Retirement imminent

Chances are very good that my wife and I are going to be lucky enough to be able to retire comfortably this April at a young 55 and 53 years of age. We're just waiting for the final details of this years COLA negotiations to be completed to know for sure. Most likely, we will not have to work if we watch our funds. But I know, having been thru a major surgery and 4-weeks off work for recovery, that I have to be doing something with my hands to stay sane. I went nuts having to take it easy for 4 weeks! I love tinkering with flashlights and around the house projects. But that will last only so long. I'll have the best maintained house in short order - then what? I don't want to be a greeter at Walmart and I don't want to sit around and watch TV! I'll exercise everyday but that will only consume a couple of hours.

I am not an electronics genious as are many people on this forum. But I am intelligent, a logical thinker and very good with things mechanical and electrical. My background is automotive repair in the early days of the first on-board computers and for the last 20 years, I've managed those operations in addition to maintenance and repair of the organizations buildings and their systems. Computers are my first love and I am very good at troubleshooting problems.

My idea is that maybe I could be hired in conjunction with some of the high volume projects here on CPF for assembly or partial assembly or some other phase? I could do some of the grunt work. I would work cheap. Buying a lathe is not out of the question. Is been 20 years since I used one though. The way I look at it, I would get to do something fun and get paid for doing it. That means its not WORK! I'm not looking to be doing something all the time, just ocaisionally as the jobs would come along.

I'm just thinking out loud.

Take a look at the "Let's build a $10 Luxeon AAA Light" thread. Maybe you can help with the project?

BVH said:

Chances are very good that my wife and I are going to be lucky enough to be able to retire comfortably this April at a young 55 and 53 years of age.... ....

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BVH,
Congrats on your upcoming retirement! I retired in my late 40s and love retirement. More time for hobbies, old and new. You might find the Early Retirement Forum very interesting and informative as I do:

http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php

The folks there are from two camps: people who retired early and people who want to retire early. Have fun.

BVH said:

My idea is that maybe I could be hired in conjunction with some of the high volume projects here on CPF for assembly or partial assembly or some other phase? I could do some of the grunt work. I would work cheap. Buying a lathe is not out of the question. Is been 20 years since I used one though. The way I look at it, I would get to do something fun and get paid for doing it. That means its not WORK! I'm not looking to be doing something all the time, just ocaisionally as the jobs would come along.

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Have you seen the CPF Modder's Yellow Pages? Maybe there are a set of skills that you can advertise there (or contact some of the modders there and help them). Maybe Dat2zip, or someone in the Aleph build crew needs help (or maybe you can join?). Just an idea.

Another idea: the "free modding services" thread I started; maybe you'll consider advertising (some of, if not all of) your services there.

Best luck!

parnass -

just curious - what'd you do to retire that early? I'm looking to do the same thing.

hquan said:

parnass -

just curious - what'd you do to retire that early? I'm looking to do the same thing.

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Here's the simplified version:

1) Lucky to be in good health, avoid catastrophes, be raised by frugal, loving parents, and have a good, frugal wife of 20 years.
2) Worked hard in college and graduate school
3) Worked steadily at good jobs with decent benefits and a [meager] pension (scientist/engineer, not company exec).
4) Most important: LBYM ==> Lived below my means (lots of hobbies, but avoided buying the most expensive items) Moved outside of town to buy a less expensive, better built home on more acres. Earned extra money for hobbies by consulting and writing artcles part time.
5) Saved, saved, saved, then continued saving. Compound interest is wonderful.
6) No debts. Never borrowed money except for a home mortgage. Paid credit card bill in full each month.


Suggest strongly you visit the Early Retirement Forum I mentioned earlier: http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php

I discovered that forum after I retired and wish I had seen it earlier.

Thank you everybody for the suggestions and especially Parnass for the forum site info!

Thank you parnass - I've already bookmarked the forum. I agree that compound interest is a wonderful - as long as it's working for you. You have wonderful advice - especially in today's world of hyper-spending. I waited 4 months to get my tigerlight - didn't want to go into debt or touch the $$ that is allocated for my rainy day fund.

Hquan, if you're lucky enough to be able to participate in a deferred compensation program with your employer, do it to the max you can. That is the advice I got back in 84' and it has allowed the early retirement.

BVH - Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky. I'm in the IT industry, and with the down turn of the industry, I've changed jobs a lot. I'm planning to retire by creating residual income - like Robert Kiyosaki talks about in his book. I'm hoping to have the capital to incorporate some time in the next several months.

I'll have to make time to check out that forum that parnass mentioned - it sounds quite interesting.