How Do You Know it's Time for Retirement?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. The decision was made for me, sort of.

I had a job I really liked. The pay wasn't spectacular but it was decent enough, and I'd intended to keep the job until I turned 65. However, before that could happen my employer was acquired by another company. Although I was able to keep my job, and the pay increased, the duties changed, making it less fun and interesting, and the new boss was an asshole. And then, without warning (we learned about it on the news), and after being told months before that our department would remain where it was, my workgroup was notified that the whole department was being moved to the acquiring corporation's headquarters, a city that I had visited previously and had already concluded I definitely did not want to live in. I was eligible for an early retirement package, which I took and ran. Since retiring I continued in the part-time teaching job I had for a few years, and still do a little free-lance writing, but mostly I do the things I've wanted to do for a long time, for fun. I've never looked back.