Andy and Dougy are back today, with a little drama. Andy worked it out, though, and Dougy probably didn’t even notice anything was wrong. That’s how Dougy is.
“La-la-la! Nothing doing, doing nothing…!”
“Whatcha doin’, Douglas? Nothin’?”
“”Hey! You scat, cat! This is my door! Mine! Mind your own beeswax!”
“What a naughty kitty! That dang Dougy can have that door! I’ll just take the other one! AND the litter box!”
“Grrr! This is what I’ll do to Dougy if he comes over here!
“Now I feel better! Nothing like a good scratching to deal with naughty brothers!”
“Mine! All mine!”
Andy works it out!
=(^+^)=
Today is a special day in my life. I usually forget which date in January I retired, so I googled “January 2009”. Turns out it was January 30, 2009. Woohoo! I haven’t looked back! Never! Nev-air! NEV-air! NEV! AIR! Mwahahahaha!
Hmm. January 30, 2015 is a Friday, too!
They are such beautiful cats. Are they Persians?
Thanks! Their mother is a tabby Persian and their father is Birman. In the right light, you can see that Birman heritage.
It took me a while to adjust to retirement and I wondered who I would fill my time. Now there is not enough hour int he day to do everything that I want to do or that needs to be done.
I retired in 1997 when the Bald Dude had his first stroke and begin having heart problems that affected his schizo affective disorder. Have not regretted it at all.
You and the boys have a good week end and happy retirement anniversry.
I was fortunate in that I stepped right into retirement without effort. The people where I work gave me a book (among other things) on how to live in retirement, and I have yet to open it because, well, I’m doing it and I’m doing it successfully!
great shots…
Thanks! The boys are photogenic, which helps!
Sassy-assy-cattitudes! Love It! And, congrats on moving forward and nevair looking back!
I can’t imagine the day you have already reached! I believe those guys in the gov would be happier if I die first! Cuts, taxes and the retirement age is rising – there’s no way I’ ll get through this! Enjoy your weekend!
Thanks! I hope you like what you do, then…!
To be honest with you, I didn’t think I could retire before I hit the retirement age when my Social Security kicked in, age 65. When I retired a bit more than four years early, I thought I might be crazy, though I was ready to call it quits.
My expenses are a lot less than they were when I was working and I have practically everything I need. I think some part of retiring is accepting a less extravagant lifestyle (though I never had one that was that extravagant before!) and making some effort to save and invest as much as I could while I was working.
I realize Portugal has been going through economic hell the past few years, along with some of the other EU countries like Spain and Greece, so I also realize I may be overly optimistic for you. Hope not. Retirement is a wonderful reward for surviving the workplace.
Good morning, Doug! Let me just tell you the concept behind the government policy towards retirement : retirement is an unbearable burden we have to pay monthly to people that worked part of their lives trying to earn as much as they could doing absolutely nothing … Hope you have a great weekend!
Sounds like the reasoning of the right wingers in this country. Christian country, my ruddy rump! Yes, I think my weekend will be fine! Hope yours is, too!
Doug and Andy are so very interesting. They are both cute with long fur. 🙂
They thank you, and I do,too! I removed a mat from Dougy’s right front armpit this morning, but I think I can keep up with this problem with brushing. The more I see of full-haired Persians, the more I think I need to go that direction with the boys!
The problem with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finished.
How true! LOL 🙂
Happy Retirement Day! Andy and Dougy look in good form. 🙂
Thanks! Retirement opened up a world of creativity for me that has been very rewarding emotionally if not financially!
Happy anniversary! My financial advisory told me that I can retire about 5 years after I pass away. 🙂
Ha! Ha! Reminds me of what my tax accountant told me the year before I retired: “You will never be healthier the rest of your life than the next few years. I recommend you take your retirement, spend it doing everything you want to do, buy new cars, travel, spend all your money, then let the government take care of you.” Then she said she wasn’t serious, but that still was probably the best thing to do.
I’ve found that no matter how much money you save up and have in decent investments, you probably could have set aside more than you did.
In my case, I make about half of what I was making a year, but, because of how much I diverted into investments and savings, I actually net about the same amount, with enough left over to set aside for surprise expenses or re-investment. I’d like to say that was my plan, but I’m not that clever!
I’m hoping the cats grow up and get jobs and support me for a change. 😀
🙂 Or sell their babies to support you and your wife! (“We don’t mind…! Much…!”)
Too silly! 😉
If today’s law would still apply I would retire in 21 years (approx.) – but as all I have seen was the rise of the pension age I might as well have to work longer than that …
I returned shortly before I turned 61, a full four to five years years earlier than I expected. Though I had some health insurance issues till I turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare, I haven’t really had any regrets. In fact, I’m glad I did it!
The main thing is try to put as much money into savings and investments as possible till you retire. I don’t know what kind of retirement plans you have there, but you can probably talk with an investment adviser to get some guidelines on how much and where to put your moneys. I was putting in something like 15% of my income toward the end, but started out at about half that rate back in the 1980s.
I hope I will be entitled to getting a good state pension – state now – and have an additional insurance. No investments, very small savings for a pension plan. I am very risk-averse since I do not have large savings and cannot afford losses.
For reasons I can’t fathom, I managed to set aside a nice chunk. Probably because I didn’t have children so didn’t pay to send children through college or buy a house. I’d like to think it’s because I’m clever, but I think it’s more because I’m lucky.
I’m curious, what is the retirement age in Germany now. Here it is 65, but they are looking at moving it to 70.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fblogs%2Fparallels%2F2014%2F08%2F13%2F340005019%2Folder-german-workers-jump-at-chance-to-retire-at-63&ei=yf3LVNmZJJX_yQTns4CoAw&usg=AFQjCNE-1pFjNbztx9R_Z4PB0G_GsgMzMg&sig2=tyGAzODbNJjuvgPlX_rcVg&bvm=bv.84607526,d.aWw
I just saw this — they just lowered it to 63 from 65 in Germany. Interesting.
Believe me, in America, people don’t work till they want to take retirement at 65 (or whatever) if management decides they need to trim “overhead”. I, for example, though not tossed under the bus, was encouraged to think about jumping in front of it two years in a row before I decided, “Why not? I’ve always liked buses and big machines.” I jumped, and am damn glad of it!
Wow! I want to move! 😉
67 now, but the first voices towards 70 are heard.
That’s the trend here, too. People born a year after me have to work half a year longer before thgey can collect full benefits on SOcial Security, and the age of full retirement benefits goes up the more recent a person’s birthday.
Well, to be honest, people retiring these days ARE living longer than those when the retiring age was set to 65.
True, and that means those who can probably will want to work at something or do something like volunteer work to keep involved in life. Each person determines his or her path, eh!?
Sometimes I wonder if those old days where old people stayed involved in life and made themselves useful still (at a farm or a business) while the young ones did the main, hard part of the work were that wrong. It gave the old ones a connection, a goal, some “still useful” appearance.
It was probably a healthier way to spend old age. Of course, there are lots of things people can do in retirement that involve maintaining a connection with others and staying active. I personally don’t have a financial need to work and am glad to be done with the psychodramas of the workplace. I also am blessed that I enjoy and feel comfortable with quietude — not everyone is comfortable being alone!
Self-employed people in family businesses best match the model you mention, and it seems people in those situations tend to continue to work as long as they are physically able. Part of it is because of economics (they have to…!), but many times it is because they can and they want to. I can think of examples of both among people I know. This is an agricultural area, with ranches and farms run by families for generations. Among those people, who tend to work as long as they are able, there is a strong sense of purpose, history, and joy in work, further backing up your theory!
Of course those feeling the burden of old age (or the demands of the workplace getting too much) should have an opportunity to lessen said burden – a thing the people did automatically when it was not regulated. And they should still have the advantage of social security when they can’t go on. But especially for old men there is a lot of bad side effect once they retire – not all 😉 – There was an article about loneliness increasing in old age for men.
I believe that is true. (I feel fortunate that I am comfortable being by myself, and always have been. It’s great being with others, too, of course!)
We have 65, but a lot of the big companies are hiring retired people on a “part time status” and retire them at 75.
In the USA, lots of retired people work part time jobs to try to improve their finances, and the law allows them to earn up to a certain amount without being penalized by lower Social Security payments. I am not sure what that gross income allowed is, but it is fairly generous.
One of the companies that started the hiring of retired people was Home Depot. (I worked there for a couple of years in merchandising). They would work 3 to 4 days a week or 5 1/2 days. The rule was the total hours had to be less than 40 hours a week.
Wal-Mart and many fast food joints hire people on that basis here, including many retirees.
Love it! “La-la-la! Nothing doing, doing nothing…!” Great advice.
It has a cattitude feel I like, and seemed like a sentiment Dougy, in particular, might express.
It got me thinking… be aware that can be very dangerous….so this will be reflected in my next post.
I’ll look forward to it!
Me either – I love retirement!
No matter what the problem – Dougie and Andy always work things out!
I always told myself that as long as I enjoyed the work and the reports I prepared helped improve scrap numbers and product quality, I wanted to stuck around. It was a point where I no longer enjoyed my work, I had questions about whether my work actually got used to make quality decisions, and they asked me if I’d consider taking early retirement. (“We’re not telling you we want you to leave, just that would you consider taking early retirement…!?”) I try to keep my language clean or use euphemisms in this blog because I know actual decent people read it, but this is one place where I feel — with a little forewarning! — a specific word is appropriate: I thought, “Well, fuck it! I’m tired of this job, I have no evidence the managers and supervisors ever open the scrap analysis files I work on, and I’m sick of tearing down customer return anhydrous ammonia and LPG hoses to evaluate for cause of failure. I can’t afford it, but I’m going to do it anyway!” For the full story, and more, you can go to the “who I am” page.
When my place re-organized there 4 ‘leaders’ for the building – but our building would now only have 3. I knew immediately what that meant – no one believed me when I said it was me. It was only logical! I was the oldest of the 4; the highest paid; had the most vacation and benefits and was the closeest to retirement – give me a break – I’m surprised they didn’t get a handcart and wheel me out!! I waited patiently for them to come right out and tell me – I went out the door 2 weeks later with a package deal and a big smile!!!!!
🙂