Wife Accepted Voluntary Retirement

[rstsco]

My wife's company offered her a nice severance package to retire early. She let her boss know this afternoon she was accepting it. Her last day will be December 31st. She won't get the official package to sign until Monday.

My wife is 63 1/2. Instead of her company keeping her on their health insurance during the 40 weeks of severance, they're giving a lump sum payment in the amount of the cost for COBRA during this time. My HR sent me information on the cost to add her to my policies and it's less than she's paying for her company's plans. We'll get the rest of the details on Monday to know exactly how much the COBRA payment will be, but based on having to have paid it twenty years ago, it will be more than the cost to add her to mine. Nothing's been signed yet.

She always said she was going to work until 67, but the offer is too good not to take it. By the time her severance runs out, she'll be about seven months away from turning 65. My continuing to work until she's 65 is not a hardship, as I love my job and get to fly to London a couple of times per year. Going back next Friday.

Things are gonna change around here!

 

[JeffKeryk]

Congrats on her retirement! Well done!
Of course, if she wanted to work longer, perhaps she can leverage her experience to gain new employment?

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Good for her. I retired at age 62 and have no regrets. I stay busy with "stuff". Congratulations for her!!

 

[cheech279]

She's only 18 months shy of enrolling in Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan. That sounds better than a long enrollment in a Cobra plan.

 

[bdcardinal]

That's a pretty sweet deal, congratulations to her!! My mom volunteered to be laid off at her job after 43 years so that younger employees with children could still have a job. Her severance package paid her long enough with full benefits for her to turn 65. 14 years later and I am sure if she could still be auditing expense reports all day she would. But then she wouldn't have time for all her charity stuff.

 

[wavinwayne]

Happy retirement to your wife! I'm hoping to work to age 70, but if my life has taught me anything in the last several years, it's to be flexible and ready to pivot on short notice.

 

[Cujet]

Congrats to your wife!! It is good to be retired. I retired May 2024 at 60 and it was the right thing to do. Things did not go as planned and my retired life, while superb, is not at all what I expected. I've become a care-giver to my wife for the entire time, due to her terrible auto accident two weeks after I retired and subsequent major medical problems, falls, broken bones etc.

In light of your wife's retirement, consider not waiting too long before you retire. Few of us get a clean bill of health in upper ages and the number of 'good years' is vanishingly small. I believe most adults wake up every day and it feels just like every other adult day. They don't give much thought to how quickly advanced age steals strength, ability, energy and even mental acuity.

I have my health issues that drove my retirement. It is glorious not to have the stress anymore. Life is so much better. The idea that one should work until they have no more to give is nonsense IMHO. I feel it is smart to work hard, save and plan, then spend the last good years free from burdens, stress and nonsense.

 

[doitmyself]

My mom volunteered to be laid off at her job after 43 years so that younger employees with children could still have a job. Her severance package paid her long enough with full benefits for her to turn 65. 14 years later and I am sure if she could still be auditing expense reports all day she would. But then she wouldn't have time for all her charity stuff.

Congrats @rstcso

Off topic a bit: Still working at 69 and very productive - about one more year I think. I have numerous coworkers tell me never retire due to my skill level, experience, contribution, etc.. My position was eliminated once in my young career, causing a HUGE life change (sell house, move 200 miles). I moved forward. I've worked very hard/smart my entire life(still not slacking). I enjoy and am passionate with my career.

But, I wrestle internally when young people are being laid off and wonder if I owe them to retire. What say the consensus?

 

[bdcardinal]

Congrats @rstcso

Off topic a bit: Still working at 69 and very productive - about one more year I think. I have numerous coworkers tell me never retire due to my skill level, experience, contribution, etc.. My position was eliminated once in my young career, causing a HUGE life change (sell house, move 200 miles). I moved forward. I've worked very hard/smart my entire life(still not slacking). I enjoy and am passionate with my career.

But, I wrestle internally when young people are being laid off and wonder if I owe them to retire. What say the consensus?

For her it was easy because after almost 41 years of doing the job she loved, she was moved to a different department and just didn't love it anymore. She was in a financial position to be able to retire. House is ours outright, property tax is low thanks to prop 13, I do fairly decent at my job. So it all made sense.

 

[Leo99]

I was consulting at a company that invited many employees to participate in the VERP (voluntary early retirement plan). It was a nice package. They also said that those that declined the VERP might be invited to the involuntary early retirement plan that didn't come with a severance package. No one declined the VERP.

 

[CarbonToast]

Congrats @rstcso

Off topic a bit: Still working at 69 and very productive - about one more year I think. I have numerous coworkers tell me never retire due to my skill level, experience, contribution, etc.. My position was eliminated once in my young career, causing a HUGE life change (sell house, move 200 miles). I moved forward. I've worked very hard/smart my entire life(still not slacking). I enjoy and am passionate with my career.

But, I wrestle internally when young people are being laid off and wonder if I owe them to retire. What say the consensus?

There is validity to this. You can do non-labor based work forever. If no one retires then how do people get jobs. I dont think you owe your spot to anyone.

Skill, Expirence - everyday you gain more. Would there ever be a day this changes?

Contribution- skill and experience applied = Contribution.

Enjoy and Passionate - would you ever stay with a job if you didnt? This is probably always going to be the case.

Im not close to retirement, but try to consider how usually there are as many reasons to stay as to go. There is something to the saying "go out on top". The reason that forces you to retire might be bad ones.

 

[blain450]

But, I wrestle internally when young people are being laid off and wonder if I owe them to retire. What say the consensus?

I'm 63 and been laid off from 4 jobs over my lifetime. One was a minor part time job, but the other three were full time positions.
8+ years, 4+ years and almost 19 years. Dealing with each of those layoffs helped move me forward into an ever maturing adult.
While I didn't like any of the job losses, looking back I can see how I grew and became a better person because of them.

You've earned your position and way through this life. Don't struggle with them having the same opportunity to earn theirs.

 

[rstsco]

But, I wrestle internally when young people are being laid off and wonder if I owe them to retire. What say the consensus?

Certainly doesn't apply to all, but the work ethic of today's youth is "different" than when my wife and I grew up. One of her new hires from this year is struggling to do his job, but instead of working harder, he's went to HR saying the stress is causing health issues and now has intermittent FMLA with accommodations allowing him to take off up to 40 hours per month, whether an hour at a time or a full week at a time. I'm pretty sure his MBA stands for Manipulate Bosses Always. My money's on him being gone before my wife, but it's a struggle to get younger people to deal with deadlines and taking responsibility for their own actions, or lack thereof.

 

[rstsco]

I was consulting at a company that invited many employees to participate in the VERP (voluntary early retirement plan). It was a nice package. They also said that those that declined the VERP might be invited to the involuntary early retirement plan that didn't come with a severance package. No one declined the VERP.

My wife had a chance to take early retirement last year. She told me this afternoon she regretted not doing so after the enrollment period ended. She didn't expect another offer for early retirement to roll around again until next year. I told her it was a sign, but whatever decision she made I'd support. Happy she's retiring.

She was one of the first women to graduate Notre Dame with a computer science degree. She's gifted in her ability to see and model how changes affect processes many levels beyond a change. Her boss told her today there isn't anyone in their company that do what she does, but is happy for her (my wife hired her over 16 years ago).

She loves teaching others business process modeling and has talked about teaching part-time at our local community college. I could also see her volunteering at a high school helping get girls excited about opportunities in STEM fields. Our three girls all have advanced degrees, so I've seen it work.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

If she wants extra she could always drop the "consultant/independent contractor" on he boss. If they need help to figure out and maybe train someone. My company has done that MANY times. Same person comes back to help out, sometimes get new person up to speed if they want to learn but can be done on a part time, as wanted for a much higher compensation. If it gets to be too much hassle, walk a way on good terms.

We had one technical spot that the guy who designed the machine, retired with a nice package on a VESP. He was back to work making 3x the pay a month later and stayed for another couple years as "contractor". It also meant he didn't need to touch any of his retirement funds for that time.

 

[doitmyself]

There is validity to this. You can do non-labor based work forever. If no one retires then how do people get jobs. I dont think you owe your spot to anyone.

My career keeps me honed both mentally and physically. I still routinely operate chainsaws , tractors, chippers, and other ag. equipment, but I am quite a bit slower than the youngsters, lol. Both cardio and physical strength decline. I've stepped up my mentoring and am constantly reminding them to work smart as well as hard. Too many retired co-staff are bionic men (knees, hips, shoulders) because their testosterone level over-rode good work habits (lifting, etc.).

One thing I miss: Last night I listened to a bunch of college forestry/wildlife students sharing "what I did this summer". Their passion to learn/change/benefit the future is inspiring. You lose some of that passion after the hardships of life knock you down over the decades.

Take care all - I'm off to a 4 day mini vacation with the missus'.

 

[opus1]

...We had one technical spot that the guy who designed the machine, retired with a nice package on a VESP. He was back to work making 3x the pay a month later and stayed for another couple years as "contractor". It also meant he didn't need to touch any of his retirement funds for that time.

I love hearing stories like that. My first manager was early-retired and she walked out the door on Friday with a nice package, including *free* retiree insurance until she turned 65 and was Medicare-eligible, and then came back the following Monday as a contractor because they realized too late that they should have kept her.

A friend was a DBA for mission-critical system for his company that was still platformed on IMS. He survived many RIF's because they needed him around to make sure they could still do business, and the conversion effort to a more modern platform was taking forever.

 

[alarmguy]

She's only 18 months shy of enrolling in Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan. That sounds better than a long enrollment in a Cobra plan.

Yeah, she is in a great position. You can even buy non conforming short term health insurance for that short time period. (Meaning high deductible) But she can go under his policy so maybe does not make sense.

My wife turns 62 this fall, she is counting her days until 63 to bring us closer to that magical 65 medicare age, will then look into those short term low cost catastrophic plans now available. As long as you are fairly healthy baring an accident god forbid, even the last few months you can put off care until that magical 65 Medicare kicks in.

 

[Leo99]

My wife had a chance to take early retirement last year. She told me this afternoon she regretted not doing so after the enrollment period ended. She didn't expect another offer for early retirement to roll around again until next year. I told her it was a sign, but whatever decision she made I'd support. Happy she's retiring.

She was one of the first women to graduate Notre Dame with a computer science degree. She's gifted in her ability to see and model how changes affect processes many levels beyond a change. Her boss told her today there isn't anyone in their company that do what she does, but is happy for her (my wife hired her over 16 years ago).

She loves teaching others business process modeling and has talked about teaching part-time at our local community college. I could also see her volunteering at a high school helping get girls excited about opportunities in STEM fields. Our three girls all have advanced degrees, so I've seen it work.

Always nice to see men brag about their wives.

 

[rstsco]

If she wants extra she could always drop the "consultant/independent contractor" on he boss.

They're already discussing it.