I'm in IT also. Senior Consultant, doing data warehouse projects. My side business is irritating my wife as much as possible. I'm hoping to retire (from the IT job) in the next year or two.

 

I'd love to retire in a year or two, but unfortunately I've got nearly 30 more to go

 

Construction as a whole has gotten totally out of hand.
I am looking to venture into a side business with the intent to turn it full time is reason i asked you guys. Thanks for the replies.

 

Lawn care/landscaping seems to be one of those very popular jobs where people turn a side job into a full-time business. At least around here anyway.

 

Funny, I'm an IT Technical Services Manager too for a mid-western regional bank. I get to buy and support those old dinosaur mainframes that still seem to run the world. At about $10M a pop (and we have 3) they arent going away anytime soon. We seem to have an ample supply of IT staff it seems. I'd love to retire in about 5 years at age 60, but alas, I suspect it will be closer to 65. Depends on how the 401K continues to grow. My wife is a school bus driver, so when she turns 60, she'll be elidgible for the State of Michigan employee healthcare insurance...at a HUGE discount. Could be the ticket for early retirement.

 

I think healthcare will force a lot of people to postpone retirement. I had a (self-employed) guy tell me once: "I would never marry for money, but I sure would for health insurance!" LOL!

 

It's been a while since I had to actively work on a mainframe. Years ago I did JCL, I may even have the JCL book still. Now if I have to interact with a mainframe it's only to pull data out of it and into a reporting system.

At the end of this year my wife will get retired after 30 years. Technically, she's being laid off but since she has the years accumulated she can retire. We get medical/dental as part of her retirement. If it wasn't for that there is no way I would have the option to retire earlier than when medicare kicks in. I'm 53 now so a 12 year gap until medicare kicks in wouldn't work. I'm high maintenance when it comes to medical. One doctor described me as being a one-man medical disaster area.

 

Healthcare is more and more of a huge factor. Being in my mid 30's with two kids under 5 it was huge to have negotiated 100% of my healthcare premium by my employer for the birth of my 2nd.. This is something i havent worked out yet for being self employed

Still making payments on my daughter

 

Well, most know I'm in public safety and have been for 34 years. I've got a retirement from one municipality now(as much as I would ever get) and four years to go on a full retirement where I am now. Hopefully the back will last that long. Then, who knows as I am not one to sit still. Want to roam but my wife will hopefully still be working if the pharmacy she where she works hasn't been taken over or merged. I'm only 51, but I started too young in this industry..

 

Yea, Monty I hear you. I'm not one to sit around for too long, although 30+ years in IT and mid-night phone calls and overnight maintenance work is getting old. I often think to myself what kind of "part-time" work would I enjoy doing. The thing is, I've been doing 6:30-3:30 days all my life, with the after hours work. When it comes to vacation, I still wake up early. When I do retire, I will take some time to do nothing, but then have to have something to keep busy. I just dont think i would want to be tied down to a schedule so to speak....

 

I did 25 to life as an air traffic controller. Retired at the unheard of age 45 the day I walked out. Consider myself very lucky for that, have no problem finding something to do (or not do). Liked the work and the challenge, (mis) management was impossible for me to tolerate. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Yeah right.............

My advice to the kids was do something they are good at doing. The really lucky people are the ones who actually love what they do. Pretty rare.

 

I don't often have to do after hours support work. A little bit of that is that consultants don't usually have to do that, the company's staff does. I had one client that did call me in the middle of the night, usually around 2 am. That was tough and anyone that has to do that on a regular basis has my sympathy. I rewrote 90% of their code to get it stable. I've been called into client sites to solve those after hours call problems. The current project was started from scratch. It's nice to be there from the start so I can head off the design problems that contribute to the 2 am calls.

I very much enjoy what I do and I'm very good at it. If I wanted to walk away from this company it wouldn't take long to find another client/company to pick me up. If I was a little bit more motivated by the money I could do well on my own. My current company makes it fairly easy for me. My annual "review" takes all of 5 minutes. Their form asks, "What were your goals?" My response for the past 4 years has been, "1. Keep the client happy. 2. Don't get fired." Results of those goals are, "1. Client is happy. 2. Didn't get fired." The (evil) folks in the HR office probably just roll their eyes but billable hours don't lie.

 

Healthcare really is huge anymore. I don't pay a penny into mine and am fortunate to have great insurance. I'm shop foreman at a heavy equipment dealer. I'm spread way too thin but get the job done. Been quite the change of pace from being in a field service truck for 10 years, but at least i can pick the kid up and reach stuff in the top of the kitchen cabinets without pain anymore. My shoulders are way too bad for 34, but a job doing less physical work has helped. I still have interest in the technical trainer position that we can't hire anybody for, but the money sucks and the healthcare sucks more and costs a fortune.

 

That's my favorite part about being a consultant!

That sounds just like me! My issue with finding another company though is the fact that I live out in the sticks, and there are few companies around here that pay what I make. I'm paid city salary, living in the country, working remotely. I've been with the same company for 20 years, and my two main clients I have been with for 15 and 11 years (one gets 32 hours a week, the other gets 8).

And yes, my exact goals on my review are keep the company happy and keep my billable hours up (aka don't get fired).

 

I'm a lead tech at a Mercedes shop.
Seems like my biggest challenge these days is hiring techs. Nobody wants to work with their hands anymore, or really work for that matter (this I blame on the nobody loses approach). And this college for all agenda is gonna cost much, much more than people are realizing.