by As I was leaving the Municipal Archives the other day they were setting up for a retirement party for a judge. I don’t really get retirement parties, except, I guess if you enjoy your co-workers, any excuse for a party makes sense. Or, if you hated your job.
But if you enjoyed your work, or even if you have had enough, its a weird thing to celebrate. To me a retirement party means: I’m too old to work and I’m going to be dead soon. I guess a better way to look at it is: I’m old so I’m quitting while I’m still ahead in order to have a great time and some adventures before I die.
I think the last one is closest for me. I plan to retire in 4 years at 65. I have had a lot of adventures, been a lot of places, but I am tired of working 8-5 daily then going home and working on paperwork for another 3 hours. I look forward to not having to go to the office, to go to the beach when I want, to travel when I want, to learn some new things like photoshop, to revive my interest in photography, etc. As a writer, you may not understand this, as you write when you want until you are under deadline, choose what you want to write about, etc. You have a lot of the freedom that those of us who work 9-5 in an office dream about. And yes, I plan to celebrate that freedom.
That Municipal Archives ib=s at the end of Chambers St, right? I have a book that shows a plan from abiout 100 years ago, where they were going to make a HUGE Muni Bldg (the one at the end of Chambers is the one that eventually got built). It was to have a HUGE dome in the middle of that block, and that building, that’s now the archives, was to be one wing, with an identical structure at the Broadway end of the block. All one building, a block long, and a gargantuan dome in the middle. Kind of a good thing it was never built.
I’m retired’ but work at a school 15 hours a week. At 65 I’m too young to retire.
Tom, now I feel stupid for being perplexed!
Dan, I love that part of town.
Michael, that sounds ideal, the best of both worlds.
The last sentence is great. Exactly my sentiments and exactly why I plan to retire in a little over 3 years.
Hi Stacy,
I have been semi-retired for a few years. We’ve been waiting for my wife to retire, which should happen about the middle of this year.
After that, our activities really revolve around our health and what we can afford. Fortunately, much to my surprise, I turned out to be a pretty good money manager, and so we’re not rich, but we are a long way from being broke.
At this juncture, I wish that we had a more concrete plan, but if we can afford cruises, we’ll take cruises — if we can afford to hang out in Europe, we’ll hang out in Europe.
If we can only afford to travel more locally, then we’ll see a lot of the US.
One of the places we plan to visit fairly early on is Lily Dale, NY.
(Should we happen to get to New York City, we will invite you to dinner…)
We have together if you come to NYC!!
Lisa, that is that attitude I plan to adopt, if I ever retire, which I probably won’t be able to do, but that’s okay.