I decided to stick it out in the frozen north this winter, and booked jobs for 2015 through October 2015. I told all my ADs that I will make up my mind about retirement next summer and if I decide to keep working a bit longer, I will let them all know by early July at the latest. They all said I'm too damned young to retire. When I told them I would be 75 in October 2015, they gasped, and said they would have never guessed.

I figure that after 65 years of working, I should begin doing nothing but fun things. (My first job was delivering circulars for a corner grocery store for .50 cents per hundred.) At age 73, and soon to be 74, I'm still working 5 to 8 jobs a week, which is insane for someone my age. My wife, for the first time in my life, agrees. She said maybe it's time to think seriously about retirement. Of course, declining health issues also have a significant bearing on this decision.

What do you think?

Gary

The thing is if you love what you do what is there for you to retire and do ? Cut down to two jobs a week or work for 6 months of the year . Just do less .. Don't stop .

The greatest health risk to anyone in my experience is retiring from the things you love . Take my advice . Reduce but don't stop .

Gary,
I officially retired at age 58 and have never looked back-this year I turned 74. When I left my career I walked out and never looked back. To this day I do not miss it and often wonder how I put up with all the BS associated with it. Since retiring I have done many things - but nothing I do not wish to do or enjoy doing. I tell everyone I can - get out of the working world as soon as you can and start living a life you really enjoy. Now I know financial issues are always an issue with retiring and what we did was to take a serious look at what we were spending money on and how that could be adjusted to fall within what we knew we would have coming in. It was simple and easy and I can truly say we have not had to do without anything we needed or wanted since then. It is all about life style and staying out of debt. I could go on but you get the point. Yes, I gig out regularly - but do so for fun and the money allows me to pay cash for equipment and a lot of other things my wife and I do. As you know, I did a few other things since retiring - worked part time for a local Best Buy store which was a blast and spent a lot of the money buying techy things from them at employee cost. Left that when it became boring.

For me retiring at age 58 was the best thing I have ever done for myself and I have zero regrets about it.

Deane

Gary,

I retired at 59 and am now 80.
I do not miss the pressure of meeting budgets and reports, but I do miss the folks I worked with every day - a great bunch or pro's.

Bill G

I feel the most important is listening to your body and mind... If you enjoy what you do, and the people you work for sure enjoy you, and you feel good, keep going. I think it keeps you healthy both in mind and body. Maybe draw back a bit on your bookings. When you start to mind going to a job, that is when you might retire. If you are still having fun, why not keep doing what your doing. Making people happy...!!!! Good Luck in whatever you decide... Ron

Hi Gary!

In all the years I have known you it never occurred to me that all the jobs you played were for the money? Of course the only point I am trying to make is that you should still play for pleasure. Even doing less gigs and maybe a few freebies you will always find an audience. You may find that that audience needs you as much as you need them!! Best wishes. -charley

Yep, I agree ... Play less , enjoy more. I retired from playing 2007 , I wish I could have kept playing , but health issues put a stop to that. If you got the choice to keep playing , if it was me , I would limit my jobs. But sometimes you have to put away the keyboards and give the stage to someone else. I,m proud to say I left with dignity and a hell of a send off. Now with more surgery pending , my stength is not there to play professionally . I wish you the best Gary, you're a hell of a entertainer.

I have enjoyed not having to go "work" every night, but I sure do miss making music and entertaining people. I think I will concentrate on private and other one at a time functions. I can charge more and not really be concerned if they hire me.
As others have said, maybe that's the way to go. Raise your prices and your list will be reduced. You can probably still make more than enough money to satisfy your vices.
Another thought. . . since you have so many great contacts and are such a good manager of the business end, maybe you could find a few qualified one-man-bands and do the booking, bookkeeping and business for them and charge commission. If anybody cancels at last minute you can fill in!

Thanks guys. I think it's more the physical constraints that tend to make me think seriously about retirement. I absolutely love what I do, and apparently, I must be doing a good job or the phone would not be wringing constantly with folks asking me to play more. However, either I'm getting weaker, or that damned equipment is gaining weight. Everything seems heavier, even that 23-pound keyboard and Bose L1 Compact.

Additionally, today's weather was beautiful, temperature in the mid 80s, nice breeze of about 15 MPH, a perfect day for sailing, but I had to work. I would rather have been out on Chesapeake Bay with wind filling the sails and watching the world go by. I'm off for the next 9 days, a stretch I placed in the schedule for taking a short cruise on my boat with my wife. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate.

I kinda figure that after working for 65 years is enough for anyone. Maybe I'll take Don Mason's advice and rise the prices, do fewer jobs and probably make the same amount of money. We'll see how things go from here. I have currently cut back to 5 to 8 jobs a week, which is a substantial decrease over what I was doing two years ago. Now, instead of playing for 52 facilities every month, I'm down to 32 locations, nearly all of which are within 20 minutes drive time from my home. If I jack up the price another $25 I'm sure that half of them will opt out.

Thanks again for your responses everyone,

Gary

are you kidding ? play music for a living is retirement......you could have a real job !!!
I knew you couldn't leave the business....lol