What would you do ?

[Slee_stack]

My stapler gets stolen regularly!  I've given up on it.

Its a shame you left, just when you were becoming upper management level material.

Enjoy your retirement with flair!

[Cannot Wait!]

Awesome!   Pretty nice timing it with the start of summer too.  Congrats!

[Peter Gibbons]

Buh-buh-but that stapler's not red.

Thanks for the update. Don't be such a stranger. We like details such as your boss' and coworker's reaction, plus family, friends, neighbors. We want dirt, even if it's clean fill dirt. And we don't give a fig about your future plans, we're just happy you pulled the trigger.

Update 9/9/2016:  Funny that boss and several coworkers and neighbors stated they were "jealous" that I could RE at 45 years old and seemed to have a hard time to understand how that is possible.  My boss had unfortunately eliminated many positions in the past and told me on my last day that he thought I had handled it the best of anyone he had ever seen before.  I was very tempted to tell him that was because I had "FU money", but I kept that to myself.  I left on very good terms with all of the former colleagues that I respected. 

Yesterday, one of those former colleagues called with an offer to return as an engineering consultant to help with a hot project.  I am thinking hard about the opportunity.  I guess I would need to quickly form a new LLC as a consulting company if I want to do it.  Anyone ever done this and have some advice ?  TIA.

[Goldielocks]

Can engineers form regular LLC's in your state?  Here, Accountants, lawyers, engineers, etc can not, only Limited partnerships or a restricted form of LLC that still leaves you liable for professional error.

So, check with your engineering association to find out what level of liabilty insurance they provide to small (single person) consultancies. 

This is one of the reasons that I am not going to work part time as a consulting engineer,  in retirement, but will choose something else.

AND, of course, price yourself to include a proportion of taxes, medical and liability insurances, if not marketing and home office.

Good luck!