[Carl S]

I retired Nov 2020 at age 63 after 40 years in GM parts, 35 of those as parts manager and then the last 5 years went down to 4 days a week, then 3 days a week the last few years. No work pension. No investing in the stock market. My wife still works 2 days a week so we have grocery money but here in Canada we can take our Canada Pension at age 60 (kind of like your 401K think?) and this fall I can take my old age pension as well.

I retired "early" because my dad dropped at 62 of a heart attack, my brother had his first one at 63 and dropped at 66 from the second one. No sense working my whole life, even though people comment on how fit I look. I exercise, eat decent but we have no guarantees.

As far as retiring, I absolutely LOVE it! Should have done it at 60. Work on my old Pontiac, work on a few other guys old cars to make a few bucks, (yes, I declare the income on my income tax form!) and just generally enjoy every day. As they all are saying here, the days just fly by.

I had no plans to work outside of my garage but I was asked if I would consider being a prison guard for our local small town police department and said yes. Last November I started doing that, casual, on-call basis but typically I end up getting about 10-20 hours a week I would say. It's fun, even though most of the prisoners verbally abuse me and also nag me "When do I get out of here?". It's fun, because I can quit the job any time I want and it gives me lots of time to read old car magazines, Popular Science/Mechanics etc!

Retirement life is good!