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Gifting oneself retirement gift


shootingstar

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Thinkin' about it already. Well, have to sorta plan for it, right? :wub:

Let's see with covid, it most likely can't be a foreign trip at all.

I'm not sure about a new bike. Am running out of room. Even that, it would a huge search and wait because of my petite size to get one to fit me plus other specs.  Probably something idiotic, like replacing my tire rims and gettng new Schwable tires.

An art course of my choice..well just forget about that right now for in-person classes.

Of course, a restaurant meal is easy. But it's going to be on edge sitting in restaurant.

:blink: I seriously believe covid will still be on, when I retire. And I can't even think of a gift to self without all these darn restrictions. :wacko:

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If you want a trip, just set aside an amount of money and start planning, although the trip may not happen for a couple years. but you'll have fun of planning for a couple years.  Or sell one bike and get the bike of your dreams (if you have one) When my sister retired she got herself a nice new ipad beause she had to give back the one she used for work

But ultimately, the best retirement gift is the gift of freedom for your time, the freedom to choose what you want to do (or not do) each day, and you'll get that regardless of any virus. :nodhead:

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Once is never enough. I was 52 at the time. They offered to pay me just for waking up every morning. How could I say no? At the time, Health care was close to my mortgage payment so I went back to work for cheaper health care until I can join Medicare. Three years and eight months to second retirement.

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Just now, Old No. 7 said:

Once is never enough. I was 52 at the time. They offered to pay me just for waking up every morning. How could I say no? At the time, Health care was close to my mortgage payment so I went back to work for cheaper health care until I can join Medicare. Three years and eight months to second retirement.

I retired twice too.  More accurately I almost retired in April of 2016.  HR was processing the paper work one office gave me a retirement party.  I was less than 2 weeks from the retirement date. Then I was talking to a VP at a meeting.  And I was made an offer I could not refuse.  I told the guy it was going to be expensive to keep me working, he said OK.   I had to stop the HR process.  The first thing the did was to remove my security clearances.  That took a 2 or 3 months to get fixed.   I only worked until late August of 2017.    40 years, 2 months and 12 day...  was enough for me.

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9 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Well, have to sorta plan for it, right?

Yes you do have to plan for retirement.  Hopefully you did that a while ago.... 

Years ago.. I asked someone once,  'How do you know when it's time to retire?'   He told me, 'You will know.'    He was correct.  One day in July of 2017, I had my 'moment' I knew it was time.  30 days later (the minimum for me) I was gone. 

You will know when it 'the day' to retire.  

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9 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Thinkin' about it already. Well, have to sorta plan for it, right? :wub:

Let's see with covid, it most likely can't be a foreign trip at all.

I'm not sure about a new bike. Am running out of room. Even that, it would a huge search and wait because of my petite size to get one to fit me plus other specs.  Probably something idiotic, like replacing my tire rims and gettng new Schwable tires.

An art course of my choice..well just forget about that right now for in-person classes.

Of course, a restaurant meal is easy. But it's going to be on edge sitting in restaurant.

:blink: I seriously believe covid will still be on, when I retire. And I can't even think of a gift to self without all these darn restrictions. :wacko:

One, I wouldn't gift myself a retirement trip. That should be the "norm" in retirement, so I wouldn't go with that.  I would start my planning though of when and where I wanted to go places, and get cracking on that sort of foundational planning.

Two, a meal and a celebration party (just you and your man or extended family) would be great but not a "gift".  It simply is the normal thing, so don't count it as the "big" gift.

Three, don't retire until COVID has passed.  While I'm pretty sure things will be back to "normal" by this time next year, if it was still going and I was going to be stuck at home anyway, I'd just wait it out and get paid for it.

Finally, a special bike (like Old#7 details in his post) would be great.  The big gift I would choose for retirement would be the gift that I would use often in retirement as a way to enjoy retirement.  Whether that is a bike, an RV, a kayak, a Miata, a motorcycle, a small plane, or whatever, it would be THE gift I most dreamed of as a way to spend my days with no constraints on how I spent a day.

 

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18 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

One, I wouldn't gift myself a retirement trip. That should be the "norm" in retirement, so I wouldn't go with that.  I would start my planning though of when and where I wanted to go places, and get cracking on that sort of foundational planning.

Two, a meal and a celebration party (just you and your man or extended family) would be great but not a "gift".  It simply is the normal thing, so don't count it as the "big" gift.

Three, don't retire until COVID has passed.  While I'm pretty sure things will be back to "normal" by this time next year, if it was still going and I was going to be stuck at home anyway, I'd just wait it out and get paid for it.

Finally, a special bike (like Old#7 details in his post) would be great.  The big gift I would choose for retirement would be the gift that I would use often in retirement as a way to enjoy retirement.  Whether that is a bike, an RV, a kayak, a Miata, a motorcycle, a small plane, or whatever, it would be THE gift I most dreamed of as a way to spend my days with no constraints on how I spent a day.

 

Don't make me wail....:facepalm: I think covid will still be on when I retire. I agree....right now, I'm bored with all these covid restrictions. So I might as well work now from home, continue to get abit stressed and make moolah.

But I can't really work for a few more yrs. It will cost me more than my wages. Long story which I no idea I would end up in this state.

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18 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Finally, a special bike (like Old#7 details in his post) would be great.  The big gift I would choose for retirement would be the gift that I would use often in retirement as a way to enjoy retirement.  Whether that is a bike, an RV, a kayak, a Miata, a motorcycle, a small plane, or whatever, it would be THE gift I most dreamed of as a way to spend my days with no constraints on how I spent a day.

 

I agree with everyone's bike cheering... I just have to figure out which bike to look lousy in Vancouver...so it doesn't get stolen.  

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2 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I agree with everyone's bike cheering... I just have to figure out which bike to look lousy in Vancouver...so it doesn't get stolen.  

A good bike lock(s) and insurance (with low/no deductible for the bike) can be part of the gift "package" to yourself.

And Old7's custom route would give you the option of any paint job you want, including a "distressed and rusty patina" look!

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19 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

A good bike lock(s) and insurance (with low/no deductible for the bike) can be part of the gift "package" to yourself.

And Old7's custom route would give you the option of any paint job you want, including a "distressed and rusty patina" look!

1 of the main reasons why dearie took my Giant hybrid bike and had to changed to fit his needs, is the problem of stolen bikes in Vnacouver. there are real aggressive thieves there. He rides his Salsa and BikeFriday when he knows he won't be doing grocery shopping.

Now I can't quite revert back my Giant...anyway nothing I can do since I'm in another province working away. I'd rather have a bike there used anyway.

 

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37 minutes ago, Allen said:

A nice watch. But I like watches. 

I wear ...now a rare, "artsy" watch which I love. I've had it for past 25 yrs. It has gold coloured feather quill pen and key as the watch arms on watch face. It's now very hard to find a watchface like this. I bought it for $30.00 when a national retail store was going through a bankruptcy sale.  I have changed the wristband at least 5 times because of wearing it all over the place.

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You can also go ahead and get a large wall map of the world, Europe, North America, Asia, whatever, and start marking places you want to go in the first ten years of retirement.  Akin to the pins on places you have been, maybe a numbering - by priority or trip # - of places to go.

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1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

I just have to figure out which bike to look lousy in Vancouver...so it doesn't get stolen.  

When I was in college (if I recall 1972) I had and old Schwinn 5 speed bike.  I installed a larger ring gear, drop bars, different brake levers, etc... and of course spay painted it yellow.  (yellow was faster then) It was a cheap bike but was great for college.  (Milwaukee WI)  One day someone walks up to me and asks, 'Is that your bike?'  (chained to a streetlight pole on campus)  I said, yes.   The person then said, 'Some guy was just trying to steal your bike.'   I guess the chain (thru the frame and wheels) and lock was too much for them and I still had the bike.  

I had a bike I was expecting to be stolen, it never was stolen.   I'd bet it was attempted more than once... 

So go get a beater bike and build it the way you like, get a big chain and lock too.

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2 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

Yes you do have to plan for retirement.  Hopefully you did that a while ago.... 

Years ago.. I asked someone once,  'How do you know when it's time to retire?'   He told me, 'You will know.'    He was correct.  One day in July of 2017, I had my 'moment' I knew it was time.  30 days later (the minimum for me) I was gone. 

You will know when it 'the day' to retire.  

I've often heard the phrase you'll retire when "you have enough, and you've had enough" - meaning you have the resources and you just get tired of doing what you're doing. :nodhead:

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4 minutes ago, Kirby said:

I've often heard the phrase you'll retire when "you have enough, and you've had enough" - meaning you have the resources and you just get tired of doing what you're doing

That's how it was for me.   I had a WTF... why am I doing this moment???   I just went on to the HR web site and filled the info for retirement and and clicked on 'submit'.  

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3 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

That's how it was for me.   I had a WTF... why am I doing this moment???   I just went on to the HR web site and filled the info for retirement and and clicked on 'submit'.  

am in a quieter prairie city. It might explain why in our city area...there are way more birders..there are more birder observation lists in my city ...compared to Toronto or even vancouver.  Maybe I better check Metro Vancouver number of lists more carefully..<_<  what I'm trying to say:  There's ALOT less to do outdoors, aside from biking long distances locally in a prairie city. It's just ..boring where I am right now.

So I convince myself that I'm using my boring time (gets worse in the deep super cold winter weeks) productively...by earning money during covid clampdown. Meanwhile looking at the tax rate for this price of productivity.

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