Loyal, post: 455503, member: 228 wrote: YOUNG guys (50ish).
Like, like, like, like. I can't hit the 'like' button hard enough or often enough. Steve
paden cash, post: 455504, member: 20 wrote: You know, I let all my clients and associates know I was going to start cutting back and it didn't do a bit of good. I spent 3 months working harder than I had before I "slowed down".
Saying "no" and turning down work is not a natural thing to someone that has survived as long as I have in the industry. It's very HARD to do. After almost a year I'm getting better at it though.
Maybe we need to start something like "surveyor's anonymous"....
"Hi, my name is Paden, and I'm a surveying addict."
"Hi, Paden."
"I couldn't turn any work down after I retired. I use to stress if I saw I had missed calls from old clients. It kept me up at night. But with the help of you all I promise I will try to turn work down. I will take it one job at a time."
(My apologies to all my friends & family members that attend other versions of 'meetings' to help them with their unique demons. 😉 )
Whenever you see that missed call light, just reach for that coin in your pocket and remember how far you've come.
Yup that's him. Lloyd Baker. I would love to sit down and have a couple cups of coffee with that man.
Hopefully someone has enough insight to do some video documentary of his stories.
106 and just retired last year.
http://kingfm.com/wyomings-oldest-man-is-still-singing-and-dancing-at-106-video/
You are all snot nosed brats. I'm 69. I went Solo in 2004 and I love it. Microsoft changing computer formats has been my biggest stress. I constantly amazed my self how I can spot corner stones and other evidence a normal person would never see. I just upgraded to a Trimble R10 system. It fixes so much faster I can't believed it. No more B##*h saying "Initialization Lost". I tried to take a couple of young guys surveying this spring. I was constantly waiting for them to catch up. One fell in the river and almost drown in 8 inches of water. The other one tripped coming down the hill and claimed he broke two ribs. They both slept all the way back. They don't make us like they use too.
Lookinatchya, post: 455485, member: 7988 wrote: I recently completed my 60th trip around the sun and it seems like there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I started my survey career in 1982. Went out on my own in 1996. I have been running a small 3-4 man shop for the last 21 years. No vacations to speak of. Work always on my mine,
I know a fellow surveyor who recently turned 70 and is still plugging along. I asked him why he doesn't retire. His comment was, " I don't hunt, fish, golf, garden or anything like that. I'm a problem solver and I enjoy surveying". Well I like to hunt and fish and have a kennel full of hunting dogs begging for more time in the field.
I applaud the guys who stick with it in their later years are are a real asset to the profession. I have a young SIT working for me and hope to hand him the reins in 5 or so years. I am mentoring him and giving him as much knowledge as I can. He has the opportunity of a life time. I stared out with nothing. Built a good reputation in my area and will have 25 years of records to pass along.
I still enjoy surveying but I thing I am starting to get grumpy old man syndrome. Don't handle all the remarks from planners, nosy neighbors, clients questioning my work etc., to well any more.
I don't have much of a bucket list but would like to do and see a few things before the years catch up with me.
So here's to all you guys just getting started and all who are looking out the back door like me!
I'm like you. I plan on retiring as soon as possible. 33 years in, the last 15 an owner.
It has been hard to find dependable help for most of my career and it has become worse at time goes by.
That is the part that I will never miss, helpers that do what they want instead of what their job is and the ones that keep talking to a cellphone all day long don't get an opportunity to come back tomorrow.
Also, the only deadline is my deadline and most callers want it yesterday for next to nothing.
The only thing that is getting better is that according to local gossip, County Clerk records are supposed to become available online next year back to Volume A, Page 1 (yeah, our county exhausted many alphabet volumes and the next volume after Z-8 was Volume 234?ñ - that too is a mystery).
Still, I always have something to do and the calls keep coming in.
I do not see retirement as a choice, one unforeseeable day it will just end.
I Wasn't really ready to retire in 2008, but the economy did it for me. I scrambled to get used to it, but now I would not trade it for anything. A lot of what I see people having to put up with in general these days convinces me just in case I regress and think I would like to do it again. The situation that I spoke of some time back about helping my old mentor did not pan out, soooooooooooo! Happy days are here again.!!!!! 🙂
Loyal, post: 455487, member: 228 wrote: I had hoped to [semi] retire this year, but I have been busier than any year that I can remember.
At 67 with 49 years surveying (32 solo), I am getting REALLY tired of 7 day weeks.
I doubt that I will ever REALLY retire (100%), until I'm dead, but I do hope to get into a part-time (couple of days a week) mode next year.
We'll see.
Loyal
"... but I have been busier than any year that I can remember."
What does that have to do with retiring? If you're solo didn't you do it to yourself? Perhaps you need to have a talk with you and see what you can work out...
Lookinatchya, post: 455485, member: 7988 wrote: I have been running a small 3-4 man shop for the last 21 years. No vacations to speak of.
I'll be 65 in the spring, and in the 24 years I've been self-employed I've made sure to carve out time for vacations with my family. At least a week every year plus a few 3- and 4-day trips, and a major trip (10 days to 3 weeks abroad) every 4 years or so. Setting up my work schedule so it can accommodate those vacations is always stressful, but at the same time it has always worked out. Those experiences with my wife and son (and occasionally friends or other family) have been invaluable.
I have no plans to retire; I figure that something will happen eventually that will impose it on me. One really good health issue -- an injury, a major illness, a hip or knee replacement, something like that -- might be enough to sideline me long enough to force my clients to find other consultants and make restarting the business unworkable. But until that happens, I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing.
ACD Surveyor, post: 455494, member: 494 wrote: I'm also 67 and have been working for local governments for over 40 years. I've been thinking of retiring and doing a little part time private surveying. A lot of the local surveyors have passed so there is a shortage of local surveyors. I'll interested in anyone else that has done part time surveying and how it has worked out for you. How does maintaining liability insurance work for a part time surveyor with no previous liability insurance?:worried:
You have got to be someone I know, but I'm not going to throw out any names.
One question, though: did you ever work with Bob Hamm; God rest his small (but not anti) government soul. He once told me that if he needed the fire department, he??d let them know and then pay them for their time, but he didn??t want to pay them when they weren??t working for him.
He was a good man despite such silly attitudes.
If you are who I think you are, I can tell you from experience that, as you know, you've got unlicensed people plowing your fields with remote supervision. You probably need to resolve that before you retire.
Or not. I'm retired now myself so I don't really care.
Why do you want to work after you retire, anyway?
Don
A Harris, post: 455527, member: 81 wrote: It has been hard to find dependable help for most of my career and it has become worse at time goes by.
That is the part that I will never miss, helpers that do what they want instead of what their job is and the ones that keep talking to a cellphone all day long don't get an opportunity to come back tomorrow.
Also, the only deadline is my deadline and most callers want it yesterday for next to nothing.
The only thing that is getting better is that according to local gossip, County Clerk records are supposed to become available online next year back to Volume A, Page 1 (yeah, our county exhausted many alphabet volumes and the next volume after Z-8 was Volume 234?ñ - that too is a mystery).
Still, I always have something to do and the calls keep coming in.
I do not see retirement as a choice, one unforeseeable day it will just end.
The software will be so hard to use you'll have to go down to their office and have them help you find what you're looking for. I can't get past the sign-in B's.
[USER=9224]@Skeeter1996[/USER]
Opening pubic data files are no problem.
Knowing how to obtain the data files is the trade secret.
Uh, Mr. Harris..........................................are you certain that is what you meant?:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
OMG, where did my "l" go.
paden cash, post: 455490, member: 20 wrote: Choosing and picking what you do and when you do it is a great personal freedom.
Then things can revolve around your schedule. Not vice-versa. 😎
Can't retire me and SWMBO would probably kill each other. :p
