When I was in my twenties, I probably thought I wouldn’t even live long enough to see retirement, it seemed so far off into the future. I didn’t actually know anyone who was retired. My grandfather worked until he died at the young age of 60 and my grandmother never really held long term jobs, although I learned recently that she worked in my uncle’s record store. I didn’t even know that my uncle had a record store, never mind that my grandmother worked in it.
In the picture of her arranging records on the shelf, she looks almost like me now. In the picture she is my current age, or maybe even a little younger.
I was born in 1953. My parents bought their first house when I was 2 years old for about $6,000. My grandmother and grandfather lived in a large house in East Haven. Later, my grandmother bought a house with lots of property on the beach in East Haven. She lived there with my 2 aunts and my great grandmother, along with other extended family, for the rest of her life.
In those days, too, I grew up believing that I would work for one company and retire with a pension. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
I joined the army when I was 19. I knew of military retirement, but that hardly counted because there was no way I was going to stay in the army that long! In my late twenties I got a job working for the post office. I worked there for almost a year before moving away to a new location. I cashed in my retirement because I needed the money.
Between then and 1992 I worked at various jobs, some contracting as a draftsperson and some working at state universities as a library technician. The state university jobs all offered retirement packages, which again, I promptly cashed out when I left the job.
In 1992 I needed a job so I went to the local VA Hospital and looked at their job listings board. Eureka, they were looking for a library technician. By this time I was 39 years old and had no retirement savings. Still, retirement savings were the farthest thing from my mind.
Three months later, I got that job and I was extremely fortunate to work for a woman who advised me to put the max into my TSP savings account because if I didn’t I would be giving up an extra 5% in income. I was making hardly anything at the time, but at 39, I started thinking about retirement (finally!!!).
Over the years as my job has changed at the VA and my pay grade has continued to increase, I have continued to contribute the max amount to TSP.
Because I plan to take an early out if I can, or leave as soon as I turn age 56, which is my minimum retirement age, I will not begin to tap into that money for several more years. During that time it will continue to grow.
Also because I plan to leave the VA as soon as I can with a small pension and health insurance, I will need to do something to continue to “earn a living.” The joy lies in knowing that I can choose what I do and I know that I will always have what I need and want. I just know that.
As I get older, spending my days doing what gives me the greatest satisfaction and joy becomes more and more important. I appreciate that I have lived long enough to learn so much and do so many things that have lead me to this present moment. The rest is going to be even better.
As Abraham says, we never get it done.
