SpaceCoastVol
Jacked up on moonshine and testosterone
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
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A post in another thread prompted me to start this one. I apologize if this gets a bit long, but I really hope you will stick with me and respond with your definitions.
As a little side note: In France, they are currently experiencing a bunch of unrest because of a government proposal to raise the 'retirement' age from 62 to 64. In many of the socialist leaning countries, they have a state pension. In order to receive it, you have to have worked for a minimum of 42 years. (This would mean you started working at 20, so I am not sure how college graduates qualify.) Retirees are entitled to receive up to a maximum of 50% of their average annual earnings. (I guess if you were interested in seeing how much you would be receiving, you could look at your Social Security statement and averaging all the years of earnings) But anyone born after 1951 must receive a minimum of 37.5%. My point here is that I am not sure how 'lucrative' their retirement system is, but they want to be able to continue to receive it at an earlier age. But it appears that their particular brand of Ponzi is starting to show it's weakness.
My question is more along the lines of how each of us sees/defines retirement. In my particular case, I am forced to stop working at 65. Some call it 'retirement', but there is no pension. It is merely a cessation of employment in my particular line of work. Some define retirement as the age at which you can begin receiving Social Security and/or Medicare; government paid (taxpayer funded) monies -which interestingly enough - the .gov taxes as income. I know that few of you that have been working for a long time and don't have some sort of .gov pension (military or other) are receiving a traditional defined benefit pension. So how do YOU define 'retirement'? If it is merely a cessation of work, what does it take to reach that point? Do you have a financial number in mind? (and I am not trying to get anyone to talk numbers because for each of us it is vastly different).
So I'll start. To me, 'retirement' means the point at which I am both financially secure enough to stop working and I have the desire to stop working. I have been blessed to be doing something that I very much enjoy doing, but I also recognize that at some point I will get tired of traversing multiple time zones and not want to do that. The thought of having nothing to do other than fish or golf has zero appeal to me personally. I would like to have enough time available to have season tickets to Vols games in football/basketball and even baseball, so maybe that would be my retirement hobby. (along with shooting my scary black rifle and making corn likker)
It is a question that I have thought about for a long time actually, and I have asked numerous other guys I work with, but I would be interested in getting VN's take on what 'retirement' means and what you see yourself doing when you get to that point.
I hope you'll take a couple of minutes and discuss. Thanks
As a little side note: In France, they are currently experiencing a bunch of unrest because of a government proposal to raise the 'retirement' age from 62 to 64. In many of the socialist leaning countries, they have a state pension. In order to receive it, you have to have worked for a minimum of 42 years. (This would mean you started working at 20, so I am not sure how college graduates qualify.) Retirees are entitled to receive up to a maximum of 50% of their average annual earnings. (I guess if you were interested in seeing how much you would be receiving, you could look at your Social Security statement and averaging all the years of earnings) But anyone born after 1951 must receive a minimum of 37.5%. My point here is that I am not sure how 'lucrative' their retirement system is, but they want to be able to continue to receive it at an earlier age. But it appears that their particular brand of Ponzi is starting to show it's weakness.
My question is more along the lines of how each of us sees/defines retirement. In my particular case, I am forced to stop working at 65. Some call it 'retirement', but there is no pension. It is merely a cessation of employment in my particular line of work. Some define retirement as the age at which you can begin receiving Social Security and/or Medicare; government paid (taxpayer funded) monies -which interestingly enough - the .gov taxes as income. I know that few of you that have been working for a long time and don't have some sort of .gov pension (military or other) are receiving a traditional defined benefit pension. So how do YOU define 'retirement'? If it is merely a cessation of work, what does it take to reach that point? Do you have a financial number in mind? (and I am not trying to get anyone to talk numbers because for each of us it is vastly different).
So I'll start. To me, 'retirement' means the point at which I am both financially secure enough to stop working and I have the desire to stop working. I have been blessed to be doing something that I very much enjoy doing, but I also recognize that at some point I will get tired of traversing multiple time zones and not want to do that. The thought of having nothing to do other than fish or golf has zero appeal to me personally. I would like to have enough time available to have season tickets to Vols games in football/basketball and even baseball, so maybe that would be my retirement hobby. (along with shooting my scary black rifle and making corn likker)
It is a question that I have thought about for a long time actually, and I have asked numerous other guys I work with, but I would be interested in getting VN's take on what 'retirement' means and what you see yourself doing when you get to that point.
I hope you'll take a couple of minutes and discuss. Thanks
