NEVER REGRET!

GOD BLESS YOU. Now it is your new job to enjoy Your retirement. I can't tell you how many retired friends I know that now can't find the time to do what they love. This is because they are doing what everyone else wants them to do including being slaves for the grand kids and driving them everywhere at their call. My advise is enjoy your retirement and don't let anyone plan your day but you. Have fun. J.Michael

Congratulations !! I retired at 68 in 2009 and have never regretted it. As was already said, don't become someone elses slave, enjoy your retirement, enjoy your family, enjoy doing what you want to do, and remain active.

Welcome to the club. I've done it twice and it won't happen again.

Words of wisdom?

Remember this. You are not - NOT - who your are by what you did as a job.

We had too, too many of the guys who retired when I was a young pup wind up dead within 2 to 2 1/2 years after they retired from long careers of 35 or more years.

I, and others, believe that they had defined themselves by what they did, and when they weren't doing it anymore....... I decided early on not to do the same and I hope you have not done it either.

I even wound up with a second career (early retired in May) doing something that had absolutely not one thing to do with the first career, but what I really liked to do as well.

I'm not saying you have to find something else to do. Me? I'm assiduously working on being gloriously bored to death for the rest of my life. But that job you just walked away from was simply that, a job.

Did the exact same thing for the exact same reason in 2008. Just wasn't worth it any more. Took the papers to the personnel office (in another building downtown) and stopped by a favorite lunch restaurant on the way back. Sat at the bar and ordered a margarita. The manager/bartender looked at me real hard 'cause I never drank during the day. I told her what I was celebrating, and she gave me a big kiss and a 'rita on the house!

Congratulations, Harry!

Much wisdom in this thread. I'll add a big AMEN about not letting 'the job' define you. Mine is loaded with OCD horse's asses who eat, sleep and breathe it 24/7. I would have gone nuts during Reagan's first term if I hadn't learned better than that.

Also agree 100% on not letting anyone load your schedule or shove chores off on you they could be doing themselves.

Congratulations!

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I don't think he defined himself by his job. I think I do to a greater degree than him anyway. He retired at 54 and spent the rest of his life chasing fish, moose, deer and other outdoor activities. He was diagnosed with a heart condition soon after he retired so had to give up his pilot's license, but he never lacked for activity. He was a regular on the gun show circuit in Fairbanks and Anchorage, and wherever else the gun shows were. He and his wife drove to the states every fall to visit his son and family in KY. He made trips to Thailand and rode on elephants. He made friends in Phuket and started to sponsor a pastor he met there. He rebuilt old CJ Jeeps and fixed my vehicles when they broke down. Once he retired there was nothing to hold him back from his interests. I hope I have even half the adventures he had when I give up the working world.

with the BS anymore. If I had to find another job I think I'd just open my own shop or work out of my garage. With today's political correctness I definitely would not last 30 minutes in a corporate setting.

Never set the clock for later than 5AM so you won't miss anything. Shoot twice a week & spend the other days in the woods or on the river except for Sunday. Spend that day in Church thankful The Good Lord let you live all these years. Congrats......Creeker

VERY happy.

I will do my best. I like my job. The last 5 years, I have been climbing all over bridges to inspect them, designing repairs where necessary, and making sure they get repaired right. That sounds pretty simple and straight forward. I take care of about 120 of them and another 70 large culverts.

I have done a lot of different things as an engineer through the years and have liked most of them. I would have continued a while longer, but what I called the BS has infected everything. I am very glad I am not a young engineer and know I would have to live with the BS for years to come.

I now know how past empires came to an end. Bureaucracy, political correctness, and welfare parasites caused their end. As it will cause the end of ours. I hope I don't see it myself and I hope I can ease the transition a little bit for my kids and their kids.