What is 'Retirement'?

[Vol737]

Pretty soon it'll be machines until they destroy us.

This is true. I fight with all my devices and they always seem to win. Wait till they can punch and kick!

 

[C-south]

I’ve been to Greenville fairly often. I love GSP area. Talking to locals there that’s the message I’ve gotten as well. Hmmm….why, oh why would ALL these people be wanting to move to the RACIST South?? It’s a horrible place, full of uneducated, small minded bumpkins. Can’t imagine why they would all want to move here.

85 is awful and everybody has figured out the back roads because there’s a new subdivision being slapped up on every scrap of land. Woodruff Rd use to be the worst but it just sucks everywhere now.

 

[Pennheel]

Retirement for me means 30 years and out. I don't care if I'm not financially secure as I want to enjoy life without feeling old. In reality I didn't feel this way but I've had family recently who died younger and never got to experience life without work. Mind you I have tons of hobbies that'll keep me busy. I don't work because I like to, I work so I can enjoy my hobbies. Healthcare is the wild card that is the unknown

That's pretty much my way of thinking. I work to enjoy my life and hobbies as well as other bills. I respect someone who likes what working brings them and works part time jobs even after retirement. For me, I enjoy my hobbies and free time. Work allows me to do so.

 

[AM64]

Every time I go to my dentist, he asks me if I have any plans for the weekend. I always tell him that I'm retired and there are no weekends in my life anymore.
I'm happy to be retired, and it is really enjoyable to wake up in the morning and know that I can get up whenever I want and do whatever I want every day for the rest of my life.

It's a lot the same for me. I didn't really have a choice on "retirement". Years ago engineering went through a really bad stretch of layoffs and restructuring that resulted in layoffs, and almost no opportunity for a transfer. So bad that some companies were laying off EEs in their 30s to avoid age discrimination issues for axing them at a later age. We've shared many of the same experiences it appears - thoroughly loved the work and hated the workplace and despised the people who "ran" it. When I retired, it wasn't voluntary, and I was on the outside looking in as far as any engineering job whatsoever. I had the experience for any number of positions from aerospace to manufacturing plants ... but with "nuclear experience" making it easy to rule out as not qualified, over experienced, and overpriced. Of course, that's all easy to assume if nobody even responds to applications or asks about experience or salary.

Since my wife was Navy on active duty as an O5/O6, a lot of problems (except pride) were handled. I was too young to start working on my retirement plans, but I was fortunate enough not to need them ... or especially not to need my own health insurance. So I just decided to screw the corporate world and make my life my own to do as much or as little as I chose. I'd still have enjoyed the problem solving whether it be machinery vibration, flow issues in piping systems, or taming flow problems over a plane's wings; but not dealing with managers who should never be where they were was a blessing above all. So I just kinda became a bum and took life one day at a time and choose to remember the good stuff and tried to forget the bad ole days. It's still fun looking for problems to solve. This year I turn 77, and between a pension, SS, and retirement plans, I have a nice income. My wife has all those same things of her own and the military retirement that provides us health insurance to supplement Medicare.

 

[AM64]

Pretty soon it'll be machines until they destroy us.

Despite all the warnings about AI and machines (both fiction and nonfiction), we just keep right on rolling down that path. At some point, machines will logically decide they don't need humans and there's no future in providing for humans or keeping them around.

 

[AM64]

EXACTLY!
I've known people that lost their health insurance at 55. Once you get in your fifties the cost of private health insurance sky rockets. 1 of those people decided to risk not having insurance, and went bankrupt when he had a heart attack and couldn't work(carpenter) for several month. .

I retired the first time at 53, and My wife and I had Private Insurance . That was around 2005, and the insurance for both of us was abou $6-8000 per year. Wife got sick and the insurance started going up 15-25% , sometimes twice a year. The insurance cost almost $30,000 annually before I hit 60. So I went back to work at age 59 for health insurance. Dam, dam, dam.
I worked at that job about 4 years when i could quit and keep the health insurance until age 65.

Military retirements are a pretty good deal if for nothing more than the insurance.

 

[AM64]

85 is awful and everybody has figured out the back roads because there’s a new subdivision being slapped up on every scrap of land. Woodruff Rd use to be the worst but it just sucks everywhere now.

Absolutely hate 85 (and 75 to Atlanta). My brother lives in Anderson; when I go to visit, it's always from Chattanooga to Cleveland, along the Ocoee, and then down to 76 at some point to Westminster and over to Anderson - don't even go through Clemson.

 

[C-south]

Absolutely hate 85 (and 75 to Atlanta). My brother lives in Anderson; when I go to visit, it's always from Chattanooga to Cleveland, along the Ocoee, and then down to 76 at some point to Westminster and over to Anderson - don't even go through Clemson.

I’m in Greenville. Luckily I can avoid the interstate most of the time.

 

[Tin Man]

Knew some skydivers from Anderson, SC…

 

[SpaceCoastVol]

Military retirements are a pretty good deal if for nothing more than the insurance.

One great regret I have is not staying in the reserves for just the TriCare. I should have done coloring books or something for that, but noooooo I wanted to fly in the reserves and they wanted too much time. Idiot.

 

[Go aeiou]

It's a lot the same for me. I didn't really have a choice on "retirement". Years ago engineering went through a really bad stretch of layoffs and restructuring that resulted in layoffs, and almost no opportunity for a transfer. So bad that some companies were laying off EEs in their 30s to avoid age discrimination issues for axing them at a later age. We've shared many of the same experiences it appears - thoroughly loved the work and hated the workplace and despised the people who "ran" it. When I retired, it wasn't voluntary, and I was on the outside looking in as far as any engineering job whatsoever. I had the experience for any number of positions from aerospace to manufacturing plants ... but with "nuclear experience" making it easy to rule out as not qualified, over experienced, and overpriced. Of course, that's all easy to assume if nobody even responds to applications or asks about experience or salary.

Since my wife was Navy on active duty as an O5/O6, a lot of problems (except pride) were handled. I was too young to start working on my retirement plans, but I was fortunate enough not to need them ... or especially not to need my own healthGood storyinsurance. So I just decided to screw the corporate world and make my life my own to do as much or as little as I chose. I'd still have enjoyed the problem solving whether it be machinery vibration, flow issues in piping systems, or taming flow problems over a plane's wings; but not dealing with managers who should never be where they were was a blessing above all. So I just kinda became a bum and took life one day at a time and choose to remember the good stuff and tried to forget the bad ole days. It's still fun looking for problems to solve. This year I turn 77, and between a pension, SS, and retirement plans, I have a nice income. My wife has all those same things of her own and the military retirement that provides us health insurance to supplement Medicare.

Good story.

 

[Go aeiou]

Military retirements are a pretty good deal if for nothing more than the insurance.

Not so good if your time to enlist was during the Viet Nam conflict.

 

[AM64]

Not so good if your time to enlist was during the Viet Nam conflict.

Actually I did just that. I left UT in my junior year and enlisted in the Army (Apr 1967)- my plan was to go through OCS and let the Army send me back to school later. It was all working until a about three weeks from Infantry AIT graduation, the Army decided only college grads would go to OCS. For those who enlisted and waived our enlistment options for OCS we got the opportunity to either go ahead with an infantry MOS and reapply for OCS after a year or attend our original school. I took the latter - Hawk Pulse Radar repair that the recruiter sold me - a bit over eight months at Redstone (Ordnance and not Artillery), so I wound up with both a 23S20 and 11B10 MOS. About half my class went to Vietnam; I went to Okinawa, and a few months later several of the guys who went to Vietnam wound up on Okinawa after the Army figured out it didn't need Hawks in Vietnam.

 

[AM64]

One great regret I have is not staying in the reserves for just the TriCare. I should have done coloring books or something for that, but noooooo I wanted to fly in the reserves and they wanted too much time. Idiot.

Hindsight makes all of more "intelligent". Too bad we get it on the back end instead of the front end. I don't know how much my wife pays for my TriCare (seems like she has no premium), but with Medicare as primary and Tricare secondary, we've never pay medical expenses other than prescriptions.

 

[VolStrom]

Hindsight makes all of more "intelligent". Too bad we get it on the back end instead of the front end. I don't know how much my wife pays for my TriCare (seems like she has no premium), but with Medicare as primary and Tricare secondary, we've never pay medical expenses other than prescriptions.

One of my son-in-laws is in the national guard full time and their family is covered by Tricare. I don't know what it costs them, but I know they have a $50/month max for prescription drugs. What also blows my mind is that they get nearly $2000/month for a housing allowance this is an addition to his salary. I think the military used to pay less than the private sector, but I think now days if you add up the benefits, like a pension and benefits, they far outpace the private sector.

 

[AM64]

One of my son-in-laws is in the national guard full time and their family is covered by Tricare. I don't know what it costs them, but I know they have a $50/month max for prescription drugs. What also blows my mind is that they get nearly $2000/month for a housing allowance this is an addition to his salary. I think the military used to pay less than the private sector, but I think now days if you add up the benefits, like a pension and benefits, they far outpace the private sector.

I'm a little surprised by the NG housing allowance, but for the military who move frequently there's little means to avoid escalating costs in housing if there isn't ample and available base housing. You and I could buy a house and live there for extended periods while watching it appreciate and generally not be hit by having to move and face either increasing rental or ownership costs, but not a military member who has to move on a regular basis. What's going on in housing is nuts - especially when you throw in artificial inflationary drivers like BlackRock type speculators. The military has to find a way to retain people, and they can't do that if the members can't afford to live where they are sent.

 

[VolStrom]

I'm a little surprised by the NG housing allowance, but for the military who move frequently there's little means to avoid escalating costs in housing if there isn't ample and available base housing. You and I could buy a house and live there for extended periods while watching it appreciate and generally not be hit by having to move and face either increasing rental or ownership costs, but not a military member who has to move on a regular basis. What's going on in housing is nuts - especially when you throw in artificial inflationary drivers like BlackRock type speculators. The military has to find a way to retain people, and they can't do that if the members can't afford to live where they are sent.

My SIL is attached to a unit in Nashville and they base his housing allowance on Nashville. East Tennessee is not near the housing market that Nashville is, but it’s close. To be honest, I'd take a $2k housing allowance, mostly free healthcare and a decent salary to be in the military vs what I got the last few years of my employment.

 

[Go aeiou]

Hindsight makes all of more "intelligent". Too bad we get it on the back end instead of the front end. I don't know how much my wife pays for my TriCare (seems like she has no premium), but with Medicare as primary and Tricare secondary, we've never pay medical expenses other than prescriptions.

Do you have a Plan D for prescriptions?

 

[AM64]

Do you have a Plan D for prescriptions?

No, I use TriCare, so I just have the Part B that TriCare requires. If I get a 90 day prescription filled through Express Scripts under TriCare, it's a flat $12 - although there are some things that are actually cheaper at Walgreens - the problem is figuring it out. Mostly I'm lazy and just use Express Scripts and get it delivered. I think prescriptions for my wife since she is the retired member are free for a 90 day supply of a generic. Congress keeps changing it - I do know the rates for drugs are going up again this year.

 

[hog88]

One of my son-in-laws is in the national guard full time and their family is covered by Tricare. I don't know what it costs them, but I know they have a $50/month max for prescription drugs. What also blows my mind is that they get nearly $2000/month for a housing allowance this is an addition to his salary. I think the military used to pay less than the private sector, but I think now days if you add up the benefits, like a pension and benefits, they far outpace the private sector.

If you can get a full time NG position you have it made. Our sons FIL and step mother in law are both full time NG, she’s a O-4 or O-5 and he’s a W-4.

 

[hog88]

I'm a little surprised by the NG housing allowance, but for the military who move frequently there's little means to avoid escalating costs in housing if there isn't ample and available base housing. You and I could buy a house and live there for extended periods while watching it appreciate and generally not be hit by having to move and face either increasing rental or ownership costs, but not a military member who has to move on a regular basis. What's going on in housing is nuts - especially when you throw in artificial inflationary drivers like BlackRock type speculators. The military has to find a way to retain people, and they can't do that if the members can't afford to live where they are sent.

If you’re “AGR” federal full time NG or reserves you get all the benefits of active duty. AGR Guard doesn’t have to move so its a plum job.

 

[AM64]

If you can get a full time NG position you have it made. Our sons FIL and step mother in law are both full time NG, she’s a O-4 or O-5 and he’s a W-4.

It appears that the AF has increasing turned over US air defense to NG units with full time positions - seems like a pretty good deal.

 

[hog88]

It appears that the AF has increasing turned over US air defense to NG units with full time positions - seems like a pretty good deal.

You got it made if you can get one of the positions.