Today is my first day of retirement and it didn't sink in yet. I've been working since 18 and I'm now 58. I actually started working at 11 delivering newspapers but my first full-time job was at 18 washing dishes. I choose a hard path in life early on by leaving school at 17 and knowing what I know now, I would have completed a higher education. I had odd jobs until I started working in the automobile industry as a car parts seller in a dealership. I was lucky enough to work for someone who took the time to train me and show me the job inside out. I worked 10 years in that field. Side info, I started drinking when I was a teenager and started using hard drugs at around 21. A life of partying too hard got me in the hospital with health complications and I end up losing job. It was a wake-up call and decided to get my life under control. At 30 I went into rehab, declared bankruptcy and went back to school. I managed to get a degree in IT and what do you know, I got lucky again and after a few years of working in IT, I got a teaching job in my field. I did that untill 42 and my old deamons came back to hunt me. I slowly started to use, thinking I could control my habit… Was I ever wrong. I ended up going to rehab again at 48 but not before I found another job in IT for a big multinational. That job literally saved my ass. They had great health benefits and a great 401K including a program for drug users as me. I was lucky enough to be able to buy a house at 46, just before shit hit the fan and I was able to keep it because the pay was good enough to supporty drug use and my bills, and I had a good credit which I used a lot, i.e. all my credit card were filled to the top. Once I stopped using, I was able to pay all my credit cards and pay off my car. Fast forward a few months ago, my employer which I've been with for 12 years de used to bring us all back full time at the office, no more work from home. I had been working from home for 2 years and was very unhappy with that decision and it's when I started calculating if I could afford an early retirement. What a surprise, I could, thanks for all the money my employer put in my retiremet fund. Sooooo, I gave them a 2 months notice and here I am today, out of work… Erm, i mean, retired. I never thought I would be able to retire with all my abuse but life decided differently. Thanks for reading my short life story.