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When do you plan to retire and first trip

Fredflintstone

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your post is inspiring me to figure out how I can save more so I can retire at 65 as life is a gift an no one knows when that gift goes alway.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

You are so right. The one thing you cannot buy is more time. I have seen so many folks work hard all their lives, save and dream of a beautiful retirement. They keep delaying it to get just a few more dollars. Then...time is up and their kids feast on the money they worked so hard to accumulate to fulfill their dreams.


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BarbmC

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BarbmC, I'd hope that you can perhaps fulfill at least some of those Bucket List items before you retire. You don't say, but when you are 65 and dealing with all those 'age 65' items, retirement, Medicare and all, that 75 y.o. guy you want to share your travels with may be slowing down. Only you know your exact situation, but my teeny tiny bit of advice is. . . DON'T WAIT! You won't regret it.

Jim
Agree Jim! We've been together 7 years, married for 2! We have already been on some major trips AND became timeshare owners. I love to travel, and before me, he didnt travel much - but has really come to love it too!!
 

slip

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Personally, Joe, I think buying a condo is better IF that’s the place you want to be at. Yes, Hawaii is super expensive in many areas, but there are a few gems left that are still affordable. As an example @slip bought a beautiful condo on Molokai and actually lives on Oahu after making a job transfer from WI. He, in my opinion bought right. Just for fun, I looked at what the rent is on Molokai on Airbnb and it averages to 120 a night so slip could rent it out if he ever wanted to.




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Thanks, and yes, we do rent it out. I get between $100 and $125 a night.
 

MOXJO7282

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Having all those weeks to live in Hawaii sounds great. Isn't the maintenance a bit overwhelming? How does paying the maintenance compare with owning a 2nd residence. I am thinking that there is little to no investment in the TS, but the annual maintenance might be higher in cost than owning a condo. Of course with the condo there is an intial investment but also an exit value. Very curious.

Joe
For the 1st time my MFs for all of our Marriott weeks exceeds $50k this year but the rental income exceeds MFs by 2X+ for my Maui weeks and my other weeks all have positive profit margins so the MFs are actually more than just manageable but profitable.

I really can't compare what I do to owning a 2nd residence because first off I could never afford even a down payment for a 2nd residence on Kaanapali Beach, or waterfront on Hilton Head Island, nor any of the other locations our amazing Marriott resorts we own are on. What is unique about the 2BDRM LOs we own is we could rent a portion of my units and actually stay for free or even put money in my pocket. I'm still doing the calculations but depending on what we stay in we could stay in a studio for free for 8 weeks, rent the rest of our intervals and still put a few $1000 above our MFs in our pocket so that will be pretty amazing if I can pull it off in a few years.

Not sure what you mean about Maui TSs having no investment because I've spent a considerable amount of money for the 12 even weeks and 10 odd usage periods we have (8 annual, 4 EY, 2OY) but again that is much cheaper than buying a whole unit. What is interesting is I actually used different major bank's money to fund all of my TS purchases early on when I didn't have 2 nickels to rub together by using revolving free bank transfers and 0% interest credit cards something that would be hard to duplicate today with the balance transfer fees they charge now and something you could never do with a 2nd residence. Wouldn't have more than few TSs now if I didn't use the Bank's money because I certainly didn't have the money I spent to create our portfolio but had the ingenuity and the will and the rest is history.

We purchased our Maui units over 18 years with only 2 being direct from Marriott. I've done the math to compare what we've paid ($276k - doesn't include incentives we received so actually overall spend was less) to what I think the current value is ($216k - very conservative) so on the surface there isn't the appreciation you see in Real Estate but really if you remove the 2 I bought direct at $85k total back in 2002 there is some appreciation when you buy good resale deals and with the rental income being so good it is like owning an OF property on Kaanapali.

And a huge added bonus of the major MFs fees is every year by just paying my MFs we get 300k in Bonvoy points which we convert into more free travel.

Different than owning a 2nd residence but in some ways the same.
 

MOXJO7282

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Personally, Joe, I think buying a condo is better IF that’s the place you want to be at. Yes, Hawaii is super expensive in many areas, but there are a few gems left that are still affordable. As an example @slip bought a beautiful condo on Molokai and actually lives on Oahu after making a job transfer from WI. He, in my opinion bought right. Just for fun, I looked at what the rent is on Molokai on Airbnb and it averages to 120 a night so slip could rent it out if he ever wanted to.




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Exactly, buying anything similar to what we enjoy would be well beyond what something on Molokai costs and while what slip is doing is inspiring but not something we would want because we like being on the best beach with resort like pools and amenities in areas with a good amount of activity so what we do is perfect for us and really no down side because I make a nice profit from my portfolio and get multiple free trips along the way. Again what I do is different than owning a 2nd residence and really something very hard to duplicate without spending millions if 2nd residence was the goal.
 

joestein

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Second Residence is my goal. I think I will probably live in FL or Las Vegas for my primary residence. But I will want to get away for the Summer when it is too hot. I have thought about a secondary residence, but maybe a bunch of timeshares might be the way to go. I am curious how the costs would work out for each.

Of course, where my kids end up will be a factor.

Joe
 

clifffaith

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I'm curious if those of you who are retired really don't work at all?

It may be different for us, because we have a business, but we cannot imagine ever not working at all. My husband has scaled down and he thinks that when he does "retire", he will work about half time. His long term plan is to take a full week off each quarter and a long weekend per month, but never close his business and stop working.

We sort of retired before we retired. We'd go away for up to three weeks at a time, just checking the answering machine once a day. Stopped all advertising except phone book (which pulled a number we hadn't advertised since 1999 out of their asses last year; luckily it was still available since I'd only disconnected it and stopped the call forwarding only two years prior). Each "milestone" that came up we'd decide "do we want to register the truck again? Yes, then we are still in business". "Do we want to renew our bond again? Yes, I guess we are still working". Then this time last year when we asked ourselves "Do we want to renew our Contractor's License?" The answer was NO. By the end of the following month I got our customer who was still painting to pay us, gave her our home phone number in anticipation of turning the phones off, and by the end of the year we were done. Don't miss it in the least, but wish the bi-weekly dreams of measuring and showing fabric samples would stop!
 

Bxian

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Somewhat late to the party here..I will be 64 in January and plan to cut back to semi-retired status as of March 1st. It will be interesting since I am a lawyer with long-time clients and can't totally walk away. However, after losing 3 friends in the past 2 years, I realized that I need to take more time for myself and my husband and started strategizing my exit plan.
Right now, we are at our beloved home timeshare where we have enjoyed 2 weeks of beautiful weather, some nice meals out, a couple of movies and ....way too much work and work check-in for me. I long for the day when I won't have to check my e-mails multiple times per day. About the only way for me to totally escape is to go on cruises. We return to our timeshare for 2 weeks in January, and then have a Panama Canal cruise planned for March, a Mediterranean cruise planned for late fall, and a 27 day cruise from Singapore to Tokyo planned for January of 2021.
I plan to gradually transition clients to my colleagues over the next year. I am really looking forward to ending my commute, which is more than an hour each way. Getting rid of the commute alone will give me an extra day's worth of hours each week. I told my husband that in my first week home, I plan on staying in my sweats and binge-watching many of the tv shows that I hear people talking about so that I can stop being culturally illiterate :)
 

klpca

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Somewhat late to the party here..I will be 64 in January and plan to cut back to semi-retired status as of March 1st. It will be interesting since I am a lawyer with long-time clients and can't totally walk away. However, after losing 3 friends in the past 2 years, I realized that I need to take more time for myself and my husband and started strategizing my exit plan.
Right now, we are at our beloved home timeshare where we have enjoyed 2 weeks of beautiful weather, some nice meals out, a couple of movies and ....way too much work and work check-in for me. I long for the day when I won't have to check my e-mails multiple times per day. About the only way for me to totally escape is to go on cruises. We return to our timeshare for 2 weeks in January, and then have a Panama Canal cruise planned for March, a Mediterranean cruise planned for late fall, and a 27 day cruise from Singapore to Tokyo planned for January of 2021.
I plan to gradually transition clients to my colleagues over the next year. I am really looking forward to ending my commute, which is more than an hour each way. Getting rid of the commute alone will give me an extra day's worth of hours each week. I told my husband that in my first week home, I plan on staying in my sweats and binge-watching many of the tv shows that I hear people talking about so that I can stop being culturally illiterate :)
My boss was on a cruise this week. Checked his email every day. I had easy internet access all over France. You just can't get away from it anymore.
 

WinniWoman

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Somewhat late to the party here..I will be 64 in January and plan to cut back to semi-retired status as of March 1st. It will be interesting since I am a lawyer with long-time clients and can't totally walk away. However, after losing 3 friends in the past 2 years, I realized that I need to take more time for myself and my husband and started strategizing my exit plan.
Right now, we are at our beloved home timeshare where we have enjoyed 2 weeks of beautiful weather, some nice meals out, a couple of movies and ....way too much work and work check-in for me. I long for the day when I won't have to check my e-mails multiple times per day. About the only way for me to totally escape is to go on cruises. We return to our timeshare for 2 weeks in January, and then have a Panama Canal cruise planned for March, a Mediterranean cruise planned for late fall, and a 27 day cruise from Singapore to Tokyo planned for January of 2021.
I plan to gradually transition clients to my colleagues over the next year. I am really looking forward to ending my commute, which is more than an hour each way. Getting rid of the commute alone will give me an extra day's worth of hours each week. I told my husband that in my first week home, I plan on staying in my sweats and binge-watching many of the tv shows that I hear people talking about so that I can stop being culturally illiterate :)

Sounds like you have a good plan.

My husband is 65 and one of the big reasons I supported him retiring sooner than planned (at 67 so as to keep health insurance for me) was the commute with the winter coming up. Very wearing.

Yeah- he could work from home on bad storm days but it was less than ideal as he does not have his files or a work phone at home. Also- the job went from too crazy busy to a major slowdown and boring. The company made more changes and there were recently some layoffs and consolidations. We were hoping he would be one of them so as to maybe get a little severance pay, but he wasn't that lucky- lol!

So 12/31 it is (actually he will be on vacation for the holidays, so his last day actually working is 12/20). As our new home closing is scheduled for 12/31, ( and though I am sure it will really be after that date- maybe sometime in January) I think it will coincide nicely.

Right now he counts the days. He went from liking his job/work to dreading it, though right now there is nothing for him to do at home as we are in limbo land here in our temporary house, so it is best for him to be working whether he realizes it or not.

In 2 more weeks we will be at our timeshare (and also finally seeing our new house) and he will be off the second week after that at home. Then he works a couple of more weeks and then he is done. Then hopefully we will be moving out of state after that at some point soon.

Enjoy your life while you can! No time like the present!
 

PigsDad

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My boss was on a cruise this week. Checked his email every day. I had easy internet access all over France. You just can't get away from it anymore.
No, you can get away from it. Sounds like your boss chose not to. Sad, IMO.

Kurt
 

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No, you can get away from it. Sounds like your boss chose not to. Sad, IMO.

Kurt
Completely agree. CHOICE. I started travelling internationally to avoid calls from work while on vacation time. Everyone deserves down time. I am a reformed workaholic, living my life for me, not my employer. Life is stressful enough without bringing work on vacation. A company that can't do without me for a week is a place with no disaster plan which is clearly bad planning.

It is about 2 years since I last worked. I expected to be back in 2 weeks. I have taken absolutely no work calls, never checked that email. I will assume that they got along without me fine, but I really don't care, I'm healing myself because I am a higher priority to me than that workplace. They terminated me at first legal chance, after one year of FMLA. This is how much my employer cared about me.
 

klpca

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No, you can get away from it. Sounds like your boss chose not to. Sad, IMO.

Kurt
My point was more along the line that in the past, you got on the ship and it was difficult and expensive to get on the internet. Not any more. It was a piece of cake.

I have to admit that when we were in Tahiti last year on a Tradewinds cruise, we were the only ones without cell service (odd that Verizon had no service even for a price) and it was the best week ever. We were just in France and of course we had service so I stayed in touch with the rest of the world, which somewhat diminished the pleasure of the trip. Are you guys disciplined enough to stay off of the internet when you travel? I just couldn't do it. I checked my home email (left an away message for work and never checked that). I read my local newspaper, and checked in briefly on social media. My phone is my camera so I can't just leave it at home.
 

SmithOp

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My point was more along the line that in the past, you got on the ship and it was difficult and expensive to get on the internet. Not any more. It was a piece of cake.

I have to admit that when we were in Tahiti last year on a Tradewinds cruise, we were the only ones without cell service (odd that Verizon had no service even for a price) and it was the best week ever. We were just in France and of course we had service so I stayed in touch with the rest of the world, which somewhat diminished the pleasure of the trip. Are you guys disciplined enough to stay off of the internet when you travel? I just couldn't do it. I checked my home email (left an away message for work and never checked that). I read my local newspaper, and checked in briefly on social media. My phone is my camera so I can't just leave it at home.

Its simple really, just push that Airplane Mode button when you leave and resist all temptation to press it until you return.

Going on a cruise in 12 days, they want $99 for unlimited social media, no thanks.


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turkel

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My point was more along the line that in the past, you got on the ship and it was difficult and expensive to get on the internet. Not any more. It was a piece of cake.

I have to admit that when we were in Tahiti last year on a Tradewinds cruise, we were the only ones without cell service (odd that Verizon had no service even for a price) and it was the best week ever. We were just in France and of course we had service so I stayed in touch with the rest of the world, which somewhat diminished the pleasure of the trip. Are you guys disciplined enough to stay off of the internet when you travel? I just couldn't do it. I checked my home email (left an away message for work and never checked that). I read my local newspaper, and checked in briefly on social media. My phone is my camera so I can't just leave it at home.

If we are out of the country we turn our phones off and don’t think twice about it. We have never even checked on international service.

My mom is on our plan and just went to Mexico. She was shocked when I told her she didn’t have service out of the US. Next thing ya know I am getting a call from my brother telling me to turn on international service. NO!

I told him if she didn’t like it she could get her own plan!

We are actually shocked by the number of people using their cell on vacation. I just think People put the damn thing down and enjoy your partner,family, surroundings your on vacation.

My husbands office literally turns into a sh*t show without him, everybody miserable and complaining due to highly stressed screwed too tight manager. So sorry folks, He’ll smooth everyone’s feathers when he gets back.
 

DaveNV

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It’s standard practice at my company to set up Out of Office notifications on phones and email, advising that the person will be away, with “limited to zero access to email and calls,” returning on (whatever date), and referring to a backup person or the company Help Desk. I have never once had somebody try to reach me away from work, unless it was an immediate coworker I’d asked to let me know if such-and-such occurred. And even that is rare.

Now having said that, it doesn’t mean that *I* want to be totally off the grid from friends and family, too. Those Facebook cat videos aren’t going to post themselves! ;)

Dave
 

VacationForever

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Many years ago I had a manager who expected us to not only read and respond to emails but also to call into important meetings when we were out on our own vacation time. Most of us were all type A personalities and it did not bother us. We all wanted to stay on top of what was going on, made decisions etc even while we were away from the office.

We went on to start our own business and continued with the same work ethics of working and being connected 365 days a year.

Now that I am retired, I still read and respond to (personal) email throughout the day. When we travel internationally or out on a cruise, we also want to be always connected by phone and email. We don't see it as hardship.
 

rapmarks

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Bxian we attended my husband’s 60 year reunion, and all the lawyers were still working!

Clifffaith, I still have teacher nightmares and back to school nightmares and it will be twenty years
 

klpca

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I just don't have the discipline to stay off of the phone completely. We used maps (sometimes the offline maps were problematic), used yelp to find restaurants in unfamiliar neighborhoods, used the metro planner all the time, stayed in touch with tour groups by email etc. I didn't spend a bunch of time on social media - that's the easiest to let go - but we posted pics to our private family group. I didn't check work email (but a client who I also work with for real estate) texted me with an issue. Grrr. Luckily it referred to an attachment that I never received, so I texted her back and told her to call the office and speak to my boss. Not her fault, she didn't know that we were out of the country, but it was still jarring to get the text - at 2am.

I admire those of you who can just disconnect but sadly, I am not one of them. :)
 

CalGalTraveler

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It's different when you run your own small company...You can put people in place to respond to calls and the out of the office message, but sometimes things arise such as customer issues or a major client asking for new business that cannot wait two weeks.
 

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Anyone who thinks they are irreplaceable should stick their hand into a bucket of water, then pull it out and see how long it takes the water to fill the space where their hand was.

Jim
 

Luvtoride

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Somewhat late to the party here..

Even later to the party here. My wife and I both turned 62 this year. She recently retired from her "Corporate job" as a nurse (running a large homecare agency) to spend more time with our newest grandchild and slow down a bit. She was constantly "on call" and responding to emails, texts and phone calls about work, even while on vacations.
She has started her own healthcare consulting company, working from home and has the time the help our daughter with childcare when she needs some fill-in time (she has regular day-care lined up for most times). My wife also spends more time at our 2nd home at the Jersey shore, only about 70 minutes from where we live full-time. Joestein, it is definitely worth realizing the dream of a 2nd home if you can manage it. That is one of the reasons why I continue to work, as supporting 2 homes and our TS MF's is still pretty costly. Eventually, when I retire we could give up one of the residences.

I understand the strategy some have discussed here of using multiple TS weeks as a 2nd home but I don't think there is any comparison in enjoyment, logistically or financially. The travel costs and planning to go to those resorts alone has to be exhausting, not to mention expensive. When you go, you still need to pack, unpack and repack to return (too bad you can't rent storage space to keep your stuff there). And financially, I don't spend $50k in housing costs to service my mortgage, property taxes and HOA fees for my condo (although its not far from that amount, MOXJO). We don't rent out our condo, but if we needed to, we could. We've owned it for 2 years and it has already appreciated in value almost 10% from what our purchase price was.
 

slip

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My company is much like Dave’s. We leave out of office messages and the only thing I do is move emails to a file folder. Otherwise, I would have hundreds to move when I get back to work.

So, I unplug from work but I do enjoy posting and messaging friends. I get many messages and comments from them about how much they enjoy my posts. I don’t feel it’s bragging as I enjoy their posts also.
I get messages from many who can’t or won’t travel for many reasons but they love seeing the pictures and hearing about our adventures.
 

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Anyone who thinks they are irreplaceable should stick their hand into a bucket of water, then pull it out and see how long it takes the water to fill the space where their hand was.

Jim
I don't for one second believe we were irreplaceable. On the contrary, we knew we were replaceable but it was about having a say in what and how things needed to be done at work. Type A personalities don't like to relinquish their control.
 

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I just don't have the discipline to stay off of the phone completely. We used maps (sometimes the offline maps were problematic), used yelp to find restaurants in unfamiliar neighborhoods, used the metro planner all the time, stayed in touch with tour groups by email etc. I didn't spend a bunch of time on social media - that's the easiest to let go - but we posted pics to our private family group. I didn't check work email (but a client who I also work with for real estate) texted me with an issue. Grrr. Luckily it referred to an attachment that I never received, so I texted her back and told her to call the office and speak to my boss. Not her fault, she didn't know that we were out of the country, but it was still jarring to get the text - at 2am.

I admire those of you who can just disconnect but sadly, I am not one of them. :)
I think there is a big difference between being disconnected from work / home while on vacation vs. using your phone while on vacation for navigation, looking up restaurants, tours, etc. The latter enhances one's vacation time, and to me, that is still being "disconnected" while on vacation.

Kurt
 
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