yves845

Hi there,
My last really long touring trip was almost 10 years ago. Since then, I made quite a few small weekly/biweekly unsuppported trips in France.
I'm at a real professionnal AND personnal crossroad :
- Either I continue working as a "locum" psychiatrist, considering that the French government is at war with us, drastically capping our revenues : from september it's going to be halved, at around 30 euro per hour. Depending on everyone's point of view, it's either scandalously high or ridiculously low.
-Or I decide to go back to a private practice. And as you can imagine inpatients are really picky, it's mostly a commercial business like any other.

At 63, I miss the Scandinavian tour, the grand total Real GB tour, a trans america. It's probably too late for the pan american. And geo-politcal stuff are limiting the far East european option for the years to come.

"je suis né trop jeune dans un monde trop vieux"

timdow

Can't help with career advice, except to say that you only have so many more years to do bike tours, of whatever other "go-go years" activities you yearn for. Why work anyway? Bike touring is inexpensive, and life is short!

indyfabz

Amen! After my recent health scare, I’ve decided to retire next March at age 59, which is one year before my original plan. The relatively little extra money and pension credit I would earn in that extra year isn’t worth it to me. You can’t enjoy what you have if you’re dead.

timdow

Congrats on your pending retirement. I am also retiring in Feb/Mar next year at 58. I leave to do the Southern Tier a week later.

jamawani 

Macron is holding the door for Le Pen at this point.
It can only get worse. So, do it while you can.

mev

I have been an advocate of doing these trips while you can - while also bring responsible.

Over course of a 35-year career since graduation from university, I've taken five unpaid leaves and one quit/rehire - for long bicycle tours. This is working for two employers. A total of 55 months of a 420 month period. Currently on a six-month leave touring before going back to work.

I've been fortunate and lucky - but I've also made tradeoffs and decisions to enable this work choice.

So when people can make these trips along the way rather than waiting until retirement - I am a fan. If not, I agree with sentiment of looking at what you trade off in picking time to retire and of advance planning whatever choices you make.

50PlusCycling

Move to New York, a friend of mine is practicing there. She charges $440 an hour, and is always fully booked.

Eyes Roll

Is your suggestion viable though? He is 63. He needs to be licensed in the US, which means he needs to study and pass quite a few exams and then do the practical training (i.e., residency) to become U.S. licensed, which might take at least 5 years from now, if he does perfect planning and succeeds in that. By the time he becomes US licensed he will be 70 (or close to that), the age most US psychiatrists retire. Who would go against the norm and hire an old man from abroad, even he possess exceptional education and work skills? Don't forget, immigrating to the US is more complex than immigrating to any other country.

indyfabz

And her rent is $500 an hour.

PedalingWalrus

63? Dude, stop working today and get on your bike and ride 👍❤️

indyfabz

Yep. I volunteered to be downsized in the wake of an acquisition of my employer so I could ride across the U.S. It was my first ever unsupported tour, and I had never camped a day in my life. I was 34 at the time and really didn't know what I was going to do after the trip was done. I was 34 at the time. Gave up my apartment and moved in with mom while i was not traveling. I ended up taking nearly two years off from the working world. During that time, I did three long tours. As luck would have it, I basically got my old job back. So, you never know how things might turn out. Definitely made sacrifices. I used to joke that I was the most ineligible bachelor in the city. Unemployed living with my mom and riding a bike to get around. But I would not trade the experiences I had for the money or potential career advancement I gave up.

staehpj1

I am all for retiring when you can. I did manage to do long tours before I retired though so it isn't always necessary to retire to do multimonth tours if you can prioritiize that in your career choices. I was lucky enough to be able to do that. I retired at 62 and it was probably as early as it made sense in my situation. I had always hoped to retire at 59, but health insurance was the hitch for me. Due to a variety of factors I have actually toured less after reitirement than in the 5 or 6 years leading up to it, but that was due more to unforseen things than retirement per se.

Xavier65

Retire to the Magnoac region in Gascony, a dead-zone, where property is cheap because you're far from cities and tourism. You never know, you may even find a market for your skills. However, it's good cycling country, being not too far from the Pyrénées.

TiHabanero

Ah yes, retirement. Fall of 25 is the target date. Will be 5 years early from plan, however life is short, too short to put it off. Had a cancer concern earlier this year and that is when I decided to stop working and do what I have wanted to do for a very long time, months long tours by bicycle. I've been to several countries over the years, but have seen little of my home country thus that is the goal before reaching an age where I cannot physically tour and tent camp.

yves845

I considered it. My daughter is liviing in Oakland (CA) and will be american before the end of this year.
The other possible option would be to spend a few years in Ireland (since it's in the EU, my diploma is recognized) then try to go to the US. that's also nearing 70 ...

I have american friends in Marseille, and the french immigration is also regularly a nightmare for them ...

All considered, I'm going to try to take 3 mo vacation each year. Bike touring is infinitely more rewarding than any kind of office job !
At 63, my healthy years are becoming limited.

yves845

Five years ago I decided to quit my job in the hospital system, sold my flat in Paris and bought a house in a nice place away from the crowd. This house was in "mint" condition from the early sixties, including the decoration. My spare time went mostly in renovations. It's nearly finished now, but it took way too much time. During these five years I regularly traveled to work by bike. It was 7 to 10 days unsupported touring trips. I visited many semi-deserted places in France and this was the most rewarding part of the job !
I expected that this "locum" system would last 10 more years : this was an error, first do what you really want to do, then the chores !

Yan 

You want to move from France to America? What are you, freaking nuts? Have you ever lived here before?

You must have a pretty rosy picture of America because nobody in their right mind would ever move here from another 1st world country. Literally any other western country would be a better choice. The smart people I know are all getting the hell out of here (those with the education and wealth to be able to easily leave).

Lacking in culture, terrible ugly cities, cars everywhere, zero infrastructure for anyone not driving, ugly politics, guns everywhere, Titanic 1st class vs 3rd class styled end stage capitalist social breakdown, terrible corporate healthcare system, especially for someone like you who is entering old age.

Emphasis on the lack of culture. You're going to be back in Paris in 6 months.

yves845

I will refrain to answer your post which I consider particulary offensive vis a vis our american cycling buddies.

indyfabz

Sorry, but the part about health care is spot on. One of the ancillary charges (I believe it was for some type of neuro monitoring) for my major heart surgery back in January was over $32,000.00. If I didn’t have very good health insurance I’d be broke. (My out of pocket expenses were capped at $5,500 for the year. I probably hit that in the first hour in the emergency room, if not sooner, not to mention the 4 days on a ventilator in the ICU​​​​.) Maybe when I retire next year I’ll add up the figures from the 5”+ stack of benefits explanations I have in a shoebox but have never opened.

Yan 

They're not going to get offended. They are exactly the smart people I was referring to. I've lived in six countries and if there is anything that unites American expats, it's the shared enthusiasm for sh*tting on America. Every lunch, every party you go to, It's practically a bonding exercise. When you actually leave the country and see what other places are like, the curtains are removed from you eyes and you realize what a messed up place the country is and how gross all the bravado and jingoism are.

abdon 

I'm 55 and if I could retire today I would just phone in my resignation in the morning. Having a fully funded retirement is no trivial task so I'm hoping to (slightly? not so slightly?) overshoot and compensate with an extremely busy frugal life. Then again God knows what the market will do in the next 9 1/2 years so I could either afford to splurge or have to keep on working...

How is your financial situation? Can you afford to call it quits? For me if that was the case that would be a no-brainer.

Here's something to get your wanderlust going: If you want to schedule some time in Alaska PM me, if I can I'll be happy to help. To be honest I haven't been touring in a while but on my bucket list is the road to Mount Denali. Scroll down on this page to look for the flyover video:

https://www.alaska.org/destination/denali-national-park