No More Work

[mike7570]

I woke up this morning to a different life..... I'm RETIRED
After 49yrs of work I am no longer receiving a pay check. This is going to take some time getting use to. I hope I squirreled enough away to complete my new race car project. At least now I will have enough time to put in the hours it will need to get it finished, of course my wife just started re-writing (lengthening) the honey do list.
 

[Falcon67]

Congratulations!

I can seriously consider such a move in November this year (2022).  That race car and honey do list is way long.  Not sure the money will stretch to cover the list LOL!  But yea, just to have the time to work on stuff.  We had new engineered floors put in the house in 2021, but I may have to retire before the baseboards get put back on the walls. 

[Keith Stevens]

Congratulations.  I can fly for 9 more years before the FAA yanks my ticket.  My father worked in oil industry as a field electrician until he was 75. ( He was the guy that cleaned up all the crappy union electricians mistakes)  Be sure you stay active. You'll go down hill fast if you don't.
ENJOY!

[cjshaker]

Congratulations. I retired in November, after 31 years of employment at the same place. I just couldn't handle the BS that was inundating the place. Not exactly sure what the future holds at this moment, but the relief I feel waking up each morning was still worth it. Sometimes you just gotta roll the dice.

Hope you enjoy your new found freedom!

[Rory428]

Another welcome to the club! I retired not quite 2 years ago, after 40+ years mostly in automotive, the last 35 years as a dealership mechanic. It was a bit of a scary move at first, with no regular pay check every 2 weeks anymore, bit I gotta say retirement is the best job that I have ever (never?) had! After calling my work phase finished, I spent the first 5 months getting my 59 pretty much finished and on the road, I got more accomplished on the 59 in those 5 months than I did in the previous 18 years! Capped it all off with a 4000 mile move East, so now the FE Reunion is only a 23 hour tow, rather than close to 50! (1200 miles compared to 3000.) Now if Covid would just go away so that we could start seeing car part availability get back to normal, and travel restrictions open up again, we can get on with enjoying this retired life more! Congrats, and now you need to get that Shelby done and on the track.

[frnkeore]

Congrats!!! It's a great life.

I'm 77 and have been retired since 2007. I worked 48 years. My key to retirement, was paying off my house. I paid it off early, in 2002 and with my shop here, I don't have the need or desire to ever move again.

I'm never bored and it seems like I don't have as much free time as I did when I worked    I tend to take on more projects than I can keep up with.

[Lowrider]

Been retired almost 10yrs after working 40+yrs repairing cars & trucks. Was able to move from snowy MI. to AZ. to a house with a good sized shop. The thing I think of most is how did I ever get anything done when I was working. Always busy, I have 3 projects going on now. The thing I like the most is everyday is Saturday and if I don't feel like working or things aren't going right I can just close the door and come back when I want to.

[BruceS]

Big Congrats!  Agree with all the sentiments above.  It is a great life and well deserved. 

One big lesson is you need to have something to retire to.  Most of us here don't have that problem with our old Ford (and other!) projects.  There are many others I've worked with who had demanding careers and didn't make the time to develop other interests along the way so they get quickly bored at home or continue working till they drop or get laid off.  I retired from 35+ years in the petroleum industry and haven't looked back.    

[Gaugster]

Congratulations on getting to the next phase. I've got 20 years to go yet unless I hit the lotto. I've been between jobs on and off for the last couple years but took full advantage of those months off to work on and research about my Cougar. Lot's of family time with the kids etc... too!

[Falcon67]

Have a friend that is - was - a master Ford mechanic.  He retired at 75 and said point blank "I should have done that years ago".  Dying at one's desk would be a hell of a waste.

[mike7570]

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement.  I have a lot to keep me busy, hope to be posting more build photos as soon as the car gets back from paint. 

[wowens]

"This is going to take some time getting used to"
I retired 6 years ago after 46 years of collision repair. Every day I was told I'd have to get used to it.
HE'LL NO, I was used to it the next day.

Congratulations

[mike7570]

"This is going to take some time getting used to"
I retired 6 years ago after 46 years of collision repair. Every day I was told I'd have to get used to it.
HE'LL NO, I was used to it the next day.

Congratulations

Getting use to "no paycheck" SS and 401K aren't going to cover everything.  
 I worked on commission for 43yrs, wouldn't have it any other way.  Now I need to tighten the belt some.

[FERoadster]

I retired at age 55 in 2003 (33 years tenure) after meeting my wife in a running club in Downtown Detroit, She got a buyout from DTE (Edison) at the age of 50 after they bought my company, Michcon. Gas.  She had a duplicate high paying position and they wanted to reduce overhead so off she went. She then went to Massage school in Portland, Oregon and we also decided to get married and move to Oregon. I work on something every day from 8 AM to 5PM either in my hobby auto shop or outside construction/woodworking/landscaping/tree cutting for firewood.   I do still run about 700 miles a year and compete in some distance runs. Sometimes I think how much easier fulltime work was, LOL. But then I was restoring a 3600 SF 1880's farmhouse with 20 acres of land to tend to.
BTW congratulations hope your retirement is as full as mine.
Richard >>> FERoadster

[Falcon67]

>Getting use to "no paycheck" SS and 401K aren't going to cover everything.

That's the thing here - we can do OK, but we'll do with somewhat less.  We're trying to get as many big ticket things out of the way before we retire as possible.  The house won't get there, we may just refi it to get as low a payment as possible and let someone else worry about it at some later time.  We have a lot of equity, but moving and trying to afford building yet another shop is not very appealing.