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When did this start happening for friends, etc.


shootingstar

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Maybe I don't have enough friends over a wider age range or...'cause right now several friends have announced to me:

via birthday card to me :mellow: ...a friend told me she and another distant friend, are seriously considering early retirement this June.  They are same age as I.  But they each have worked in public sector for same employer for over 30 years.  (1 for police and other as a teacher)

3rd friend will retire early next year. She will be about 62 yrs. She also has worked for another public sector employer for ..last 30 years.

Meanwhile me and a few others have had multiple employers. I don't regret my career moves. But still am envious they have the choice..

Oh yea, my partner took early retirement..over 15 yrs. ago.  He did some consulting on the side. He worked for oil firm his entire career..in different jobs.

Did this happen to you...a slow trickle /flood of friends and acquaintances taking early retirement?

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1 minute ago, shootingstar said:

Maybe I don't have enough friends over a wider age range or...'cause right now several friends have announced to me:

via birthday card to me :mellow: ...a friend told me she and another distant friend, are seriously considering early retirement this June.  They are same age as I.  But they each have worked in public sector for same employer for over 30 years.  (1 for police and other as a teacher)

3rd friend will retire early next year. She will be about 62 yrs. She also has worked for public sector employer for ..last 30 years.

Meanwhile me and a few others have had multiple employers. I don't regret my career moves. But still am envious they have the choice..

Oh yea, my partner took early retirement..over 15 yrs. ago.  He did some consulting on the side.

Did this happen to you...a slow trickle /flood of friends and acquaintances taking early retirement?

No.  I am not nearly old enough for that yet!:runcirclsmiley:

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There is a whole sub set community of early retirees. They call it FIRE. Financially Independent Retire Early. A bunch of them work for megacorps or the Gov. They basically despise their jobs. They are typically financially frugal. They have formulas on how much to live on (3% of the nest egg) 

I was close to pulling the plug 10 years ago. Then the Great Recession. Now closer.

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16 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Maybe I don't have enough friends over a wider age range or...'cause right now several friends have announced to me:

via birthday card to me :mellow: ...a friend told me she and another distant friend, are seriously considering early retirement this June.  They are same age as I.  But they each have worked in public sector for same employer for over 30 years.  (1 for police and other as a teacher)

3rd friend will retire early next year. She will be about 62 yrs. She also has worked for another public sector employer for ..last 30 years.

Meanwhile me and a few others have had multiple employers. I don't regret my career moves. But still am envious they have the choice..

Oh yea, my partner took early retirement..over 15 yrs. ago.  He did some consulting on the side. He worked for oil firm his entire career..in different jobs.

Did this happen to you...a slow trickle /flood of friends and acquaintances taking early retirement?

Only public sector employees can afford early retirement.  There is something wrong in that.  

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15 minutes ago, smudge said:

30 years for a teacher is normal (both my mom and my husband were teachers). 

25 years for police officers (our neighbor was a police officer). 

I will probably have to work til I'm 70. ugh...

No, she works in records for police..

I hope you don't have to work until 70, smudge!

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2 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I had cow-orkers that retired early. The only way they were able to do that was they had younger wives that continued to work and covered them on insurance. The insurance is what keeps the blue collar guy working till he drops.

Horrible, the American health care system and insurance companies...  

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4 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I've heard of several middle managers from oil and gas firms in town, who took early retirement.... they had nice pkgs.

Yeah, but look at the employment trends in the private sector.  38 hour weeks so no benefits.  Contract employees so no vacation, sick days or severance packages.  No offence intended but many public sector employees are marginally incompetent and only survive by the sword of unions.  Not a fan. 

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7 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I've heard of several middle managers from oil and gas firms in town, who took early retirement.... they had nice pkgs.

That happens but not for most workers.  More common is a series of micro careers.  Some get ahead but many suffer financial setbacks at every job change. 

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6 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Yeah, but look at the employment trends in the private sector.  38 hour weeks so no benefits.  Contract employees so no vacation, sick days or severance packages.  No offence intended but many public sector employees are marginally incompetent and only survive by the sword of unions.  Not a fan. 

Stereotype. Not true in my experience. I've lived and worked with many public sector employees for more than 30 years. Most are hard working and dedicated to their jobs. True there are some that are not but based on what I have seen, they are in the minority and because of their actions or lack thereof receive most of the spotlight, resulting in the stereotypical view of public servants. Typically, public servants are paid less than private sector employees, most do not receive annual bonuses and go without pay increases for several years at a time. The benefits include job security and a pension upon retirement which is generally based on years worked and not on a specific age. 

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33 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

That's always been the middle class dream of retiring early.  Many hated their jobs.  

And many like or don;t mind the real work of their jobs, but after 30+ years have suffered through enough bullcrap and don;t feel like taking it any more.

I'm with you shooter - a couple guys my age retired a year or two ago at aboot 61 and I am very jealous.  Both had the good fortune to work for a company that did not get rid of their real pensions like most companies did.  And no doubt they were very good investors.  One was single though, so he sort of cheated. :P

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4 minutes ago, Old#7 said:

Stereotype. Not true in my experience. I've lived and worked with many public sector employees for more than 30 years. Most are hard working and dedicated to their jobs. True there are some that are not but based on what I have seen, they are in the minority and because of their actions or lack thereof receive most of the spotlight, resulting in the stereotypical view of public servants. Typically, public servants are paid less than private sector employees, most do not receive annual bonuses and go without pay increases for several years at a time. The benefits include job security and a pension upon retirement which is generally based on years worked and not on a specific age. 

Totally true in my experience and the industries of 4 family members.  I went through 7 years of contract employment because the employers could.  Public service employees in Canada seem to do much better than the US. 

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Statistics can be made into anything if you choose to.  For example the article states that 89.3 percent of government workers in Canada are covered by a registered pension plan, compared to 23.8 percent of private sector workers. but neglects to compare the type of jobs.  There are very few McDonalds type jobs in government positions and very few pension plans for McDonalds type workers.  As such the comparison is apples to oranges.  Would it be more realistic to compare government workers to office workers in large private corporations???

The more I think about this the more ^^^ seems to be the case and source of the meme.

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1 minute ago, maddmaxx said:

Statistics can be made into anything if you choose to.  For example the article states that 89.3 percent of government workers in Canada are covered by a registered pension plan, compared to 23.8 percent of private sector workers. but neglects to compare the type of jobs.  There are very few McDonalds type jobs in government positions and very few pension plans for McDonalds type workers.  As such the comparison is apples to oranges.  Would it be more realistic to compare government workers to office workers in large private corporations???

The more I think about this the more ^^^ seems to be the case and source of the meme.

The government has trash collectors, Gardners, janitors etc Maxx.  Lots of them.  The government Mcjobs pay better though.  You can doubt, but you can't run from facts. 

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4 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

The government has trash collectors, Gardners, janitors etc Maxx.  Lots of them.  The government Mcjobs pay better though.  You can doubt, but you can't run from facts. 

Having worked as a government janitor in womaxx's school  between other jobs I'm going to contest that, at least in small town America.  Perhaps some other places are different.  I only know what I see here I'm not sure that reports of other places are the norm or all that common.

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2 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Having worked as a government janitor between other jobs I'm going to contest that, at least in small town America.  Perhaps some other places are different.  I only know what I see here I'm not sure that reports of other places are the norm or all that common.

Comparison's are difficult as there are few, direct comparison's.  Transport Canada for instance has several people employed as pilots.  They earn about 120k per year.  Air Canada has thousands of pilots earning an average of 180k per year.  One could argue the statistics are skewed the other way. 

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17 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Comparison's are difficult as there are few, direct comparison's.  Transport Canada for instance has several people employed as pilots.  They earn about 120k per year.  Air Canada has thousands of pilots earning an average of 180k per year.  One could argue the statistics are skewed the other way. 

This is true.  I usually try to look at statistics and see what's in play and what potential differences exist.  Unfortunately (and this is purely a personal opinion not backed up by any statistics) far too many authors pick statistics that demonstrate the point that the author is writing to.

Given enough time and exposure we tend to start taking some of these "statistics" as facts.

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It appears that the pilot has hijacked this thread. To get back to the original post, I started working for a credit union in VA in 1980 at the ripe age of 21. I didn't plan on a career at this job, it was 40 hours a week, M-F, with good pay and benefits. When I was hired, they had a traditional retirement plan, a defined pension benefit. Eligibility to retire had several qualifications, first of which was the Rule of 85, age plus years of service had to equal 85 or higher. You also had to be at least age 55. The paid benefit was 2% of average highest three-year gross income per year of service. Example: if your highest three years of income were averaged to $100,000 and you worked 35 years, your pension would be 70% of 100,000 or $70,000 per year. At the age of 21, I really didn't understand the value in this benefit but as I got older I saw this was a good thing. In the early 1990's HR started new hires under a new 401(k) plan where the employees contributions were matched. They really pushed the plan on grandfathered employees trying to get them to switch from the defined pension benefit to the 401(k). Some switched, and had a hybrid where they participated in a higher contribution (401k) and kept a reduced pension amount based on years of service up to the switch. Many did not switch, but were able to contribute to a 401k but at a lower 50% match rather than the 100%. 

My rule of 85 hit when I turned 53. Too young to retire, I'd have to wait until I was 55. The benefit of that was I'd earn an additional 4% toward my pension amount. In 2011, they offered employees who were within three years of retirement a three year credit in both age and years of service, effectively paying me now what I'd earn at 55. I took it and retired at 52. I learned that healthcare (pre ACA) was expensive. Healthcare was basically 46% of my pension amount. I was retired for about three months before I went back to work. I'm still working at age 58 and plan on staying here until I'm 65 and eligible for Medicare. If it's still around. In the meantime I try to take ownership of my health because I like getting paid to wake up in the morning.

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My brother is marking the days until retirement.  Hes a mechanic for a local school district.  He spends his days screwing off and occasionally working on Busses.  It never ceases to amaze me the lack of production they accept and I could never spend 8 hours doing something close to nothing for 25 years.

But he'll retire at 60 with 80% salary and I'll have to work till I'm 70...

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1 hour ago, petitepedal said:

I would love to retire at 65...but 70 is more realistic...unless I somehow win the lotto or pick up a sugar daddy at my advanced age:P

Sugar daddies are pretty good but do you remember the black cows? They were like a sugar daddy that was dipped in chocolate. Maybe you could get yourself one of those? :whistle:

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I worked less than 20 years for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft and they played a layoff trick on a group of us salary non union folks by getting rid of us before age 50 and halving our retirement.  In the electronics industry I worked in a small 401.  As a consultant or temp you're on your own.  I never hit the big bucks in those jobs, making more like a regular employee but with my expenses paid by the company.  Having them pay for your hotel room and rental car doesn't put money in the retirement account.  Working as a school custodian for a few months between jobs was a no benefit joke at just a bit over minimum wage (small town as I've heard some stories about schools in other parts of the country)

Womaxx is a government worker, a secretary and accountant for a high school.  There is a 401 equivalent with matching funds and no other retirement.  The pay in for her medical gets higher each year as the insurance companies jerk the school districts chain.  There are no other retirement benefits.  The pay isn't any higher than the private sector and may in fact be lower considering the number of years she's been there.  Raises are few and often do not exist as the state is in trouble and keeps trying to lower state funds to school systems at the same time taxpayers attempt to squash all increases in the town budget (for those damn overpaid teachers).  I think the teachers do a bit better as they have a special retirement plan that excludes them from Social Security.  The pay must be low in this small town however as young teachers often put in a couple of years for experience and move to other towns for considerable raises.

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Retirement?  What's that?

I have a lot of friends who are teachers, cops, other public sector.  The ridiculous retirement rules have quite a few of them retiring between 50 and 60 with healthy pensions.  That they will collect for another 20 or 30 years.  And my state is facing a massive pension shortage that can not be solved.  Really, quite a poor plan.  I can't understand why the retirement age is based mostly on years of service.  It should be a specific age.  I understand getting cops off the street at a certain age.  But I don't get why teachers should expect to retire so much earlier than anyone else.

I'm looking at 68 at the earliest because my retirement is self funded, and I'll need more SS $$.

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27 minutes ago, 12string said:

Retirement?  What's that?

I have a lot of friends who are teachers, cops, other public sector.  The ridiculous retirement rules have quite a few of them retiring between 50 and 60 with healthy pensions.  That they will collect for another 20 or 30 years.  And my state is facing a massive pension shortage that can not be solved.  Really, quite a poor plan.  I can't understand why the retirement age is based mostly on years of service.  It should be a specific age.  I understand getting cops off the street at a certain age.  But I don't get why teachers should expect to retire so much earlier than anyone else.

I'm looking at 68 at the earliest because my retirement is self funded, and I'll need more SS $$.

I'm sure there are lots of people in your state looking at "altering" some of those pensions.

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I worked nine years at a plant that was winding down. I got laid off just short of the ten years required for my pension to be vested. I worked three years somewhere that had a retirement plan where they matched every dollar I put in with two dollars. After three years they left me go and gave me back my dollar and they took back their two dollars. I should have contacted a lawyer. When I quit driving truck I was working different jobs but running short on money and cashed in my IRA. Uncle Sam got the biggest part of that. Things could have worked out better for my retirement but I'm doing ok. Life is good.

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I'm older than the friends I do have, not a ton of them, but older.

I'm in that generation that has zero chance of an early retirement unless I trip over a winning lottery ticket in the gutter, or something catastrophic (heaven forbid) happens in my family and I inherit some money, which would probably not cause early retirement, just better saving for a proper one (not that I'm not saving, I am, but it doesn't seem to really amount to much if you plan to live 20-25 years after retiring).

I have twelve years into a pension that vested.  And some money the state withdrew unfairly from it will be paid back with interest.  Don't know how much yet, but that's modest -and assumes the state legislature won't muck with it in the next couple decades and leave it underfunded.  We each have a retirement savings account, with some matching, contributing 10% a year to them, monitoring that to increase as salaries do.  I don't see the next 20 years  necessarily being enough though, even when those and Social Security (assuming we haven't bled that stone dry by then, making it tighter yet).

I'd love to retire.  In my field, people are often encouraged into it through age discrimination (old IT guys don't get hired easily, and aging ones are sometimes creatively pushed out, though it's too soon to think about that).  Gee, I'm just a little ray of sunshine, aren't I?

 

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14 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Only public sector employees can afford early retirement.  There is something wrong in that.  

There was a time when it made sound financial sense (here as a public employee) to "buy" years of retirement.  You could do this in public education.  I was young, poor, didn't understand it, and didn't take advantage of it. You could buy a fair number of years and retire early (though you had to plan it carefully, it wasn't cheap, just forward planning). It would be taken out of your salary.

Times changed.  It became a lot more expensive to do, and was no longer worth doing by the time I understood it.

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21 hours ago, petitepedal said:

I would love to retire at 65...but 70 is more realistic...unless I somehow win the lotto or pick up a sugar daddy at my advanced age:P

Is it the health insurance situation that would force you, petite?

Generally speaking our organization has gotten tighter with more controls on how we manage project money because of highly publicized audits, there has been layoffs of several hundred employees over the past 12 months where I work.  Over the years in my jobs I've had to directly work with govn't in my jobs in outreach work to other govn't at provincial and federal levels:  99% the employee/customer service (ranging from specialized professional roles to lawyers) has been timely and expert.  It's always  a few slack apples who paint it bad for everyone else.

I say this as someone who has also worked in large private sector organizations, national and global.  (In addition to working for provincial govn't in Ont. British Columbia and now municipal.)

The corporate culture in govn't has changed over the years...more tools and measurement on service metrics...if manager chooses it. 

I worked for legal aid in British Columbia. That is govn't...and it was hard working, caring people (lawyers, paralegals) for marginalized, etc. folks across the province.  

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18 hours ago, Road Runner said:

Retirement isn't the holy grail that you imagine it to be.  Everyone should work if they are able to and if they find it interesting and fulfilling.

If your job sucks, don't retire, get another job.  

Well, my partner seems to do all sorts of interesting stuff...he brought his business management experience to cycling advocacy organizations in British Columbia as a volunteer. There is a reason why some of them now have budgets:  he helped steer that.  Just listening to his conference calls with other committee members is interesting....he tries to rein in the discussion away to action from airy fairy ideas.  He has gone on multi-month long cycling touring trips on his own in various areas of the world. What I think he did well....was to break ties completely off from the oil industry where he spent his entire career...and created adventures /growth in completely different worlds of activity and interests.  

He's learned new software to help run his son's business, I taught him how to blog (he ended creating 3 different blogs, each different purpose over past decade). He still does complex financial modelling and forecasting for son's biz.  So his brain and body/fitness has been engaged since retirement. 

I agree the money factor re pension does reduce basic worries...and reliable health care.

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