1. Just ride through it and enjoy!!!!! I was promoted to a training position my last year. It was so neat I really enjoyed it and I almost stayed another year!!!!! Ha Ha…….. 55 and done with 38 years!!!!

   1. David, I had a friend who made the same transition to training in his final year, and he also enjoyed the role. Glad it worked out well for you, and that you decided not to do the OMY when you had “enough.” Thanks for the comment, and congrats on 38 years.

      1. Thank you!!!

2. Our company was doing one of a perpetual round of layoffs in May of 2024 and I was 62 and offered a package by my manager. I wanted to take it, but could not answer my wife’s questions on readiness. I read your book at that point, and really turned my attention to getting ready. I met with 5 different Financial Planners who all told me we were in great shape financially. So i made retirement planning my focus, I told my boss I was ready and would take the next package. I knew there would be one available due to my grade and demographics. He backed off assigning me new work, and I got ready. I retired in August, so I had just 3 months to convince my wife it would be ok. I was a Project Manager doing large scale data center migration projects, so I turned those skills towards my own retirement migration project. I am in my second year, and retirement has been better than expected. The one thing that was odd was my management team was coordinating my package-but telling HR I was being let go, because HR wouldn’t allow voluntary funded retirements. So I was only allowed to tell my coworkers in the last 2-3 days. When it came time, many of the HR folks were cut and were not even participants in my departure. I never got the “letting you go” speech that I had been coached to receive. Just a great thanks for all you have done call with my boss. The sense of gloom around the perpetual cuts made it very easy to leave the environment though.

   1. Deceiving HR? I like the way your boss played the game for your benefit. 😉

3. Make a list of all the things you’d rather be doing, and that becomes your to do list for your first year of retirement. It also helps to keep puzzles nearby during boring conference calls.

   1. Puzzles during conf calls? Oh, the joy of working from home! Afraid I missed that opportunity. Good suggestion on the list of things, reminds me of the jar my wife and I filled with activities during my last year of work (I was going to include that, but the article was too long already….)

   2. I would read Fritz articles during my boring conference calls while working at home.

4. So many years later this is what resonates with me “Play the game well, keep your mouth shut, and don’t take things too seriously.” I absolutely disliked and distrusted a new boss my final two years and he could tell that I, along with others, felt he was incompetent. It was good practice for me to keep my mouth shut when I was moved into a new position with a pay cut. Never mind as I knew I was only 10 months away from leaving. I found a consulting gig that I kept for three years after retirement but wound that down from the initial 55 days to 40 days to a final 20 before letting go. Those three years of consulting kept me in the game but never enough to take anything seriously and allowed for a few new toys Good luck to M, I had far more in all buckets that I knew and she will as well.

   1. Nothing worse than an incompetent boss. The Peter Principle is alive and well, unfortunately. Glad you survived the slog through your final two years.

5. As I approach my 72nd birthday in a month, and consider Fritz’s ‘words we don’t talk about’ I once again cannot relate. In my late sixties I was part of a Retirement Mastermind group for a couple years with a small group of retirees. One of the strict rules was absolute confidentiality. All of the others mentioned ‘those words’ and I got to witness first hand how painful the last years prior to retirement must have been (albeit comfortable since things like pensions, Roth IRAs, health insurance were part of the deal). Each member of our group offered a 90 minute presentation on a topic of their choice. My struggle was trying to figure out what retirement is supposed to look like, so I titled it ‘Sliding into Retirement.’ I had a job for four years in my late 20s right out of grad school, and liked it a lot, but on my 30th birthday I told my boss that I was resigning. I spent the next 36 years engaged in risk taking, not because I had huge assets (I’m the grandson of a rancher who died of a tick bite leaving a widow and five teenagers to fend for themselves after the USDA foreclosed on the ranch), but because I lived very simply and worked very hard. Most thought I was crazy (including my dad) for buying rundown apartment buildings with OPM (other people’s money) including adjustable rate mortgages that I got into with very little down payment. It was kind of like baseball where I struck out a bit, but also hit some home runs. The process was mainly fueled by inspecting 20,000 homes for real estate clients, one at a time (about 500 per year). At 38, I scraped together $500 that I put down on a river lot in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and signed a note with the seller. My dad again weighed in that buying raw land was like buying a milk cow that did not produce any milk. That blossomed into a larger 17 acre, 25,000 SF asset that I still own and work at every day. So fast forward to my late sixties when I began to read Fritz’s blog, and was having a hard time figuring out what retirement meant for me. The two years I spent in the Mastermind group was one of the best ‘therapeutic’ activities ever, and helped me figure out how to truly enjoy retirement. Number one is that I love to build (anything, as long as it is creative) and I dislike management. So I continue to build, but have delegated management to other family members. I also love three things: volunteering, playing music, and fitness. In hindsight, it’s not been an easy path, but I am grateful that I’ve never had to ‘say those words.’

   1. Greg, great to see you in the comments, old friend! I’d say buying that non-milking cow worked out pretty well for you, your Dad would be proud. Yours has been an interesting, and successful, path. I enjoy our friendship.

6. I retired last July 1. I decided in spring 2024 that the next year would be my last. (I was a professor and on an academic year calendar, so July 1 was the logical end date.) I put a one-year countdown app on my phone on July 1, 2024.

   My last year was a good one. Because I’d made the decision, I was very conscious of what I wanted to accomplish at work before the year was up and took time to appreciate the “lasts.” Like you, my boss threw a dinner party (at his home) with my six closest colleagues and our spouses.

   In hindsight, I actually started the process in 2022. At my job, I had merit reviews every three years, and my pension was based on my three highest years of salary. In 2022, I had a very good review and was fortunate to receive the highest possible raise. I decided then that unless a health crisis intervened, I’d go three more years to lock that increase into my pension. The question was whether I’d continue past that point (2025), and some icky university politics that emerged in 2024 made it clear that I wanted out in 2025. Between 2022-25, I systematically started making myself more dispensable. I stepped down from a management role. I stopped admitting new PhD advisees. I retired from an editorial board of a journal. I was very aware that it was time to start handing things off.

   I’m now almost seven months into retirement and ecstatically happy about it (Phase One). I doubt there will be a Phase Two, but we’ll see. Reading this post and clicking some of the links for earlier pieces reminds me of how much I’ve learned from your work over the years, so thanks for that!

   1. Dana, congrats on a well-executed exit. My Dad was a college professor, and we spoke frequently about the differences of being in the later stages of your career in an academic vs. business setting. Typically, the academic world respects “elders” more than the business word does, though the pesky politics seem to be applicable to both environments. Congrats on the first 7 months of retirement, here’s hoping you jump straight to Phase 3!

7. Fritz – what an outstanding post! Just last week I said goodbye to one of my closest colleagues at work and it’s definitely a different place without him. Clock say 1,745 days but I know those days go faster than we expect them to. Thanks for this gem – it’s a game changer. Bests from Minnesota.

   1. “Outstanding post” and “game changer,” I could ask for no greater compliment. With 1,745 days remaining, I’d say the timing was perfect for you. Enjoy the slog, I empathize with the mud being a bit thicker with the “loss” of your close colleague. I’ve been through similar exits of friends, and it does make the work environment feel emptier. Your time will come, keep slogging!

8. This all sounds very familiar to what I have experienced. I still will hit “Phase 2”, but have at least taken some actions to engage in a new life.
   I gave about 14 months notice so that I could float the idea of a gradual transition over the last 6 months. It was great (4 days/week July through Sept.; 3 days per wk
   October through December. I highly recommend it if you are confident they want to retain you.
   Unfortunately, I retired Dec. 19 and had a mild stroke on the 22nd, spoiling a holiday trip to celebrate with my side of the family. Thankfully, I’ve regained 90% via PT and hitting the gym. I had lost weight 2 yrs prior and we eat a very healthy diet. Pay close attention to trends in your vitals and bloodwork markers. My PCP and I were a bit too passive. I thought I had it all figured out….God has other plans, but am thankful for a second chance to rethink my priorities.
   Thank you, Fritz for sharing this story, another well timed for my situation.
   Keep up the good work!

   1. Dave, so sorry to hear about your stroke on Day 3 of retirement. Man, that’s tough! I’m pleased to hear you’ve regained 90%, hoping you’re able to put it behind you and enjoy the years ahead. A good reminder on how precious our time really is, thanks for the valuable addition to the discussion.

9. This really reinforces your point about the non-financial side being the hardest. I found that planning for retirement—draft calendars, lists of activities, imagined routines—was relatively easy once started. What actually mattered was going out and doing them. Purpose didn’t come from the plan; it came from motion. The best advice I received was to try ten things and see what sticks. Some fade, a few become regular, and that’s not failure—it’s the process. In hindsight, the planning was just a launchpad, not a definition of retirement.

   1. “The best advice I received was to try ten things and see what sticks…”

      Great advice, thanks for sharing it with all of the readers of this blog. The transition is, indeed, a process. Glad to see you’re managing it well.

10. Disappointed by all the up front click bait after reading the article. At my old job everyone 5 yrs out +/- are talking about retirement all the time. Why because everyone knows it’s coming. It’s not a surprise ! The only people that hang around are those at the very top that can’t walk away from $10M/yr and a company jet…and those that are divorced and having to split their pension with the ex.

    1. Apologies if the intro read as click bate to you, Allen. I can assure you that in my world no one talked about what they were really thinking as they approached retirement, and I was being sincere when I stated that I’ve never seen anything written about it in my 11 years of studying the topic. I’m pleased to hear you had a more open and transparent work environment. You were a fortunate man.

11. “Pretend to care about Annual Performance Reviews” during the last years was one of my favorites. Managers had to justify high rated, or low rated, reviews and do were loath to have anyone above or below Meets Expectations. I made up some outlandish stuff, but never mean, or vendictive. My supervisor always did the review, he didn’t care, and I never got push back from the manager, I assume he never read an average review. Then a buyout came along a few months before I was going to leave – I hope all of you are as fortunate as I have been.

    1. A buyout!? Lucky dog. I used to be envious of folks like you, but that faded quickly once I completed my slog through the mud. Now, I can honestly say I’m happy to hear when folks get a buy-out offer in their final year or two of work. Congratulations on getting some good cards dealt your way!

12. A fun read, honestly, Fritz! Looking back from 16 months into retirement at those last couple or three years, I can definitely relate. For me, the “Downsizing Initiative” opportunity came along about 20 months prior to my planned date, so the shortened timeline reduced some of the drama of “waiting.” Like you, we had an event with all my peer managers, plus some superiors and some of my chosen invited guests, and what a celebration it was. Though I wasn’t quite sure the timing synced with my “Enough,” it has turned out better than I’d ever expected.

    1. Another buyout? Ok, now I’m starting to get envious. 😉

13. My last few years were anything but a slog! I was promoted despite everyone already knowing I had 2 years before I retired. It was a job I loved, but it also meant I was on a mission to get everyone ready for my departure. Because I had lost my filter, I was bossy with management and got my way with most everything! Six months before I was due to be done, a severance package was offered to most everyone. I grabbed it and retired 4 months earlier than originally planned, but by then, all my ducks were in a row, and I spent a LOT of time just “moving the mouse”.

    Planning is critical, but having fun with the job for the last few years can lead to some of your most rewarding work-life years, too!

    1. A promotion AND a buyout? Ok, not I’m really getting envious. Smiles.

14. I guess I was one of those lucky ones that enjoyed working and did not have that “dread” of enduring the last 2-3 years of work. On a previous session with our Fidelity advisor, we were told that we had achieved financial independence (FI). I didn’t really know what that meant at that time. I later found out that our 401k would survive the 4% rule if we spent 80% of our current salary. At the time, I didn’t feel that we had achieved FI and my work situation was reasonably good. My wife’s situation was different, though. Three years after that Fidelity session, she asked if she could retire earlier than we had planned. Because of the level of stress she was facing, I agreed. We both worked for the same company but in different areas. That was my wake-up call to prepare for retirement.

    At first, I decided to retire at the same time. It would make traveling much easier. However, my company asked me what would it take for me to stay. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I told them my terms (since they asked). I did not think they would take it seriously but apparently, they did. While I liked my job in general, the personnel management role was probably the most stressful. The two other roles I had were principal investigator (PI) for research & development and (for lack of a better term) a troubleshooter (where I would lead a hand-picked team to solve a problem at a remote location). This latter role would happen two or three times per year. Both of these roles were enjoyable. The PI role led to multiple patents and an invitation to lead a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project. The troubleshooter role was very “high stress.” Success significantly raised the company’s reputation and failure was not an option (and thankfully, we never failed). It was probably these last two roles that allowed me to somewhat “dictate” my terms for staying on. I presented a three-year plan to cut back on my work, while transitioning such roles over that time. I was given one year to find my management replacement, which I did. Once that was done, I was relieved of that role (no longer a personnel manager) and could concentrate on the two other roles, which I enjoyed. During the last year, I was allowed to go part-time (needing to deliver 64 hours over the two-week pay period). Additionally, I also received permission to work two days per week from home. This was a nice arrangement. However, our desire to travel longer term (greater than three weeks at a time), finally drove me to stick to our original three-year retirement extension.

    During my retirement ceremony, our ex-CEO (who hired me 31 years earlier) offered me an opportunity to consult with another company where he sat on the Board of Directors. He said I would be an ideal candidate to work on a six-month project working directly for the CEO of that company. Since I was very familiar with the company (and the CEO), I agreed to meet. The initial agreement was to help for the six-month planned duration working one day per week (from home) as a consultant. The actual agreement was to be available 40 hrs per month to work on assigned tasks. However, that arrangement lasted five years. When I tried to terminate the agreement at the end of three years, I was talked into scaling back to being available eight hours per month for two more years before finally quitting. What was also nice about this arrangement was that I didn’t have to worry about billable hours since they paid me a monthly retainer for being available. All total, I had almost eight years (three before and five after) of retirement transition. None of this was planned. One thing I learned though is that it never hurts to ask.

    1. “One thing I learned though is that it never hurts to ask.”

       Great story, and a good reminder of how much leverage we really have when we no longer need the job. I had a friend who has a similar story. He was shocked when they agreed to his terms, and as a result he’s got a nice buffer for the rest of his life. Sometimes, “more than enough” can justify staying. It’s a personal decision each of us must make. Happy it worked out well for you.

15. I am in my final two years of working for my employer (end of 2027). It gets real when I am in meetings or discussions about long-term implementations and such. I just smile inside 🙂
    My boss knows my plans already because it will take some time to fill my role – not because I’m so important, but because no one wants my job (overseeing the necessary evil of all businesses: insurance & casualty risk).
    Meanwhile, I’ve made a concerted effort NOT to end up like a work associate who was a total burnout case his last two years before his planned retirement (which couldn’t come fast enough for his colleagues).
    As Fritz writes, I’m enjoying the ride and carefully planning as I look forward to what lies ahead.

    1. “It gets real when I am in meetings or discussions about long-term implementations and such. I just smile inside.”

       I remember that feeling. Kind of fun, actually. Enjoy the ride, those two years will pass more quickly than you realize.

16. Thanks, as usual , for the article. I am just about on your timeline, and remember how grateful I was to follow along your early blog, as I was also planning for retirement. I started planning about two years out. Company offered early retirement at 55, my daughter graduated high school about 6 months after my 55 bday, so I made my last day the day before her graduation. Planning for the retirement paycheck, & planning mentally for the change in structure were the two keys for me. Was in a management role for the last 30 years, and was used to a lot of people reporting to me. All of the sudden , it was just me and the dog, out walking every morning. Luckily, with help from your own blogs, I had planned for that mentally, but I have seen others who don’t, and get to phase II, only to struggle. I credit your blog for helping me to plan for that time and I eased right through that time. One back surgery, and many walks later, I am just enjoying this time. Don’t regret a thing, and still look forward to your occasional posts. Thanks again Fritz!

    1. “All of the sudden , it was just me and the dog, out walking every morning.”

       I can relate to that one, JC. Thanks for the kind words about my blog, it pleases me more than you know to hear from folks who say my words have made a difference in their retirement. Thanks for that, it’s why I do what I do (tho, admittedly, less often these days).

17. Great post Fritz. One of your best. Impressive.

    I was stationed along the DMZ of Korea in 1984. GIs stationed there had a one year hardship tour and had a “short timers” calendars where they crossed off days, most connecting dots that would reveal a lovely lady on day 365. Our brigade commander bought billboard ads along the western corridor of the DMZ, posting “Don’t count the days, make the days count” and “You are not short until the no smoking light is turned off on the plane home.” I was a field artillery battery executive officer on a fire base with harden bunkers. My battery was always on alert, but my troops had their short timer calendars, never getting complacent. I would tell my wife and friends nearing retirement “Don’t count the days, make the days count” which did not resonate. Working is a long slog. I don’t blame people in Step Two who are counting, but most do make the days count.

    1. ‘Don’t count the days, make the days count’ is a great mantra. Who knows if you’ll see that retirement clock or deployment clock hit zero.

18. I definitely had this. And went through it three times as my employer took an entire year to execute my early retirement because my boss kept delaying my end date. Without boss’ ok, I wouldn’t have gotten the severance, so I was forced to wait it out through repeated delays, one of which occurred the same day as my supposed “last day” and when an after-work party for me was planned. We did the party anyway and I got a lot of teasing about it.

    Then I allowed them to rehire me on short term contract. TWICE. The second time was supposed to be only a few months and it turned into nearly 4 years. The last iteration was definitely the worst, because by then I was mentally spent, grieving the loss of my mother, and wanted to get out.

    I used this time and severance/vacation payout to pad my cash savings and add to 401K/IRA accounts.

19. I thought I might work another year or two – even though I had high confidence I had enough resources to get started. Then I got laid off at 59 – a nice push. Even got a big raise during COVID since I was unemployed. I’ve done some part time for 5 years now — maybe 150 hours a year. Just keeps me engaged and out of the house – but I see that ending soon. It is hard work to change to a spending mode! And sequence of return risk – which was my biggest fear – never raised its ugly head.

20. Interesting article, but I think you missed one important point. Many of us don’t work at places that are less stable than what you describe. Thousands of people in Tech, US Government, and other fields have been forced to adjust their retirement plans due to downsizing. In my case, at age 67 I had planned to work until 70, but I could see that my small tech company was going downhill with periodic layoffs. I figured they might lay me off before I got to 70, but at 67 I was not eager to start a new job search so I decided to stay. After I turned 68, I realized another layoff was imminent, I didn’t want to be surprised so I arranged for a retirement schedule with my boss. Many other people are not as lucky as me, they might plan to retire at a certain age, but their company forces them out sooner.

21. Great thoughts, especially about non-financial items. Engineers were asked to return to the plant in January 2024, but not me. An inquiry discovered layoffs in progress. I was ready, thrilled, and pretended stoicism (somebody has the job of reducing payout for those willing to leave). Severance was better than cake. I personally said 40 goodbyes (several were tearful). I ended with a 3-year experiment mentoring new engineers and giving them the credit on tasks performed to their managers. Wow! Work became a very happy place! While handing them the reigns, I was looking forward.

    So happy in retirement! Success came from 25+ books on the subject, long term planning (saving since I was 24), a desktop picture of retirement activities, and above all sensing God’s love and provision.

22. Interesting reading this. Oddly I ended up retiring early kinda by accident. I came to FIRE movement late, I’d say 2017/2018 timeframe, late 40s. My wife and I had been strong savers our whole career. She was coming up on an age 55 retirement with a great pension, healthcare and 403b balance. When she was a year out, I started doing some more detailed math and came to the conclusion we were already financially independent and had been for about 3 years. I couldn’t quite believe the numbers and spent the next 6 months drilling down and poking at it and kept coming to the same conclusion, with my wife’s pension we had about 3 times the amount of money we needed to retire. Our withdrawal rate was sub 1%. Both my wife and I just assumed I’d work a few more years because I was almost 3 years younger than her. Then one day I sat her down and showed her our numbers and the math. She was skeptical like I was at first, but the numbers didn’t lie. I suggested that I should retire with her. This was in May of 2021. I ended up working until Jan 2022 to secure some unvested stock and a sales bonus. Work was a mess during the pandemic which also factored into the decision. Even though I had worked at my company for 25 years, there was so much turnover, reorganization, that I felt completely disconnected from nearly everyone in the company. I had just a few senior mentors but I couldn’t discuss with them because it might have made some of my financial compensation at risk. There was lots of movement between competitors at the time. I had to wait until 30 days before I was retiring to notify my manager, who was not only a new manager, but new to our team a month earlier. Once I notified my manager, shortly after I had a 45 minute conversation with my skip level manager, whom I had a good relationship with. At first I could tell he was feeling me out to see if I was going to a competitor. Once he was comfortable with my retirement and I was legitimately retiring, we spent the rest of the call talking about FIRE, how it works, the math etc. he was quite kind and said if for any reason I wanted to come back he’d be an advocate to help me. That was quite thoughtful and just reinforced why I liked him as a leader so much. Now 4 years in we’re in a nice rhythm, I’d say the big challenge is my friend group has kind of shrunk a bit. It took a while but I made some new friends in my main hobby, photography, most of them about 10 years older than me and retired. But I’m thankful I found them.

23. I just retired this month (age 65). I definitely relate to all of the above (my wife read this and saw what I was going through through the lens of this article). The last year was the hardest, but I had my line in the sand drawn and my wife acted as an enforcer to make sure I didn’t waiver. I’m now in that retirement honeymoon stage, but I’ve already got things lined up to fill in the non-financial aspects (I consider the financial aspects the easier part of retirement planning – I was an engineer and both my wife and I have Math degrees).

24. When Covid ended (basically 2022) I told my boss I’d retire on 12/31/25, unless management ticked me off, and then gave him about 5 examples that would cause me to retire instantly. Not a threat, I was serious and he knew it. About every 6 months I reminded him of my retirement date, that it was set in stone, and they needed to have a replacement ready. I retired and my replacement took over without a hitch. In my case, my boss appreciated me being forthright with him. Being in a strong position gave me peace of mind.

25. Good article Fritz. I retired last year at the end of April. I enjoyed my work in healthcare but it was time to move on, I needed to find the off-ramp. I spent a lot of time preparing for the transition. I spoke with friends/strangers who had retired always asking what they did or didn’t do, read books, crunched our numbers, l I felt pretty good going into the next phase. Funny thing, for the first month after retiring I was a wreck, I couldn’t shut my mind off, I had become so used to doing so many things in a day with meetings, patient care, documentation, etc….it took me a few months to decompress fully. I’m now at a point where I don’t try to overload my day but has taken some time. I love owning all my time but have no clue how anyone can retire without proper planning. Appreciate your book, blog and other resources, it’s helped me greatly.

26. I think anyone that has had the good fortune of being able to plan their retirement date ahead can relate to most of these thoughts. In some ways, I feel like I was more effective my last year because I was not worried about offending others or making a poor decision. I was also very intentional about staying engaged until those last few weeks because I had seen too many “working retired” and I did not want to be one. Thanks for another great post and “breaking the silence” Fritz!

27. There was no “slog through the mud” phrase, & the phrase 2 depression and anxiety came after my sudden and immediate retirement due to my spouse’s life-threatening medical conditions where she was on a vent & in the ICU. As a medical professional, I really enjoyed my career and all the interactions with my co-workers/professionals; especially the connections that were made with my patients. But I also knew that my spouse needed me and she became my most important patient during the days she was in the unit. My decision was immediate and there was no long planning, no long good-byes. Everybody were very supportive and understanding. My retirement lunch was on the last day at work with coffee and donuts.
    The good news is that she is gaining her health back and we are now enjoying our unplanned retirement and enjoying each other more than ever before. I have never openly talk about those feelings but thanks for your article to make them surfaced; and we really thankful for your work. Great job, keep it up.

28. Thanks, very helpful article as I get closer. I like the comment from someone who ran their numbers by 5 financial advisors as it echos how I’m feeling!

29. Wow! I am amazed at all the comments on this great article.

    I am currently slogging thru Corporate American with 50 working days left. Yes, I counted. I have a counter on my computer but it includes weekends and the vacation days I will be “granted” before I leave, so I do have to manually count every once in a while. And with this company, if I don’t take the days I’m granted, I will lose them and not get paid for them. And if I take too many days, I will have to pay it back on my final paycheck. There are no bonuses any longer for my salary grade (they took them away last summer) and no buyouts. They got rid of our pensions over 30 years ago and sent everyone a check that didn’t have enough time. And there certainly will not be any benefits package to keep me going either. I am holding my breath telling my manager when my last day is because I really want that 1% raise I will be getting this year. (My manager already told me that the dollar amount she was given is the worst she has seen in all her years as a manager and that has to be split with all the US employees under her.)

    Anyway, I have been at this company for 34-1/2 years and they don’t give a crap about the employees and the morale has hit rock bottom. I think that the company sees us working from home as a golden ticket benefit, but for someone who has worked from home for over 22 years, it really isn’t (other than they pay my internet bill). They are hiring more people from off-shore when someone leaves or changes jobs. They took away any kind of awards or incentives to keep us enjoying work. And, of course, they want us to work more.

    Sorry to complain about the company I work for, but my comments say it all. I spoke with my financial person in November and we went over everything and she said my husband and I are in really good shape. I will be getting SS when I retire and hope not to touch too much money before I really need it. Plus I will be getting a part time job after taking some time off to re-group my brain and get me where I want to be. I already joined gym, lost some weight, and have some great crafty friends to hang with at least once a month.

    Since there is no longer “Joy in Mudville” I am slogging thru the last 50 days of work and doing my best to keep my head straight.

30. Perfect timing for me—I’m six months from retirement, and I’ve been having many of these same thoughts. After 35 years in a high-demand job, it feels strange (and a little guilty) to throttle back, especially when I haven’t shared my plans yet and we’re still talking long-term goals.

    This year feels like the last stretch of a 5K I once ran. I thought I was at the finish line and, full of adrenaline, launched into a sprint to crush my personal best… only to realize I’d misread the course and still had a tenth of a mile to go. I immediately ran out of juice (and dignity). What followed was less “running” and more “dramatic shuffle.” I wasn’t sprinting, I wasn’t walking—I was bargaining with my legs and hoping no one was watching. I did eventually cross the real finish line, but it wasn’t pretty, and it definitely wasn’t fast.

    That’s exactly what this year feels like. I’m no longer sprinting like I did for most of my career. I’m in “power-walk-to-the-exit” mode, trying to finish strong without collapsing. And that brings some guilt and even a bit of hypocrisy, since I used to look down on people who seemed to be coasting while I was sprinting.

    It helps to know that the guilt that comes with cruising is normal—or at least that I’m not the only one feeling it. I also need to remember all that I’ve accomplished over my career and the value I’ve brought to my company. It’s also fun to track my “lasts,” like my final United Way pledge period, goal-planning session, and year-end review.

    Thanks, Fritz—this really resonated and covered something I haven’t seen in other retirement blogs or podcasts.

31. I took you example of trying to get ahead of Phase 2 of retirement and have 6 months to go. Your article hit on many of the feelings I have been going through. The golden handcuffs are real as is the OMY syndrome that I am in.

    I think we need a new term for the last year or two. How about Quiet Retirement as a take off of Quiet Quitting. I have found near the end of my career that I have become really efficient at what I do. What use to take me 40 hours likely takes 10. Wisdom comes from the years of experience and patterns emerge. When I am doing the same type of work I have done 7 times previously you just lean on your experience and go fast.

    Once you accept you are leaving you stop looking for new things and just do what is on your plate with no more striving. Quiet Retiring would be a good description. Especially when you do not have a good boss.

    I wrote about Quiet Quitting and this phase of my career a couple of weeks back (vaderonfire.com/2026/01/10/the-imperial-coast-quiet-quitting)

32. Hello. I greatly appreciate this article and the many I have read over the last year since finding your site. Thank you! Would love your thoughts on this – I’m a small business owner and while much of this content resonates with a prior career (25+ yrs ago) my dilemma is now the non-financial aspects of what to do AND more immediately figuring out how to create a soft landing for 3 long time and loyal employees that have helped create my very fortunate situation. Assume the biz is not sellable nor transferable to existing employees so closing down seems to be the primary solution. In addition to the “what will I do after the biz?” challenge, I don’t want to suddenly abandon my loyal team of 3 but telling them too soon would be very disruptive to the exit plan. I have an office lease that ends in 2.5 yrs and I’ve fictitiously created an exit strawman around that timeframe, I now need to make it less fiction and more real. I’d enjoy thoughts from those of wisdom!

33. I had a solid last two years+. I had built a team that could operate with some level of autonomy and trust. As I was pulled more into special projects that extended my stay, the team respected my dual role and the company trusted me to assist with finding my replacement. In the end, the HR VP wasn’t kind and made it known that I have overstayed my extension, even though they had asked to me to extend more than twice. Had a great retirement party when I first anounced, but the final exit was 20mos later with no fanfare and a cold exit with a HR associate. No regrets.

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