Today I am Retired from UPS for one year. 2nd best year of my life!

[olroadbeech]

with the exception of the first year after high school , the past year has to be the best year of my life.

the first couple months of retirement was kinda strange. sleeping at night like regular people , waking up realizing i did not have to go to work , having so much time on my hands , etc. I did not know what to do with myself at first.

the next several months was taking care of the "to do list" did all the stuff that needed done around the house and yard . going on day road trips to lakes , up to the mountains, the high desert, seeing friends , etc .

the last 3-4 months has been so busy that i can't believe i ever had time to do them while I was working. we used to have to cram things in or go to places during vacations . now we can stretch things out as long as we want to. it's great.

now when we go someplace , we can extend the trip as many days as we want without worry. or we can take weeks working on a home project instead of cramming it in a couple days.

lots of extra time for exercise, cooking , travelling, gardening ( we have the biggest garden this year ) .visiting friends and family, hobbies , you name it , there is plenty of time for it.

the reason i am posting this is to let everyone know that all the hard work , the hassles at work , and every other negative thing you can think of about working , is worth it in the end. the pension checks come in like clock work. If you pay off your house before retiring and get rid of all your other debt, you'll be OK. we have money left over every month. it's amazing how much you spend just because you are working. those expenses are gone now.


I'm so glad that I came to the retirement forum to see how other retirees were handling and enjoying their retirement. It gave me the courage to retire as soon as I was able. No regrets there.

thanks fellow retirees.

 

[Orion inc.]

Is this after your 17 years you claimed in your first post on BC or the magical 35 years you claimed last year??

 

[silenze]

Enjoy your retirement. You earned it.

 

[olroadbeech]

had my annual physical checkup in may and I am in better shape now than i have been in 10 years. lost almost 10 pounds and body is healing up pretty well. the doctor was very pleased. i spoke to a former co-worker at costco a couple weeks ago and he said our hub has 30 feeder drivers that are qualified for retirement but are staying.

can't understand leaving all that money on the table.

 

[Shiftless]

Good for you olroadbeech. 05-05-05 was my exit. 11 years have blown by. I too was a feeder driver and it took me awhile to readjust to sleeping like a human and that it just wasn't a month off of vacation. Like you say "can't understand leaving all that money on the table" is my feeling on the subject also. I was very young when I walked out of the door. One of many planned decisions to leave at my earliest convenience, not theirs. Choices, ya gotta Love Choices!

 

[olroadbeech]

Good for you olroadbeech. 05-05-05 was my exit. 11 years have blown by. I too was a feeder driver and it took me awhile to readjust to sleeping like a human and that it just wasn't a month off of vacation. Like you say "can't understand leaving all that money on the table" is my feeling on the subject also. I was very young when I walked out of the door. One of many planned decisions to leave at my earliest convenience, not theirs. Choices, ya gotta Love Choices!

thanks. wow over 11 years gone. congrats. my goal is to collect those pension checks longer than I worked for the company. this first year flew by. my Dad has been retired , collecting a government pension check , for 34 years next month. longevity runs in the family so i have a good chance

welcome to the Brown Cafe. we always need new unpolluted blood, ha ha. ( you'll see what i mean very quickly )

 

[rod]

thanks. wow over 11 years gone. congrats. my goal is to collect those pension checks longer than I worked for the company. this first year flew by. my Dad has been retired , collecting a government pension check , for 34 years next month. longevity runs in the family so i have a good chance

welcome to the Brown Cafe. we always need new unpolluted blood, ha ha. ( you'll see what i mean very quickly )

I'm half way there---worked 30-- --retired 15 so far.

 

[Orion inc.]

thanks. wow over 11 years gone. congrats. my goal is to collect those pension checks longer than I worked for the company. this first year flew by. my Dad has been retired , collecting a government pension check , for 34 years next month. longevity runs in the family so i have a good chance

welcome to the Brown Cafe. we always need new unpolluted blood, ha ha. ( you'll see what i mean very quickly )

And how long did you work for ups??

 

[Packmule]

Shiftless nailed one of my fears about retirement. Time flies when you're having fun, crawls when you are still waiting out those last couple years. 11 years blew by. Don't retire and 11 years will last forever. How fast does a guy want to die anyway??? Lol

 

[dookie stain]

22 more years as of yesterday lol

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Shiftless nailed one of my fears about retirement. Time flies when you're having fun, crawls when you are still waiting out those last couple years. 11 years blew by. Don't retire and 11 years will last forever. How fast does a guy want to die anyway??? Lol

I was talking to one of our most recent retirees this past weekend and the one thing that he stressed was that it is essential that you have something to do during retirement, whether it be a hobby, volunteer work or a part time job.

 

[olroadbeech]

Shiftless nailed one of my fears about retirement. Time flies when you're having fun, crawls when you are still waiting out those last couple years. 11 years blew by. Don't retire and 11 years will last forever. How fast does a guy want to die anyway??? Lol

my last 5 years went in a flash. had an 11 hr day. add commute , lunch , and getting ready etc . and it was close to 14 hr day. sleep 7 hrs and you can see the days flew by. weekends seemed like 1 day cause saturday was catching up on sleep and vacations seemed like 3 days.

it will go by fast. it's like kids growing up. one day they are in first grade and the next minute they are graduating hs.

enjoy the journey.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

It is a scientific impossibility to "catch up" on sleep.

 

[Future]

I plan on having a PT job...... No idea what .....but will have one

 

[hardcharger]

Congratulations olroadbeech! I'm at 24 years. Not sure how long I will work but I plan on being debt free when I do. Any advice to us that are still working ? Any problems with your pension? Did u walk away with any stock ? Big fat 401? Is social security something that you are counting on ? What about health insurance ? I heard you have to pay for it until you reach age 55. Thanks for any advice u can give me.

 

[Notretiredyet]

Retiring at the end of January 2017, unfortunately with a central states pension that may be gone in 10 yrs. It sucks that after almost 40 yrs with UPS (8pt) that I'll be walking out with so much anxiety about what will happen in the future. And yes I do have a significant amount of $ in my 401k as a safety net but had planned to take some of it for travel and toys to enjoy in the years before I'm too old to enjoy it. Thanks CSPF for your lack of having the nads to make any type of adjustment to insure that those of us retiring soon could make any type of plan for our future.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Plans change.

It does sound as though you prepared a lot better than most and should be just fine.

 

[olroadbeech]

I plan on having a PT job...... No idea what .....but will have one

i was determined to have a PT job too after I retired. and i have turned down at least 6 jobs that were offered from people who knew i was retired. a couple of them sounded like fun too but the thought of getting on a schedule again even it was just a few hours a day put me off.

i have been having too much fun and we have gotten spoiled being able to do what we want when we want. I do some volunteer work which is great because a couple of these organizations let me help just when i want to.

 

[moreluck]

i was determined to have a PT job too after I retired. and i have turned down at least 6 jobs that were offered from people who knew i was retired. a couple of them sounded like fun too but the thought of getting on a schedule again even it was just a few hours a day put me off.

i have been having too much fun and we have gotten spoiled being able to do what we want when we want. I do some volunteer work which is great because a couple of these organizations let me help just when i want to.

Even a bowling league is too much commitment now!!

 

[olroadbeech]

Congratulations olroadbeech! I'm at 24 years. Not sure how long I will work but I plan on being debt free when I do. Any advice to us that are still working ? Any problems with your pension? Did u walk away with any stock ? Big fat 401? Is social security something that you are counting on ? What about health insurance ? I heard you have to pay for it until you reach age 55. Thanks for any advice u can give me.

we paid off the house 18 months before i retired so that we could save that money. already had savings of 12 plus months to live on without any income. maxed out the 401k every year so that is huge. haven't had to touch it. the pension is enough and in a couple years we can start on the social security.

one thing you should do is get any major medical and dental out of the way before you go out. here in the west we have to pay 150 month for healthcare coverage and they only pay 70 % so your medical/dental will go up.

also make major purchases before you go out. we put in a new floor, new appliances, bought a late model car and repaired the older one, saved up for a new roof , and made some other major repairs. it's easier to do that while working making 80-100k rather than the 35-50 you'll get with your pension.

also , write out your monthly budget now while you are working. write down EVERY expense you can think of plus some amount for the unexpected. then add 10-20% on top of that just in case. some expenses go down when you retire like gas and car repairs and work related expenses. the only thing that has gone up for us is we are eating out more. and we travel more too.

this will give you an idea on what you need for monthly retirement expenses. the way we figured it we would have almost a thousand dollar surplus every month and after a year we had slightly more than that so we went crazy buying Christmas early for the grandkids and gifted the grown kids too. that was nice.

granted, we have had no emergencies pop up but we do have a separate savings account for that.

good luck.