I'd be #29 at UPS

knot4u said:
I'm fairly certain the point of this thread is to convince young pilots to go after their dreams responsibly. Get the great job, don't buy a fancy new car, house or boat because you think you've just boarded the cruise ship that'll drop you off at retirement island. If any young folks here want to hear a damn thing from me I hope they hear this. You might be the brightest bulb but you don't know what you don't know. Hire a competent financial advisor, tell them you'd like to retire at 50 and then take their advice. You won't be the flashy pilot parking your Tesla Model S in the employee parking lot nor will you have a house on the shoreline of a lake but once you retire that lake might be in a different country and it'll be your second home. Live at a reasonable level when you're actually going to work, save the extravaganza for when you retire and can actually enjoy it. They should teach this sort of thing in public schools.
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I happy to report that I have been retired for about 10 years...albeit some occasional legal work for f* you money and I just turned 51. Retirement for me has been the shiznat; the freedom is unparalleled. And yes, I proudly drive a 2012 Accord that runs perfectly fine.
 
CFIT99 said:
I fly with a lot of AA pilots that are within weeks of retirement. Some want the cake, salute and the whole thing...others to fade into oblivion as if one day they were here, the next not.

Funny note, the CA and the JS were both retiring in about 3 months...they are talking retirement plans, CA said he was going to fly corporate a few years...JS said...nope, goin to my lake house in Montana ...gonna fish and smoke a bunch of weed. <----thats how you retire!
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Man, the last thing I want in retirement is to get another job. I’ve work long enough and don’t want to clean toilets or load some dudes bags! Ha!
 
derg said:
Man, the last thing I want in retirement is to get another job. I’ve work long enough and don’t want to clean toilets or load some dudes bags! Ha!
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From my limited experiences, retired 121 guys that continued working on the corporate side either had a history of poor life decisions, or had zero personal interests outside of flying airplanes. A few exceptions maybe…
 
SteveC said:
From my limited experiences, retired 121 guys that continued working on the corporate side either had a history of poor life decisions, or had zero personal interests outside of flying airplanes. A few exceptions maybe…
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I always ask guys “Have you flown corporate before?” to pilots talking about doing it after retirement. I think a lot of them think they sit around Signature, show up to a clean aircraft, sit in the cockpit and push back like they do in the airline business with minimal interaction.
 
Richman said:
Kids underestimate the power of pensions. Getting a phat check no matter how much you eff up has a lot of power.
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I'm unsure young folks know what a pension is unless they joined the military, but that's not going to be enough after 20 years of serving your country. Like I said, hire a good financial advisor and adhere to what they tell you to do. It ain't easy, but neither is living in a •hole apartment at 72 waiting on a check before you can go to the store for groceries.




I'm not talking about Bob. I'm talking about people in my own family.
 
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A300Capt said:
I get some folks want the full Monty including the cake and celebratory festivities. I’ve never been a spotlight or celebratory type person. I feel like Scottie Scheffler at his press conference when he said golf didn’t define him..it was just what he did. Winning and awards lasted about 5 mins and then he was concentrating on the next thing.

I enjoyed flying and considered it a boyhood passion that took me on a journey even I didn’t think was possible. Somewhere along the way though it quit being a passion and became just a job. A great job…but a job nonetheless. By 60 I had completed what I had set out to do as a youngster but couldn’t wait to get out and find another passion. I was tired of the grind, the constant and forever changing and restrictive oversight by the company and FAA, and most importantly, missing family events or taking rain checks with friends.

I didn’t need another hour of jet time, landings or hotel/rental car points. Didn’t need another type rating either. None of that was personally fulfilling to me anymore. I really don’t miss the flying and yet realize how incredibly lucky I was to leave on my terms and not dictated by a medical issue, death or fired. The *Only* thing I truly miss are the people I met and worked/flew with along the way.

For the youngsters who are just starting out…
Be professional, dependable and reliable.
The hard times make the good times that much sweeter….so enjoy the entire ride! I learned infinitely more from my mistakes than from my successes. Except golf…it’s a stupid game and I’ve learned nothing!😵‍💫
For those who mostly live via social media…learn to put the put the camera down or at least turn the camera and focus on others, events and interesting destinations. Constantly filming yourself and talking about *you* is an empty endeavor that leads to nowhere except narcissism that, ironically, is not an attractive quality.
Be nice to folks in your work environment regardless of their position as you have no idea what they may be going through in their personal life. Besides, they may become your boss one day.
For those lucky enough to get to their dream job….slow down, take time to smell the flowers and enjoy the ride. As they say..the days go by slow but the years go by fast is so true. I still remember my first day of Indoc and my retirement flight. Everything else is a blur and looking back seem to go by at warp speed.
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View: https://youtube.com/shorts/xosKNjWG0TA?si=OVnPR8t_s6RaSRkM
 
JordanD said:
I always tell people this when they ask me about the career and tell me they're working on their ratings. I wish I took that advice a little more to heart along the way, not to say some of it wasn't kind of a slog that wasn't necessarily fun all the time. I've still (hopefully) got a long road ahead, but I can't really say I have any honest to god regrets and have a lot of good memories getting to where I'm at now.
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Man, I feel that. I often get down on myself for not making it to an airline until almost 40 but especially the time I spent flying medevac….what great times and people, and occasionally we actually did make a difference
 
SteveC said:
From my limited experiences, retired 121 guys that continued working on the corporate side either had a history of poor life decisions, or had zero personal interests outside of flying airplanes. A few exceptions maybe…
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ACMI guys? :)
 
SteveC said:
From my limited experiences, retired 121 guys that continued working on the corporate side either had a history of poor life decisions, or had zero personal interests outside of flying airplanes. A few exceptions maybe…
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Flew with one a couple of years ago that was making serious bank, senior and always chasing that double time. He was about to retire and already had a corporate gig lined up. I mean, how much money do you really need?

He was quite into himself of course, wasn't sad to see that one go. Probably irritating some poor FO on a Citation right now about his SJI time and all the money he made.
 
I can remember in the sort of distant past having to take a brand new G550 to the blast fence (a brand new airplane leaking oil? Say it ain't so!) and the Captain/Manager was kind enough to come in run and taxi the darn airplane because I hadn't been trained to do either in this beautiful new monster (I've been lucky enough to truly experience the "brand new airplane smell" a few times) and I wasn't going to assume responsibility for it. So I got the airplane up and running on the APU, I aligned the IRUs and set up the ECS to cool because it was July in Van Nuys. When he finally arrived we had a quick brief, we'd get in, I'd shut the door, he'd start the engines and taxi out to the fence, I'd get out and give him a run her up signal and then look at the lower cowls for evidence of a leak while the engines were running "hard". This seemed like a good plan so we jumped in the airplane, I closed the door and settled into the right cockpit seat and expected to quickly taxi out. Nope, this dude was on his phone talking to someone and explaining his convoluted logic about preferring to rent a luxury apartment rather than owning a home. At that point I had a mortgage and I was probably making a 1/4 of what he was and I was dumbstruck with what I still consider irresponsible spending. And then he hung up the phone and we taxied out. It all went just fine but it reaffirmed my suspicion that very successful people aren't always very smart. I saw the same guy years later and he was still flying contract for large cabin Gulfstream clients. I'd like to say he was banking money but I suspect he was living like a pirate. I suppose it's a good life if you can maintain it, I can't imagine not having an actual "home".
 
derg said:
Man, the last thing I want in retirement is to get another job. I’ve work long enough and don’t want to clean toilets or load some dudes bags! Ha!
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About the only thing that would get me out of retirement at 64 would be flying retardant tankers. It's basically summers, 12 on, 12 off. I could handle that. Probably too old now, though. It wouldn't be for the money.
 
derg said:
Man, the last thing I want in retirement is to get another job. I’ve work long enough and don’t want to clean toilets or load some dudes bags! Ha!
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Pretty sure you’re gonna be retired retired. I’m even starting to think I might get there too, maybe even hopefully just shy of 60. My goal is fully retired from all jobs by 59. We shall see. But you’ll be fine, i am sure of it
 
Funny thing is, I’ll get a call for premium flying and the idea of going to the airport sounds repulsive.

And I really really like my job. A lot.
 
I’ve done enough different stuff in my life to be pretty happy after that last day at work.

Plenty in the world to be interested in.

That being said, pulling down $10k+ in money every month with zero effort or worry on my part sounds pretty legit, rather than worrying what black swan event or some moneyBro blowing his nose is going to do to the market. WAY too much faith placed in “the market” for my taste.
 
Richman said:
Kids underestimate the power of pensions. Getting a phat check no matter how much you eff up has a lot of power.
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Pension is the only thing keeping ATC afloat right now. Take that away (like many republicans keep trying to do) and watch the hiring pool dry up. Assuming nothing changes, I should be looking at 6 figure pension after 25 years. Wish the Fed did what state governments do and counted overtime in your high 3 calculation though.
 
NovemberEcho said:
Pension is the only thing keeping ATC afloat right now. Take that away (like many republicans keep trying to do) and watch the hiring pool dry up. Assuming nothing changes, I should be looking at 6 figure pension after 25 years. Wish the Fed did what state governments do and counted overtime in your high 3 calculation though.
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The biggest problem with pensions is the games people play trying to justify one direction or another.

The real reason, IMHO, “people” don’t like pensions is that it ties up a bunch of capital in what they see as “staid” investments. In other words, Wall Street wants to get their grubby hands on your money because they want to invest it in the latest do-nothing company their buddies are running, rather than the rather pedestrian, lower risk investments that most pension funding requires. Wall Street makes very little money off of pensions, because there is no churn.

Wall Street loves the 401k. Essentially government mandated investment, and they get a slice of everyone’s paycheck, plus the churn. I wonder what the Dow would look like without the forced contribution to the Wall Street casino every two weeks.

“But pensions are underfunded!!!”. This is one of those things that can be “technically” true, but functionally false at the same time, and it’s highly dependent and quite sensitive to number of variables. The rules can also be changed to show a ridiculous expense when it is not otherwise required, which is a common complaint of the Postal Service pension.
 
Love me my pension. I was so blessed to get hired at a place that had one. Many of the airlines had them back in 1990. That only two do now means they aren't infallible. But I guess nothing really is.
 
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