Development after retirement
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I'm essentially retired (though just starting a big new project for a previous client...) but even so continue to browse Code Project. I've noticed quite a few contributors saying "I'm retired now, but..." and wondered just how many of us have hung up our mice for the last time (There must be a better analogy but I've not come across it). Are we retirees actively developing new code/projects of our own? Tinkering with support for ex-clients? Learning brand new skills / technologies just for the love of it? Or do we hang around in the CP lounge because the virtual ex-colleagues there are the only friends we have, and we have nothing better to do... Just curious...
'Retirement' is a puzzle right now. I'm a little over 57 and I really don't have enough assets that I can rely on the future to put myself in retirement. For me, Job insecurity was the big factor for my entire life span till now.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. Paul Valery
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What? You work like a bee and live like a rat? All those saving wouldn't do you any good it you should hit by a truck tomorrow. On the other hand if you should live to 100 years old, well it helps. Its a "IF".
Leng Vang wrote:
What? You work like a bee and live like a rat? All those saving wouldn't do you any good it you should hit by a truck tomorrow.
I don't go out for dinner every week, but when I go out... I go where I want, eat what I want and I do not even look at prices. If I buy a bottle of something I buy a bootle of something good, but I don't need to buy more than one bottle every X months I don't own a flip phone, it is just an iPhone 4S (it was my previous company phone and I bought to the company when they wanted to retire it). Its glass on the back side is broken, covered with tape, because I don't see the need to pay over 100$ for something that doesn't affect the functionality at all. I have driven for years a tiny old car with rust getting out of the paints, but mechanically perfect until I had to sell it because I got a kid and needed space. It drove, it kept me warm, I never had an accident, its consume was low, its polution was low... I replaced it with a 2 years old used big enough car. I buy good clothes of previous seasons (new but old), because they are less than 50% of original prices and... on the one side I don't give a crap about trends, and on the other side it doesn't even make any difference if clothes are from this year trend or not in my dress style (classic, elegant, discret)... Is that to live like a rat? If you think so... I think it is just living without unnecessary money waste. Let me just ask you something: Could you buy a car tomorrow if you had an accident and your current one was irreparable? Could you replace your kitchen / calefaction system if it got broken from one day to another? Could you leave your children enough money to grow without serious necessities if you got hit by a truck tomorrow? I do, and without the help of a bank. Life is just a question of priorities I guess
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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In Venice ?
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Tempting, but I already booked my Fly-Drive vacation in Sicily this year ;)
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DerekTP123 wrote:
Are we retirees actively developing new code/projects of our own? Tinkering with support for ex-clients? Learning brand new skills / technologies just for the love of it?
Yes, without deadlines or managers.
Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film. Steven Wright
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Not retired, but close to retirement age. I don't plan to retire. Programming is my hobby and I will code to the day I fall dead on top of my keyboard. BTW, I have this Microsoft Natural keyboard (the original one from 1995), will take it with me to the grave. :-D
Leng Vang wrote:
Programming is my hobby and I will code to the day I fall dead on top of my keyboard.
I am with you. For the last ten years, I have driven to Waco to play with my hobby for eight hours per day. The best part – they actually pay me for it. :-D Unfortunately, they do not pay me well for it – I am working for a ".org" and a great pay scale is just not in the budget.
When I go home at night, I get to play rancher — the herd and the chicken flock have to be checked, watered and if Nature is not cooperating, fed. I get to relax and walk where I can almost totally turn off the sounds of civilization. My nearest neighbors and the nearest road are a tenth of a mile away. The nearest major road is a quarter of a mile away. The nearest highway is two miles away. These distances are all "as the crow flies." It really is, as the song goes:
The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.
Retirement??? Do you know how the farmer and rancher retirement party begins? The minister stands up, calls for silence and intones: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the life of ...." :laugh: In all seriousness, at Farm Bureau meetings, I am one of the "young guys" and I am almost 70!
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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Tempting, but I already booked my Fly-Drive vacation in Sicily this year ;)
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Well, if you work from 23 to 60, that's 37 years of employment. If you can save 1/3 of your income, that should cover 19 years (assuming 0 growth), and around 25 years (assuming 10-15% growth). But in reality very few people can save that much. Especially as budgeting is not a skill people have these days. Families with 100K household income drive luxury cars (they also lease instead of buying used), people wear designer clothing (3x the cost of normal clothes), spend a ton on eating out, upgrading phones/gadgets every 2 years, etc. There was a study recently that said 50% of Americans have less than 10K saved up.
Nish Nishant Consultant Software Architect Ganymede Software Solutions LLC www.ganymedesoftwaresolutions.com
You nailed it. Most of my co-workers make near or over 100k, yet complain about money. Many have multiple bankruptcies, divorces, foreclosures, and whatnot. Yet the parking lot is filled with luxury cars and suvs; all financed. One thing about America is that since healthcare costs are so high, it is difficult to retire before 65. I will be able to, but looking to live abroad in a less expensive country where a minor hospitalization doesn't wipe out years of savings.
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Leng Vang wrote:
Programming is my hobby and I will code to the day I fall dead on top of my keyboard.
I am with you. For the last ten years, I have driven to Waco to play with my hobby for eight hours per day. The best part – they actually pay me for it. :-D Unfortunately, they do not pay me well for it – I am working for a ".org" and a great pay scale is just not in the budget.
When I go home at night, I get to play rancher — the herd and the chicken flock have to be checked, watered and if Nature is not cooperating, fed. I get to relax and walk where I can almost totally turn off the sounds of civilization. My nearest neighbors and the nearest road are a tenth of a mile away. The nearest major road is a quarter of a mile away. The nearest highway is two miles away. These distances are all "as the crow flies." It really is, as the song goes:
The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.
Retirement??? Do you know how the farmer and rancher retirement party begins? The minister stands up, calls for silence and intones: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the life of ...." :laugh: In all seriousness, at Farm Bureau meetings, I am one of the "young guys" and I am almost 70!
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
Heeja heeja ho ! But a farmers life would not suit me, I'm already tired of weeding our garden. The reason is that it's a new garden and when we moved in our new house about a year ago the weeds had had their chance to grow into a meters high jungle ... :(
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I'm essentially retired (though just starting a big new project for a previous client...) but even so continue to browse Code Project. I've noticed quite a few contributors saying "I'm retired now, but..." and wondered just how many of us have hung up our mice for the last time (There must be a better analogy but I've not come across it). Are we retirees actively developing new code/projects of our own? Tinkering with support for ex-clients? Learning brand new skills / technologies just for the love of it? Or do we hang around in the CP lounge because the virtual ex-colleagues there are the only friends we have, and we have nothing better to do... Just curious...
I am fully retired. It happened a few years earlier than planned but I am now older than the standard retirement age of 65. Anyone who is still writing code for money or supporting old projects in any substantive way is not retired. My partner is still working 3 days a week but that will soon come to an end as she also retires. As I have let go of my working life I have found many ways to fill my time. I started off thinking I would keep my hand in and write code for interest but I am a long way over that. If a need arises for something that requires some coding I am more than happy to do it (For example a stepper motor controller to focus a microscope). This has been mostly Arduino and to a lesser extent Raspberry Pi projects. To mention one interest in particular in Australia we have the Australian Men's Shed Association[^] and I have joined my local one which is well equipped for wood and metal work. Even though I have a decent workshop of my own this has been a huge motivator for me to pursue my own projects as well as help others. As for CP when my computer is switched on I am logged in to the site and as a long time member I know quite a few of the tags and watch their antics. This is a sort of side interest. I sometimes wonder what has happened to members who suddenly stop appearing after being active for many years and of course hope they are OK although I know some have passed on.
Peter Wasser "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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Not quite. I can buy anything I want - just not everything I want. I simply don't give a shit about peer pressure of any sort and make my own decisions. I'm one of those with a flip-phone (there are others, here - a surprising number). Desktop PC was a bare-bones and it is way past my necessary requirements, but bought in the sweet spot of pricing. Not a gamer's (or video editor's) box by any means, but my eight core Xeon (at work) doesn't do any better for anything I do with respect to development. I'll replace it if it's characteristics are become an obstacle. My two-HDD 17" laptop also flies (Dell M6500) - we cook most nights but do takeout once or twice a week. All-inclusive vacations at quality resorts (like Couples, for example). So no - one doesn't have to live like a rat. One need nearly not waste. As for living for today and/or preparing for tomorrow? That one, I'm afraid, is a contradiction in life for which I've now answer. One can simply choose a path and hope it works out. Meanwhile, I even get to enjoy the pleasure of planning and anticipation for likely events. Next year will be Hawaii. Mrs. wants to do Australia, too. I'm thinking India. When I retire, we can do both. A trip to Israel, too. So - if I live, "I won". If I don't, "I'm dead".
"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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Quote:
I'm one of those with a flip-phone"
You trendy young thing, you. I still have a Nokia brick (3340, I think?). It makes and takes phone calls and texts, which is exactly what I want a phone to do. If I'm at home, you can reach me on the landline. If I'm out, 99% of the time I don't want to be reached anyway. If I want to use social media or the web, I do it on a laptop where I can actually see what I'm looking at. This discussion seems more about lifestyle and planning for retirement than I'd anticipated when asking the question. I've come to realise that the majority of people driving flashy cars, wearing the latest fashions and eating at the best restaurants are not in fact wealthy, they just have the biggest debts. (There are exceptions of course). Meanwhile many you see with somewhat "tired" clothes, or driving a 5 year old car, as a result have significant savings which can reduce stress, increase flexibility and resilience (e.g. when the calefaction system [ :sigh: I had to look that up] breaks can fix it), and sleep easy knowing their future is probably going to be reasonably comfortable. Personally, though nominally retired (and not yet 60 - quite) I still have ex-clients asking me to do more stuff (including the quite large project I mentioned); tinker with my own websites for a variety of non-IT interests, help out with a couple of charity websites (for free) that I'm involved with, and have just written a wedding-list website application for my son, which I'll market later this year. I spend a fraction of the time I used to in front of a screen, and miss it far less than I'd expected. I'm choosing not to learn the cutting-edge tools but my inbuilt curiosity means I still read articles on CP and elsewhere. I still run a (slightly broken) Windows 8 laptop and am dreading the hassle of moving everything to Win10 when the screen finally falls apart!
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I am fully retired. It happened a few years earlier than planned but I am now older than the standard retirement age of 65. Anyone who is still writing code for money or supporting old projects in any substantive way is not retired. My partner is still working 3 days a week but that will soon come to an end as she also retires. As I have let go of my working life I have found many ways to fill my time. I started off thinking I would keep my hand in and write code for interest but I am a long way over that. If a need arises for something that requires some coding I am more than happy to do it (For example a stepper motor controller to focus a microscope). This has been mostly Arduino and to a lesser extent Raspberry Pi projects. To mention one interest in particular in Australia we have the Australian Men's Shed Association[^] and I have joined my local one which is well equipped for wood and metal work. Even though I have a decent workshop of my own this has been a huge motivator for me to pursue my own projects as well as help others. As for CP when my computer is switched on I am logged in to the site and as a long time member I know quite a few of the tags and watch their antics. This is a sort of side interest. I sometimes wonder what has happened to members who suddenly stop appearing after being active for many years and of course hope they are OK although I know some have passed on.
Peter Wasser "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
63, hopefully with enough assets to survive in retirement. No overheads and a small income. I used to love woodworking when I was younger so I want to get back into making furniture. I have intentions of joining a Mens Shed but expect to build up a reasonable workshop at home. 4 months to go! I don't think many have karked it but have moved on.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Heeja heeja ho ! But a farmers life would not suit me, I'm already tired of weeding our garden. The reason is that it's a new garden and when we moved in our new house about a year ago the weeds had had their chance to grow into a meters high jungle ... :(
RickZeeland wrote:
But a farmers life would not suit me, I'm already tired of weeding our garden.
Thirty years ago, I would have agreed with you. At that point, I never expected to move to Texas. I got a job with a defense contractor and, after a while, they moved my family to Texas. We sold our three-bedroom house on a third of an acre and bought a ranch. We even had money left over. My wife and children bought a herd of goats — and suddenly we were into agriculture!
We all had a lot of learning to do. Not only did we have to learn how to care for the herd, but also the government rules, regulations and paperwork. We did not look back. My wife and both children have each earned a college degree in agriculture.
I quickly learned to love the wide open spaces. I now feel trapped and confined when I am in a city – even a small city such as Waco. I do not think I could ever go back to urban or even suburban living.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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RickZeeland wrote:
But a farmers life would not suit me, I'm already tired of weeding our garden.
Thirty years ago, I would have agreed with you. At that point, I never expected to move to Texas. I got a job with a defense contractor and, after a while, they moved my family to Texas. We sold our three-bedroom house on a third of an acre and bought a ranch. We even had money left over. My wife and children bought a herd of goats — and suddenly we were into agriculture!
We all had a lot of learning to do. Not only did we have to learn how to care for the herd, but also the government rules, regulations and paperwork. We did not look back. My wife and both children have each earned a college degree in agriculture.
I quickly learned to love the wide open spaces. I now feel trapped and confined when I am in a city – even a small city such as Waco. I do not think I could ever go back to urban or even suburban living.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
The yellow rose of Texas is the only one for me :) No, not true, Dutch tulips are nice too, going to take our folding bikes and make a biking trip in the NoordOostpolder through the tulip fields today. Got to make the most of the beautiful weather while it lasts ...
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RickZeeland wrote:
But a farmers life would not suit me, I'm already tired of weeding our garden.
Thirty years ago, I would have agreed with you. At that point, I never expected to move to Texas. I got a job with a defense contractor and, after a while, they moved my family to Texas. We sold our three-bedroom house on a third of an acre and bought a ranch. We even had money left over. My wife and children bought a herd of goats — and suddenly we were into agriculture!
We all had a lot of learning to do. Not only did we have to learn how to care for the herd, but also the government rules, regulations and paperwork. We did not look back. My wife and both children have each earned a college degree in agriculture.
I quickly learned to love the wide open spaces. I now feel trapped and confined when I am in a city – even a small city such as Waco. I do not think I could ever go back to urban or even suburban living.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
Back from a day out in the wide open NoordOost polder, normally a bit boring, but now an explosion of colors as the tulips are in bloom. But given the choice between Amsterdam or the polders, I would prefer the polders. I was wondering Jalapeno Bob if you grow peppers too on your ranch ?
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I'm essentially retired (though just starting a big new project for a previous client...) but even so continue to browse Code Project. I've noticed quite a few contributors saying "I'm retired now, but..." and wondered just how many of us have hung up our mice for the last time (There must be a better analogy but I've not come across it). Are we retirees actively developing new code/projects of our own? Tinkering with support for ex-clients? Learning brand new skills / technologies just for the love of it? Or do we hang around in the CP lounge because the virtual ex-colleagues there are the only friends we have, and we have nothing better to do... Just curious...
The one big problem is Her Indoors. I retired about seven years ago now and have been sitting at my computer in my office every day since then to keep out of her way. Suddenly I hear her sweet tones. "Can you cut the lawn? Can you just give my car a wash? ---". She has never worked since we married 55 years ago, so you would think she would be very adept at these things by now. It appears she still can't start the petrol mower. If she uses the electric mower, she keeps running over the cord! Sometimes I think she does this on purpose. Still, she looks after me very well so some would say it's a small price to pay.
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Back from a day out in the wide open NoordOost polder, normally a bit boring, but now an explosion of colors as the tulips are in bloom. But given the choice between Amsterdam or the polders, I would prefer the polders. I was wondering Jalapeno Bob if you grow peppers too on your ranch ?
No, we do not grow peppers, at least not in quantity. When you are raising goats on open range, they get into everything and everywhere. They are foragers. Sheep and cattle are grazers and prefer pasturage. Goats want more variety and will exercise considerable ingenuity and effort to get it. One of our major issues is keeping them out of the kitchen garden. As you can imagine, they love to eat any foods we grow for our own consumption.
The appellation "Jalapeño" comes from my love of eating these tasty and often spicy peppers, whether diced into an egg dish, sliced on pizza or on a burger or in a sandwich, pickled whole or sliced, or any other way.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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No, we do not grow peppers, at least not in quantity. When you are raising goats on open range, they get into everything and everywhere. They are foragers. Sheep and cattle are grazers and prefer pasturage. Goats want more variety and will exercise considerable ingenuity and effort to get it. One of our major issues is keeping them out of the kitchen garden. As you can imagine, they love to eat any foods we grow for our own consumption.
The appellation "Jalapeño" comes from my love of eating these tasty and often spicy peppers, whether diced into an egg dish, sliced on pizza or on a burger or in a sandwich, pickled whole or sliced, or any other way.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
Have you ever heard of "Madame Jeanette" peppers ? It's quite popular over here, probably because a lot of Surinam people live in the Netherlands. I only ate a dish with a tiny amount of it, but that was already very hot ! On television there was an unsuspecting reporter who put a whole pepper in his mouth, he looked like he was going to faint, I heard it took days for him to recover from this experience :-\ Madame Jeanette - Wikipedia[^]
