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In an inverse of watching an odometer roll over to a bigger number, do any of you watch your workometer roll under?
The beginning of this week I went from 700 weeks until retirement to 699.
I'm down to hours now: 4 left. I may take the afternoon off.
iris lilies
7-30-21, 3:04pm
I'm down to hours now: 4 left. I may take the afternoon off.yay for you!
happystuff
7-30-21, 3:23pm
Congrats again, Kay! I'm so happy for you!!!
ApatheticNoMore
7-30-21, 3:51pm
I'm down to hours now: 4 left. I may take the afternoon off.
enjoy!
The last two years I worked, I crossed the days off a big calendar at my desk. On my last day, I switched from evenings to days so I could make my escape early.
Congratulations on your retirement--your reward for years of effort.
frugal-one
7-30-21, 5:11pm
I had a calculator on my computer that said how many days/hours/minutes until retirement. I never stopped the clock and it now shows how many I have been retired. Recently checked and it was 3,800 days retired!
Yay... KayLR!!!
WOW, Kay, that is wonderful!!!
Teacher Terry
7-30-21, 8:48pm
Congratulations Kay!!
catherine
7-30-21, 11:32pm
Wow, congratulations, Kay!!
rosarugosa
7-31-21, 6:59am
Congratulations, Kay!
I didn't count down, because I had made a pretty sudden decision to retire, and I was quite immersed in tying up loose ends, transferring knowledge, etc. and the next thing I knew it was done.
Congratulations Kay! Tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of my retirement, I hope you find yours as wonderful as mine.
cindycindy
8-10-21, 2:38pm
Counting down by quarters. Only 8 left.
I have an app on my phone! 4 years, 11 months, 0 days.
rosarugosa
8-10-21, 5:02pm
Wow, Cindy and Becky, the end is in sight!
I got a retirement countdown clock in a presentation by a financial group. One bad day it seemed to be moving so slowly I threw it into the trash.
Actually, I'd been targeting a certain time range for retirement and when it seemed like it would work out money wise I knew the end was near and the last couple of years went by fairly fast. At one point I reached what my co-workers called a "victory lap" where everything was in order and there were a few projects I wanted to see to the end. The victory lap was quite nice.
Congrats to those who are close.
Teacher Terry
8-10-21, 11:35pm
That’s funny Roger about the clock:)).
We're on our 20th year of retirement... August 2000 was the last time I had to go in to set up a classroom. After 31 years it was time to retire. My husband retired after 30 years teaching also. We have had a wonderful time and luckily are still healthy and mobile! Congratulations to all you new retirees. I hope yours is as grand as ours has been.
Welcome to retirement, Kay!
I will have my 30 years in January 2025. Not old enough to retire retire or touch my pension so I'll just stick around for a few years after until youngest has graduated college and we move to the mountains. In my head, I tell myself that I only have a couple more years but in reality, it's a little more.
I am five years into retirement but I distinctly remember talking to a benefits counselor at work and realizing I could retire in a year. The last few months felt odd as I disconnected mentally from the place I had been for so many years. And now, I rarely ever think about it as it's like some other life.
iris lilies
8-12-21, 12:45pm
I am five years into retirement but I distinctly remember talking to a benefits counselor at work and realizing I could retire in a year. The last few months felt odd as I disconnected mentally from the place I had been for so many years. And now, I rarely ever think about it as it's like some other life.
And I remember sort of the opposite…vaguely being aware that retirement age was approaching, but not knowing the exact formula for drawing city pension. I said something about “the rule of 80” ( retirement number) during out regular meeting of administrators and someone immediately corrected me to “no it is the rule of 85.”
I said, without thinking “oh hell! Longer to work then,”. Haha. And then about the same time my employer dropped its practice of allowing retirees to pay for their own health insurance coverage at the group rate, and I blurted out “ oh no! That was my ticket outta here!”
so no one should have been surprised when I gave my notice.
Teacher Terry
8-12-21, 2:52pm
Klunick, too bad your employer doesn’t have the 30 and out at any age.
Klunick, too bad your employer doesn’t have the 30 and out at any age.
I agree. And if I was sworn (Officer), I would have my time in already. They only have to do 25 years to get their pension.
Simplemind
8-12-21, 6:37pm
I agree. And if I was sworn (Officer), I would have my time in already. They only have to do 25 years to get their pension.
I could have waited for 30 years to get the whole pension but went at 55 yrs old and a penalty. I had already been living on reduced salary (investing as much as allowed in deferred comp in anticipation) for the 10 years prior. Everybody thought I was crazy to leave before getting the whole enchilada. I kept saying that the time was more important than the money. I left with all PTO banks full and had run out my sick leave (they would not allow non-sworn to have it) to zero. Getting my pension felt like a raise after living with less than half of that a month for a decade. I was right to go as life took a huge left turn and my time was needed with family. No regrets, even with the bumps we hit in the beginning things still worked out much better than they had initially penciled out.
happystuff
8-12-21, 8:24pm
From what I understand, pension at this new job is after 10 years. That is WAY longer than I had hope to be working! So, I'll figure something out - hopefully. LOL.
ApatheticNoMore
8-12-21, 9:20pm
Pension? What is that? Surely you mean employee contributions to the 401k ... (employer contributions, what's that?)
I could have waited for 30 years to get the whole pension but went at 55 yrs old and a penalty. I had already been living on reduced salary (investing as much as allowed in deferred comp in anticipation) for the 10 years prior. Everybody thought I was crazy to leave before getting the whole enchilada. I kept saying that the time was more important than the money. I left with all PTO banks full and had run out my sick leave (they would not allow non-sworn to have it) to zero. Getting my pension felt like a raise after living with less than half of that a month for a decade. I was right to go as life took a huge left turn and my time was needed with family. No regrets, even with the bumps we hit in the beginning things still worked out much better than they had initially penciled out.
I will only be 52 when I hit my 30 years but I believe I can start collecting my pension at 55. Husband is 6.5 years older than me and obviously can't collect Social Security until 65 so there is a gap. I really don't mind working a few years past my 30 if it sets us up better for retirement.
Pension? What is that? Surely you mean employee contributions to the 401k ... (employer contributions, what's that?)
Husband is the one with the 401K in our family. Currently has over $600,000 and expects it to be over $1M when we do retire.
Klunick, too bad your employer doesn’t have the 30 and out at any age.
That was my salvation!
iris lilies
8-14-21, 11:50am
That was my salvation!
Mine was rule of 85: age plus years of work equal 85 and then you can draw a pension.
Mine was rule of 85: age plus years of work equal 85 and then you can draw a pension.
That was what I had, but you could go early on a reduced pension, which is what I did. We could stay in the company health insurance plan, but pay for part of it, starting at 55 and with at least ten years tenure. I probably could not have retired early otherwise. YMOYL was a guiding force in my retirement planning.
In today’s world about the only people with defined benefit pensions are those that spend their lives working for nanny G. The rest of us need to save a boatload of money and also become financial planning experts. The winners will be the people who 1) save a boatload of money and 2) manage it effectively. The losers will be 1) the majority of the working population.
iris lilies
8-15-21, 9:47am
In today’s world about the only people with defined benefit pensions are those that spend their lives working for nanny G. The rest of us need to save a boatload of money and also become financial planning experts. The winners will be the people who 1) save a boatload of money and 2) manage it effectively. The losers will be 1) the majority of the working population.
yes, for sure.
We would be fine without a publicly funded pension because we saved a boatload of money, but WITH the pension we have what they call on the Mr. Money Mustache forums “Fat FIRE.”
Our income is:
My pension from the city of St. louis $28,000 annually
My pension from Ames, Iowa is $2,000 annually
My Social Security income is $28,000
DH’s Social Security is $22,000 annually
——————————————————————
$80,000 annual income for our household
We spend around $80,000 annually, not counting new cars, new real estate (we pay cash) or blow out vacations to Europe. These latter things come out of our stash.
If I die, a huge percentage of our household income dies with me and DH is left with Social Security income only. But we have significant assets so he would be fine, and I would not be surprised if he could mostly live on that SS number because he is very frugal and independant.
My income is also big enough to cover half of nursing home costs for me while pulling $50,000 from our stash each year for 10 years, which is do-able without leaving DH destitute.
In today’s world about the only people with defined benefit pensions are those that spend their lives working for nanny G. The rest of us need to save a boatload of money and also become financial planning experts. The winners will be the people who 1) save a boatload of money and 2) manage it effectively. The losers will be 1) the majority of the working population.
You're probably right. I was lucky. My non-nanny g employer has discontinued many of their defined benefits since I left, although they did enhance company matching in 401K's as a slight trade off. It could be fact checked but I once read that about a third of retirees primary source of income is their social security benefit. Some of the old recommendations around living below one's means and being debt free seem like as much of the equation as saving a boatload and managing it effectively.
My last, mega-corp employer had a defined benefit pension when I started there 12 1/2 years ago. Three years later they did a gut overhaul of the benefits program and made significant improvements in almost every way except that they cancelled the pension. People whose years of service + age equaled 65 or greater got to continue with it. Everyone else had their value of it converted to a cash balance. For me that meant just over $14,000. Like you, rogar, they did enhance the 401(k) contribution, giving everyone not remaining in the pension a deposit of 3% of their salary from that point forward even if the employee was not putting any money into it, which along with the already existing 6% match was actually pretty generous.
In my mind living below one's means and being debt free is very much a part of managing the boatload of money effectively. If someone retires at 65 with $1,000,000 in their boat and then they proceed to spend $80,000 per year, either on needs or wants, that's not managing it effectively. Someone who does that better have kids who love them enough to be willing to take them in when the money runs out. Or they better die at a younger age than average and have the luck of not seeing a big market downturn during their retirement.
frugal-one
8-15-21, 3:10pm
ok ... what is nanny G?
Talk of having tax advisors .... who do you think is best able to provide this service at this stage of life and how to ferret them out? The laws change ... estate attorney may not necessarily know and accountants may not know ...
iris lilies
8-15-21, 3:21pm
ok ... what is nanny G?
...
The Gubmnt.
frugal-one
8-15-21, 3:57pm
The Gubmnt.
Tried looking it up and it mentioned a tv show... hehe.
Teacher Terry
8-15-21, 4:03pm
JP, I am surprised that they didn’t grandfather in everyone that was vested. That would have been the fair thing to do.
JP, I am surprised that they didn’t grandfather in everyone that was vested. That would have been the fair thing to do.
Technically I wasn't vested. I forget how many years that took. Ten, maybe? But they fully vested everyone's time served when they cancelled it, which I assume they weren't legally required to do. And my vested amount goes up 2-3% per year because they have the money invested somewhere for me. I haven't looked into it but I could probably roll it into my rollover IRA which would probably make sense since I would likely get betters returns in an index fund.
In any case, I left just after ten years so I can't imagine the benefit from it would have been terribly large. Now it's just another part of the pile of money that I will need to deal with when my workometer runs out in nine years or so.
Tomorrow I will dip below the 100,000,000 second mark. Then it will be over a year until I drop another digit. How is retirement so far KayLR?
Tomorrow I will dip below the 100,000,000 second mark. Then it will be over a year until I drop another digit.
Gosh, Jeppy, this countdown seems tortuous for you!! Can't you at least figure it out by days or weeks?
As for me, my plan is to keep working until clients start realizing I'm a doddering old fool. Next year I plan to start being more selective in my projects--choosing only the number and type of projects I like and the clients I enjoy working with.
So my Workometer is very fluid.
I track years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Since I have more than 10 years to go I could do decades as well but to me that would be depressing. If I only did the top level intervals I would rarely see progress. For instance, if I track only years just once a year do I get to see my number go down.
I see having a job where I'm counting hours minutes and seconds to be depressing. Although for the last 3 weeks or so before retirement, I started counting the hours.
frugal-one
8-25-21, 3:06pm
timeanddate.com is a good countdown meter. Use countdown to any date.
Now that I’m down to single digit years it seems like it is practically tomorrow. It feels very strange to me to think that more than 3/4 of my working life is done. Or that we have lived in SF for 3 more years than the number of years I expect to continue working.
But on the flip side this particular day is just dragging with every minute feeling interminable. Thankfully most days aren’t that way for me.
I know it's a faulty assumption, but assuming no big expenses like a furnace replacement or a new car I have now dipped below the 10 year mark to retirement.
Since I expect to continue working (just got a stellar annual review) and saving, I should be able to still hit the 9 year mark, unless Mitt Romney derails me with his plan to cut Social Securit benefits for people who are not retired yet, or to not let anyone get Medicare until age 69. He is the new object of my hate now that Eric Adams agreed to lift the toddler mask mandate.
Mitt Romney ... He is the new object of my hate ....
https://artshacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/hate.jpg
ApatheticNoMore
3-31-22, 7:48pm
It is a pretty hateful proposal even if yeppej is usually off blabbing about nothing (masks). Raising social security is mass impoverishment of older people. I don't think the Medicare proposal even has a corporate constituency, as with Medicare Advantage it's very profitable.
Teacher Terry
4-2-22, 5:02pm
It’s political suicide to mess with SS. So many people depend on it.
It’s political suicide to mess with SS. So many people depend on it.
Someone should tell Rick Scott. He's the only republican who has actually put out any sort of platform this year beyond hate the gays, undo gay and interracial marriage and all the other silly cultural issues that all the other republicans are talking about and apparently, according to that platform, he wants to eliminate social security and medicare within the next few years.
I know it's a faulty assumption, but assuming no big expenses like a furnace replacement or a new car I have now dipped below the 10 year mark to retirement.
Since I expect to continue working (just got a stellar annual review) and saving, I should be able to still hit the 9 year mark, unless Mitt Romney derails me with his plan to cut Social Securit benefits for people who are not retired yet, or to not let anyone get Medicare until age 69. He is the new object of my hate now that Eric Adams agreed to lift the toddler mask mandate.
I spoke roo soon. Eric Adams is breaking his promise to remove the toddler mask mandate tomorrow. Meanwhile he continues to party maskless in close proximity to others.
gimmethesimplelife
4-3-22, 8:05pm
I spoke roo soon. Eric Adams is breaking his promise to remove the toddler mask mandate tomorrow. Meanwhile he continues to party maskless in close proximity to others.You really do go on.about masks, I never noticed it until right now. At least it seems as if covid is ebbing. The news are all Putin/Ukraine/inflation and 8 haven't heard of any
new strains. Rob
You really do go on.about masks, I never noticed it until right now. At least it seems as if covid is ebbing. The news are all Putin/Ukraine/inflation and 8 haven't heard of any
new strains. Rob
There is a newish subvariant B2A but it's very mild, like a light cold for most people. Hospitalizations and deaths decrease even as it spreads.
You really do go on.about masks, I never noticed it until right now. Rob
I'm sure many of us wish we could say the same.
You really do go on.about masks, I never noticed it until right now. At least it seems as if covid is ebbing. The news are all Putin/Ukraine/inflation and 8 haven't heard of any
new strains. Rob
Really? There’s a new strain that’s popping out in new cases all over and the UK has a ton of cases.
Really? There’s a new strain that’s popping out in new cases all over and the UK has a ton of cases.
The UK strain BA2 is yesterday's news.
The latest is XE, a combination of BA1 and BA2 that is the most transmissible to date.
You really do go on.about masks, I never noticed it until right now.
I'm sure many of us wish we could say the same.
I'm reminded of a woman I used to work with years ago. She was completely oblivious to everything going on in the world beyond her family and friends. And was probably the happiest adult I've ever met.
I'm reminded of a woman I used to work with years ago. She was completely oblivious to everything going on in the world beyond her family and friends. And was probably the happiest adult I've ever met.
Ignorance is bliss, so it's said.
Ignorance is bliss, so it's said.
“When ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise”.
Especially if your source of wisdom is social media.
At the end of the day I will dip from 100 to 99 months left until retirement, barring unforeseen developments.
gimmethesimplelife
9-30-22, 11:40am
I'm down to hours now: 4 left. I may take the afternoon off.Congrats! Rob
If I could get health care covered through Medicaid (if based on income not assets) I could now retire in theory at 64, in theory being if I can absorb capital expenses like replacement vehicles when needed without raising my average spending. Anyways, on paper it's shaving another year off the workometer which is better than moving in the other direction.
I have an app. 1 year, 8 months, 27 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes, 17 seconds. But who's counting...
I recall that the last year before retirement went fast for me. Can't believe it's been almost seven years retired now.
iris lilies
4-5-23, 11:40am
I have an app. 1 year, 8 months, 27 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes, 17 seconds. But who's counting...
Haha, good for you beckyliz!!!
I retired in 2015 and haven’t looked back. And several awful things happened at work after I retired so I’m so glad I got out when I did.
awful things:
1. Entire computer system of the Library hacked and ransomed, closing down system for several days and eradicating a tiny, but important piece of legacy custom software that was essential to my department. While I had been willing to give up this software for years to exchange it for a non-custom product, the changes that would result were not acceptable to others at work. Well, they had to accept them that year, like it or not.
2, big negative story in the news when it was discovered that an employee had been punching the time clock, and then not showing up to work. For years. Not my department’s problem, but a scandal and a big black mark.
3. Drag Queen Story hour, and Donald Trump’s election. These are not things I would’ve had to manage, but they would be things I would’ve had to hear others drone on about during administrative meetings, on and on. Just shoot me.
4. The pandemic. Managing people, resources, incoming shipments, outgoing shipments… with intermittent support services. A nightmare. If I had retired at “normal” age “I would’ve been retiring just a couple weeks after the pandemic hit. It was such a boon for my department that I got out years before and younger people with more energy were in place to manage in that environment.
I’m 54. I can’t get full SS until 67. I’m going to keep working as long as I can. I would be bored at home. Thankfully I have interesting work and it’s a desk job.
iris lilies
4-5-23, 1:29pm
I’m 54. I can’t get full SS until 67. I’m going to keep working as long as I can. I would be bored at home. Thankfully I have interesting work and it’s a desk job.
You have several outside interests, strong ones. This is an excellent basis for not being bored in retirement. In fact, the way I’ve seen you go after outside interests to become excellent at them makes me think there’s a brand new hobby interest waiting on the horizon for you, something I can’t even guess.
And then there are so many ways to become involved in activities tangential to your current interests, for example: become an instructor in gun certification, volunteer to be a board member in diving organizations, etc etc.
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