Retirement is probably 5 years, 2 months and 10 days away. I am fully vested in a 401K, have military retirement and will help to suck social security dry. No mortgage. Will buy our last car for cash about 6 months before retirement. I work out every morning at 4:30 and plan to keep that up. Will intensify the gardening and probably many short vacations. Might even start a part time job at a home improvement or farm supply company. Doing that would be something I think I would enjoy.
Men identify with their job.It is also how we identify ourselves to others. A job can be status, a title can infer a high place in the pecking order. The accoutrements of an office and/or staff can be something that is part of our work identity.
But who you are at work is not the REAL you.
You, the person, is what you are after you get the gold watch and the party is over.
Work was what earned you the ability to retire. It is not your life.
The most important thing in life is time.
What will become new to you is that you have control over your time, not others.
You must be prepared to live without that imposed artificial structure.
So, to do that well, you have to know who you really are as a person, with no title, no office, no staff, no telephone ringing, no meetings that must be attended, no sales calls.
You have to realize that the old props are now gone, and you are in a new phase of your life.
The freedom and the lowering of stress are wonderful things you can look forward to.
But this is a time to make your life count to your family, to your friends, to your community,and to God.
And do yourself a favor—don't look back.
Embrace your freedom and use it wisely. Greet each day a s a gift, and a blank page to write upon.
Love those closest to you in a more intense way, for they are the ones who help to define you and make life worth living.
And do the things you have been waiting to do, go to those places you have wanted to see.
And be grateful that have lived to enjoy this new chapter in your life.
All else will follow.
First of all, you do not have to retire. You can get another job or work part time. Retirement was only for the very rich until Roosevelt’s Social Security came about.
Calculate now to see if you can afford to retire.
My days are very full-I have no more time for being a couch potato than I did when working full time.
Grand kids, Great grand kids, Volunteer work, Gardening, Reading and last but not least, FReeping.LOL
The local community college will let an 65 year old audit any class they want for free-so I could add learning stuff that I didn’t have a chance to if I have any free time down the road.
I retired in May of 2013. Left California and moved to north Georgia to be near my daughter. I love it here. Paid $2.99a gallon for gas last night. Do miss the fresh fruits and vegetables tha California offers but am adjusting to the local offerings. Hit up Harry’s every now and again to fill my cravings. like Holiday grapes and good asparagus. Send to Boudins for SF sourdough....nothing like it
Funny, you should ask. I just got out of a two-day seminar for federal employees getting ready to retire. The comments by others below are right on point. You need to keep busy and not just become a couch potato.
You need to figure out what you will get from social security and if you have a spouse, will she be entitled to a spousal benefit. If you are divorced, you need to find out a(by looking at the divorce decree) whether the former spouse will be able to claim the spousal benefit.
Our presenter recommended that for people who will be relying on a 401(k) and social security alone to also have investments and savings worth 10 times their salary.
Also, create a budget, pay down debt and then keep out of debt. You must ascertain if you have enough saved up and in pensions to be able to afford to retire.
Good luck.
I've been laid up for many weeks and am feeling absolutely bored out of my head. I've got "projects" but nothing compared to my occupation that makes me happy.
bflr
I got 5 years, August 1st, 2019.
We’re in the process of selling our house and buying a 38-foot sail boat. We’ll live on that until then, and then cast off and sail away.
My wife has had breast cancer twice now. We won’t wait any more. Just until we can afford to call it quits.
Besides, why would I want to work myself to death for an extra $500 a month.
Ready to sleep??? Are you kidding me? I was finally free to do all the things I didn’t have time to do when I was still “working”. I couldn’t live long enough to do all the things I still want to do.
Been retired since 2003. I worked 3-11 for most of my career, so I never got to bed until 1-2 a.m. That schedule carried over to my retirement. I stay up until 3 a.m. or so, and sleep in. No going to bed at 8 p.m., and getting up with the birds for me. Also, you’ll be surprised at how fast time flies once you’ve retired.
Sleep in?
I have worked harder every day of the past 7 years since I retired than I ever did working for a paycheck. The difference is that I work at things I enjoy, with my own priorities and at my own pace and no external pressure to perform.
Too many people I have known let themselves be defined by their job. When they retire they seem lost and without purpose and often lose all self esteem. Often you can see them deteriorate so rapidly it is astonishing.
The trick is, or at least was for me, to redefine yourself as an individual with your own unique purpose in life. A friend of mine became the worlds biggest baseball fan. Another an expert fly fisherman. In my case from sales and marketing executive to long distance sailor, videographer and blogger.
The stress I did not even realize I was carrying melted away immediately and my wife and friends say that I am a new (Improved) man. While my career was exciting and rewarding, I wish I had made the move years earlier.
Pinging for later...we are nearing retirement age, not sure if we’ll manage it on time, though...sure to be some good reading here, and thanks for posting the query!
My wonderful, handsome and terribly missed husband passed away about five years after he retired. It was, and still is crushing! Unfortunately I had not (and still haven’t) retired, I wish I had so I could have been with him more, but that’s not how it worked out. We used to laugh, I’d come home, talk about my day, then we’d talk about his... and although not stressful as it had once been for him, he was busy busy busy and used to tell me, he “did hundreds of things today” and he had! I am grateful he had the time to be so happy and content, he loved being retired. I wish us all the same joy, but for a longer period of time that he (we) had!
1. Out of debt. Mortgage paid off completely. Credit cards zeroed out.
2. Retirement funds. Enough so I can live without SS because that isn't a very good bet these days.
3. Retire TO something, not away from something. If you veg out, you'll die.
4. Have a plan for medical expenses. Whatever it costs today, allow for it to triple because the idiots in government think it's their shiny new toy.
5. Have a will. If you do not, the state will provide one for you. You may not want that.
For me, number (2) above put off retirement fully ten years after I'd originally planned it due to the stock market and poor planning on my part. Better to continue to work at a less than optimal job and build your poke because you don't want to have to start from zero when you're too old to hire. And number (3), well, I have a long list of things I intend to accomplish before I check out, including a bit of writing I've been promising to certain people. If I do it right retirement will be more work than working.
Best of luck to you!
My wife and I retired from office jobs and a townhouse in Arizona. We paid off all of our bills over the last few years of working and kept just one credit card. We sold our home in Arizona and moved to Florida and started a completely new lifestyle on 25 acres in the country. We built a new house from retirement savings to keep from having a mortgage. We bought two black Angus heifers and started raising beef cattle. We’ve breeded them up to a dozen head now and will grow the herd to about double that. Then we’ll start selling some of the stock at auction to pay our property taxes. We’ve spent out time working improving our property and learning how to raise cows. We had a well drilled. Learning how to use tractors and farm equipment, building and repairing fences, building a barn, sheds, greenhouse, chicken coup, grape arbor, putting in a big garden and lots of fruit trees. We live in the country away from the big city but are close enough to get to town when we need to. We’ve done all this on some savings, our social security and small retirements.
The point is, we didn’t retire and just stop. That’s the secret. You keep going until the road runs out. If you stop, you’ll die. Doing what we’re doing keeps us interested, busy and motivated to get up tomorrow. We are having the time of our lives and enjoying every minute of our retirement. We don’t travel much because we traveled and lived in many locales during our 40 years of marriage. Retirement is not that hard if you have something to get you up every day, something to keep you busy and something to look forward to. Each to his own but our formula for having a productive, happy retirement is working out just fine for us so far.
Good luck with your new life.
ping for later.