Several years from now when I turn 62, I’m going to retire and head to the hills. Life is short and I’m tired of paying taxes.
Retired at 45 years old after a 27 year Army career. chase your dreams, you will not regret it.
Retire early, die young.
Pre-Medicare health care is my biggest concern and problem. You seem to have that licked compared to a person who has been self-employed.
Health care insurance now eats up fully 1/5th of the money I budgeted for retirement. Premiums have gone up 50% in just the last year from a manageable and planned amount plus what I thought was a realistic but very high 12% inflation as it had for several years. I expect now it will continue to go up at an unsustainable rate. I have three more years to go before getting to Medicare and then I plan to go see the doc even if I just want to visit. I can hardly wait and hope I can make it before busting the budget all to hell. Early time increased costs are very serious for a finite retirement amount.
First we get hammered by no growth in the economy, then high capital gains rates, then stratospheric healt care costs. What next? I’m about out of the ability to compensate.
I don’t miss one thing about the clanging alarm at 0500, the rush to get out of the house to beat the split second traffic schedule, trying to get work done that should be easy save for unwilling people, the 10 to 12 or more hour days at the office for any of a multitude of reasons, capricious regulations and rules, the fear of another layoff or something related, the office politics and the who hit John crap or the cruelty of man to other men.
I would like to work on some problem solving assignments similar to the ones I was able to call on semi-retired guys to do when I pushed the pencil and hope some of the young people I mentored will remember me as I remembered others. Hopefully in good time. Meanwhile I have some projects, inventions, and can continue as head yardman, herdsman and mechanic.
If you do retire before 65 and are currently getting medical coverage from your employer, this is a really big one - plan for the gap between now and 65, when Medicare is your primary, and then plan for supplemental after that. This, in these wonderful days of 0bamacare, can cost you a bundle if it catches you by surprise.
Make a plan with milestones for the last year. Make sure you hit those milestones. These include the above, plus a will, advance interface with pension providers if any, your savings, which you may wish to reconfigure to a retirement profile (less risk, more annual yield). Run a countdown timer so you can hit the milestones. Treat it as the biggest project you'll ever run. And if you find yourself missing milestones, not getting out of debt on schedule, anything like that, be ready to delay it another year, but have a plan in hand for doing that.
You can do this. My last six months, i.e. the first six months of "retirement" have been some of the busiest in my life. It doesn't look to decline much for quite a while. I'm loving it. Best of luck and God bless.
Great post; thread. I’m still working and healthy at 67, but lately feel that I’m hitting a physical wall. Tired but not retired. Onward. CONGRATS to all who have retired. Many never make it.
For the first ten years of our lives, we explored the world in wonder with those we loved. Seems only right we spend the last years of our lives doing the same after 40 years of cubicle warfare. Keep in mind the average lifespan of an American male is about 80, that includes invalid time of 0-5+yrs. Clock is ticking. Go Galt. Enjoy the world and your spouse before the arthritis really gets going. It’s a reward worth more than money. And if you live longer than 80, that’s just bonus fishing time.
I bailed at 55 with a modest pension & some rental property.
It’s been 2.5 years and so far have not touched my IRA.
The doggie loves it.
2017 Social Security earnings limit under full retirement age is $1410 per month ($16,920 per year). Social Security looks at the monthly earnings (not annual earnings). The definition of earned income is wage income and net self-employment (self-employment income - self-employment expenses). Keep good records of your monthly earnings just in case. SSA uses calendar months but most pay periods for W-2 workers cross over calendar months.
If you earn extra self employment income on the side where there is no 1099, report the income as “Other Income” on your tax return (1040 line 21). SSA does not look at “Other Income”.
There will be a 2.2% COLA for Social Security in 2018. The earnings limits for the next year are usually announced around November.
Retired at 58 after 30 years at a fortune 100 company.
Reasonably healthy, debt free home owner, signed up for VA medical to meet Obamacare requirements. (6 Year USAF Vet)
I’m 62 now, my modest IRA remains untouched. (Will likely go to my son.)
Left CA for a State Tax Free state (NV).
First SS check expected next month.
Pension is paying the bills, SS on top will be gravy.
Building an awesome 18” diameter reflector telescope with my Dad.
Happiness is!
Life is good!
Every Day is Saturday!
No regrets.
I am retiring early - two weeks from today. I gave it a lot of thought beforehand, and Trump’s positive effect on my 401K helped me decide. Between SS and a pension, it should be fine — and not having to worry about so many things related to work is worth a few dollars less per month.
Here is the Social Security website if it helps.
https://www.ssa.gov/retire/?gclid=CMOJyOiCitUCFQGmaQodICsCHA
Haven’t retired yet. May once my daughter buys a car and moves into an apartment. Good Luck!
I’m in the oil and gas business and it’s like the Mafia, there’s no getting out. You think your ready to bail and somebody offers more money. Plan on officially walking away at 70 which is just a few years away, my wife will be 62 by then. haven’t quite decided where we’re going yet but I promise it will be cooler than West TX. Another thing I can promise and have promised to my wife is no more oil business and the area’s we’re looking are distanced from active fields.
Right now—get out of all debt, downsize, figure out a way to reduce expenses as much as you possibly can. You may need to relocate, trade in for a junker, hold yard sales...do all that first, gain a sense of control, and you’ll have your answer.
Great thread you started and the responses are very personal and helpful for me as I just quit working three weeks ago. I turn 66 in just over two weeks. I had planned to go another year, but I wound up with a boss AND a boss’ boss that I could not stand. I would honestly have to go back to my Junior summer of high school to find a boss that bad. Fortunately, we had decided a few months ago to start SS payments at age 66 and that begins in August. We’ve been mapping out retirement for a long time and things should be in good shape with SS, savings, and my wife’s modest pension.
Having lived in Silicon Valley the last 40 years, we have this interesting situation where our residence is a gold mine, but there’s no easy way to tap the gold without us sending taxes equal to the GDP of a banana republic to FedZilla. If one of us passes in the house, the basis is stepped up to market and all that appreciation is tax free. But that means we have to continue living here and the entire area is getting rebuilt with Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon (big presence here), LinkedIn, et al money. The millennials like high density urban areas and our cute little mid-century little towns and villages are all getting rapidly urbanized. So it isn’t the pleasant place it used to be.
The complexities of converting a primary residence to a rental, then having to live in it two years of every five to preserve it as primary residence are not very appealing.
Three weeks into this and I feel the weight of the world is off my shoulders. Far less stress aches in many muscles.
I’m throwing myself at many deferred and partly done projects around the house from mundane to complex. After those are done, I expect to be volunteering or maybe picking up some consulting gigs. My wife is going to work another couple years which will provide full health care for us which is a huge benefit.
There was an excellent comment up thread about retirement not being running away from something but TO a new goal. We do need to figure that part out.
I retired at 65 and four months, so my SS check is 95% of what it would have been if I had waited another 8 months. But, when I turned 65 I began collecting four other pensions.
Our house is paid off and we have no debt. We have a nice chunk in savings and another nice chunk in IRAs. My medical plan is Medicare. My wife is six years younger than me, and has some serious medical issues, so medical insurance for her is our biggest expense.
Because we have no debt, and we own our house free and clear, and we do not live beyond our means we have not had any financial worries since I retired. I won’t even touch my IRAs until I have to take the required minimum withdrawal at age 70 1/2.
Illinois has a lot of problems, but one good thing about the state is it does not tax retirement income, so I pay no state taxes on any of my pensions, SS, or IRAs. And, because I am over 65 I get a homestead break on my real estate taxes, and I also get to freeze that tax so I’ll not see any increases.
Two years ago I moved from Southern California back home to Texas. Retirement seemed impossible in LA but very doable in Dallas! With a mortgage half what it was in LA, no credit card debt — I suddenly realized I had enough clothes, shoes, furniture and things to last me for a lifetime. Except purses and jewelry. There’s never enough of those.
Instead of working, I want to do things - walk, learn to cook, get healthier, volunteer, work if an opportunity arises, travel (often) and enjoy all the fine restaurants and stores in Dallas and around Texas.
I’m grateful for my years in LA where I “made my fortune” and I can always go back to visit!
Go and talk to your accountant and a financial advisor, sometimes they are the same person. Pay them both for their time. If you do not pay them for their time as opposed to the financial advice of which they may profit from you are not getting sound financial advise.
They will tell you what to do. Paying for advice is a good investment. If you are not paying for the advice you are making a great mistake.
Also research in detail those that are giving you financial advice. Talk to your friends that have used them. This is very important.
If anyone gives your promises of great returns beyond reasonable rates of return, run like hell as they are charlatans.
There are investments that do return incredible rates of return but all these investments also carry high risks of losing all your investment.
Amazon and Google are perfect examples. When first started they were an extremely high risk investment with a high probability of failure. Their founders were brilliant men and this once high risk investment became a gold mine for those that invested early. However, one must remember in their infancy money invested in those corporations was an extremely high risk bet. It was a damn good bet for a young man. I at 69 years of age can not take these bets. When I was younger I did take those kinds of bets. Many failed. However those that succeeded covered my loses and also gave me great profits. At my age I can no longer take those bets.
Go talk to your accountant and financial advisor and pay them for their time. That is money well invested.
I’m 64 with a small business, which is fortunately quite healthy, and growing like a weed. The kids will be taking it over when I finally retire around 70 or so. By that time, my share of the profits should net me a comfortable income for my sunset years.
Good luck with your retirement plans. I’m sure you’re getting a boatload of helpful suggestions on the thread.
I started looking for work about 6 months after I retired early (not entirely by choice). Found something after another 6 months. Pay isn’t great, but it keeps my mind working.
If you have a hobby farm or something else to keep you busy (volunteering, perhaps), retirement might be OK, but otherwise, you are probably chopping years off your life. Sounds like you have that covered with your part time plan. So my comment is mainly for others on the thread.