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Thread: Retirement?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    Canada
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    3,338

    Default Retirement?

    I have been in the field of graphic since 1991. I have worked more than a decade for a company as their senior designer and later 15 years working for myself and dealing with clients large and small. Xara has been a big part of my production work over the years and I am dedicated to the program outside of my ranting now and then.

    Most but not all my clients have gone out of business due to covid and the ones that have remained gradually give me work. Due to my age and experience I am not in need of money to find new clients and deal with constant bickering. I feel I am running out of patience dealing with idiots, not to say that some of my past clients have been great too, but overall I have ran out of steam.

    I am writing this to see who else is in my situation. Oh and maybe this has contributed to me feeling this way, during the past 5 years I have been the main care taker for my mother who passed away and now my father who is ill. So Just that alone is a full time job.

    Life has not been easy either during covid for all of us too. So even though I will be hanging out here and doing minor work for clients, I can say pretty much I feel as if I should retire.

    I am 56 now, maybe some of you will laugh at me and say that is too soon to retire, but maybe in a few years time I would feel different than now.

    Another thing is that I have no patience to learn a new program, I prefer sticking to what I know.

    So love to hear where your at in your life and what plans do you have.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    UK
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    21,284

    Default Re: Retirement?

    see PM
    -------------------------------
    Nothing lasts forever...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Placitas, New Mexico, USA
    Posts
    41,487

    Default Re: Retirement?

    You can be semi-retired. One of the benefits of this is being able to tell a client that is difficult to get lost.

    Take on projects that you want to work on and that are fun and challenging.

    I worked in advertising for 15 years and then Mary and I had our own graphic design company in San Francisco for 12 years. Mary burned out and wanted to paint. And I just worked on projects I wanted to work on. One client who turned out to be a client from hell, I returned her check and said find someone else. And it felt so good to do that.

    And I tried new things. I got involved with writing articles for Corel Magazine, Publish Magazine, and software reviews for Communication Arts Magazine. I wrote for Communication Arts Magazine for 12 years. And wonder of wonder, though all my software reviews were done in the Windows versions, I never heard one complaint from the community who were almost exclusively Mac users.

    Then I got involved with i/us.com doing the original XaraXone. When Arlen and Chris sold the company, I asked Xara to sponsor and they did, for about 15 years. And I loved doing the XaraXone but eventually, I bowed out of that.

    And I almost forgot my most fun gig of all, STEREOGRAMS. I have been making and selling these for over 20 years. I work with Gene Levine, another stereogram artist, and Brad Honeycutt our business manager at our little company, eyeTricks 3D Stereograms. None of us has met the other and I have only spoken on the phone once to Gene. Gene's in LA, Brad's somewhere in Michigan. But it all works out. And Gene and I have been the sole contributors to a Japanese Stereogram Magazine for over 20 years now. We have a Japanese manager that we have never met. Everything is email and text messages. Our images are uploaded to the cloud and the Japanese client downloads at their end.

    But all the "odd jobs" I did were fun and I really enjoyed doing them.

    So you don't need to retire. Just be more particular who you work with and do what you like to do.

    My Dos Centavos Neuvo Mexico.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    Canada
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    Default Re: Retirement?

    So good to learn more about you guys, thank you for sharing. Life is short and I need to make sure the people I work for are great too. I have gained a lot of experience over the years and now been there done that. I do not think I will ever stop designing. I have in my 20's drawn and painted. Just got an email from a famous Canadian wildlife artist called (Robert Bateman) He was and is my idol and one day I will get back to my drawings. Here is a sample of pencil work I did when I was 22.
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    StPeters, MO USA
    Posts
    10,819

    Default Re: Retirement?

    behazd I was an Architectural Delineator for many years before becoming an oil painter and semi-professional magician so if you can afford it then go for it, you can still do the things you love but without the pressure, the beauty is some days you will and some days you won't.
    Larry a.k.a wizard509

    Never give up. You will never fail, but you may find a lot of ways that don't work.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    Canada
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    Default Re: Retirement?

    Thank you

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ottawa, IL USA
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    1,138

    Default Re: Retirement?

    I'm 58, and consider myself semi-retired. I have some investments for my retirement, and an inheritance coming soon enough, so my financial future isn't bleak. Oh and for healthcare, while not always the greatest, I'm fully covered by the VA as a veteran. After 8 years or so in the graphics industry working for others (with 4 years in the Army tucked in there), then 22 years running my own graphic design/digital print studio, which closed in 2015, due to family health issues. I was doing freelance illustration with Xara as a primary tool, concurrently for the last 7 years while still running that business. So now, I do freelance work 50% of the time, and create my own projects that I self-publish the other 50% of my time. I work from home. Some jobs require me to fly to my clients, but most work I never meet my clients, everything is handled online, including getting paid. I have enough free time that I can caregive for both my parents, though my Dad is going downhill fast - and that's a big time eater in my daily schedule.

    One piece of advice might be find better clients... all my clients trust me, respond to questions I have, and though sometimes requiring tweaks or corrections after the job is complete - last minute changes before publication, those extras are usually minimal. I have great clients. Also while I am a member of some social media, like Linked-In or Facebook - clients easily find me. I've never asked for work from a client ever, not in my freelance career anyway - all my clients find me and they initiate contact. While I have an impressive resume/CV if I ever needed one - I've never actually needed it. My portfolio does send clients my way, as well as Facebook posts of maps, and here, but I largely get work through reputation alone.

    So I'll retire when I'm dead, or when I'm incapable of doing what I do. Until then, I immensesly enjoy what I do, so I don't see it as work - even though it does take effort and creativity.

    Nice impala illustration, by the way.
    Last edited by Gamerprinter; 26 February 2021 at 06:07 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    Canada
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    Default Re: Retirement?

    Gamerprinter thanks for sharing your experiences and your compliment about my illustration.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Bracknell, UK
    Posts
    8,659

    Default Re: Retirement?

    Carry on doing what you're doing but take up art again.

    I think retirement is a very odd concept that many cannot afford.

    Do more of what you want to do.

    I had two PIA clients last year and it makes me more inclined to do what I want to do for a change rather than spend my life doing stupid things for unpleasant people.

    Two years ago I lost a client to cancer. He was about my age and the most wonderful man as a client and a friend. So do things you want to do, if you can.

    I will retire when I can't work, but I won't work like I have done in the past.

    Ironically I considered becoming a mailman last year, just to get a modest income, get fitter and remove the hassles of bad clients and have time to do what I want as well. Covid-19 put paid to that.

    A lot of people deteriorate badly after retirement because they don't know what to do with themselves and they lose a sense of purpose. Don't be like that.

    Ask this guy about retirement..

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-56204309

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    21,284

    Default Re: Retirement?

    depends how you define retirement; it certainly should not be a retirement from activity, and depending on circumstances it may not be a retirement from generating income

    but it should be an opportunity to do things you always wanted to do, but never got round to.. of course, if you are working your way through those already in your work, you are laughing
    -------------------------------
    Nothing lasts forever...

 

 

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