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I retired the first time at forty. Second time at 50, third at 6ixty,4th at seventy-4. Might last this time. Set up very nice, but no close friends to help pass the time. Family members have very full lives of their own,so not much help from that area. So I do mostly what I want, but still actively seek an upright friend,or several who would enjoy stateside travel,get togathers and dressing to the nines!
Everyone's situation is different but if you don't have a lot of bills, you should be okay if you are frugal. Those "surprise" expenses are the ones that tend to creep up on us old duffers.:battingeyelashes::)
This is a great thread and is soooo appropriate to where I am right now. I turned 57 in October and I am planning to leave my company after 18 years the end of Feb 2013, take their pension and move to New Zealand for 3 years to get my PhD in astronomy, something I love! I have worked hard to pay off all debts and build up a retirement account. Between company pension, renting my house and scholarship funding I will not only have enough to live on and take bicycling tours and fly fishing but should be able to continue to put money back in savings.
I will be retiring in about another 20 months or so at the ripe old age of 47, after working for them for over 27 yrs. If CD'ing did one thing for me, it led me into one of those "over-compensating" (way over-compensating-btw) career's that paid well, and to a company that has a wonderful defined permanent retirement pension plan & healthcare benefits......for life. Add to that my own savings and retirement investment planning and I should be in o.k. financial shape and theoretically I would never have to work again if I choose not to.
I am a professional engineer who specializes in a particular area of facility development & constuction which is totally a growth industry in this country. I could have made a ton more money working in the private sector ( and i continually get good offers, and many of the private A&E firms we work with are now already beginning to express interest in me knowing that I am going to be retiring soon.) I have stayed with my employer's all these years though due to it being a recession proof company, and I have never had to worry about finidng another job.
With my retirement now looming though, I am beginning to think about my next life.
Again, I could continue to do what I do in the private sector this time, which will bring in a very nice income combined with my retirment, but at the same time, I am not sure I want to continue to put in killer hours and continous travel on a plane every other week. I also have other interests and hobbies I would like to persue more, primarily of course that being Sarah, which I really want to do more with (e.g" getting out more dressed, going to events, having the time to get better with make up, getting permaent hair laser removal done, etc.) So really, I need to look around to find a job where it will be much more on my terms insead of my employer's, which it has only been up to now. I know I will be doing something when I retire, and I will not just sit around the house, I am just not sure what it is I am going to end up doing. What an exciting time this is for me!!!!
Money wise I'm fine. Thinking I'll keep going another 5-7 years, then retire in my early 60's. That said, my greatest challenge is deciding what that life looks like and what I want to do in retirement. I really love my work and my job (at least for now) so I have not focused on a plan. I know I should, but I prefer to procrastinate :brolleyes:
I retired in '96' and have never missed my job. Yes I enjoyed my job. I sometimes wonder how I ever found time to work. I'm almost always busy doing something. I do not watch my grand kids. That's their parents job. Well I have watched them every now and then but only for a hour or so at a time. Relax and enjoy life while you can.
Because I was raised to be independent, I have sufficient resources to retire even without Social Security (which I won't be elligible for some time). As I saved and invested through my life, I watched peers make some poor decisions with their money, often chiding me for being so frugal. Perhaps the lesson I learned from my parents who survived the depression was that there are no guarantees other than what we create for ourselves.
I continue to work for the intellectual satisfaction I get, though my GD is making it less comfortable. I expect when the balance tips, I will retire, but volunteer as Kelly.
So yes, I am sitting in a dress thinking that being different isn't such a curse.
I've been in my profession for 34 years and along the way I've collected entitlement to 3 different pensions that are under solid management. The job I currently have is so easy, due to my experience, that I consider it almost retired with a hobby job. With the fact that the unit I work with just joined a union that will add 10 more years of pension if I work to age 67. So, four pensions, SS and a reverse mortgage on the house, I should be in good shape.
But, the number one most important retirement factor is health. So that is my primary focus.
I made a choice years ago to defer immediate gratification for long range gratification. I retired five years ago debt free, house free and clear, a nice retirement check. The key is to not owe anyone. Live within your income. Be realistic.
I just got together with twelve other recent (within ten years) retirees for lunch. None regret their choices. All are prosperous and living well.
Those who question a decision to retire have not planned for their own retirement.
We were always financially responsible and only borrowed money for a mortgage, always contributed the maximum to the 401(k) plus did other reasonable investing in low cost mutual funds. There was a nice nest egg but I still probably wouldn't have retired 10 years ago if my wife was healthy. Instead of paying for a home health care worker, a cleaning service, and a lawn service, I retired to do those jobs. Fortunately I had company pensions which included health insurance since I was to young for Medicare. Now Social Security has kicked in at my full retirement age and we have yet to dip into the nest egg but that day will come eventually with inflation. Taking care of my wife adds structure to my retirement days but I have plenty of time for fun too. I haven't missed working one bit. We take very nice vacations 4 or 5 times a year, do volunteer work, tend the garden, enjoy our family, and dabble in the arts. Life is good.
Are you married? This may be the most important question as retired life for a married couple brings about many changes, not all of them good. Many spouses have ideas as to what their retired spouse should be doing.
A great thing about being retired is that you have much more time on which to be en femme. However, the presence of a spouse may affect this. I have been retired since 2000 and now live alone so, my femme time is way up!
My wife and I both had the years to retire from our jobs and we had retirement plans that would provide neatly the same income as we were earning and both of us had pretty high stress jobs so we retired. We left town and moved to a warmer climate, bought a home with some of the money from selling the northern home, and never looked back.
I highly recommend it.
As a friend advised....retire to something not from something. Now in my third year of complete retirement building furniture and things for friends for free and helping a friend build a house. My professional life was totally unrelated to what doing now except that good hands are needed...so long as they do not get cut off. Oh, and dressing more.
I was 'involuntarily' retired last May and it is depressing. I had planned on working another 5 years til 70, having all my small debt paid off, but alas!
The IRA and 401K money is drifting away. Fortunately, my salary was almost always hire than the SSI cut-off so my SS checks are decent and while my mortgage payment will be unaffordable in a year, I am not upside down.
I am going back to work in January, doing something..........
I will never retire completely from the work I do. I will just go part time into retirement..... and party like a bad girl for the other 50% of the time.
A note here to anybody that thinks they don't have enough money to cover their bills in the golden years ....
There are many good books out there to get you started, motivated and succeed in saving money at ANY AGE. Read the book Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach.
There is a Canadian and American version but the ideas will work in any part of the world. This book will motivate most people and then you have to take his principles and start practising them. Thats where th.e hard work begins