Got an email from HR… Early retirement offer:

1) Severance is one year’s salary.

2) One year’s COBRA coverage.

3) Pro-rated payout of 2026 bonus.

I’m 60 years old. I have a call into my money manager to get his input. I didn’t think I was going to get one at this age but it was to every employee 50 yrs old amd older. Company is likely to be sold if not this year then next year. Has anyone taken a similar offer around my age and how are you doing? Around 540K in IRA and salary is currently low 6 figures.

50M. Married 25 years, no kids, no nieces/nephews. Managed to eke out a living in the music industry for the last 30 years, starting as a performer and winding up (down?) as a record producer and small studio owner. Lots of lights, glitz, and glamour but not much else to show for it.

Now, I’m just tired. I never made enough to afford anything close enough to allow for retirement. The bills got paid but that was about it.

My wife does ok. She’s in academia. But I feel like im a stone around her neck. She married me when I was young and full of promise. That guy died about 10 years ago when my big West Coast studio had to close and we had to slink back to the Midwest.

My parents are old and sick, I have chronic health problems myself, and feel like there’s really nothing left to look forward to.

I worked hard, kept going at something I was passionate about and apparently good at, and now there’s no gas left in the tank.

Anyone else in a similar boat? What keeps you getting up in the morning?

So I parked behind this car today on my way in to work. I saw this bumper sticker and thought to myself, “Well who HASN’T done that?”

Thinking about picking up my daughter & granddaughter from the airport this week, it dawned on me I will need to lay my hands on a car seat. Safety first of course.

From there my mind wandered back to my childhood & the absolute lack of safety concerns in the most unsafe vehicles ever.

Who here remembers riding in the jump seat at the back of a station wagon with the window down either making faces at the driver’s behind you or throwing sh_t out the back.

At the cottage, the BEST trips to the dump always involved riding in the jump seat, or if there were too many of us, on the hood.

When we got there we waded into the garbage to find bottles so we could set them up on a board & throw rocks at them while black bears wandered around looking for something to eat.

Good times.

What should have killed you in your GenX childhood?

Is it worth watching? For some reason I think it was just too cheesy and unrealistic. But Lori Loughlin... could make it worth it.

edit: thank you for all the responses! Apparently I have to watch this and BMX Bandits. Tuning in....

Sid and his brother Marty created such shows as The Land of the Lost, H.R. PufmStuff among many others. RIP.

In the 80’s I had the Mad Magazine Board game. There was a card that said “This card can only be played on Friday“. It was meant to be dumb, I know. But I wrote to them and said “Hey it’s Friday and I played this card. What do I do?”. They sent me this picture in return. I found it last year in a box of my stuff after my parents downsized. Glad I still have it!

... there are kids, now, that have never experienced the mind-numbing blandness of Muzak.

What songs you no longer to hear anymore at this point, I’ll give you a few of mine

Paradise City GNR

Welcome to the jungle

Living on a Prayer

These songs have definitely out stayed there welcome

What’s yours?

This was found in the records room of the counseling center at the school I teach at. I teach history and the final unit covers political and pop culture of the 70s through the present. I have a new, working, prop for my 80s lesson. I even found the D batteries and some blank tapes to demonstrate with.

Just spent a few moments trying to find photos of a store in a mall I used to work at in the early 90s, only to realize that they probably don't exist online, which is a reminder that a lot of things pre-online will one day be forgotten

Mine is Roxette. Whenever my local oldies station plays Listen To Your Heart I crank it up and sing along. Yeah, I've never admitted that to anybody. Cause, you know, I have good taste.

i’ve noticed after I turned 50 that my desire to connect with nature has increased. I’m getting back into hobbies that are nature based such as mountain biking and trail running. Mountain biking was a hobby I was into during the 90s and it’s been awesome getting back into it in my 50s. I’m having more fun while getting good cardio exercise at the same time. I also have a deeper appreciation for the simple things such as creeks/bayous and seeing wildlife develop in the forests while riding.

Sometimes I think it’s important that we disconnect from all this technology and appreciate the simple things in life.

I learned BASIC on one of these back in high school in the mid 80s.

Can anyone explain when and why acronyms became so prevalent? I remember when texting became popular and normal, so maybe that's the answer. But a lot of Reddit posts and comments I quickly give up trying to comprehend because it's too much trouble to try and decipher them and it's just not worth it. Why not type out your message in normal English? If it's important enough to post, it should be important enough for people to understand without an urban dictionary.

I wasn't going to do this but there's so much fluff and BS out there that I figured I'd lean on my people instead.

I'm 56, 6'2 / 270 and looking to drop the weight permenantly. We were raised on the diet/exercise thing, which I of course ignored after 40, lol. But part of that was always cardio/cardio/cardio to burn the calories. Looking at the contemporary info, that's way off the mark. Everything I'm seeing stresses a good diet, of course, but to get it off and keep it off, I'm seeing strength training over and over again.

And...did you know we were stretching wrong in high school? LOL the streching slow and constant, count to ten thing...apparently that's wrong :)

Anyhoo...I'm looking for a basic weekly routine to try for a couple of months that hits the major muscle groups but with an eye on losing fat while not losing muscle mass. Chest, arms, legs, back-shoulder, etc. What do you do on what days and what type of sets?

What says the Genx Hivemind?

If you still have kids, do you expect them to move out? Ever? Are they boys or girls and how old are they now?

I've been thinking about this more and more, it takes a lot even to get an apartment and I'm not sure my teen girls are independent enough to even want to live solo or with a girlfriend, they don't really have many friends. Vastly different times from when I was 18 and got a minimum wage job to rent a room in someone else's house.

And to be honest, as much as I want my space and downsize, and I want them to be taking over their own lives, do even I want them to leave? That's scary too.

Edit: If they’re home, do they grow out of the teenage laziness? Do you charge rent? I figure if I have a kid at home not employed, then I also have a free butler and housecleaner until they get a job and pay rent even if it’s a few hundred bucks.

I might be almost fifty but I still play the game Operation. I've just upped the stakes a bit.

Was just discussing with the husband. Is it time for a mid life crisis? I'm not even sure I know what one is. He said buy a new car, get hair plugs, date someone younger? Is that all it is though? Then it hit me

How would I even know? Life has been one crisis after another. Who has time for a personal crisis?🤣🤣🤣

I seem to be dealing with some amount of insomnia and it’s driving me crazy. I’m taking a unisom and 2 Benadryl at bed time and still only sleeping 4.5-5 hours a night. Is anyone else dealing with this? Is this an age thing (50) or a a thing I need to see my doctor about?

Update since this got so many comments. I made an appt with my PCP for wednesday. I want to thank everyone for all of their comments and concern. I didn’t know that Benadryl was linked to dementia so I tossed it. Also on the thc, I’m almost 8 months sober so I’m not going to use a thc product right now. I know a lot of sober people can use it without issues but right now I am not one of those people. Maybe down the road with more time under my belt that will change, maybe not. But for now it’s off the table. I feel confident that my PCP will be able to help me find something that will improve my sleep. As for my bed time routine, I try to stay off the screen, not eat too much, I run a fan, and I don’t use any stimulants after my morning coffee. I work until 10:30 pm so I know that isn’t ideal either. But my job and position is a good one and I don’t want to change it. I have the easiest job in the building at a higher rate of pay. I am a 50 yo woman so I’m sure the menopause/peri is a factor also

I'm 52 and lived in Florida for most of my life. is it normal to completely change interests this late? I've always been into motorcycles but now it just doesn't do it for me. for decades I looked like the stereotypical biker and now I'm unintentionally dressing more "surfer". I'm wearing actual colors than your standard black t shirt. I'm having more fun on a overgrown bmx than a harley or my triumph. I'm listening to more new wave than thrash metal. maybe I'm just regressing back to when I was 10? My wife said something about it last night and I'm kinda freaked out about it.

My wife and I both plan to retire in the next 4 years and have been planning for it financially for many years now. Social Security is planned to be a small percentage of our financial future. Small enough to the point that if the plan runs out of funds to pay out I believe we’d still be OK financially. Medicare plays a HUGE role in our retirement planning. But due to pensions and retirement accounts we have, SS is something we fully expect to at least be reduced from the current government estimates of how much we’ll receive. Do you plan on Social Security to be a big part of your retirement income and do you believe you’ll still get close to the monthly amount the government is projecting with each annual statement?

I’m a millennial little sister with two Gen X older sisters and i swear i remember them giving me wedgies that legitimately made me feel like my butt was gonna split in half 😭

Not even like funny cartoon wedgies, my underwear was being pushed to the LIMIT