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Back when my dad was retiring from IBM, he noted that some statistic said that a disturbing fraction of people dropped dead within a relatively short time of re

Back when my dad was retiring from IBM, he noted that some statistic said that a disturbing fraction of people dropped dead within a relatively short time of retiring. On the other hand, my dad did not drop dead, but he did end up spending the last ~25 years of his life with little to do other than some light woodworking and a lot of television. I'm not sure which outcome is worse. So my plan is not to retire, per se. As I become more and more financially independent, I'm simply going to tailor the work that I do and the time that I spend on it to match whatever my desires are. No working on boring projects because it pays well, etc. In my perfect world, which I will admit is a fetch, one of my side projects will get traction and I'll make enough to pay for a further two decades of unprofitable-but-fun projects. Or I'll win the lottery I don't buy tickets for. It really helps that I enjoy coding and could happily do it until I croak, I don't consider it work. I keep getting roped into management though.

wing-_-nuts 4y ago
>Or I'll win the lottery I don't buy tickets for. I say the same, and I joke that I'm only slightly more delusional than the folks who play and think they can win
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  That's a good way of putting it too. If someone asks, I also like to say that the odds of finding a winning powerball ticket on the ground are not significantly different from the odds of buying one yourself. I can't back that up with real statistical modeling or anything, but given that the best odds are north of 1 in 200 million, it's close enough.
antisthenes 4y ago
> On the other hand, my dad did not drop dead, but he did end up spending the last ~25 years of his life with little to do other than some light woodworking and a lot of television. So not much difference from working at IBM?
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Ha! I don't know what it was like working at IBM back in the day. I will say that was when they still did the summer picnics[0] and winter Christmas parties with elves who handed out gifts for all the kids. And I still have (somewhere here in my desk, even) the actual silver spoon they gave my dad when I was born, engraved with my name. I'm not sure what the office environment was really like. My dad was a systems engineer, but went to work in a suit & tie. I think he was essentially what we'd call a sales engineer today. Finished out his career on AS/400s. I almost bought him an old working AS/400 off eBay as a gift, since the smallest ones were not much more than an overgrown PC. I mostly have fond memories of those days. That was a different IBM than today. Back then when they moved you to another office across the country, IBM would buy your current house from you at market price so you could easily make the move and buy a new house where you were going. My dad did that a couple times before landing permanently in Portland. [0] speaking of the picnics, I recall the joke about how the PCjr was created. The engineers and sales folks were very competitive, and during some heated talk at a picnic, the sales folks boasted that they were so good they could sell *anything* the engineers could dream up. Engineer reply: "Wanna bet?" We had a PCjr ourselves. They gave them out to employees for peanuts.
DougN7 4y ago
It’s just anecdotal, but I know a few men that died shortly after retiring, including my father who also had the same concern. Makes you think…

wing-_-nuts 4y ago

>Or I'll win the lottery I don't buy tickets for. I say the same, and I joke that I'm only slightly more delusional than the folks who play and think they can win

rootusrootus 4y ago
That's a good way of putting it too. If someone asks, I also like to say that the odds of finding a winning powerball ticket on the ground are not significantly different from the odds of buying one yourself. I can't back that up with real statistical modeling or anything, but given that the best odds are north of 1 in 200 million, it's close enough.

antisthenes 4y ago

> On the other hand, my dad did not drop dead, but he did end up spending the last ~25 years of his life with little to do other than some light woodworking and a lot of television. So not much difference from working at IBM?

rootusrootus 4y ago
Ha! I don't know what it was like working at IBM back in the day. I will say that was when they still did the summer picnics[0] and winter Christmas parties with elves who handed out gifts for all the kids. And I still have (somewhere here in my desk, even) the actual silver spoon they gave my dad when I was born, engraved with my name. I'm not sure what the office environment was really like. My dad was a systems engineer, but went to work in a suit & tie. I think he was essentially what we'd call a sales engineer today. Finished out his career on AS/400s. I almost bought him an old working AS/400 off eBay as a gift, since the smallest ones were not much more than an overgrown PC. I mostly have fond memories of those days. That was a different IBM than today. Back then when they moved you to another office across the country, IBM would buy your current house from you at market price so you could easily make the move and buy a new house where you were going. My dad did that a couple times before landing permanently in Portland. [0] speaking of the picnics, I recall the joke about how the PCjr was created. The engineers and sales folks were very competitive, and during some heated talk at a picnic, the sales folks boasted that they were so good they could sell *anything* the engineers could dream up. Engineer reply: "Wanna bet?" We had a PCjr ourselves. They gave them out to employees for peanuts.

DougN7 4y ago

It’s just anecdotal, but I know a few men that died shortly after retiring, including my father who also had the same concern. Makes you think…