If there's one thing you don't wanna miss, it's... around here somewhere, congratulations!! You missed nothing. Gotta wake up prit-tea early to get one passed you—lace up! I'm about to enlighten all these light hairs on the block.
A couple of young ladies who spLeL favoUrite with a U, @lizelle and @fionasfavoUrites, do a couple things around here like travel, engage, support and update. Host, cook toast, boast whose garden grows the most. They're bloggers, photographers, seaside joggers and crime stoppers but everyone knows that. Manage #silver-bloggers community too? Matter'0 fact they do.
Each week they pitch an idea or topic to write about with Hive prizes awarded to the winning author(s). @ocd extends support for #Silver-Bloggers content too. Support a cool community and an exceptional pair of young ladies by doing something we do anyway: Talk about ourself.
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Hashtag ThisIs2easy. I can sum up my dream retirement destination in less characters than however many characters are in this sentence. Friendly wager says I'm the youngest retiree you've never met.
I'm third generation Journeyman Wireman, aka Union Electrician. My grandfather was a Union Electrician for the railroad. A few uncles and two cousins worked Union installing energy in who knows how many commercial and industrial facilities across the US. I spent the majority of my career on tower cranes and substations.
I was one month in to my 19th year of living when my grandfather drove me to the Union hall. He'd hinted toward it several times in my teens as did my uncle. I didn't care, though, I didn't want to be like them, can't tell me shit! So I acted 18 for a year doing things like getting myself out of trouble and not dying.
I was in my grandfathers garage one morning, 'I don't know Grandpa, guess I'll just do what you guys did so at least I have somewhere to go during the week.' Next thing I remember is 15 South, next stop: IBEW.
He held the door open for me, "this is my grandson." I was introduced to the President and the Business Agent that day.
The Union sent me to University the first five years of my career while also acquiring 8,000 hours of field training. For five years I went to school two nights a week after working however many hours that day. Some time during my first year of classes, the apprenticeship director introduced himself, Terry T. He explained the do's and dont's at school, how to apply that knowledge to the job, various types of projects he's been on, things like that. But what I remember most that night was either something nobody else heard or they just weren't paying attention. He emphasized the required number of pension hours—37,500.
I'm a young kid—youngest. One brother in my class was 52 the day we swore in. Most everyone else, 15 total, were at least in their late 20's our first year. I was 19 when he said 37-5. That number has since increased but it's the only one that matters to me. I didn't hear anything else. I was made aware that night if I work 2,000 hours per year I'd reach full retirement hours before my 40th birthday—it's a date! I worked my ass off the next 20 years.
I didn't vacation much. Friends who I call family did a lot of that, I had to pass most the time. They traveled, spent holidays at popular tourist destinations or took off to Las Vegas for the weekend cuz they were bored. I got in on a few of those but not near as many as I would've liked. What I didn't like was missing work.
Never really had a serious relationship other than a few years in my early 20's but she ended up being Delilah in disguise. I never had children either. I'll be 46 this month and the only diaper I've changed was on a German Shepherd. But I knew how many hours I had before completing my third year of training—7k. Up until my last few years on the job, management never had time to finish the question. When they needed someone to stay late or come in Sunday, I volunteered first.
All of the extra hours worked in my favor because I ended up missing my fourth year of field training due to injury. Over the next 20 years I'd miss two more years for a total of three lost due to injuries. Right around [𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎] is when I hung up my dirt bike boots.
I worked coast to coast in America beginning in the late 90's until finally hanging up my wireman boots in 2017. My home local didn't always have overtime on the table and I had my sights set so I went wherever the overtime was.
In 2008 I was in Las Vegas. That was a bad couple of years for the construction industry and economies worldwide. Fortunately for me, I was on a project funded by more private money than they knew what to do with—didn't miss a beat. I left Las Vegas in 2009 for Washington DC with just under 17k hours in my pocket and more overtime in the future.
I collected hours in quite a few states between '01 and '17, even went back to Las Vegas for a short stint in 2011. Albuquerque's freezing! Mississippi's miserably humid as is Texas and Florida, and San Francisco pays the most. It was summer 2014 when I stopped whatever I was doing and took off for San Francisco to wrap up my career. When I got to the Bay Area, I had just under 35k hours in my pocket. It was right around [𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎] I met Pura.
I didn't feel like working anymore, stopped volunteering to stay late, etc. They quickly caught on and stopped asking me to work weekends. It took about twice as long as originally anticipated to snag those last couple thousand hours. I didn't even like working five days a week anymore and the four days I went in I left early.
According to my math and before the arrival of the most beautiful woman in my life, I would've retired prior to my 40th birthday. I ended up retiring 8 months after my 41st birthday—close enough.
When I was 19 I was quoted 37,500 hours, that didn't mean 36,499 or 37,501. I held up my end of the deal, so did they. Nowadays and for the foreseeable future I do whatever I want and whatever Pura says—The Luckiest Guy I Know. We thought we had it figured out by traveliving the world in 30 day increments until 2020 happened and, well, the rest is current!
@Lizelle, @FionasfavoUrites, thanks for having me. 💖 In response to your topic this week I can name that tune in one sentence. My dream retirement destination:
