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What did you do? (and why, financial reasons, personal?)
-- What age did you COMPLETELY retire?
-- Did you never stop working, just cut back from full-time to part-time?
-- How long was your break between complete retirement and retiring to either full- or part-time work?
-- Why did you go back to work?
My FRA is 67, and my plan is either:
-- COMPLETE retirement at 65 (live off pension and retirement accounts, until Soc Sec. at age 70.)
(I might take Soc Sec at FRA 67, don't know yet. Either way there's a delay of years between when I stop working start collecting Soc. Sec....either 4 -- or 5 years.)
-- OR at 65 cut back from full-time to part time work maybe one more year (live off pension and retirement accounts, until Soc Sec. at age 70.)
(To me if you're working AT ALL you're not retired. But that's just my definition.)
What did you do? (and why, financial reasons, personal?)
-- What age did you COMPLETELY retire?
-- Did you never stop working, just cut back from full-time to part-time?
-- How long was your break between complete retirement and retiring to either full- or part-time work?
-- Why did you go back to work?
My FRA is 67, and my plan is either:
-- COMPLETE retirement at 65 (live off pension and retirement accounts, until Soc Sec. at age 70.)
(I might take Soc Sec at FRA 67, don't know yet. Either way there's a delay of years between when I stop working start collecting Soc. Sec....either 4 -- or 5 years.)
-- OR at 65 cut back from full-time to part time work maybe one more year (live off pension and retirement accounts, until Soc Sec. at age 70.)
(To me if you're working AT ALL you're not retired. But that's just my definition.)
I am 73 and not yet "completely retired" according to the OP's definition. I still work a job for five weeks every summer, purely for pleasure. I don't need the money, so I donate it back to the non-profit I work for. The money is just so-so in any case - about $40 per hour. I teach chess to third through eighth graders in an enrichment summer school.
The issue of defining what "retired" means has been debated here before. The "not retired if you're working AT ALL" definition doesn't make sense to me. I know I am retired: I filled out retirement papers after working 34 years for the same employer and began receiving a pension adequate to live on a month or two after my last day at work. That was 12 years ago. Since then I have taken on a few special projects in addition to the summer school mentioned above, but never with a commitment exceeding five weeks, and usually shorter than that. That is so different from working - like night and day.
Now if we're talking about going from full time to half time, say, I think I would agree with the OP. You're not retired if you go to work several days a week, every week, week in and week out, even if you only work 20 hours per week. It's the on-going commitment, or lack of it, that makes the difference as I see it.
We retired in June 2014. Me 60, she 58. I have never had the slightest interest in ever going back to work. My wife, OTOH, is bored and went back to work for her old employer on a contract basis. Our retirement income was already better than most, so this will make us very well off.
I retired March 2017 at the age of 61. Due to accumulated vacation, I did not go off payroll until the end of April. I just started a part-time job in mid August.
As a grandfathered employee under Ohio PERS, I was not paying into Medicare, nor was I earning Medicare credits. OPERS employees who were hired after April 1986, or changed jobs after that date, pay into Medicare and earn Medicare credits. OPERS says that they will take care of us grandfathered employees. Since I only need 5 quarters of Medicare credit, I want to work part-time for a couple of years and hedge my bet.
retired more than 2 years ago but i still enjoy working 1 day a week teaching technical stuff .
once in a while my old company calls me to fill in or be part of a project . we did 3 weeks up in the finger lake region of ny and i took my wife and she had a great time touring while i worked .
i enjoy this so much i can do it as long as i can .
my wife just signed up to volunteer as a sub at the preschool she used to work at . she misses all the little ones .
some work on your own terms can be very good and healthy too for the relationship . i look forward to interfacing with others and having new people to tell my jokes to .
I am happily semi-retired. I retired from my "main career" with a pension 11 years ago. I immediately began a full-time job which I held for almost 3 years. I then left that job and found a part-time (16 hrs/week) job which I held for almost 2 years. I left that job and was "fully retired" (your definition) for about 2 years. Then I found out about a part-time (20 hrs/week) job that just seemed perfect for me. The hours and the commute are easy, the co-workers congenial, etc. If I remain here, it will be 3 years in November. I don't work summers, so I feel pretty free as far as the commitment goes.
In general, this is a matter of personal choice. I love being with people and being outside my home for a while each week. I use the extra income to save for the good things in life (mostly vacations). I am also earning credits toward Social Security, which wasn't taken out during my "main career". I hope to get to the point where I will get enough to pay for my Medicare benefits. Unless health or personal matters intervene, I will probably keep this job until the kick me out!
The truth is, I just love feeling useful, and this fills the bill, at least partially. YMMV
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I, also, am hoping that once I retire that's it.
