He had been thinking about retiring for a few years leading up to the pandemic -- he wasn't finding the work as fulfilling as it used to be and his financial adviser gave him the green light. And then a few months into the pandemic, he requested a voluntary layoff.

"When the option came up that I could retire now and still get paid for six months, that's not bad."

Since he was 56 when he retired in 2020, he planned on using his non-retirement accounts to live on to avoid any early-withdrawal penalties.

"At the beginning of this year, as the stock market started going down and prices started going up, I was thinking 'this could make things a little more challenging than I would like them to be.'"

*

Donaldson had always considered working part-time in retirement to stay active and try new things, and when a recruiter reached out to him for a full-time contractor job at an aerospace company, he decided to go for it.

"It removes any kind of concern that I had with watching my nest egg get whittled down."

He had been thinking about retiring for a few years leading up to the pandemic -- he wasn't finding the work as fulfilling as it used to be and his financial adviser gave him the green light. And then a few months into the pandemic, he requested a voluntary layoff.

"When the option came up that I could retire now and still get paid for six months, that's not bad."

Since he was 56 when he retired in 2020, he planned on using his non-retirement accounts to live on to avoid any early-withdrawal penalties.

"At the beginning of this year, as the stock market started going down and prices started going up, I was thinking 'this could make things a little more challenging than I would like them to be.'"

*

Donaldson had always considered working part-time in retirement to stay active and try new things, and when a recruiter reached out to him for a full-time contractor job at an aerospace company, he decided to go for it.

"It removes any kind of concern that I had with watching my nest egg get whittled down."