Most electronics engineers remain electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists after retiring. Many of them still get a part-time income from small consulting jobs or niche market companies. Electronics is constantly changing, and that is fascinating enough. I've only been with it for 40 years, and there has never been a dull moment. (well, OK, just a FEW dull moments.) I am not near retiring at all, just started young, helping my dad put together relays and such. One fellow, who taught me in EE school in 1978, is still teaching part time at the university and doing expert witness work in legal cases. He is way past retiring and just does whatever he likes doing. At $200 an hour, just a few hours a month stretches that Social Security pretty far. Don't expect to make $200 an hour anytime soon unless you are a well respected PHD with decades of experience and a cool head on the witness stand. He also goofs around making LED christmas lights or other silly and useless hobby projects. That being said, retirement is a whole can of worms these days. My father's generation expected, and recieved, a lifetime job with full retirement benefits, pension, lifetime insurance, cushy 401K's full of Walmart Stock bought in 1980, and so on. My best friend's father has been retired comfortably for 25 years, longer than he worked at AT&T. My generation expects nothing, and pretty much gets that. Pensions are a thing of the past, 401K's finally tanked, many jobs have been downsized or outsourced, most employees don't stay at one place more than 5 years, anybody over 50 has a rough time finding a new job. Social Security is shaky and underfunded. It seems to me that continuing to work part time at something high-paying and technical is the only way to survive retirement in today's economy. Yes, retireing from electronics is just like retiring from eating steak. Who whould want to? -- Lawrence Lile Mike Hord Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list 12/03/2003 01:21 PM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: Subject: [OT]: Retirement, was Bresenham's linear algorithm I have a question for you guys that have been in the biz for a while: Does it get old? Do you get tired of it? I'm 25, and I don't feel that I'll ever lose my infatuation with electronics and want to retire. I feel like it would be akin to retiring from fishing or eating steak. Any thoughts? Mike H. >I'm too late. I sent him my question and got back this reply: > >>My retirement is 15 May 2003. I'll check my Winthrop e-mail just >>before I lock the door and turn out the lights on the 15_th. >>Best regards, Ciao, Jack > _________________________________________________________________ Take advantage of our best MSN Dial-up offer of the year six months @$9.95/month. Sign up now! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads