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?
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.
I recall taking an online quiz to determine whether I was a good candidate for early retirement. I scored quite well.
There are some people who feel guilty if they are not "working". Some think they need a reason to get up in the morning. Some wouldn't know what to do with their time if they didn't have a regular job.
I am none of those people. With all the things I enjoy doing, there are not enough hours in the day.
For me, Obamacare has been good. After the low-income subsidies my health insurance premiums are about $300 per year. High deductible, but I doubt I've had more than one year in my life that I would have passed the deductible amount if it was only $500, (and that one was almost twenty years ago) so the high deductible plan is a non-factor. I consider my health to be my own responsibility, and not to be delegated to doctors or pharmaceutical companies. Nice to have the Obamacare policy in place in case of a significant injury though. I don't know what the replacement for Obamacare will wind up being, but I don't see any point worrying about it. I'll figure out what to do when the time comes.
In seeing ads from companies with advice for people planning for retirement, I see them talking about people wanting to be able to "maintain their lifestyle". The problem that most people seem to have is that they want a lifestyle of pissing away money like there's no end to it. When I was still working, I certainly did plenty of that myself. Since retiring though, my attitude has changed about spending money. I no longer think it is necessary to try to have the fanciest hummingbird feeder in the neighborhood. The birds don't care, and my neighbors either didn't care one whit about just how impressive my hummingbird feeder might be, or they thought I was foolish for trying to impress them. I spend hundreds of dollars a year on birdfood, but most of my feeders are home-made. The birds aren't complaining.
I don't go out to eat anymore if I can avoid it. Partly that's because I get annoyed having to spend more for my one restaurant order than it would cost me to make the meal for the four or five of us at the table myself. That just aggravates me somehow. If it was better food at the restaurant it might still make sense to eat out though. So I spent some time learning to cook better, to where the meals I prepare taste better than any I've had in a restaurant. So now for small family get-togethers, instead of meeting at a restaurant we'll usually meet at my place and I'll cook up something (fresh from the garden if it's in season) and we can have a lakeside view with lots of birds to watch while we eat.
Your post on Lagos made me think again.
Home is a place for coming from with dreams of going to.
Good memories.
Having a Nigerian friend willing and able to get you an airline seat on Christmas Eve from Lagos all the way back to Houston becasue you managed to get the rig inspected, signed off and handed over to the next operator. Thanks Mr. Femi and all the crew who wanted me to be able to go home for Christmas even though they couldn’t.
Being the last yank to board the UA flight home from Bankok at Thai New Year after your driver got you through the bedlam to the airport because he insisted in picking you up at 0400 for an 1100 flight 12 miles away. Thanks Chakan. I’m sure the Ray Price tapes I gave him are long worn out.
Lots of people have been kind and helped me to get from where I was to where I wanted to be.
If you can, hold out for 66 1/2, for you I think, then you get full SS and no reduction if you work. I plan on working until 70 if my industry holds up. If not then I will do the best I can. I will take my SS at 66 1/2 or so. And pack that away. Gotta protect my wife. FWIW. Good luck and happy retirement.
"Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master." -- Sallust
With a small pension and cash in the bank to back it up, we live comfortably on our limited income because we paid cash to build our house and have no mortgage. No auto payments. No credit card bills. Just monthly utility and insurance and regular living expenses that everybody has. We can go our to eat every so often or take in a movie. We travel three or four times a year.
We own three other homes besides our residence. A rental in Arizona, and beach home in South Carolina and a lake house just ten miles from our homestead. Only the rental in Arizona has a mortgage. The others are free and clear.
We live on agricultural acreage in rural Florida and get an exemption from country property taxes by raising cattle on the land. We sell our calves in the late summer to pay for the taxes on the house in the fall. We both are veterans and get our medical care at the VA in the big city about a 1/2 hour from here.
We're not well off by many standards but we have a nice home, decent cars, and a property that brings us income to cover taxes. We also have farm equipment, tractors and trailers to run our farm. We are not wanting.
Retire when you want and go with your gut. If you don't have the money, cut back on your lifestyle or get part time jobs to make up the difference. You can do whatever you want if you want it bad enough.
Have something to do. Hobbies, volunteer, travel, gardening, etc. We bought a farm and it keeps us busy, healthy and active. Without it, you'll die quickly if you are just bidding your time rocking the time away on the front porch.
I tell people I am retired but run a 25 head beef cattle operation. They object that isn't retirement but just more work.
But I say that I don't have a boss, a time clock to punch, a commute to make, nice clothes to wear, or co-workers to put up with. Never been happier in our lives.
Good luck and go for it.
You have 25 head of cattle, you have a time clock! HA I'm the grandson of two farmers, I know of such things.
I retired at 62 and started taking SS right away. The breakeven point is 82 for me. I don’t know if I’ll live past 82. I’ve already had a bout with cancer. I’m still working to keep busy though. Sitting around doing nothing gets boring real quick.
Never had an accountant or a financial advisor. I did it all myself and we live very comfortably in retirement.
If you have enough money to have accountants and financial advisors, you have enough to retire on. You don't need them to tell you so.
One of the best functioning government departments is the SS admin.
If you call them and ask questions the CSRs will bend over backwards trying to help you understand your benefits and calculations and altho they can’t ‘advise’ you they will be happy to discuss pros and cons.
Retire early, die young.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I retired at 54, I’m 72 now. What do you call “young”.
“I’m 72 now. What do you call “young”.
—
Uuummm ! 72?
.
Best to retire if you can do it. I have seen my best friends dad put it off when he could have retired much sooner. Within six months after he retired he was diagnosed with terminal cancer that had spread rapidly.
You can retire longer, but you may not live longer.
I get up when I want, go on a walk with my dog and do some Bowflex. Read the news on the internet. Eventually wander outside to do the chicken chores and check on the cows.
Cows have grass to graze on. I only supply loose minerals. They eat out a paddock in 2-4 days depending on how much it rains. When the grass stops growing in the winter, I put out hay in the paddocks that we put up in the barn the summer before. Make sure the fences are repaired and the stock tanks have water.
Otherwise, I don't have anything on the farm that requires me to check the clock for anything. Life is good.
bbb 53 twain quote is good
I'm using a Raspberry pi 3 to program a TI MSP430 for a home project right now. I never got enough of the parts of this I like at work and I don't miss at all the drudgery of trying to forecast when I would complete a project.
The parts of the project I understand take very little time and the parts I don't understand will take however long they take. I'm "paying" the development bills now and I really don't care how long it takes.
I've always wanted to be self employed. Seven years ago next month I hung out my shingle. I long ago crossed the line from fearing the phone wouldn't ring to catching myself wishing it would shut up.
As the business grows I surrender more responsibility. I hope to reach the point where I can watch the business and spend 3-4 months per year traveling.
I really enjoy having full decision making. I can't imagine retiring.
What business are you in?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.