52:57 GMT
Aw, come on, LaGatta. There's always the chance that one will live a long, relatively healthy life and die in ones bed, too. You have always seemed to be a highly intelligent, vibrant person who is open to the pleasures and opportunities life can bring. It makes just as much sense to anticipate the positive as to dwell on the negative. I am thrilled to hear that you now have a chance to get out and do something that you enjoy and are undoubtedly very good at.
Lugg, your clear-eyed view of your job and how it can affect you in the long run is something we can all take as a life lesson, whether contemplating work or other facets of our lives.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2016 6:32:38 GMT
I fully agree with what Bixa has said about you and your age of retirement Lagatta.
It really is a state of mind, and, yours seems to be optimistic and seemingly devoid of all the gruesome particulars you speak of.
Lugg, I take it as something you are having to remove yourself from in both the literal sense and the emotional.
I left a job that I loved, but, for my own very strong feelings that try as I might, I ultimately was not able to change the situation.
It haunts me to this very day.
(It was very ironic that the medical floor my husband was on this past summer was on the very same floor of the job of which I speak.)
Hang in there.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Nov 8, 2016 9:16:04 GMT
What have I started!
I cut back to 3 days a week last March and love it but find I want more free time! So much to do! Little chance of me curling up and dying.....
Of course a nice chunk of monthly money wont be coming my way but I'm hopeful a rather large debt will be repaid will help somewhat!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2016 10:32:51 GMT
I try to think of retirement as volume 3 of the "book of life" (after volume 1 "childhood" and volume 2 "prime of life" or whatever). What's exciting about it is that it is really the first time in your life that you have complete control over what you do with your time.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Nov 8, 2016 14:47:40 GMT
got it in one K2.
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Nov 8, 2016 20:46:23 GMT
I agree, I tell people I have never been so well off, even though my income has halved, but without my wife and with the children having flown the nest long ago, it is all me time now. Closer to death is being despondent, live for the day and to hell with the rest.
|
|
|
Post by chexbres on Nov 9, 2016 10:00:22 GMT
I'm ambivalent about retirement. I had to take early retirement due to a lengthy illness. When that was over and done with, I moved to Paris, where I am not allowed to work legally. It was fun for awhile, eating bonbons and drinking champagne all day, but I'm really itching for the chance to do something besides volunteering at various food banks, etc. Unfortunately, it's not even remotely possible. Maybe I'll get around to writing my memoirs, like every other American.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Nov 9, 2016 13:45:36 GMT
Chex - why can't you apply for a work permit? Is that tougher than even trying to put money in someones bank account in exchange for bricks and mortar?
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Feb 3, 2017 11:43:57 GMT
So you are finally settled in your apartment at last! So happy for you that you were lucky to find a seller. Moving is a real chore - especially the packing and unpacking. It does give an opportunity to rid onself of superfluous items though. Today we started the move to pack up all crockery and numerous other items like vases, decorative nik-naks and tons of other stuff. I had forgotten how many beautiful serving dishes I had. Bought with the intentions of entertaining on a regular basis but that soon faded to very few occassions. Dishes in the way of exquisite salad bowls have been in cupboards for years.
The reason the guest part of our house is being 'cleansed' is that we have decided to rent it out. Hopefully as an office. This way people can be there during the day but won't bother us with music or entertaining at night. The extra cash will be set aside for travelling.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Feb 3, 2017 13:19:58 GMT
Oh, I guess I was being gloomy because of the state of the world, and also because although my mum lived to be 98, the last three years of her life were just drifting in and out of sleep - not Alzheimer; most likely a series of small strokes - and she was adamant when lucid that she didn't want to wind up like that. My parents were elderly - my mum was 42 when I was born, and my dad, several years older. One of my friends who is almost a decade older than I am is spending much of her time in Cuba - I'm going over today to check out the house and water her plants - someone we know has been a short-term tenant there, but the latter person has returned to her own town, which happens to be Mich's town, for family-related reasons for a week. Another is down in her native Argentina until spring returns here. She has to spend 6 months of every year in Canada so as not to lose her old age income supplement. Like many people who work independently or on short-term contracts, her income declined considerably past 50 or so... So she is enjoying the Austral summer, but the cost of living has spiked there, and many things - though not wine are almost as expensive as here, with much lower average salaries. She doesn't live in Buenos Aires, but in a town in BsAs province, between La Plata and Mar de Plata. Her family owns a block of flats and ground floor business locales (nothing large) and she uses her small Argie pension to pay to keep a studio there to be independent. She was a refugee from the dictatorship, but in Catalonia, not here, so that already makes a life chopped into threes. Her only problem is that she finds the long-haul flight very difficult now. It is really almost the length of the Americas if one excludes the far north and the far south.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Apr 24, 2019 13:24:13 GMT
My friend who died last week at 83 never really retired. He was no longer teaching at a university, but participated in many an "alterglobalist" seminar and other work, in the Americas and Europe, and even farther afield. But he did have the wonderful chance of a late-life remarriage, after the death of his wife. They and the son and daughter-in-law of S (wife) bought a small duplex up and down across from a major métro station, and the younger generation went on to build another half storey above the former up. Older generation also built a solarium at the back, opening up what had been a turn of the 19th-20th centuries worker's house with cramped little rooms into a more welcoming space (though always modest). J was very tall and brought in a king-sized bed, which was funny in the wee bedroom, leaving very little room for anything around the bed. He doted on his two local grandchildren (not "biologically" his; those of S's first husband. but they made no distinction, and his other grandchildren who lived out West.
We had a wonderful memorial, sad and happy in turns, with poetry, readings, testimony as well as good food and wine.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Apr 24, 2019 14:51:35 GMT
What an interesting person he was and what a satisfyingly rich retirement.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Apr 24, 2019 14:58:36 GMT
I never understand "never really retired" except for destitute people who absolutely need a bit of extra money to survive (i.e. Walmart greeters or those 80 year old people working at highway toll booths at 2am in Florida). I do understand people who have a passion for their profession and want to continue to contribute in various ways, but not at all if they are doing it to get more money for their work.
My retirement allows me to continue to live "acceptably" without any major problems, even though I do pay attention much more to the money I spend and refrain from certain superfluous desires. Therefore I was a bit shocked today. The government had been a bit harsh with the retired constituents recently. Statistics showed that retired people have more purchasing power than the majority of working people (basically because we are no longer in debt for houses or cars or things like that). Various government measures had increased taxes on pensions besides stopping automatic cost-of-living increases. It's not a big amount, but a lot of people felt that they were being cheated out of money that they deserved.
So the government backed down and said that they were refunding the additional taxes to small pensions starting from January 2019. Fine, I thought, but I am not really concerned because my pension is not all that tiny. And yet today I saw on my bank account that I had received a refund. So I guess that I am in fact receiving a small pension.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Apr 24, 2019 15:21:22 GMT
When you look at what executives of large corporations receive in pensions and perks, any normal or nicely-above-normal pension seems small.
The night Charlie's husband died, she commented on how great it was that he'd decided to take retirement at the age of 52. That gave them 18 years together in Mexico and out of the rat race.
I have a friend from the US here who was born in 1958 and retired about 10 years ago. She managed this with foresight and good planning. You'd be surprised at the number of older retirees here who show undignified jealousy of her.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Apr 24, 2019 15:25:49 GMT
La Fontaine's fable "The Cricket and the Ant" is just as valid today as it was when it was written.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Apr 24, 2019 15:46:36 GMT
I could not possibly have done that, and I'm by no means a big spender. Not envious about other people's good fortune either, though. I could have had far worse fortune.
I doubt my friend made much from his post-teaching activities, and knowing him, he probably donated it to researchers in poorer countries. Many artists, writers, scholars etc are not at all interested in fully retiring, unless they have to due to very poor health, because their vocation is part of who they are.
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 24, 2019 17:45:42 GMT
I doubt that I could manage the long and variable shift pattern that I had to work for the last 10 years or so of my career. I was always sent to the busiest hospital and given the worst shifts (I was a valuable resource don't you know). Weekends and nights. NO MORE! Don't miss it at all...yet my job used to be a huge source of 'pride'...
|
|