Retirement Plans/Ideas?

[GaryH]

I have always been fascinated by stories of people who one day just decide to leave their current life behind and disappear. I read a book years ago ,"Exit the Rainmaker", a true story about a Maryland college president who seemed to have the perfect life. He had a prestigious job, a socially affluent and wealthy wife, many friends, and admired by his colleagues who called him the Rainmaker because he was the one everyone came to with unsolvable problems. He was always cool. calm, collected, and nothing would faze him. And then one day he just vanished. He left notes behind for his wife and lawyer saying that he was leaving everything to his wife, but with no explanation as to why he was leaving.

The author of the book(then a CBS reporter) tracked him down as he traveled around the country, and finally found him working as a bartender in Texas. He had found another woman to live with and he hung around people who knew nothing about his prior life. When the reporter asked him the big question - Why? - His reply "After all, once you hit six good drives off the tee, do you really need to hit six dozen more?"

And the final twist to this story. After 60 Minutes did this story, he left his job as a bartender(and his girlfriend) moved to Florida and got a job as an administrator at a Florida college. Full circle (EB - From Paul Simon's The Boxer -

No, it isn't strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are
More or less the same

I think a lot of people like this college president has the fantasy of leaving it all behind when they get around 50. For me instead of traveling around the U.S. for 6 months, I would rather use the Eurail and travel around Europe for 6 months without a plan.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I think a lot of people like this college president has the fantasy of leaving it all behind when they get around 50. For me instead of traveling around the U.S. for 6 months, I would rather use the Eurail and travel around Europe for 6 months without a plan.

I do not dislike my job and I have had the same fantasies, although they do not all revolve around traveling the US for 6 months. That one popped into my head only because the idea of this thread was hatched after watching the movie "Nomadland." Some of the characters in that film seem to be either retired or semi-retired individuals.

A much stronger fantasy was to retire to Key West, as I mentioned above to Sol, or the Caribbean. I did hear the story of an attorney I worked with briefly in the late 1990s, who took a trip to the Caribbean and met and fell for some guy who ran some kind of a tour boat on one of the Caribbean islands. She visited him a few times. Then, the feelings being mutual, he apparently invited her to move down to the Caribbean and live with him. She suddenly quit working at the firm we were at, and went and moved down to the Caribbean to live with this guy and join his business as a partner. This sudden move stunned everyone at the firm. I did not work with her very long and did not know her very well, but she was a kind of average looking blonde hair lady who was then probably close to 40, very tightly wound, and not seemingly built for a Jimmy Buffet kind of lifestyle. After that she was never heard from again.

The reason I mentioned Key West is that to me it is Americanized, yet really has the vibe and lifestyle of the rest of the Caribbean, and is more Caribbean than American in culture and ambience, if not economics and financial wealth of its citizens. You can show up in a T shirt, shorts and flip flops to higher end restaurants in Key West, and not only will you not be kicked out, an eyelash will not be batted, and you may even get complimentary shots. There is also a music scene in Key West that is quite interesting. As I may have mentioned live bands start performing in a number of clubs in the early afternoon. John Fogerty co-owns one of the restaurants and bars on Duval Street, and I seem to recall that Fogerty's restaurant had a lot of live band action playing mostly rock music. There are other bars that have a more Caribbean or Country Western flavor to both their menus and music. I remember one night walking into one such Country Western bar, drunk from having hopped to some other bars, and seeing a coin operated mechanical bull, exactly like the one Debra Winger rode in Urban Cowboy:

A few more drinks at that place and I might have rode it Winger style, but I just had one drink there and moved on to the next bar. I also saw a Drag Queen contest being staged on Duval Street, actually stuck my head in the bar just to see what was going on but did not stay too long as I did not want to be hit on by the Drag Queens. You have no idea how popular these things are unti you visit Key West.

 

[Fradi]

No bears for me lol.
I am retired, and had it all planned then covid came along.
Plan to travel all over Europe to places I haven’t seen yet perhaps a trip to Hawai, Fiji, New Zealand then Australia, I have done this before but would love to revisit. A trip back to the old country where it is fun when you can speak the language.
I will plan it around major sporting events like the Euro Cup of soccer, Champions league finals, kayaking world championships, Fina swimming, waterpolo world championships, Handball world championships it is easy when you are a sports fanatic like me.
In between spend lot of time with family, grandkids, can’t wait to take them to Disney World once they are old enough to enjoy it.

 

[LeafsSuck]

no need to stab a fellow Merbite even if your a slow runner .... just putting some beef jerky in his pocket will do the trick

You don't have to be the fastest runner. Just don't be the slowest.