Update

This is mostly a keep-alive post.

I have been asked to speak at yet another Halftime / Ignite! seminar at New Covenant Bible. The topic is how I have integrated Bobbie's goals and plans into mine. The answer is, "I have not."

I am also to facilitate a table.

View from October 2008

The stock market has crashed.

This means that I can no longer depend on my 401(k) as a source of income.

At the current stock levels, either God must move in my favor, or I must return to work in four to six months. God has always moved in the past. Possibly His next move will be to provide a job...that pays money and stills honors him.

I note that Rockwell Collins declined to fund a Serve The City grant application that would have placed money directly to flood-impacted persons to get them reestablished in homes. The did find the money to fund several sexual deviation organizations. Hmmmm.

Current View of Retirement

The further time passes from "work" the more I realize that it was just wage slavery...trading hours of my life for mere lucre.

This week I:

• Brought the books for Serve The City up to date.
• Chaired a board meeting for His Hands Free Medical Clinic. God continues to improve our finances and flow of volunteers.
  
• Attended a meeting of the Linn County Association of Evangelicals. At the meeting, I was approached by a pastor of one of the largest Lutheran churches in town, who recognized my Halftime involvement and introduced me to a representative of a local Christian music station, who, in turn, asked me for some help. I was also approached by a STC volunteer for advice and wanted to set up a meeting to expand her role. I was also approached by the current president of LCAE for help in securing a source of income for the founder.
  
• I was approached, via email, by the pastor of a smaller "planted" church, for advice on grant applications.
• I have been working on income taxes.

Separately, I have been asked to become a deacon at New Covenant. I will be a deacon "at-large" so that I can meet the one-year-on-the-deacon-board requirement to chair the board starting in June 2009.

I have also been asked to give a testimony at a Halftime Collaborative Day meeting and to facilitate a brainstorming project at that meeting.

I have also been asked to represent His Hands at one church's mission weekend.

Why list all this? The list shows the great variety of activities open to those in retirement. I get a lot of satisfaction from being an elder statesman / guru. I just have to keep focused on God, recognize that this is all his doing, and avoid pride and bragging.

Keep Alive Post

This is just to keep this blog alive.

Three and a half years later

Wow! I am still retired.

Alex graduated from one of the best high schools in the country with every honor imaginable, including valedictorian. He completed enough high school hours to graduate twice! He is a National AP scholar. He has enough college credit to start as a Sophomore. He was admitted to the University of Chicago, but they give no merit money (and very little need money). A quarter of a million dollars for an undergraduate education just does not compute.

He will be going to St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Great school, and they wanted him! They sent merit money. Yeah! It is a Christian based school, with an awesome music program and a great economics department. It is the right distance away. The students and faculty are real people. Great fit!

Alyssa did just as well in Middle School. She is clearly a (the) top student. She is continuing her dance. She is in the Senior performing company at her dance academy, and made the high school dance team, and the freshman show choir before she even graduated from middle school. She is "front row" in all of these. Wow! Good looking and Smart! She made a wise decision to not run cross-country, even tho she might have been their top runner. There are just not enough hours in the week.

All of this is expensive. Unless I win the lottery, I will run out of money in about two years.
We will see.

Current resume

I am currently a “professional volunteer.” I serve as the board president of His Hands Free Medical Clinic, head the New Covenant Stephen Ministry leadership team, lead the Trekker’s ABF Missions team, serve as treasurer/ bookkeeper for the Cedar Rapids Serve-the-City organization, and coordinate the recording of Sunday services at New Covenant. I am a member of the Ignite! Team. I set-up and operate the lighting system at New Covenant on a rotating schedule. I meet with an e-team and a prayer partner weekly.

I am retired from Rockwell-Collins, where I served for 28 years in various roles including Strategic Planning Manager, Capture Team Leader, and Program Manager. Prior to Rockwell, I was a Senior Financial Analyst at Xerox Corporation. Before that, I was a Captain in the US Air Force, serving as a pilot in T-41, T-37, T-38, and EC-47 aircraft and Instructor/Flight Examiner/Aircraft Commander in C-141 aircraft. I completed one combat tour in Southeast Asia.

I have a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs/Economics from the USAF Academy, a Masters in Business Administration of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and a Master of Arts in Management and Supervision from Central Michigan University. I am working on a Certificate of Non-Profit Management from Iowa State University Extension.

My wife Bobbie and I have two children. Our son Alex will graduate from Washington HS in May and our daughter Alyssa will graduate from McKinley MS in June. We have been attending New Covenant since 1999.

I am a member of the Linn County Association of Evangelicals and a life member of the USAF Academy Association of Graduates.

What has happened

I stopped working at the end of February 2004.

Then I took "terminal" vacation in March.

I retired on the first friday in April.

Since retirement checks arrive on the first of the month, I got no paychecks until May.

Some people wondered why I did that, instead of waiting until the end of April to retire, then collecting the vacation buy-out and getting the first retirement check immediately. Reason: IHTFP.

Every day is now different. I get to go on all of my kid's field trips and band trips and (very soon) show choir trips. I got to teach my son how to drive. I get to day-trade stocks full time. I get to study the Bible. I get to go to forums and seminars at the local colleges. I get to have lunch with my wife more than once a week. I get to do whatever God tells me to do. It's great!

Truth Question

If a man, standing in the forest, speaks...
is he still wrong?

Application Submitted!!!

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

I filled out all the paperwork. Bobbie and I went to the Credit Union over lunch and got the signatures witnessed and notarized. I returned to work and copied everything, filled out an envelope, and mailed the package (priority with tracing) to Seal Beach.

A MAJOR MILESTONE!!!

While Bobbie (my wife) and I were at lunch, she asked, "What is the first thing you will do?" Recognizing a trap when I see one, I said that I would clean out the office first, then do income taxes. That seemed to satisfy her. Then she asked if we should buy a second computer. She is nervous about what I will be doing...probably afraid that I will intrude on her space.

Excitement is building!! 17 work days remaining.

Formal Notice to My Supervisor

I finally spent the afternoon filling out the retirement paperwork. I have been avoiding this just like income tax returns. Read lots of complicated instructions, then fill out lots of forms.

I completed the form that notifies my supervisor and the local HR that I will be retiring and taking vacation prior to retirement. I got my supervisor to sign it and mailed it to HR. This is an other milestone. Retirement is becoming real.

Some pending items will delay the actual application until tomorrow:
I have to get two signatures from my wife. One has to be witnessed and one must be notarized. I also have to include a copy of a blank check for the direct deposit, even though I know the ABA and account number very well. I must include a copy of my birth certificate to prove my age. I must also include a copy of my wife's birth certificate and our marriage license, even though she will not be getting rights of survivorship.

18 work days remaining.

25 Workdays Remaining

The clock is really running out quickly now.

My supervisor is suddenly asking for a lot of work to be done ahead. "Prepare a schedule of planning events for the next year." "Prepare an outline for each planning presentation due for the next six months." They are getting nervous about my departure.

I had a zen moment over the weekend. My brother needs some court documents related to our father's estate from Texas. Ordinarily, I would make phone calls to locate the documents and send a check by mail and wait for two weeks. I realized that, if I wanted, I could get in my car and drive from Iowa to Texas, do the business, visit friends, and take my time doing it. WOW! What a new world I am facing!

Retirement Package Arrives!!!

The long-awaited retirement package has arrived. It is about an inch thick and requires that I fill out a lot of paperwork and submit documents, including my wife's birth certificate and our marriage license, even though we will not be selecting a survivorship options.

30 Workdays + 2 Hours

I was just formally cut out of a new task because I will not be around for any follow-on. It is being used as a familiarization exercise by my replacement. This is the first overt example of this.

I am, however, getting hit with a number of last minute analysis tasks. There are a lot of deadlines being set up for just-prior-to-my-departure.

I just briefed my next level director on the output of a consultant report, with my replacement present. They both knew that I had not read the consultant report on which I was briefing them, although I had helped them to prepare input data. I was able to give a coherent briefing, correctly, and to structure the description of the next level briefing (to the VPs) on the fly. It will be years before my replacement can do that.

Futility Is Rising

I had to go in to work yesterday [Saturday] to perform a totally meaningless calculation. Management did not like the trend lines from the last report, since they indicated a possible drop in market share. So...did they recognize that the unfavorable trend was well within the normal range of variation? No. They panicked. Did they try to fix the problem? No.

The decided to change the metric. We were not using the new metric because the "unknowns" are thrown out and they often exceed the number of the items counted. i.e. the expected error range is larger than the absolute value.

Pointy Haired Boss Nirvana!

"Never try to teach a pig to whistle. You waste your time and annoy the pig!"

This is a major factor in retirement decisions.

35 and Counting

People are beginning to react with surprise that I am still here. An amazing number of people are congratulating me on getting out.

A Milestone

I formally requested my retirement papers, via the internal web site. They will snail mail the paperwork within 15 days, along with a formal calculation of the monthly amount. My wife has to sign off on the [non] survivor option, since we will use some of the extra money to buy life insurance.

This really feels good. I have 36 work days remaining.

Why Retire?

This is a real no brainer. Even though I have been told repeatedly that I am doing a good job and that I have totally unique and valuable experience, my salary has been "redlined" for the past four years and my "incentive plan" has been cut below normal. When I asked why I got two responses: 1) "You make too much money." and 2) "You are not meeting expectations." When I asked what those expectations were (since I met all the objectives on my performance review) the answer was "I will let you know in two weeks." That answer was 13 months ago. The VP is still uable to articulate any expectations that I have not met.

The Board Chairman and CEO got a 17% raise this year. Employee raises this year will only average 2%. Based on my discussions with others, I suppose that CEO raise was included in the pool. Nationwide, job openings are exploding. People are about to leave this company in droves.

The Clock is Ticking

Not much going on related to my retirements. As stated below, I took the deal, even though they had sent a letter that said that it was not a good deal if one was planning to retire within 18 months. I took it anyway because: 1) I could use the money now [I was going to take a similar amount out of my IRA and pay the penalty] and 2) I don't trust them any further than I can toss a cat.

My clock is now down to 44 workdays. That equates to a February 27th last-work-day, followed by vacation, followed by an April 1st retirement. Even here they are getting shifty. They just changed the computer program that calculates retirement and it has a field that says my 85-point retirement is April 30th. If I actually run the calculator for a termination date of April 01, it shows that I get the full amount. The saga continues.

I Took the Deal

Hopefully, the check's in the mail!