Barb's retirement -

[CalmMyTits]

Does anyone know why Barb retired so early? According to the CwCki, she retired in 1996, at only the age of 55. Most people don't consider retirement till at least 60, even two decades ago when the retirement age was a couple of years younger than it was set now.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

She wanted to see the world. Wait, no, that's not it.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

She's lazy.

 

[champthom]

Didn't she work for a state utility company? I think with state sort of jobs you can get away with retiring early, or so it was possible back in the day (I can't believe 1996 is now like, almost 20 years ago).

 

[CatParty]

having chris as a son takes years off one's life.

 

[LM 697]

What better way to spend the twilight of your life than with your needy autistic son?

 

[Tubular Monkey]

Anyone else think that Barb is a much more interesting person to try to figure out than Chris? So much of his behavior is down to the 'tism. Barb is just messed up.

 

[duckduckgoose]

I was thinking about Barb as a secretary the other day.

I'm going to guess that she retired early for two reasons:

1. She couldn't keep up with the technology. Things like multiple-line telephones, computers and the internet were too complicated for her. So because she didn't want to learn anything new and she decided to retire early.

or

2. Like other posters have said, there was an early retirement plan where she worked and she realized she could stay home, live on hers and Bob's retirement and not have to work another whole day in her life.

 

[Some JERK]

Early retirement is a goal for many and in a lot of cases, it's a yardstick for success. Clearly nothing about the Chandlers can be considered 'success', but you can't really use early-retirement as a measure of success OR failure depending on whether or not you like the person in question. That's Chris-level shit.

i'm sure she retired because she could. A lot of people would if they could get away with it right now.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I don't see anything unusual about her retiring as early as possible. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's not like she had any sort of prestigious rock-star job, she was a secretary. She just didn't realize at the time that she couldn't keep herself occupied, social, and sane without something like a job to give her structure. And thus we saw the descent into hoarding madness.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

From what we know of the Chandlers they're not (or at least they weren't pre-Bob's death) needy for money. Bob probably made some pretty good bank as an engineer at General Electric which would've meant they could afford a modest but comfortable retirement.

 

[Count groudon]

Her hoard needed tending. Duh

 

[The Dude]

Her hoard needed tending. Duh

Dammit, you stole my hoard joke!