Did you retire early? I'm thinking about it.....

[astepup]

I turn 56 next April and as far as I know that's the minimum retirement age with less than 20 years with the postal service. I'll have about 18 1/2 years in. I've been putting into my TSP (thrift savings plan) and will qualify for social security when I get to that age. I'm still not sure exactly what my pension will be be but I do know I can carry my health insurance with me when I retire, albeit at a slightly higher rate. 

I've been very very blessed in my life in no small part due to my dad. He worked his tail off until he retired and he left behind a solid income stream that in and of itself can and could carry me through for the rest of my life. Everything else, my pension, TSP, social security and savings would be icing on the cake. Once I get all the info I need to make the decision I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Over the last 15 years or so I hunkered down and got everything paid off so I'm debt free. Everyone I've mentioned this to usually says the same thing, that I'll be bored stiff and go stir crazy once I'm not punching the clock. I'm pretty sure I'll keep busy just doing things around the farm, things I haven't gotten done because I'm always working.

I must admit it's a bit scary leaving the security that steady work and income provide but that's something I can get over. For those that have retired early did you have any difficulties adjusting? The idea of finally being my "own boss" and not having to work for someone else is liberating.

If you did retire early did you have any regrets, or have any advice to offer?

[tadbart]

Isn't the goal to retire as early as possible? If you can swing it financially, and won't be stressed about money, I think you'd be crazy not to consider it.

You mentioned a steady income stream. Look at your monthly expenses, INCLUDING INVESTMENTS. Can you cover those, and not worry, without cashing a check from Uncle Sugar's mail service? If you can answer that question in the affirmative, GTFO ASAP.

You also mentioned having plenty to do, once you have time. Remember M2 Carbine? He never seemed to be bored, always had plenty to do on his little parcel of land out in Texas.

 

I DREAM of having a chunk of land, and a tractor to tinker around on. Seems folks wither away after retirement, if they don't keep a schedule. I have a number in my mind that I'm working toward. Once I hit it, I'm popping smoke.

[janice6]

I'm not sure what you define as early, but.  I retired as soon as I could at 59 1/2.  My home was paid for.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out.  As I signed my papers, my company was bought out that week,and now I fell into the new owners retirement plan.  I had a 401K, and with the wife's and my SS, it was a wonderful time.

Shortly thereafter, my wife's mother died, her father preceded her, and we received a few thousand from her will.  That money went into stocks.

My point here is that three times recessions ate at the 401K, but the meager stocks turned into a large security blanket.  Dividends cover all my catastrophes without effecting the family income.

What I posted explains my financial position.  With that in mind, I can not thing of a single thing that I would change.  Retirement is wonderful, I can do many things but now find physical limits to them.  However, it's still the best part of my life.  I would do it all over again, the same way!

Edited December 29, 2019 by janice6

[tous]

21 minutes ago, tadbart said:

I DREAM of having a chunk of land, and a tractor to tinker around on.

You are not allowed near tractors after the incident.

[tadbart]

7 minutes ago, tous said:

You are not allowed near tractors after the incident.

Dude. I read that if you hooked a fleshlight to the PTO...

Edited December 29, 2019 by tadbart

[tous]

It would have been front page news if it weren't in Florida.

 

[Walt Longmire]

Been working 50 years.

[tadbart]

2 hours ago, tous said:

It would have been front page news if it weren't in Florida.

 

Sometimes it is a good thing to hide among absolute monsters.

Tous, you're a dirty old man. I accept any pointers you have to give, in a public forum.

[gamboolman]

Astepup,

Congratulations on reaching this point in life.  I'm 60 years old and was scheduled to depart from Nigeria tomorrow, 30-Dec-19 for the last time and retire to Texas.  Been working the oilpatch since I was 18 year old and ms gamboolgal has chased me all over the world.  Been working West Africa since 2003 and living here since 2008.  We live in places no one ever vacations at.

However, life happens and megaoil asked me to defer retirement - and we have agreed to stay on awhile longer.  How long?  We will most likely go 31-Dec-20.  

Everybody's situation is the same but only different.  We all want and need to be able to support a desired lifestyle and spend rate in retirement based on our assets.

Once I do pull the plug and retire - I am not planning to work part time or come back consulting.  So our plan is based on living off of our portfolio.  

Following is how we have prepared.  Might be useful or at least give you something to consider for your planning.

We have reached "our Number".  So staying "One More Year" for us is not so much about the money.  Having said that, the monies we earn in 2020 will be additional padding and increasing the discretionary monies.  Not a bad thing.

We have our Retirement Budget well defined, see screen shot below of our budget line items.  We have our portfolio at Vanguard and upon retirement will consolidate our megaoil monies to our Vanguard account.   Over the last few years preparing for retirement, we  have moved our Asset Allocation to  45/44/11, stocks/bonds/cash.  We'll rebalance as necessary to keep the AA in that range.  We have no debt, house paid off and heavily remodeled, vehicles all paid for, kids out on there own and doing good so no ongoing support from Bank Of Dad necessary.  We have no parents left on either side so no helping out monies to account for.  As much as possible all Doctor and health issues addressed, hearing aids bought, toys pretty well bought.  We have identified one off big ticket items for retirement, e.g., ms gamboolgal says our almost 40 year old 4 poster is moving to guest room and she has new furniture all scoped out,  Las Vegas trip planned so I can play in the WSOP Seniors and Super Seniors tournaments,  and other trips costed out and accounted for.

We are fortunate that we will keep megaoil insurance in retirement.  Health care is a major one for us all.  So good you have yours addressed.

As to your pension - suggest you figure out your options.  In our case we can take a Pension or Lump Sum.  Our pension is not Cost of Living Adjusted for Inflation.  Inflation scares us.  So we will take the Lump Sum and invest it in our portfolio.

I am planning to take Social Security at age 67 and ms gamboolgal will claim the 1/2 spousal benefit based on my SS.

If you have not already, a couple of good Calculators to use to model your specific situation are:  https://www.firecalc.com  and https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com    For Portfolio Visualizer we use the Monte Carlo simulation the most, but the others are all good to use.

All the best sir.  It is a scary time to go from making a check to living off of savings/investments.  

Recommend the following retirement forums:   http://www.early-retirement.org     https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php    

Here is our budget categories.  

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by gamboolman

[Historian]

Yes, and no.

Would i like to?  You bet.   However, reality is i've got more years to go.  

The structure is there to retire as early as 54 and get a part-time job to hold down the fort until certain benefits kick it.  But the reality is....to max out on my current situation i need another 17 years.  Good news.  I'm still under 50...and can make that work.

 

 

[gwalchmai]

I retired two years ago at 62. This last year has been interesting. We built a house in the country and spent the last few months relocating. During that time we had two deaths on each side and my wife and I are managing their estates, which is quite a learning experience. We're stable financially, which helps a lot, but we have enough to do to keep us on our toes.

[gwalchmai]

10 hours ago, astepup said:

9 hours ago, tadbart said:

You also mentioned having plenty to do, once you have time. Remember M2 Carbine? He never seemed to be bored, always had plenty to do on his little parcel of land out in Texas.

You speak of Buck in the past tense. Is his story over?

 

[Zonny]

Coming soon for me. Possibly even sooner than I planned, but that's okay.

[TXUSMC]

Retired this year at age 67. Work was no longer fun. If I could have retired at age 60, I definitely would have done so. I worry about running out of time to do the physical activities I’ve always wanted to do. Always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail, but I think that one’s not going to happen. Still have other goals, though. Bottom line: retire early enough to live your dreams and into old age.

 

 

[janice6]

I neglected to mention in my earlier post.  Have hobbies or something that you like to do outside of work!

Long before I retired Honeywell had a big presence in my town, and at a point, they had a rather large layoff, the first in many large corporations in technology, My field.  Many of their employees took early retirement.

Suddenly the company found an unusually high death rate among their early retirees.  The results of so many deaths of the retirees, caused them to do a company wide study of why.  The conclusion of the study said that the unexpected higher death rate was due to unexpected early retirements, with no prior planning on the part of the employees.

They said that the unexpected early retirements, meant that many had no plan for their retirements in terms of activities.  That suddenly these people found themselves with nothing to do, and no plans to do anything.

These people had suddenly found themselves with all free time, and since they had no real plans for activities to keep busy, they sat around got depressed and went sedentary.  This was a recipe for disaster for many of them.  The believed the company was their whole existence and without it they had nothing.   You have to know that the company is temporary, you are not!

My point is, in my case, I loved the research work I did, however it was cerebral.  I traveled a lot but that didn't change things.  Ever since I can remember, I have loved tools.  I built my own simple toys just because I love working with tools.  I was very young and my father got me a wood lathe for fun, in addition he had a table saw I used a lot, without him knowing.  The old mansion we moved into had all the hand tools used to build the house and to create all the fancy trim work.  So I had wood planes and large draw knives to add to my mechanisms of torture.  In addition, I had Ham radio that got me into electronics construction and communications.

I found I dearly loved working with my hands.  Being creative with tools brought me great joy.  So my plan from the day I started work, till my retirement, was collecting all the tools I could conceive of to work and play with, in my retirement.

I planned on doing what I liked in my future all my working days, and everything I did was in anticipation of retirement and my ability to do anything I wanted.  The Navy took me all around Europe via the Mediterranean sea, and I got to see all the countries I read about in books on ancient history, myths and legends.  I could never afford the travel the Navy gave me.  It was wonderful! 

In addition, my efforts for my company took me to all the corners of the United States that I could want to experience.  In total, I had done all my travel prior to my retirement.

Since my travel ambitions were satisfied, I have never had any desire to travel anymore.  I saw all the things that interested me, and at the same time, I was able to taste all the other places to live instead of Minnesota.  The end result was that Minnesota had more to offer me than everywhere else, and the detractors were less than everywhere else.

Now I was free to work with my hands and I still love it.  I have nothing that I desire and I can do what ever I want.

Retirement is a blessing if you plan for the financial aspect (it costs less than you can imagine, unless you get your enjoyment from pissing money away) and find what you really love to do to stay occupied.  I have always been a loner, so I don't need other people to keep amused.  MY wife is strange in that she has no desire to travel either.  In our teens, One date I took her to Minneapolis for fun, this was the first time she had been out of her home town.

Anyway that's all I can tell you about my results of and plans for, retirement.  It is a chance to do what you want with your time.  When I retired I was asked to stay, but I told them that my time spent on what I wanted to do was more important to me then the time I spent doing what they wanted me to do.  I love what I did, but I didn't do it for me!

It's scary, sure.  But with planning any future is fun and exciting.  Plan ahead, nothing beats a good plan!

[Zonny]

Someone once told me that when you reach the age of retirement, it's just "one bad workday away". This, I believe.

 

[Walt Longmire]

1 hour ago, Zonny said:

Someone once told me that when you reach the age of retirement, it's just "one bad workday away". This, I believe.

 

You can't fire me. I QUIT.

[Zonny]

18 minutes ago, Walt Longmire said:

You can't fire me. I QUIT.

Yeah. Trying to hold out to get laid off instead. The stock given as part of a severance package is making me keep my mouth shut and my butt at my desk.

[tadbart]

8 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

 

Not that I know of, I just haven't seen his posts in a while. I didn't mean to make it sound like it did. My apologies.

[ASH]

i   retired last year  , but its different  then regular retirement  ,  and im 51 . but  ive been self employed   since age of 8 lol .   3rd gen farmer and took over when dad passed in 95 ,  plus   we got rental  buildings  and   land        , so they take  care of them  themselves  with a management group i hired.    thankfully we both have enough money to basically   to do whatever we want .   

[Rellik]

Check you local comunity college for night school classes of retirement planning.  They run a couple of weeks, and want you and your wife to go so you sing off the the same music sheet.  

Q:  How much do I need to retire?

A:  Depends on what you want to do in retirement!  

      1.  Sell the house, buy a winnebago, rent a spot at the lake for the rest of your life?

             Very cheap and doable.

       2.  Travel the world - much more cash needed!  

Take a class.  They'll ask ques, you'll not have thought of.  

[Historian]

1 hour ago, Rellik said:

Check you local comunity college for night school classes of retirement planning.  They run a couple of weeks, and want you and your wife to go so you sing off the the same music sheet.  

Q:  How much do I need to retire?

A:  Depends on what you want to do in retirement!  

      1.  Sell the house, buy a winnebago, rent a spot at the lake for the rest of your life?

             Very cheap and doable.

       2.  Travel the world - much more cash needed!  

Take a class.  They'll ask ques, you'll not have thought of.  

All I need my wife and peace in my heart.

[Rellik]

56 minutes ago, Historian said:

All I need my wife and peace in my heart.

Yes, but an extra half mil tucked away is more better.  3/4 mil is even more bettah.  

[TXUSMC]

My first thought when I run into someone who works a fairly mundane job well past their retire eligibility date is that he/she has nothing to retire to... no hobbies, no bucket list, nothing to keep life interesting. So they remain a slave to the company. There are more than a few of them... the job lost its challenge years ago, but it’s all they know.

What keeps me busy in retirement? Reading, shooting, exercise, and grandchildren... with a little Bore Sight mixed in.  Travel, too — wife and I are planning a trip to Ireland this year. Before that, my 50th high school reunion.

[Historian]

19 minutes ago, Rellik said:

Yes, but an extra half mil tucked away is more better.  3/4 mil is even more bettah.  

Five years ago I almost lost my wife to cancer.

Perspectives change.