Count me in and I'll do my best to join in. Congrats and best wishes to you in your new life phase Abaco! We would have plenty of aerospace stories to share I bet. Please keep us posted through this forum. Cheers!

Being self employed, I've got no one to notify about quitting. I decided to retire a few years back. After lolling about for a few weeks, I decided to get a job to keep me busy. I tried selling software. I probably know less about computers that the people I pitched, but I'm a quick study and did pretty well. But, at my age, various illnesses of old age got me and I had to quit in order to keep various doctors in business.
As my body deteriorates, I am increasingly confined to my recliner and slowly turning into Mr. Hyde. Unfortunately, I am no longer the strong guy I used to be so that even as I transform, I'm too weak to harm a kitten So I used Facebook to vent my spleen. Then I quit Facebook in protest over it's censoring of Conservatives. I have spent most of my life, fighting censorship. I have started to reconsider Facebook, since the Biden Administration is even worse than Facebook. So.... i have many notes that I've got to sort through in order to be coherent in my spleen venting. So, Sir Abaco, I wish you well in your new endeavors whatever you choose them to be. Excelsior!

Two things I've told my son several times (I have no idea if he's taken my advice): You need to start two accounts as soon as you can.

First, however you wish to save (there are a myriad of pre- and post-tax options), start saving as much as you comfortably can for your retirement as soon as you can start saving. A few bucks saved early can become a bunch of bucks later in life. Wonderful thing, compound interest.

Second, you also need to open a "F... You" account. Even if you can only put a little bit here and there into this account, I guarantee there will be at least one time in your career when you'll want to tell your boss F... You and walk out the door. (He's in the same field as I'm in; that apple did NOT fall far from the tree.)

If I had taken my own advice, that is exactly what I would do: say F*** You to my current employer, turn in my 30 day notice, and live off that account for a year or two (maybe taking the occasional contract job), then actually ride off into the sunset. It would give me a wonderful option I don't currently have.

(Edited to remove bold and italics accidentaly added).)

I can also relate. I've been in the IT "profession" for 40 years. I'm 61 now, and it's been affecting my health. Wish I could retire and do something more rewarding like working part-time at home depot. My screen saver is Atlas, since I also feel the weight of my organization on my shoulders.

Excellent story! My pediatrician is my beer drinking buddy and he runs his own practice - one of the few left around here - and avoids Obamacare like the plague. Avoids Medical too. Will work for cash. I pay him cash. And, he does housecalls with a cool, custom camping van that's his rolling office. Neat guy. We get along very well.

All the best...

Yeah...we're in trouble.

Yeah...I can relate. I've been asked to work for three different bosses, and four other divisions all at the same time. They're going to have to hire at least two, probably three to replace me. And, the learning curve on this job is at least a few years. Not pretty. But, I aged a lot over the past year. Not doing it anymore.

Good on ya, Abaco! Like you, I spent almost my entire career in the Aerospace business (TRW Systems, Redondo Beach, CA) before my employer was swallowed up (assimilated into) Northrup/Grumman.

TRW had a reputation as one of the most ethical and tech savvy places in the business. But the main reason I stayed do long is that I got to work with so many top-notch engineers and scientist--and a few astronauts, most of whom loved to talk (to the extent they could).

I miss that a lot (sigh).

Proud of you! I've been a family physician now for 19 years, and only in the last 8 have been self-employed (with a direct primary care - third party free, membership based practice), and last year, in the midst of that unholy mess, was the best year we've had yet. When I started my practice, I jumped off the employed physician scam-train, cut my salary by a third, increased my house payment by a fourth and started this business with a bank that believed in me and a handful of patients who would follow me to the moon and back. I would NOT want to be a part of corporate medicine again for the world. And you are right, about so much. I work only for my patients now, and they enjoy "owning" a part of their physician's practice. Plus, I've been practicing medicine the way it is supposed to be done: home visits, spending as much time with the patients as needed, FaceTime/phone call/texts/emails - we've been doing "virtual" visits LONG before 2020. We dispense out of the office and save our patients a LOT of $$. It's been refreshing and wonderful. I hope folks come to realize that its the insurance-hospital-government alliance that keeps the costs of medical care so high, that primary care shouldn't (and doesn't) cost much, as long as physicians put their patients FIRST - provided they actually become Oathkeepers. Best of luck in all you do, Abaco!

I used to manufacture medical equipment until the FDA took over control over design and marketing. I sold out my company, and never looked back. Now I make only non regulated things. The government oversight of medical equipment was lame at best, and something that consumers should NOT count on. Watch "kitchen nightmares" so see how the health departments "protect" us from restaurants- its a joke.

Good for you. We all need to stop being enableers to the uninformed. 30 years ago, the average IQ of a doctor was 120, now it is 110. I have to just say no to much of what they advise. Some seniors walk in with whole bags of drugs, some to treat the reaction of the other drugs. Seniors are in a fog. I tried to explain to my doc why masks were bad, and how over 20 stuidies showed it, but he buys whatever the alphabet guys say, and what the drug companies tell him. This is no way to run healthcare. This goes across the board, journalism is in the tank, most stupid beside teachers - now there is and oxymorom, as one who teachers must know something to teach. They do not.See you in the Gulch.

Tempted. I have loved the time I've spent in Florida. Mom's there. Lots of golf. Nice beaches. Not ruled out!

Oh, I've been in the belly of the beast. In some cases I, singlehandedly, fought some huge battles to try to protect the unknowing patients.... Like I said elsewhere - maybe we'll have a nice forum meetup someday. The stories are interesting.

Abaco:
NO Kidding. I actually do own a fair amount of land in remote valley in Colorado, been in the family for well over 100 years. I have been think very seriously about opening a REAL Galt's Gulch. My Valley already has a name Sayers Gulch. LEts build something. In today's movements of exclusion zones, why not start our own ???? Engineers, Scientist, Hard working folks, etc. needed. By invitation only < wink>

Congrats, Abaco. Find yourself some good, rewarding hobbies. Don't curl up in front of the TV and die like my Dad did. (He was the epitome of a company man; couldn't do anything else).
Spend as much time with your kids as possible - suddenly they'll be off in college and won't have time to visit, and the house gets real quiet.

While there is a lot of work in healthcare but, to borrow a line from Hitchhikers Guide, "most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper".

I'm convinced that the actual solution involves working on healthcare delivery and not financing and removing the doctor, or more precisely the AMA from being the gatekeeper to care.

Congratulations. Now if I could find a way to quit, maybe we could communicate a little more often.

To embrace courage is, in itself, courageous in this hate filled (WOKE) environment that surrounds us. No one can predict your future but, at last and by your own choice, it will belong to you. Never give up; never surrender. At last you belong to you.

Moreover, you can catch a 3-day round trip cruise to the Bahamas, but not Abaco. To get to Abaco, you have to get a charter flight out of the local airport on Baer Air to anywhere in the Bahamas.

And while most people are wearing masks here, there are no mask Gestapo here. Every place is open for business and has been since at least August.

You should seriously consider moving to my part of Florida, Abaco. The golf is cheap, the housing costs are a lot less than where you live, and perhaps you might find working with me as a partner (instead of for someone else) mutually beneficial. You can even watch the rocket launches.

Oh...I'm aware. And, thanks! If there's anybody at risk of that...it's me.

Congrats! I used to have my own engineering consulting practice. Did very well; however, I did miss the daily interactions, so went back into an office, and still here.

Godspeed, Abaco.
But beware of the trap. Some work 40 hrs. a week for 30 years to go into business and then work 60 hours a week.

Congrats, Abaco, on being able to live at least a good part of your life on your terms, rather than someone else's. I turned 64 in December, and I'm still about two years away from being where you are. There are a lot of moving parts for my wife and me in the decision when to tell the rat race to kiss my ass. Unfortunately for me, I'm stalled.

I'm a programmer whose entire 45 year career has been walking point on production support. Unless someone has done that, had the weight of an entire Fortune 500 company sitting on his/her shoulders while he/she figures out why a file didn't process (and what it will take to process the file), then one can't understand or appreciate the mental and emotional energy required.

I'm just about burned out. But what I don't know is this: Have I run out of energy to give to my company (which is making some really stupid decisions right now, making the decision to leave just a bit easier), or have I run out of energy to give to anyone? Am I at the end of the road with my current employer, or am I simply at the end of the road?

I'm kinda stuck on a treadmill until I get it figured out.

Congrats again, and I hope you can live life to its fullest when all this crap is in your rear view mirror.