Year 2022 was gone, and 2023 is here couple days already. One kid went back to school, one still stays home, hubby and I started working from Tuesday. It looks like my life is going back to normal in 2023.
Yesterday was a rainy day, and I went to an ex-coworker’s funeral. She was working in my unit over 20 years, and a lot of us respected her because she was the one providing us training. She retired in 2021 after discovering a stage 4 cancer. She was single a whole life. She kept telling me how much she loved her job, and she would retire until 62 to claim the social security and her State pension.
Both pensions added up more than her salary, but she had to retire couple months before her target date. At the time she could claim both pensions in February 2022, she only received 10 months checks because she passed away in December.
Before pandemic, we were often having lunch together. She told me that she could not enjoy her life as much because she had diabetes. She said she went to Japan with her sisters, and she had to rest on the bench to wait for them a lot of time.
Her retirement plan was to stay in Hong Kong and Taiwan for several months. She grew up in Hong Kong, and she wanted to living there for a while to enjoy good food and the culture. She said Taiwan had best weather, good food, a lot of places to visit, the most of low living standards to the US citizens.
All these plans were gone after she was sick. She fought with disease the last 18 months per the pastor. The pastor said she was a very strong fighter, and she was not afraid to die because she believed god.
I asked one of my ex-coworker who has the same age as me, “Are you going to retire at 55?”. She replied “yes”. “Let’s go together to visit France”. “That’s our plan”. We work for government because of the retirement pension.
Every month we have to contribute a lot of money to our pension plan, and our pays usually are lower than private companies. All these sacrifices are for security when we are getting old. Some people are jealous of our pensions, but they choose not to give up their life quality when they are young. What can I say?
Year 2023 already here, it is time to make a New Year resolution. I worked very hard to complete my 2022 New Year resolution, losing 10 lbs, my weight dropped from 140 to 130. Because of intense playing Pickle ball, I felt better about my body and my health.
This year’s New Year resolution is to contribute more back to society, like involving more as volunteer and donations. I stopped or doing less these things after pandemic. For sure I will be a better and happier person if I work on my New Year resolution in Year 2023!