Well, the title of Lainey's thread: "Retirement in winter... It's not going to work..." brought this thought to my mind.

For me, retirement is just not going to work. I can "retire" tomorrow if I want, just by staying home. Since my company does not have any kind of "pension" or any kind of "retirement (medical) insurance coverage", there is no difference between "retiring" and "not going to work". If I retire, I must rely on my own savings (including 401K and IRA) or Social Security and I must pay for my own medical insurances until I qualify for Medicare.

So I am wondering what kind of "retirement packages" other workers out there have. For example, do you get a "pension" (and what kind of pension)? Do you get medical insurance coverage after retirement? What is the difference between "retiring" from your company and just "not going to work"? What kind of retirement benefits does your employer provide? And do new employees also get the same retirement benefits? (I know some companies "grandfather" the pension plans for workers who started with the company a long time ago, but new employees do not get any pensions. I thought of changing jobs to a company that pays a pension, but found out it is too late to do so because they stopped paying pensions.)

 

I don't think it matters any what others have done or what their benefits are/are not. You have to have a plan that you are comfortable with that works for you.

 

I suspect anyone could "retire" by just staying at home. I think if you just stopped showing up, retirement would soon become an option.

 

I'll never have enough funds to retire. certainly not the way I'd like to.
I tend to spend a lot more money when I'm not working and have time to do things.
So the way I look at it, I'll need more income when I'm retired than when I am working.

and retiring without funds just ain't gonna work.

 

Good advice, Dave.
I consider retirement to be the freedom to do as you want; if what you want to do is to keep working, then you can consider yourself retired.

 

We have no retirement "package." I have a savings plan at work, +1 will, but he's not yet eligible. Pensions paid by the company are becoming a thing of the past. Our plan is to continue to save, and HOPE we can someday retire.

There is no portable health insurance for us, so likely we will HAVE to work until 65+, as it is not affordable to us to be picking up the entire tab for health insurance.

While I doubt I want to be fully retired (especially in the winter) I'd sure like to have an option of part time work in a job that I don't feel dragged down by.

It's funny, as my parents retired with very little savings, a small pension and SS. They didn't live "large" before retirement, nor could they after. BUT you can't miss what you never had. While they did not have the financial means to be world travelers, they were content in their retirement, as their lifestyle was pretty much the same as it had been before retirement.

Retirement seems so much more costly these days.

 

hey lainey,
you said your good with computers.
I just spent most of the day screwing around trying to get windows 7 beta to install on my machine, wanna come help?

I don't trust my DVD writer.
and that engineering degree doesn't matter when your dealing with the darkness from under the mountain from redmond.

 

Being 23 right now and just getting 401k set up, I'm not sure I will ever have enough money to fully retire. Things are bad now, whose to say that when its time for me to retire things won't be bad during those years.

The way I see it, we work work work all for nothing just to survive. We need to enjoy ourselves and be happy.

 

Not that good. But if a little old lady needs help learning how to email or surf the web, call me.

 

I'm really curious what retirement benefits the employers are providing for their younger employees. As I said, my employer does not provide any pension or post-retirement insurance coverage. So what does your employer provide for your retirement?