Happy Boxing Day - Retirment

Boxing day is an English holiday, it is the day when your boss would give you a present, a box, hopefully with something nice in it. It is the day after Christmas to the rest of us.

For me it is another day closer to the end of another year and another day closer to retirement. This may or may not matter to my readers; but, I have not decided if I will continue this blog after I retire. That is undecided. It is possible that I may post even more often and longer; but, if I do I will probably narrow the focus.

I am debating what I will do when I retire and I am even considering dating again. Of course, I am also considering replacing my car with a new one. LOL. Just about everything is on the table right now. Once I retire, I have options. The last debt I have is giving my ex half of my retirement for the time we were together. I have less than a thousand dollars in credit card debt and can pretty much pay that of when I want. After I retire, I will have met all my legal obligations and can then choose freely what I want to invest in or take debt out on or where I want to live. I am really looking forward to that after all these years, it is my boxing day present from my employer, a retirement. I may not get it all because of the divorce; but, it will be enough to get by somewhere.

My employer has made mistakes as an organization over the years, it has also done wrong things in my opinion; however, it has also done great things and has a lot of great people working for it. For more than a quarter or a century, my job has paid me to live my passion and fed my family and I. I have worked since I was 12 years old and am now in my mid-fifties. I have worked in factories, in the service industries and in both public and private services. I have worked in so many industries that I have lost count and have enjoyed seeing all the things I have; but, of all my jobs, the one I am leaving has been the most rewarding and I will be ever grateful that I got to work in the industry of my choice.

My ex was very selfish; but, she thought we all should be. She believes in looking out for number one. I mention this for a reason. Just before I took the entry level job for my employer, I was offered over $100,000 a year to work in the industry I was in at the time. I turned it down and took $29,000 a year to work in the industry I wanted to work in and she always supported that decision as did my kids. One of my kids married an artist. Nobody wants their kid to marry someone in the arts because there is so little chance of making money; but, I supported it 100% because this person is and must be an artist. I have no doubt that my ex believes the exact same thing.

Young people often ask me what they should do for a career and I always say the same thing, you have to live your passion or you are cheating yourself. Now, it may take 20 years before you get to work in your field, took me that long. If it does then everything must be in preparation for success. Eduction and work to feed yourself while you continue to apply for jobs in your passion. Every action, if aimed at keeping you on track to getting to work in your passion area is a positive step and you should view it that way. The negative steps are when you allow money, fame or power to get you to lose sight of your passion.

There is a story in the New Testament where a rich man asks Jesus what he needs to do to get into the kingdom of heaven and Jesus tells him to sell all his goods and follow him. He couldn't do it. The funny thing that nobody ever talks about is that the rich man probably lost everything in the next few years to the Romans anyways. He thought he had security in money; but, there is no security in money, not in gold, not in money, not in land, not in anything except in God. I have had a great career and still I could die the day before I retire or the day after, there are no guarantees in this world. There are however choices and sometimes they all stink and some of us never get to work in our industries; but, we should never give up because that is hope and the only chance you get in this life.