I retired at age 69 in 2005.

Mitch86

Mitch86

Senior Member
Location
Connecticut, USA
I retired at age 69 in 2005. I ended up with a 118K pension. I had worked for a municipality. It's great having that pension and not having to work for it anymore.

That city was trying to force me out anyway since I was very old. I used to get a 6 week vacation and was taking it in Wednesdays off most weeks. I was only working a 4 day week then.
 
I had so much accrued vacation/sick leave my company started requiring that I burn some off the books. I stopped working on Mondays. But then the company kept calling me in to work that day so we negotiated a cash out plan in which they bought my time back and paid me for the resulting taxes as well. Which of course resulted in more taxable income. I still worked on-call part time for over a year before I finally just made retirement permanent.
 
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I got the boot in 2005, just as I was turning 51.

It was the best thing that ever could have happened to me although I didn’t realize it at the time.

The key for me was being financially prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.

Savings and thrift should be explained and encouraged in age appropriate ways to every young person until it becomes as routine as other home training or life skills.
 
I retired for one year from mid 2017 to mid 2018. Was totally bored. Plus bank account was running low. I went back to work in a different nursing home and have been there 7 years and love it. The previous nursing home I was at for 21 years. I think retiring in your 60's is dumb, unless you have a lot money to live on, which I didn't. I'm 75 now, and have no intention of retiring. I love having a reason to get up in the mornings.
I love the idea of having a job to go, and being able to still make money working. I'm in good health, so I plan to keep on working. There was woman who worked in the facility, where I worked who was 80 or 81 years old. She passed away about 4 years ago from throat cancer. She was the oldest employee in the facility. Since then, I have been the oldest. Now I share that title with a male co-worker who's my age and works part time like me.
 
30 years ago in 1995 the corporation I worked for was downsizing. We had a plan in place for me to retire early at age 55. Age 54 I was offered a pension, health care paid until I reached age 65. After that the money for a health care plan was put into a HSA. Took all of 2 seconds to decide. Never regretted that decision.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
You mentioned your 118K pension before. Did you take that in a lump sum or will you get that amount spread over X amount of years? I can't imagine that you are getting 118K a year having been a municipal employee.
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Yes. I bet he does get that amount. Connecticut has generous pensions. They are also very underfunded. The political class has discovered over the years generous pensions for state employees guarantees them a loyal voting base. It's gross. Not a dig on OP.
 
Mitch86 said:
I retired at age 69 in 2005. I ended up with a 118K pension. I had worked for a municipality. It's great having that pension and not having to work for it anymore.

That city was trying to force me out anyway since I was very old. I used to get a 6 week vacation and was taking it in Wednesdays off most weeks. I was only working a 4 day week then.
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Why didn't you take Fridays off instead of Wednesdays?🤔
 
Mitch86 said:
My pension is 118K EVERY YEAR until I die. After I die, my wife gets 50% of what I am getting now. I retired from a NY State municipality. They are very generous with pensions.
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That is generous! Mine started out at around 22K per year in 2007. It does have an automatic annual COLA of 3% every year and now it's up to 37K per year. I'll be at 118K in another 40 years if I live to 119.
 
I was forced to retire at 62 in 2020 because our company was hard hit by Covid. Over half our employees were either completely let go or furloughed. The older and better-paid employees were completely let go. I was fortunate in several respects:
  • The company continued my health insurance for 18 months.
  • I received unemployment payments along with the Covid "spiff" for almost a year.
  • The company gave me my retirement in stock, which had slipped from $40 per share to $14 per share. After Covid, the price per share slowly crept up and I used it for incidental expenses through 2025, when I sold the remaining shares.
I was no longer enjoying my career and was mentally prepared to leave. I had contributed the maximum to my 401K. I have been pleasantly surprised at how I've not had to worry about finances. I took Social Security at 62 y/o and have never looked back.
 
I retired at age 50, actually one month before my 51st birthday. Thankfully, the state based my pension on age 51, because there was a 3% pension reduction for each year under 55. We got nice COLAs until Christie became governor. He had to stop them out of necessity because our pension system was billions short of what it should have been. My retiree health and prescription benefits are excellent. I had a little bit in the deferred compensation plan because for the longest, I didn't trust the system's "language" about ownership and withdrawals. Governor Whitman changed the ruling, so I was able to transfer that money into one of my investment accounts. Even as a retiree, I managed to continue saving and investing.
 
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