I retired yesterday. I was supposed to retire on Sep. 30. I applied in early Sep. for my Army pay records from 1965-67 so I could 'buy' 2 more years of service for purposes of my retirement annuity. I was a 2 yr. ROTC officer. I did not pay into the retirement system, being just a kid who did not plan to make a career out of it. Never even thought about retirement. You can buy the time back by paying the gov't what you would have paid into the retirement system at the time with interest. That may sound like a bad deal until you consider that the cost at the time was a percentage of salary and a 2nd Lt made $242/month in 1965. One more thing; you must buy back the time before you actually retire or you lose it forever. You can't retire first and then do it. I applied for my records from the Army finance center in Indiannapolis in early Sep. and had heard nothing by the last week in Sep. I called them up, a 3 day exercise in futility since the first 3 dozen calls got a recorded voice that said simply, "this mailbox is full". When I finally got a real human on the other end she informed me that I'd have to wait, "we are understaffed and backed up and we have no way to advance one veteran in front of another. It takes 45 days before we even enter you in the system." I asked if there was any way to speed things up she said, "well sir, if you were to become deceased between now and your planned retirement date, we could expedite your request." So I extended 2 weeks at a time until last week when the records finally came through. I am now sprung. BTW a one time payment of $2500 gets me an additional $5000/yr. for the rest of my life.

Congratulations Denis! Now the fun starts!

Congrats! So when do you move to the rockies?

Congratulations. Hope your retirement is everything you want it to be!

Denis is an east coaster!..I was thinking today about where I'd like to have as a homebase besides my Canaan Camp in case MPC or Tory or any improvements to the canaan areas did not come to pass...New Hampshire #1..,Vermont..By a lake near a ski area in the adirondack's...but never the rockies..New england has too much characture & Ambiance!...Good going Denis!..Congradulations on a very good working life & now here's to an awesome after work life!!..wish you the best & hope to read a million posts from you!

I do have a special love for New England skiing, especially the off piste woods in northern VT, a region that IMHO has the best tree skiing and the best tree skiers in the world. Those woods are not single species groves with regular spacing, they contain a half dozen different species of hardwoods with conifers thrown in plus rocks, tight with irregular spacing, ledges and stream beds. I don't rip them like some, but I go there for inspiration and education. I also love the west with its openness, steeps and great snow. The grandkids are in VT and the whole family has season passes at Mad River, so I bought a pass there. I also bought a western pass, this year at Alta. Next year, who knows? Probably my favorite area of the world to ski is the interior ranges in BC. I'd like to do some backcountry hut trips there. I love Fernie, Whitewater and Red Mountain. The long drawn out wait for retirement and the demands of the job sapped enough energy that I really didn't look into it this year, just took the easy way. My wife is younger, running her own business, and a non skier, so I'm not leaving the area, just taking some extended road trips.

We leave for VT early tomorrow AM. Merry Christmas to all.

Its all good,,right Denis?..Me & my buddy Evan Williams was just having fun messin with the "Rock (y) stars"..

Hearty Congratulations!!!!! Hey I'm not that far behind you... 6 more years and my second retirement comes along. And the call of Vermont is as loud as it ever was. I've been living my life out of a suitcase just about, so I want to retire in a place where I can live in the midst of history - as well as skiing. But NH may win out, who knows by that time... As the US' poet laureate, Robert Frost said,

"Anything I can say about New Hampshire
Will serve almost as well about Vermont,
Excepting that they differ in their mountains.
The Vermont mountains stretch extended straight;
New Hampshire mountains Curl up in a coil."

"She's one of the two best states in the Union.
Vermont's the other. And the two have been
Yokefellows in the sap yoke from of old
In many Marches. And they lie like wedges,
Thick end to thin end and thin end to thick end,
And are a figure of the way the strong
Of mind and strong of arm should fit together,
One thick where one is thin and vice versa."


and his poetic end...

"Well, if I have to choose one or the other,
I choose to be a plain New Hampshire farmer
With an income in cash of, say, a thousand
(From, say, a publisher in New York City).
It's restful to arrive at a decision,
And restful just to think about New Hampshire.
At present I am living in Vermont."