Excellent Doug. My goal is the same. Retire from my current job at 55 with 29 years in and hopefully live to 85 so I can suck off the company's tit for 1 year longer than I worked for them, just to get even
I will likely work part time, perhaps my own business as an independent or full time somewhere else. It all depends how well I manage my 401K and invest the money from selling my CA house. I am working on doing it well
My situation is somewhat fucked up too, and honestly, it was of my own doing. I was one of the highest paid Supervisors in the company, stationed in SoCal. I did a very good job there in a profit center office, but also I think they took care of me to keep me from leaving. I left anyway, due to the insane real estate runup. An investing principle I adhere to is to diversify assets. If one investment goes bonkers, trim it and spread it around to less high performing assets. This ensures buying low and selling high. Through no forsight of my own, my house became more than a home, it became an insanely outperforming investment. I treated it as such. I also wanted out of CA, as my heart was restless and it was time for something else. So I called in some favors, threatened to quit and whined like a child to get a transfer. They gave me the bare bones screw you package. We made do. I moved to Denver, took a demotion and went back in the road as an adjuster, a position I had been promoted from 12 years previous. I had to pull strings and basically write my career's death certificate. I could change employers, but the pension beckons and I am simply too far in.
I left shoes to fill in the old office and nobody will relocate to SoCal due to the cost of living - it is hard to get someone making 70K a year (starter Sup pay) to move to CA, land of the 500K starter home - even with the recent real estate correction. So my old Supervisor chair in CA has been musical, with 3 guys coming and going since I left in '04. They just promoted a 2 year adjuster who was already in the office to the job. That reeks of desperation. No wonder I am on the corporate shit list. The result of all this is I have been passed over for promotion back to Supervisor in the Denver office twice now. The current supervisor is failing badly. My boss knows I could do the job in my sleep, but she has no say, it is all up to the VP's in corporate and I am not their golden boy.
Funny thing is, while I was depressed about this for awhile, I have come to terms with it. I think it is true when I say I am the best adjuster in the company. Give me huge injury cases or a house burned to the ground. I have handled it all and nothing fazes me anymore. I have sat on both sides of the desk and unlike most old timers in my position with a capped salary, I am not burned out and have a good attitude.
The Denver office has historically been a place for adjusters to fail. The shit hits the fan here. My boss loves the rock solid stability and, at some level, even the VPs have to admit that I am hacking it with distinction in a place where so many others washed out. The fact that they still won't throw me a bone shows the depth of their vindictive nature. The offset is that my boss here in Denver loves me and she lets me run free with no undue meddling. I like the autonomy working out of the office brings and I like helping people directly. I would love to mentor and train the younguns, but I manage to do quite a bit of this in an unofficial capacity. My phone rings quite often as people in my office and even out of state are told by their sups to run it by Duke cuz he knows
Anyway, life is good Doug. Keep on doing what you are doing. I intend to as well
