Life Change: I Retired!

[Sugarcubesea]

I feel the same way, I'm 54 and totally tired and drained. The company I worked at for over 25 years went bankrupt and our pensions went to the pension board and I will only get about 10% of the amount I earned and was entitled to... I was so fortunate to find a good company and great opportunity to move into but no paid medical... Hubby lost his job during the great recession and it took him 5 years to find a direct hire job again, so we lost those 5 years in 401K contributions and salary. Our financial planner says we need to work till we are both 66 to have enough to live on and pay medical...

I hope we both make it that long....

Congrats to all that are retired and I look forward to being in that group one day.

I've been saying since I started working at age 16 that I have no time to work! LOL!:hysterical:

I have to get a financial planner to see when we can retire. My husband and I are drained and we don't see how we can make it to age 66. We are 60 and 62. No paid retiree medical. No pension for me. Hubby's is small- they cut it down to nothing and he can't get at it until age 65. No mortgages or debts or anything. A nice nest egg, but- not sure that it could last for 20 or 30 years! I really doubt it. Then you also have to worry about the market ups and downs.

I am so anxious to move I just can't stand it. Everyday driving to work I scream!

I feel like life is going by and I don't want to die like this.

Work definitely gets in the way of my life!

 

[silentg]

I am happy to share that I retired earlier this month. It happened earlier than anticipated, as my position was eliminated. Fortunately, I reached the age to qualify for a defined benefit plan with medical benefits. Rather than try to find another role within the organization I decided to take the retirement benefits and move on.

We also sold our house in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Las Vegas, which has been our long term plan for quite some time. We are enjoying the area as we have vacationed here often over the past 15 years.

I just landed a volunteer position at a local golf course, so will have playing privileges. That was also part of my plan, so am very happy to have that in place.

I will likely find a part time job to provide a little extra income, but I have found a lot of things that need to be done around the house, so that it keeping me busy for now.

Looking forward to this next stage of life, which will definitely continue to include some nice timeshare trips.

Best regards.

Mike

This is wonderful! Enjoy your retirement and new home! Keep Timesharing that is always fun. Keep us up to date on your travels. Congratulations!
Silentg

 

[DancingWaters]

This is a good thread since I am struggling with the decision to retire.I am a teacher and I love what I do but the demands on my time on top of teaching at this age is making me stretched too thin. I babysit my very young grandkids after school, plus we have rental property. My job is my social life, so I will leave all that behind me and that scares me. My husband will retire in 12 months.

 

[IngridN]

Congratulations! I retired 4 years ago and like others, don't know how I had the time to work. DH is still working because he loves most aspects of his job, but will retire soon. We plan to stay in the Bay Area and are remodeling our home to our liking.

Ingrid

 

[VacationForever]

I applaud the move you made. My observation as one who has been living on Social Security and a Pension (both annuities) for almost 16 years now is that you only have 2 things to monitor. They are the financial stability of the entity (or entities) behind your annuities and potential inflation. Personally I have addressed the possibility of excessive inflation by accumulating gold and silver coins at a slow and steady pace.

George

Thank you. I just wish I had liquidated last year, but I wanted to wait till all IRA contributions were completed to make it happen at the same time. It is fascinating that when I ran the numbers, one of the future income annuities will pay guaranteed income of more than 3X the principal. No other markets can guarantee such payout. Of course the insurance company can go belly up and that's where state insurance will come in to cover part of it.

I have a sum of money set aside for unplanned needs.

 

[PamMo]

Congratulations, Mike! We've been testing an early retirement for a few months, and are loving it. Some of DH's partners were betting he'd go crazy without work filling his days, but it's been a remarkably easy transition for him - we're having a blast!

 

[Ron98GT]

I am happy to share that I retired earlier this month.

We ... moved to Las Vegas, which has been our long term plan for quite some time. We are enjoying the area as we have vacationed here often over the past 15 years.

Mike

Welcome to Las Vegas.

I retire in 2-years, 4-months, and 1-day. But who's counting?:hysterical:

 

[DancingWaters]

Since alot of you are moving after you retire and that seems to be going well, do you miss family and ex coworkers? When we retire we will live on half of our yearly income we are making now. That is scary. So do you add to your yearly income by taking money out of your investments?

 

[vacationhopeful]

Ex-coworkers? REALLY?

I worked for over 9 years at one company ... I ski with them, vacationed together, I dated them, I drank beer after work with them ...

Let me give you a clue .. I must have died when I left working there ... I heard nothing from them. Our lives inter-twined at work .. but I was NOT at work and in their lives NO MORE. And yes, this was before the age of cell phones and Facebook.

I must caught some dreaded disease and became non-human or moved to a different plane of existence.

And it was the same at my next company job ... 3.5 years of shared employment. I got a farewell luncheon at least from that crew (and all these years later, still remember very well!)

PS As for family ... they ALL moved thousands of miles away ... most directly after graduating from HS except for summer vacations from college .. but they established residencies far, far away after college. AND I have worked hard at keeping them around ... as I host the vacation stays at my timeshares EVERY 5 years to get them all in 1 place for at least 5 nights. There is a wedding is coming up next month ... 3000 miles from me ... required appearance ... just today brought my airline ticket.

 

[VacationForever]

Since alot of you are moving after you retire and that seems to be going well, do you miss family and ex coworkers? When we retire we will live on half of our yearly income we are making now. That is scary. So do you add to your yearly income by taking money out of your investments?

We will be leaving my son in California and because of that we will always keep 2 homes, a second one in California, but scaled down, so that he can pay for the upkeep and maintenance. I agree with Linda that when you move on, they forget about you. There is always opportunities to make new friends. We invited neighbors and newfound friends/acquaintance over to our home for dinner wherever we move to. We go on travel with newfound friends wherever we move to.

We are living on one third to one quarter of what we used to make in retirement - and our retirement income is a low 6-figure sum. Don't forget that that the more you make, the less you will live on when you retire because much of what you make in your working years goes towards taxes, IRA and savings. Our retirement income = our pre-retirement expenses, so we are confident that we will do OK in our retirement. That is why we worked so hard through these years.

Social Security payment won't start for a few more years as we want to wait till my husband turns 70. Mine will be many more years after that. Our retirement income will come from drawing down non-IRA savings/capital for the next 7 years, Social Security and IRA RMD in a couple of years and IRA annuities starting in 7 years' time. After 7 years, technically we don't need to draw down anymore non-IRA savings.

 

[pedro47]

First, Congratulations! :whoopie:

Second, I'm now jealous.

Enjoy...you've earned it.

I wish you many, many, many years of wonderful retirement years. I am also can of jealous living in Vegas and free golf. Double Congratulations stay busy and just enjoy your retirement.

 

[Pat H]

Congrats, Mike. You will love retirement.

MY original plan was to retire at 62 which was the end of 2009. After the crash in 2008, I decided I couldn't retire in 2009. I had just purchased my retirement home in SC so I had 2 mortgages. Plan was to work an extra year or two. Then came the takeover of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. Wachovia was a great employer, Wells Fargo not so much. Job changed to paper pushing instead of investigating. We knew there would be layoffs in our department. With my length of service, I would get 14 months full pay and benefits and be able to collect unemployment at the same time. My hand went up so fast. Got laid off Nov. 2009 and haven't looked back.

Nothing to do where I lived in PA and I hate the cold. My kids live in 3 different states. In Sept 2010 I moved to Sun City Hilton Head. Love it here. Have more friends than ever. So much to do and no snow. "Sold" my PA house to my oldest son.

I live on SS, a mediocre pension and monthly withdrawals from my 401K. Missed out on retiree medical stipend which required retirement by end of 2007. Retirement is great!

 

[Luanne]

Since alot of you are moving after you retire and that seems to be going well, do you miss family and ex coworkers? When we retire we will live on half of our yearly income we are making now. That is scary. So do you add to your yearly income by taking money out of your investments?

Miss my coworkers? Not at all. By the time I left no one was working in the office any more, everyone (except me) seemed to be telecommuting all the time. I was located in California, my boss was in Atlanta. In fact I have never met her face to face.

My family? My sister, her family and my mom had already moved to Missouri. One dd stayed in California, the other is a nomad. They both told us that we should do what WE wanted.

So far we are doing okay with Social Security, my pension and a small amount from investments. This year dh has to start drawing from his IRA (I still have a few years). Knock on wood, our money will outlast us.

 

[DancingWaters]

Well Linda yoiu made me laugh! My husband has has the same job for 36 years and mine for 20 years so we have made special relationships. We don't want to move and lose all that plus two of our kids live within ten minutes. My mom has outlived her money and now owns her condo only and lives on $900 a month social security......I am afraid of that!! I am also afraid of not having that title of teacher and not feeling important. I have learned so much through the year, it will be hard to give up. Physically, I'm ready! Oh what to do??? I have found a new trip I want to do......visit a gem mine!

 

[WinniWoman]

You know how everyone always says "where does the time go'? Well- I don't get it because I know EXACTLY where it goes- it goes to our JOBS!

I never relate to that statement because I count every single second when I am there and have suffered through all the jobs I have had for 44 years!!. LOL!

 

[WinniWoman]

Ex-coworkers? REALLY?

I worked for over 9 years at one company ... I ski with them, vacationed together, I dated them, I drank beer after work with them ...

Let me give you a clue .. I must have died when I left working there ... I heard nothing from them. Our lives inter-twined at work .. but I was NOT at work and in their lives NO MORE. And yes, this was before the age of cell phones and Facebook.

I must caught some dreaded disease and became non-human or moved to a different plane of existence.

And it was the same at my next company job ... 3.5 years of shared employment. I got a farewell luncheon at least from that crew.

PS As for family ... they ALL moved thousands of miles away ... most directly after graduating from HS except for summer vacations from college .. but they established residencies far, far away after college. AND I have worked hard at keeping them around ... as I host the vacation stays at my timeshares EVERY 5 years to get them all in 1 place for at least 5 nights. There is a wedding is coming up next month ... 3000 miles from me ... required appearance ... just today brought my airline ticket.

I relate. And I can tell you I have had a LOT of jobs in my lifetime as I am of the generation of corporate takeovers and layoffs. I had a lot of friends at work but life forced a lot of changes upon us and I do not see any of them anymore- and there were many! I struggle just to get my one and only sibling to visit or to invite us. Other friends are scattered all over and involved with their own families. I hope to move to a retirement community someday and be a but closer to our only child, but I know the reality will be a lot of loneliness. Even the people there die off. Good thing I am an introvert and like dogs.

 

[DancingWaters]

Congratulations to all of you that have made the transition to retirement! Certainly it is a huge decision.

 

[mjm1]

Thanks again for all the posts.

We have two kids, one in Fresno, CA (central valley) and Dallas, so moving from the Bay Area and the very high cost of living was relatively easy for us. It was hard to leave our good friends, but Donna has her dad and younger sister here in Las Vegas. Another consideration for us is the high tax burden in CA. But one of the big factors was also to get Donna closer to her family (mine is very spread out). I am four years older than her and given the life expectancies, I figured she would likely outlive me. Hopefully we are a long way from finding out, but I wanted her to be closer to her family just in case. I like meeting new people and will make friends on the golf course, in our new neighborhood and through church, so that will be easy.

Finances always seem to be a concern and that is true for us as well. We have been blessed with my pension and medical coverage, but we will still need to watch our spending. We have Quicken to track our income and expenses for years, so we will continue to do that. And we have started the process to consolidate our timeshare ownership. More to come on that in the relatively near future. That is probably the most painful move to date. I will also likely find some type of part time job, perhaps seasonal work.

More than anything, we are excited about this chapter in our journey and we appreciate the encouragement that all of you have provided. We will take one day at a time.

Mike

 

[taffy19]

Mike, I wish you and Donna a Happy Retirement. Stay healthy and take advantage of the last minute travel opportunities that you will find over and over again.

These are your Golden Years and you have deserved them. I wish this to all our TUGger friends on this forum.

 

[WinniWoman]

To me, if you take on a job- part-time or otherwise after you retire- you aren't really retired.

 

[SMHarman]

To me, if you take on a job- part-time or otherwise after you retire- you aren't really retired.

Another way of looking at. You are our can be retired if you have an unearned income stream sufficient to live on long term.

 

[Icc5]

Agree

To me, if you take on a job- part-time or otherwise after you retire- you aren't really retired.

Saw my brother n law do this but that was still at a really early age (55). At least I feel it was too early. Now, I think he will have to keep doing the part time thing just to make ends meet.
I retired 3 years ago at 62 and then my daughter,son n law, and granddaughter moved in to our house because they couldn't make ends meet. Just heard last night they finally found a place so will be moving in April (near, so will still have time with granddaughter).
Now, my wife has decided to retire in May after 42 years at the same job. She will be 61. Another change for us but we seem to handle change pretty well.
I figure after about 6 month after her retirement we will be somewhere on vacation about 10 days a month. We already have 6 weeks booked in her first 6 months of retirement.

 

[x3 skier]

To me, if you take on a job- part-time or otherwise after you retire- you aren't really retired.

I did part time consulting for several years after retiring from full time work. I really enjoyed the consulting since if they didn't take my advice, it didn't matter to me. If they did, I was gratified. I still collected my pay either way and didn't worry. The extra income went almost entirely into savings. So it was more of a hobby than job.

Cheers

 

[Luanne]

To me, if you take on a job- part-time or otherwise after you retire- you aren't really retired.

When dh and I retired he fully thought he would take on a part time job of some kind. His theory is you need to have something to get up for each day. Well, we are three years into retirement and he's found he doesn't have the time for a job. Too many other things to get up in the morning for.

 

[Pat H]

You know how everyone always says "where does the time go'? Well- I don't get it because I know EXACTLY where it goes- it goes to our JOBS!

I never relate to that statement because I count every single second when I am there and have suffered through all the jobs I have had for 44 years!!. LOL!

After you retire the days just fly by. Maybe it's because we are enjoying it so much or maybe it's because we are getting (gulp) older.