Thoughts on Retirement, Part Time Work and Change

I am afraid this will be a long post. So, if you do not have the time, you're welcome to skip it. However, I will appreciate all the input or advice you may have to offer on my thought process below.

Most of you may know, I am retired and I do like to be retired but, it is also kind of boring.  Even so, until recently, I wasn't really willing to take on work even part-time. However, the recent developments in the country made me think harder about this.

I have saved a nice nest egg to complement my retirement income but, with what's hapening in the country lately, I am concerned that we are headed to a hyper inflation period. Nobody understands why the current government is taking the country to an economical doom. It is a complicated story so, I am not going to dive into the details of it but, the economy is a mess. Here is a simple piece of info to show you how bad things have become:

USD 1= 1.91 TL end of 2011

USD 1 = 3.52 TL end of 2016

USD 1 = 12.08 TL last Friday and this happened within a few months. It used to be around 7 or 8 TL earlier in the year.

My nest egg consists of  USD (60%), TL(22%), Gold and a small amount of Euros. So, I can say that, my nest egg increased in value with the increase of USD but, that does not mean much. I never want to dip into the non-TL part of my nest egg until after the age of 70 or better yet 75. I have been supplementing my pension with mostly the interest I was earning on the TL portion of it. This year, I had to dip into the principal but, not significantly.

The president of the country (the p is not capital intentionally just to show how much I "like" him) is the kind of person capable of doing anything just to stay in power. He is creating a big divide between the  people which may lead to civil unrest so that he can declare a State of Emergency to avoid general elections in 2023. If that does not happen, he is prepared to take the country to war with one of the neighboring countries. That could also be a reason for a State of Emergency. This is how bad the situation is.

Part of the reason why I am so concerned about the future is that, our family is small but, other than my SIS and BIL, the rest are not well of and their lives may become harder down the line. They may need some financial assistance (although it is extremely hard to convince them to accept such help). Besides, there are already some health issues in the family. I sincerely hope and wish, we shall never need to spend loads of money for health reasons. I would rather have us use it for good days. So, I am seeing my money sort of like an insurance for the whole family in the long run too. This does not mean that I will not spend my hard earned money on myself. I still would like to travel, enjoy vacations and family get togethers. 

I guess, I was able to give you dear readers (who has loads of patience to read this)  a summary of my situation. So, you see the thought of additional income has all of a sudden become "interesting" while I still do not want to go back to working full time.

Some of you may know that, I was complaining that I was sucked into a part-time IT Recruitment job, I had a bad experience  with last time and decided not to continue doing it early this year. The owner of the company is a friend and she practically begged me to consider it once again a month ago. I accepted one project that requires finding two senior level positions and laid down my rules and my friend  agreed to them. 

So far, the job did not make me stressed yet. We are at the verge of submitting our Short List to the Client. It can go downhill from here like last time or it can go smoothly. I have diligently selected the candidates to be submitted so, I am hoping for a smooth sail. We'll see. If this project is successful, I will receive a nice chunk of money that will enable me not to touch my nest egg or rather the interest generated by the TL portion of it next year. My initial motivation was to just do this one project and call it quits. I just realized, it doesn't have to be that way. My friend assured me, I can take on as little work as I like and doing one project at a time is not all that time consuming. So, may be it is now a good idea to keep on doing it for a while at my own pace.

Recently, I have also been approached by a medical association, a non profit organization whose President is the husband of a High School mate. They needed someone business minded to oversee their operation on a part-time basis. We had a meeting a week or so ago and he and a couple of other doctors told me about their organization in detail. I like how involved they are in their field and how much more can be done. Their only problem is that they cannot pay me much. Instead of saying "no", I thought about what I would be willing to do for them at that payment level. The pay is almost symbolic but, with the economy tanking badly, a regular additional income might not be so bad after all. Right? Besides, I think this is the kind of thing that will make me feel good about myself.

I have always wanted to volunteer for a nice cause but, I am not as selfless as the people who throw themselves fully into the cause they believe in without expecting anything in return. I am sure, I have mentioned about being a bit selfish before. So, I figured I could do this on a half-paid, half volunteer basis. 

This morning, the President of the organization called me and I told him  how we can make this work. I cannot be available as much as they want due to the small pay but, I can act as a consultant and we can  tackle a a couple of projects at a time on my terms. I can participate in their management meetings and offer them guidance, ways to improve certain processes and generally my experience as a consultant who has a business background. I will also help them deal with international relations. They need someone with language skills to build bridges between sister organizations in other parts of the world. I can do that.

The President wants to work with me so, he will take this to the Board and let me know what the they say. So, this still may or may not happen. Either way, I am cool with it.

I know I was very reluctant to work initially, but, adapting to change is a must in life. I also consider it a true skill to cope with change. I will still be the boss of most of my time. Besides, I am not using all this spare time in a productive manner anyway. Perhaps if I lived in a peaceful part of the world, it would have been different. They say geography is your fate. I guess it is true. 

So, what do you think Dear Readers?