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Life transition

Sorry to hear about the layoff.
Your story is motivating me to ensure that I'm fiscally prepared to retire in the next few years, well ahead of schedule so that if/when something as unfortunate as a layoff happens I'm in a good enough place that it won't matter. Mentally I'm not sure I'm ready for that much free time just yet.
 
Yup. I was hoping to retire at 63. This is about 3 years too soon but I'm hoping I can make it work.

If I had known then what I know now, I would retire the very first day that I could. It's easy to underestimate how much less you really need or what the true "cost" is for a job. It's also easy to underestimate how much some companies are willing to pay for a contract employee or a consultant. Retirement doesn't need to mean you don't do anything anymore.

I'd encourage you to try David. It's especially good cuz you can kinda choose your hours.
 
@Mike R I definitely encourage you to line up your financial ducks. I'm in a pretty good situation as I pulled my Telus pension when I left there, invested it and it's grown substantially since. Add in my severance and it's a tidy sum. My earliest unreduced public service pension is at 60 years old, approximately 8 months from now. I just need to figure out how to beat arrange the chess pieces to my advantage.
 
If I had known then what I know now, I would retire the very first day that I could. It's easy to underestimate how much less you really need or what the true "cost" is for a job. It's also easy to underestimate how much some companies are willing to pay for a contract employee or a consultant. Retirement doesn't need to mean you don't do anything anymore.

I'd encourage you to try David. It's especially good cuz you can kinda choose your hours.
I'm definitely keeping my peepers peeled for opportunities!
 
@Mike R I definitely encourage you to line up your financial ducks. I'm in a pretty good situation as I pulled my Telus pension when I left there, invested it and it's grown substantially since. Add in my severance and it's a tidy sum. My earliest unreduced public service pension is at 60 years old, approximately 8 months from now. I just need to figure out how to beat arrange the chess pieces to my advantage.

You could always do what I did and buy a farm...... with a huge shop (I mean barn....), surrounded by wildlife....
 
I eased into retirement via consulting - it can be addictive. I spent 10 years consulting before deciding to not look for more work, then old clients badgered me into 2 years more. It is a sickness, I say!

- in any event, it is hard to be made redundant. You certainly have lots to offer!

Hang in there, more opportunities will come by than you can take advantage of.
 
Sorry to hear of your position being “right sized” or the (euphonium used for restructuring).

With all the cybercrime, I would have thought security would be the area they’d be looking to expand.

That’s fantastic you’ve got a severance, it will give you time to adjust and plan a path forward.
 
I've probably said "I'd love to retire now" about 100 times in the last year. So maybe the universe heard me?
I have a count down app on my phone, it's at 503 days. There are still days when I consider changing it from days to sleeps.
 
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