Sorry Guys for responding to this thread so late in the game. I don't drop by as much. I have been retired a shade over one year, now.
My take may be a little different from some of these other posts. I get remarks about how lucky I have been, yada yada yada. Which is BS. Realistically, it was sink or swim, looking ahead and planning your moves to make the best of the cards you are dealt. It had not been easy.
For me, over the years we had paid everything off...lived frugally and maxed out the IRA's and 401 each year and kept up with the market. Knowing all along if something happened...like losing my job...I could land on my feet and be in better shape than most. I had worked rotating shifts most of my career and was ready to go a long time ago. Worked through most holidays and weekends when most people get to be with family. That's what spurred the drive to do something about my working predicament. I envy the people that love their jobs. But my job is what caused me to save, invest, and become a free man.
Well, I'm now starting on my 13th month of retirement. There has got to be something criminal about not working, being happy, and not worrying so much about money anymore. What's the catch? My retirement is now about double of what my working take home pay was. That's because of saving and investing so much of my salary all these past years and living below our means. It's funny, you get in a mindset of living below your means all the time I still have to catch myself. I have just begun to let loose and it is wonderful. I had learned about investing from friends that had retired. Once you get some knowledge you want to learn more, then. And I learned a lot from some good retirement sites...like the Early Retirement Forums.
I look back and think to myself about all the years I stuck to the grindstone and slogged along. Rotating shifts, too. I also think of all the things that could have happened in those years that could have marred the chances for a full retirement and freedom. During those years I could have fallen into bad vices, (alcohol, etc), bad decisions, RIFs, divorces, brushes with the law, and lost my job along with the benefits we now have. Out on the street like most of the people today. No future in sight. I have seen those kinds of things happen to old cohorts. Some people cannot learn from their mistakes. I think that is one of the most important rules to a successful life...is not making the same mistakes twice.
I know I had a fairly good stable job. That was not luck. But the job did not fit,"me". But I stuck with it because it was the best thing going and I could not afford to jump ship and do what my true calling is. I am now on that track towards that true calling and fullfillment.
I cannot offer much advise other than tell you my story. People do not listen to advise. They have to make their own mistakes and figure it out on their own. And many of them are just not smart enough. Sorry about my additude, but that's the way I feel. You make your own luck. It's a shame we spend half our lives trying to figure all this out and for many it will be too late.
