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Might be time to look into a company doing short term contracting.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Well - I already did the contractor thing - most of the time with my current employer.
If looking into work, I was thinking about trying to get involved in teaching some of the CED courses they give in the community. Pay isn't that great, but it it could be stimulating. Since all of the students are paying because they want to learn it shouldn't be bad.
Or (although I wouldn't be the first CP'er to do so) I could get into local politics.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Well, if money is not an issue then teaching is a viable option. They do get lots of time off. Do you have the credentials to teach at the university level or were you thinking about teaching at a technical school?
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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I've the credential to teach Chemistry at the university level - but not a likely option.
The plan was relaxing CED courses - not a big money maker. A thing to do to keep busy that'd stimulate keeping up with the field(s).
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Well, if you don't mind moving to small town U.S.A.†, there are dozens of small universities that would hire you to teach computer science even with the chemistry background. Depending on the size, you might be able to do both. At the university here, one of my computer science professors also taught physics. The smaller universities are a little more lenient with professors crossing curriculum boundaries since they lack the staff.
†population < 150K
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Foothill wrote: moving to small town U.S.A.
Been there (eleven years worth). Absolutely no way!
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I can understand. The internet out there is sort of crappy. It's pretty quick here but I've been waiting years for Google to expand their fiber network to here so that I can get off of cable and jump up to 750MBS+ and say good-bye to HD video buffering.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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No - you misunderstand - it's not the internet - if it were the internet, one could presume that even a small college/university would cause installation of decent speed. At home, I'm content with 25Mb - and it's more than I ever use.
It's the small town. The lifestyle, the people, the whole hellish snake pit. If you've grown up that way it's probably wonderful. To me, a nightmare.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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For the sake of clarity, what do you consider a small town. For me, I have classified a small town as between 100 and 150 thousand ever since I lived in Chicago and San Diego.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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No number in particular.
I put down five years in Chicago - what I referred to, then, as "a small town of two million".
It's all a matter of cultural norms.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Not going to argue with that. I don't much care for the predominant cultural norms of my current area of residence but I don't exactly have the ability to pick up and leave. There's a lot of good people here but the religious crusader minority has borrowed from the NRA playbook and is very politically active while the rest of us are too busy working to even follow what's going on in the state legislature. So, we get a lot of laws passed that are not supported by the silent majority so we have shifted to a revolving door legislature for the last couple of elections.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Columbus is referred to as a "city in the corn field" and there are still corn fields within the outer belt including one about 1000 yards from my desk. Chicago is also called the "windy city" due to the democrat political machine.
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W∴ Balboos wrote: do I wish to jump headlong into the abyss?
Jump. It sounds like you'll be able to enjoy the abyss with a nice parachute. 
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Yeah - in a sense my considering it means I think the parachute's in good shape.
It's so tempting - the paranoia is maintained in that, at my age, re-employment as a developer is an unlikely possibility. If I make it through into 2018, I'd like to put in at least the first 1/3 year so I have what Social Security refers to as 'substantial income'. Social Security, for that matter, is still off in the future a bit.
Yet - as you observed - I sort of defined the situation with a built-in answer.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I agree with DEJ.
Went through that some 25 years ago. Took it. Contracted to an outfit setting up (wired) networks and systems at trade shows, Comdex, Internet World (big in those days) as well as a lot of small shows. Did some programming for support stuff, lead generation, etc. mostly scripts. Slung 17-20" CRT monitors, argued with W95, OS/2 and such. Traveled the US, took time to see stuff after shows packed up. Paid my way (including MRS) plus some spending money. Did that for about 5 years. Later hooked up with a couple of outfits that I could support remotely using VPN to hardware firewalls. If nothing else was available, I used a MiFi. Quit one, still do the other. Written lots of small programs/scripts to support them. One failed adventure into a retail program (earned almost $.05 an hour from sales).
BEWARE: Some companies will offer to hire you "part time". That, to me, should be 20 hours a week or so. For them, it was 60 hours a week for 4 weeks. Maybe.
Make sure you retire TO something, not FROM something. Watching the grass grow in the back yard sucks. 
Arguing with a woman is like reading the Software License Agreement. In the end, you ignore everything and click "I agree".
Anonymous
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Well you got 2 choices,
1. work at a well paid job and save lots for your dreams - only to find despite having the funds you're too old and decrepit to do those things (for instance, like walk the great wall)
2. seeing as you're OK enough to retire do them now while you can still walk.
You mention you would find something to go back to, even if at the community centre teaching for less money - you can't take it with you so if less money is still enough then great, so that's what you do when you get back.
As others also mentioned never retire to 'do nothing,' it's 100% a sure way to shorten your life. (seen it with my own eyes - my parents, their friends, my friends parents... way too many times to believe it's a coincidence).
Format Success.
Welcome to your new signa&*(gD@@@ ![Beer | [beer]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/beer.gif) @@@@@@*@x@@
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That's paranoia #2 - keeping my mind stimulated.
I've actually started a list of what I'd be doing (much more positive than a bucket list).
Practicality is part of it. For example - the teaching - it would not surprise me if the only people who get those gigs are connected (which I am not). The list serves the duel purpose of being an eye-opener to what do I do with myself and simultaneously a series of fall-back plans. Of the later, there must be sufficient items purely in my own control to prevent that lethal disaster.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I currently take 2 months unpaid leave a year, and it is still not enough for the things I need to do.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Jump now. Life is too unpredictable and can be cut short at any time.
W∴ Balboos wrote: eventual social security
 When did you become an optimist?
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Talk to your company. See if they will let you go part time, take sabbaticals.
If you are useful, they will say yes. If not, they will tell you something else, unrepeatable in the Lounge. 
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That option would likely be in their interest. I generously comment my code but pretty much half the business is running on frameworks I built. They'll run a long time - but if they want to make changes - good luck to that.
If I go that route and they say 'no', I'm a rather expensive per diem contractor.
But, then, that's if they perceive me as useful. The place has changed over the years, especially recently, and "vision" isn't what I'd call a specialty.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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You never know how they will respond, but letting you go part time saves them money, so it is attractive, provided they get the work done when they need it.
And as you know, as a permie, a lot of time is spent doing not much. Part time you would be more focused, like a contractor, on problem tasks.
So ask them, sounds like win win to me.
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Don't let your employer guilt trip you into staying either. No one is irreplaceable.
Retirement is a learning process. You learn to occupy yourself and feel useful but without having to dance to someone else's tune.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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I'm on the other side of that decision. I got retired in 2010 with the golden handshake and am retired now with a pension. I did some contract work (with the company and otherwise) and did some further college work. Fully retired and goofing off now (except for occasional FOSS stuff).
Recommendations:
- Make sure that you have your ducks lined up for medical coverage for yourself and whomever is a dependent of yours. In the US, if you get any kind of retiree medical coverage from the company, you can drop existing dependents (eg. college students) but not make any other changes. Before retiring, I thought that the Obamacare yada yada was just a bunch of political noise. I retired, then got married, then discovered I couldn't cover my new wife, then discovered how truly remarkably awful is this Obamacare thing. Trust me, medical coverage is a major point.
- Make sure that you can truly live on your nest egg plus benefits. Don't forget the implications of a bad health event, divorce or an unanticipated legal issue. Before and after social security.
- Make sure that your skills are saleable if you have to go back to work.
- If you see a downturn in your company's business, they will likely cut back personnel, with the "old guys" first. You will get $$$ incentives and extra bennies to leave on their schedule. You won't get this if you leave on your schedule. It might pay greatly to wait a couple of years (and this will be in your favor for social security benefits).
So, I did an approximation to all of the above and am now enjoying the best years of my life. Just what retirement is supposed to be. TADA!
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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I have my own medical coverage - independent of my employer. A self+one plan (plan and those covered changeable annually at an open season). It's not cheap - and has co-pays (until medicare kicks in) - but I get what I need.
As for the finance, I used the SSA site to determine my SSA payments when I reach full retirement. Due to the penchant for a certain political party to screw federal employees/pensioners in order to give the illusion of caring about the economy I have a nasty deduction taken from my SS. After 20 years in the SS system I begin to earn back the deduction over the next 10 years (assuming I make enough for it to count as substantial). Working about 1/3 into FY2018, for example, is worth about $500-$600/year, permanently, along with whatever I earn.
Getting that number, I used the calculator at the 401K financial org for my current employer and let then figure out how long what I have will last (the estimate I need more than I actually spend). Based on their calculations we're good until age 110 or so.
Per Obamacare: the real problem with it is that it should have been a single-provider plan, like medicare. For now, one has to contend with greed MD's and even greedier insurance companies that cause US citizens to pay double (per capita) compared to the next most expensive country - and in exchange for this, our quality is ca. 40th in the industrial world. A system that impoverishes people by the hundreds, daily. Single pay would also be good for employers that give their employees coverage and make the sleazy ones pay their fair share. Returning to paragraph one: the cost of the plan (mine plus the former-employer portion) is more than a minimum wage employee would earn. Husband/wife together would need to literally choose between food/shelter or medical coverage. Today's news indicates that lower income people are about to be thrown under the bus by a rich man's attempt to do something beyond embarrassing the US.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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