20 years ago today was my LAST Day of work!

[Adam Helmer]

My official retirement date was April 1, 1996, but my last day of duty was Friday, March 29, 1996. I spent 26 years working in the Peoples' Republik of Massachusetts. My happiest vision was Boston in my rearview mirror. Massachusetts IS the LIBERAL Experiment that FAILED! Honest gun owners in MA must jump through hoops that only Hillary would love.

Since 1996, I have resided on my 60-acre farm in very rural PA. I must say, since then the worst day on my farm was far better than my best day in Boston.

Adam

[Dan Morris]

Time does fly, glad you settled into retirement well.
Dan

[Gil Martin]

Once retired, every day above ground is a good one. All the best...
Gil

[fishdoggydog]

I decided yesterday that 65 will be my retirement, in 4 years. I always said 70 but the work stress is killing me, I was awake at 3:00 this morning thinking about work. I am always awake before 4:00 so not that much earlier, but I have the day off for a game farm pheasant hunt, so wish I could have slept longer.

[Dan Morris]

I held mine till 70th birthday. It was going to cost more to work at that point. Frankly, I've been very bored from that point......a shock to go from 2 puter screens and 7 phone lines down to 1 and 1!
Dan

[skeet]

Good grief 20 yrs is a good number My true last day at work was April 15th 1995 official last was May 31 1995.. So I am at 21 yrs. And it is good being retired. Cept for the getting old part. I do like living out here in Wyoming too. No people very little crime no carry permits needed and lots of guns and shooting opportunities.

Worst part is one of the fellows that started where I worked a month after I did just passed away. I talked him into leaving when I did. Speaking with him back in early April he told me he was really glad I did so.. It was to be the last time I spoke with him...and that truly does suck!

[FromBearCreek]

My Old Man has us all beat. John Deere bought him out on a middle-management retirement buyout when he was 58, in 1982. He's 92 now and has been drawing a pension from Big Green for a few years longer than he actually worked for them.

The pension actuary guys didn't figure on Dad.

[Adam Helmer]

Bear Creek,

Bully for your dad. May he live another 20 years. The actuary guys are pretty astute; your dad beat the averages to date, but how many others died the first year, or two into retirement?

The actuarial tables are based on lots of historic data that has stood the test of time. We all know old timers, but forget the short time retirees who died before they dipped too deep into the retirement trough.

I am going to live to age 100 just for spite...

Adam

[FromBearCreek]

Adam, you are correct, of course. The Old Man was part of a big cohort of retirees. He spends time to this day bemoaning men he worked with who left work, went home, sat in front of the TV with a six-pack and died in three years.

Dad went up to his 60 acres of timber and added on to his house, built a summer house, built a stone retaining wall along 150 yards of creek (he was a pretty good amateur stonemason) and generally worked physically harder than he had for years.

He had to sell his place after the 2007/2008 floods. Then in his 80s, he had to admit he couldn't recover from major floods any more. Now he and Mom have been living in town for eight years for the first time in their lives, and he hates it. Mom says he still drives her nuts, pacing around the house "like a caged animal," complaining he doesn't have enough to do. He has become a figure of note in the town they live in - an old, old man who walks for miles through the town every day, wearing his "WW2 Veteran" cap.

I hope I do half as well as he has when I get older.