Posted on 07/14/2017 3:48:57 PM PDT by Eagles Field
Approaching 63 early next year I’m seriously considering retiring. Still plan to work, 3 day weekends every week. In ’17 you could make around 20K, after that they would take a dollar off funds for every $2 made over ... apparently that figure will go up in ’18. Naturally the apprehension is giving up 20% for the rest of my life but I have a small pension which evens it out. But money lost nevertheless. What price is wrong for a better quality of life and precious time? Did you retire early and regret it or not and wish you had?
AMEN FreeReign !!
I retired 6/30/2017 and am in the process of movin’ to “The Mountain House “ ! 12 or so acres on the south fork of The New River in NW North Carolina . . . . . Free at last, free at last - thank GOD ALMIGHTY I’m FREE at last !!
Life is short indeed my friend - grab it by the pu$$# and enjoy !!
Snoot ;o)
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.
Absolutely form a relationship with your doctor.
For healthcare, consider a health share like Liberty. We are very happy.
Four People I knew, Family and Friends all died before they were 62.
They were all still working away and never had a chance to Retire.
They will never see a Penny of the Hundreds of Thousands of hard earned Money they paid into SS under threat of Imprisonment.
I “semi” retired at 51 and was diagnosed with Leukemia a Year later. Luckily I am still breathing 12 Years later.
I took SS as soon as I was able to at age 62. It covers about 3/4 of our Healthcare Insurance.
We were paying $900 a Month in December 2013. Now we pay $2,000 a Month thanks to Obamacare. I have one year till Medicare if I live that long, but my Wife is two years younger so we will still be paying through the nose for next 3 Years for her coverage..
Before retiring I had been working for several years as a self-employed consultant for one company. When that company decided they no longer needed me I decided to take a few months off before going to look for future employment. About a year later I was sitting in the shade on my deck, watching the clouds in the sky, and the waves on the lake, and the birds in the trees.
I got thinking that I really should get off my butt and get my resume up to date and get to work at getting another job. Get a job and work hard at it and maybe get in a position to be like my next-door neighbor. He bought a house on a lake and he figures that in a few years, when he's in his upper-60s, he'll be able to retire and have the time to sit on his deck and watch the clouds and the birds and the waves on the lake.
After thinking that through for a little while, I scrapped the idea of updating my resume and began considering myself officially retired.
I haven't died yet. In fact, I'd say that I'm significantly younger now than I was 20 years ago. I've taken off quite a few pounds in the past few years. I'm eating healthy food now and getting plenty of exercise. I have a relatively stress-free lifestyle. Plenty of time to visit with friends and family.
My approach may not be right for everybody though. Some people aren't comfortable unless they're fretting about the future. I prefer to consider the wisdom of a quote I saw from Mark Twain a long time ago -- "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened".
I don’t much like doctors. When you go to one they always tell you someting is wrong even if you are in good health for your age either because they need to be justified somehow for something or because of liability.
When you grudgingly go once a year it is not the basis for a chummy relationship.
Also retired at 57. I’ve never seen engraven on a tombstone “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.
No regrets. Love every day. Walk the dog and always say, “Dear Lord, thank you for another beautiful day.”
Even if it looks like rain.
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.
When I was working, there were a lot of days that I'd go outside on a smoke-break and be thinking that it would have been a perfect day for a walk in the woods or to be throwing out a line to try to catch a fish.
Since I've been retired there hasn't been a single day that I've thought it would have been a perfect day for sitting at a desk in an office.
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.
Sounds a little like me. My retirement was somewhat enforced but expected and planned for two years before it actually took place (I have planned a long time and am probably one of the few 22 year-olds that asked the HR manager about the pension trust and how it was managed). Never did get that pension but we have saved a lot for a long time. I only hope it all works out. We have done the best we could. Less than some but better than many I’m told. We didn’t get a gold watch like my Grandfather did from Fisher Body. I have just left my work. Better that way to me. The ones who got the retirement party are just as forgotten.
I too was going to consult some more after a break but when the Contingent Labor Program Providers at my previous client started wanting releases to do obscene background checks I decided I didn’t need or want to consult that much so I’m now on sabbatical waiting until someone wants work done badly enough to dispense with all that background check nonsense. I have nothing to hide mind you but I will preserve my dignity and privacy. It is a principal thing for me. If the people in the industry don’t know me well enough after 40 years to trust me, my qualifications or judgement they don’t need me and I don’t need them. I promised myself after crossing a certain point that I would no longer work under conditions without mutual respect. I’ll keep my shingle out, keep networking but less and less as time goes by.
We left the city almost a year-ago. I retired to something, lots of projects and as much hard work here on the place as I can stand but things I want to do still and there is another list after that. No lake but nice ponds, long drive way, big heavy locked gate and enough open space around me to qualify for much more than a 400 meter kill zone. These are the things we worked for so long. For the most part, save for the obama care mess, life is pretty good for us. I pray it continues.
Great quote by Twain. Most mountains look a lot higher from the bottom than they really are I suppose. I know there are many things I fretted about spending money on in the past or doing but most of them I can’t even remember now. Poppa said, “Too old soon, too late smart.” a Dutch saying I’m told.
This is a great thread as have been some others on similar things. We that are 60ish are the first generation to “retire” as we have, mostly on our own and often without a defined pension. It is good to know most of us have the same doubts and concerns and think we can make it.
40 years ago a drilling manager that retired said he was going to put a bit on the front of his car and drive until somebody asked him what it was.
The Mafia in my part of the business in Houston has been eating its own in the last few years. Be grateful the Permian is doing well.
The drilling manager actually had a place at Fredericksburg, not a place I ever pined for or understood (none of the whole Hill Country thing ever caught my attention). He said he was going to get a little drillling rig model and put it outside near his patio. He said he would get up, fix his coffee and then go outside to relieve himself off the patio onto the drilling rig model. Never could understand that since I loved the oilfield from the first day I started work at Fort Stockton. You should never do anything you hate that much though I was sick and tired of all the mess in Houston.
I spent my career in computers, and computers were my hobby and passion too... I was living and breathing the stuff 24X7.
When I quit, I finally had enough and dropped it entirely... and don't miss it one bit. My retirement passion is photography. I spent a year building an addition on the house which serves as a studio, and I can make a little money shooting headshots, boudoir and things like that. I also shoot models and sell online photo books via Kindle and Nook. My wife likes it because travel photography is fun too and she's happy to travel anywhere. I also make a little income selling stock photos from travel... Costa Rica, Argentina, etc. Most importantly, its fun!
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 miss O&G most of all as far as the people in it. Never had more fun or riches. $140 a barrel and the Marcellus play was brand new, me a headhunter entrenched in it all where everybody said yes. The Oilman’s prayer: Dear Lord, please give me just one more boom and I promise I won’t piss it away next time.
I do miss some of the people. What I really miss is getting a great team together to solve a really nasty problem or making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear project nobody else wanted. That is where lasting friendships are made and satisfaction is found.
What I also miss from the latter years is helping the young guys when they feel like nothing bad has ever happened before. A buddy lost 6 rigs in ‘86 and went back to sitting rigs in Kansas. He said they can do just about everything to you short of killing and eating you.
I was never a boom time camp and folly follower. I tried to be a steady base hitter responsible for money, performance, quality and people good times or bad so I never subscribed to the Oilmans prayer.
Sound advise. Needs to be in the book of, “What I wish someone had told me and I had enough sense to listen to.”
I figured this bust would wipe out most of the Boomer Generation from the oilfiled and It is looking like I am justified in thinking that. Just like ‘86 or so wiped out what was mostly Silent Generation. Some of us were able and had sense enough to bring some of those guys back.
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