T.Lee’s Life Story – Chapter 10, Retirement

This post will describe the final chapter of my life — my retirement — the inevitable end that we all come to sooner or later.  At age 65, I became eligible for and enrolled in a government-subsidized medical/health insurance program called Medicare. My wife had some good fortune in the stock market with Tesla stock, so I was able to retire at age 66 with all my major debts paid off, except for one house mortgage, which was being paid for by a renter. So it looks like at this point that I have enough of a nest egg to make it to the end of my life, I think.

T.Lee’s Life Story – Chapter 8, Westinghouse Again

Chapter 8 of my life brought me full circle. When I left the US Navy in 1980, I began my professional civilian nuclear career with Westinghouse. After working at Westinghouse for 10 years, I quit Westinghouse in 1990 to do contracting work for higher wages. In 2010, 20 years later, circumstances caused me to return to Westinghouse once again. My second stint at Westinghouse is what this chapter is about.

T.Lee’s Life Story – Chapter 7, My Non-Nuclear Career Change

In April 2003, at age 50, I decided it was a good time to change careers. For the first time in my life, I was unemployed (for an extended amount of time), and I have to admit that it felt good not having to get up early every morning to go to work. I took this opportunity to go back to college and, in August of 2005, I earned a master’s degree in Computing Technology in Education. This degree was a blend of computer technology and the field of education. My first extended unemployment period in my life seemed to fly by, passing in the blink of an eye. At age 55, I landed my first non-nuclear job as a college professor, and I taught technical, college-level, computer courses for a little over a year. The pay was very small compared to my previous nuclear pay. I needed more money than that to survive, so I moved on to a higher-paying job as a database report writer at a Florida county school district headquarters building. The pay was more than my college professor salary had been but was still only half of my previous nuclear job salary.

T.Lee’s Life Story – Chapter 6, Working In-House at a Utility

Recall that a utility is a company that owns a nuclear plant. Headhunters do NOT own nuclear plants. As a contractor, I worked for headhunters. In this chapter, I will take a job as a permanent employee working directly for a utility at their nuclear plant. Nuclear plants are easily recognizable by the tall, dome-shaped buildings. The nuclear reactors are inside these buildings, which are called containment buildings.