Why wouldn't you feel comfortable with getting paid for it if the only people it affects (mom and sister) are both on board? Are you worried you need more $ than they would feel comfortable paying you?

Also, gl on the scan!

Thanks!

No, I doubt I need much at all. I'm not really sure why I feel this way. But it's nice to get an outside opinion.

Just got back from the gastro guy. He said he removed several benign polyps. The cat scan showed a small cyst on my liver but nothing to fret about. I googled this and it seems somewhat not unusual and pretty much nothing to worry about. He told me come back in 10 years.

Yeah! Huge sigh of relief.

So far this has cost me about $2500 but I think it was worth it just to know.

In the meantime I've been eating like a horse just to try to gain weight, and gain weight I have. Up 6 pounds. Now that I know nothing is wrong, I'll go back to healthy eating. I like the slimmer me.

Congrats! This feeling that it is nothing wrong is so worth the money.

Thanks!

As discussed, I am executor of Dad's estate. Mom is trying to sell her car but it is in his name. A lady that is helping her has gone down to try to sort this out several times and was finally told what to do.

Apparently there is a form that I can sign that gives her temporary power of attorney for the sole purpose of a title change. Who knew?

I am so completely and utterly disconnected from/at work.

I've posted many many things about how incredibly dumb our organization is.

On the other hand, it is my job to do the best I can within that environment. I'm just not. I've really become a horrible employee. I'll do the work that I'm assigned but I avoid volunteering to help like the plague. Doing so leads to ownership and ultimately more responsibility. This was not how I did things in the past.

I'm still on track to retire in March so maybe I've just thrown in the towel.

Case in point....

I recently upgraded an application from Java 1.6 to Java 1.8. I know nothing about how it works and have never done any logic changes. I simply upgraded the language version. Now I have become, in the eyes of the user, the "expert" of the application and am being asked to debug issues. I don't necessarily mind this, but the expectation now is that I know everything about it and can instantly find the problem. That is a false assumption but because of this, there is now management pressure on me to fix things quickly. Hence my disconnect from this job.

Your job stories are incredible (or have been in the past). Not sure why you don't just post them 24/7 for the lulz. I guess it's not funny b/c you have to live it.

Anyway, retirement in March sounds fine. They will get a few more months out of you and, look, a bad employee doesn't even do their work and/or actively/accidentally sabotages the company. You may be lower than average at this point but, meh.

I think since I've been there so long the perspective of how funny things are has changed. Maybe the absurd has become normal? I dunno.

One of the biggest hurdles (for my peace of mind anyway) is health insurance after I leave. Ideally I could find a part time job that offers this but that is somewhat challenging. However, GF "might" be able to put me on her plan. This is pretty big. Fingers crossed.

Even then, I'll probably get a part time job. But it frees me up to not have to have one that provides insurance right away.

And, yes, she will continue working after I retire. That isn't my ideal scenario at all, but she has quite a bit of debt that I just can't take on. There is a long backstory to this but I'm not sure I want to get into it. She seems fine with this, though.

Today is my birthday! The BIG SIX OH

My sister treated me to a fantastic birthday weekend in Seattle.

Greeted by a Halloween Happy Birthday!



Saw the troll (that's a volkswagen he's holding)



Took a plane ride.....



Over Seattle



Checked out a statue of Lenin???



Big vat 'o cheese



Chilhuly museum



Guy with a cat head playing accordion in front of original Starbucks



Gum wall - eeeuuuwwwww



Played a little (very little) poker with family. Arrr in on the last hand!



Best steak (well, entire meal) I've ever eaten



Personally cooked (in sister's home) by this guy



Pretty damn good birthday I'd say

Happy birthday BB!


Approximate translation:
" You should have in life everything you need,
everything that makes life good:
Love, health, happiness, friendship
and always young soul"

I believe you have all that. I wish you that it stays this way.

Wow that looks like a really amazing birthday! Super jelly of that steak. Happy birthday!

Happy 60th the picture report reinforces my desire to visit SEA, accordian busker and Lenin statues my favorite.

Thanks everyone!

I am now in full scale operation (semi) retirement.

I've transferred most of my individual ira stocks into high dividend stocks. I've transferred several of my stock mutual funds into bond funds. The idea is to create some sort of dependable income as opposed to building equity. I probably have more tinkering to go but I'm going to see what this looks like after a couple of months.

I think I've mentioned this, but my hope is that I can get on GF's health plan. We haven't confirmed if this is possible. If not then I have to deal with this healthcare mess, which is, well, a huge mess. Mini political rant - I just can't comprehend how our nation can be so rich and yet so many can't get basic health care. Sinful. /rant

My target date is somewhere in March which, if it works out, leaves me about 100 working days. Well, at this job. I have no doubt I'll be working part time until social security sets in, but part time close to home >>>>>> full time with an hour drive.

Those pics of your birthday are great biggerboat - took so long to wish you a happy birthday, also find myself now adding a congrats on your semi-retirment as well ... guess life can sometimes move at a pretty fast clip!

That'd be pretty sweet if you could get healthcare coverage through your gf - is there coverage from the government for seniors that'll maybe kick in, in a couple of years?

Thanks!

We have confirmed that I can get insurance through her work. There are possibly some surrounding issues (I might go into this but not now) but we can do it.

Yes, we have medicare that kicks in at age 65. This will be temporary.

I have started my countdown. The target date is to submit my 2 weeks notice the day after my bonus hits the bank. This sounds pretty crappy but you would be surprised how many people do this. We lose any outstanding vacation so it's a wash as far as I'm concerned.

I had to estimate the day based on last year. I might be a week off either way.

As of today.

164 total days
51 of those are either weekends or holidays
10 of those are my last two weeks which barely count as working
This does not count any vacation time. I'll be using as much as possible.

I've never caught one of these, or for that matter seen one caught. If you can't tell, it is a remora. They attach themselves to large fish and whales. Really cool. If you can enlarge the image, the suction cup thingy is really neat.




My guess is he was previously attached to whatever chomped this. It is (or was) a fairly decent size grouper.

Very cool. Although seems you hardly need a bigger boat for those catches.

Even cooler about the job. Good for you!

I am very interested in all details to the topic retirement. I do get that USA and Germany are very different.

I wonder for example how did you choose your dividend stocks and bond funds? Did you research yourself or do you have some kind of financial adviser? How much did this transfer cost you?

Have you checked that you can get some kind of part time job? I ask this because in Germany it would be completely impossible to get a grocery shop job after years in IT.

Generally anything around theme "retirement" is very interesting for me.

Thanks!

I've dabbled in stocks for a long time. I used to trade them (swing trading, day trading) in hopes that I could make it a career. But I didn't do well for many reasons. I think trading is somewhat like poker. You need knowledge, patience, and the right personality to do well. But, I digress. Although I didn't do well, it did give me a good knowledge base for the market. For this reason, I haven't used a financial adviser. I feel like I'm able to make fairly reasonable decisions on my own.

When I was younger I focused on much riskier investments and for the most part didn't do as well as I would have taking a safer route. So, I went through a period not too long ago where I decided to just let someone else do the picking for me. Vanguard and Fidelity have really low fees and a large variety of mutual funds to choose from. The funds are very well documented. They show risk levels, breakdown of how the fund is invested, fees, and historical returns. You just have to do homework really. As I got older, I've shifted more towards dividend stocks. My strategy is that dividend stocks are less likely to take big hits on market fluctuations. I started out just investing in funds that focus on dividend stocks but have branched out into picking individual stocks. Fees are pretty low for trading stocks so cost isn't really an issue. But, again, it takes some homework. There are many sites that show a ton of information on individual stocks/companies. Now that I'm closer to retirement, I'm shifting more and more of my money into bonds(funds). I'm looking for a steady income now as opposed to growth. Also, the stock market is really scary to me right now. IMHO it has gone way to far way too fast. I think it is due for a big pullback. Anyway, the bottom line is it just takes spending a lot of time researching when it comes to investing. There is a wealth of information out there. You just have to try to find something you are comfortable with.

As far as a part time job goes, I haven't officially tried but I doubt it is very hard to get one. The job market is pretty good right now. I certainly think some employers will balk at me being overqualified, but I doubt it will be a big deal. There are a ton of semi-retired people out there working part time. The pay sucks, but I don't need much at this point in time.

Semi-official retirement age here is 65. I can draw social security at 62 but it will be less than at 65. I can wait until 70 to get even more. Medicare kicks in at 65. My state pension kicks in at 65 as well. So, my "retirement" at this point in time is to just make enough to get me through the next 5 years. Quite doable.

I don't know what you have there, but our basic retirement, social security, really isn't a lot. Most people struggle to make ends meet on just that. Medicare is pretty good and defrays a lot of costs, but it still isn't easy. Our country relies a lot on self funded retirement (401k, IRA). Many people aren't disciplined enough to build these up and when it is time to retire just don't have that much. That coupled with the fact that it takes a LOT of savings to live on makes this difficult for many. Some in our government ave tried to eliminate social security and replace it with 100% self funded retirements. UGH! Anyway, the biggest challenge for me is trying to figure out what is enough. It gets sort of creepy when you start calculating based on how long you think you will live.

I'll be happy to answer any questions. I don't know much but I'm sort of in the middle of all this so I might have a little insight.

Not much to report lately.

I've moved quite a bit of money into income producing vehicles, but I'm reluctant to go 100% dividends/bonds. I think there is something to be said for diversification. One of the high dividend stocks I recently bought took quite a beating the other day. I'm fine in the long run, but it illustrates how high reward carries high risk. I'm just not as risk tolerant as I used to be.

I still have my eye on March, but I started getting some cold feet recently. I'm pretty sure I can make it work but I get nervous about it.

On the other hand, I'm seeing more and more higher paying part time jobs available. The economy is humming and it might just be the right time to make this transition.