Retirement

[Deleted]

I quit my job a year ago because my boss was intolerable. She was a screamer and I began having panic attacks. I'm not convinced I'll go back to work now. The life I've built is pretty great.

I take care of the house, errands, and my husband. Every morning, as he goes out the door to work, I inquire how I can help him. That feels like my purpose now

"Me time" includes doing 48 hrs a month as a victim advocate for our police department, running a community support group helping those who share a particular disease my H has. (pm me for details). Three monthly groups I participate in - book club, a crafts club, and Mexican Train (a social time mindlessly playing dominos). My sobriety and AA meetings are important. Without that, I wouldn't get to do any of the aforementioned activities! Walking and socializing with girlfriends fills the rest of my time.

I have family in Seattle and a grand baby due here any day. Life is good. Now if I only could convince H to retire!!

[Deleted]

No don't feel that way! I just like to be busy and get out there in my community. Your RV plans are enviable. How did you convince you H to retire???

[Deleted]

Apr 18, 2016 22:49:32 GMT -5 @stalkermom said:

Apr 18, 2016 22:40:46 GMT -5 @courtneyl said:

No don't feel that way! I just like to be busy and get out there in my community. Your RV plans are enviable. How did you convince you H to retire???

He is itching to retire. The two year plan is because he was offered a job he couldn't refuse that requires a couple year commitment. We are so ready to hit the road.

So as "full time" RV'ers will you still keep a homebase? Where will you start once you hit the road?

[mrsukyankee]

We have many years until retirement (boo), but the plan right now is to retire to a market town/small city in southern France and then travel, cook, go to the beach, etc. Who knows what will happen in our lives before then (such as the UK leaving the EU, which would scupper that plan)?

[mags]

I have 2 years and 3 months until retirement. My H can not retire for about 10 more years. So, we will be moving back into Manhattan so he will no longer have 3 hour commute each day, and save $500 doing so.

Our dream is for him to get a job in Europe and live there for a year or so at least. After that who knows?

[flex]

I am retiring in Fall 2017. 58 is when I would get full retirement, and with each full year I retire early it's 6% off my pension check. So I'll be 57 years and 9 months when I take that big step.

I have a delightful pension coming to me, and I'll get it for the rest of my life, so barring any major medical issues, I should be able to live comfortably.

[mags]

Apr 19, 2016 7:11:38 GMT -5 flex said:

I am retiring in Fall 2017. 58 is when I would get full retirement, and with each full year I retire early it's 6% off my pension check. So I'll be 57 years and 9 months when I take that big step.

I have a delightful pension coming to me, and I'll get it for the rest of my life, so barring any major medical issues, I should be able to live comfortably.

Since you will only be 57.9 will you be taking a hit?

[FormerlyRR]

I can retire at 60, and plan to do so about then. My SO is a bit younger than I am, and he will be eligible to retire when I am 66, so he will be a bit behind me. We have talked about buying some land with a small house, and traveling around to baseball parks and dancehalls.
In reality, I have no real idea other than the timeline.

[rosiebear]

H hopes to retire in 9 years, when he is 65 and our mortgage is nearly paid. I'm looking at 15 to 18 more years. Boo, although I know we are hugely privileged to be able to consider retiring with a paid off home and a pension.

My job has changed in the last couple of years and become much less enjoyable. I'm looking to leave for the right opportunity, but we are close-ish to retiring and the calculations that make that possible rely on my current level of income. I feel stuck.

[seabitch]

Love this conversation, and glad I found "The Olds", I am going to jump right in vs reading, liking, and nodding along on the posts I read.

Retirement, H has 2 year, 2 months till he retires at 59. He as worked for the same company (mainly the same job) since he was 18. I am not sure when I will officially retire. I took some additional responsibilities on at work, and am TOTALLY loving my job, thus am not ready to step away in 2 years, but who knows, maybe I will.

We have purchased a house in the British Virgin Islands that we plan to retire to in the winter months.  We currently rent it out to minimize our costs.  We plan to purchase a house in the 1000 islands of New York for the Spring/Summer/Fall months.

The whole concept of retirement seems mind boggling since it seems like just yesterday, I was twenty something or thirty something.

[Mrs.Rad888]

DH and I talked for years about being one of those RV-ing retired couples. We'd sell everything and buy an RV and just travel the country, but honestly I can't see DH totally leaving his comfort zone like that. He's totally turning into a curmudgeon, and quickly. I totally expect to come home from Costco sometime and see him sitting on the front porch with his BB gun, yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Except that we don't have a front porch, and we're very rural, so we don't ever have kids on our lawn.

He made some remark not too long ago about how the guys he works with have a hard time with change (they got rid of Sprite in the soda machine, which caused a huge meltdown), and how he is usually pretty good with change. After I stopped laughing, I had to ask him if he was serious. He still hasn't answered.


seabitch, you said something a while back about doing pirate events. Is that like Ren Faire stuff, but pirate themed? A friend got DH and me into that a few years back, and it's been a ton of fun. Our area has a Ren Faire in August that goes for 3 weekends, and the first weekend is Pirate Weekend. It's a blast, but being in a corset is no fun when it's 90 degrees!

[seabitch]

Our pirate activities are limited to 2 weeks a year when they have 12 days (two weekends) of Pirate Days in Alexandria Bay, NY. We are game to expand, and have looked as Gaspiralla (sp?) in Tampa (and or on the SW coast of Florida) but the dates of our travel and the festivals have never lined up.

And yes, a thousand times yes, being in a corset in 90 degrees is the worst! But drinking grog and enjoying the costumes and festivities is worth it!


I love the idea of getting in an RV and seeing the USA. Not sure I could ever talk husband into it unless we did it by boat. We have talked about doing some traveling along the St Lawrence river up through the Great Lakes and back once we retire. Also, have talked about taking a boat (power not sail) down the St Lawrence and into the ocean and then traveling the East Coast down to Florida. Some friends of our did this during 2015/2016 and it sounded like a blast!

[Pom]

Background: We are a ways from retirement. I anticipate H will retire in 15 years. I left my career a couple of years ago (hospitality management hours suck) and have spent most of my time since dealing with the bumps in the road we've had recently: his dad's Alzheimer's and care needs, his passing, his estate/property/rentals. My parents health issues are looming now. I travel with H often which makes up for the early days in our marriage when he was away for work 25+ days per month.

Plans---always subject to change---We may keep this house we recently moved to. We both like it here and it's close to nieces. We also have a cottage in Northern Michigan and we may upgrade to a lakefront property for the summers. It's too hot here in the summer. We will want to travel, so not sure if we will keep both houses. So to summarize, not sure, LOL.

[seabitch]

Pom, those bumps in the road are huge and oh so time consuming. But in the end, some of the best years I have spent on this earth thus far. And good for you that you get to travel with your H. I love that!

[Pom]

Apr 19, 2016 10:51:57 GMT -5 seabitch said:

Pom , those bumps in the road are huge and oh so time consuming. But in the end, some of the best years I have spent on this earth thus far. And good for you that you get to travel with your H. I love that!

It is a rough road, but it is/was time well spent.  

Sounds like we share many travel interests...BVI is amazing.  One of our favorite stops on our honeymoon was Tortola.  I ache to go back.  Do you get much time down there?
Gasparilla Island is also one of my favorite places, so I hope you do make it there too.  My mom and stepdad have a winter home very close to Gasparilla/Boca Grande.  I didn't know they had a pirate festival, so neat!  Also, it would be kick ass to be a Great Loop Cruiser.  Not sure if Mr. P and I will get to do that down the road, but it sounds heavenly! 

[seabitch]

Apr 19, 2016 11:08:36 GMT -5 Pom said:

Apr 19, 2016 10:51:57 GMT -5 seabitch said:

Pom , those bumps in the road are huge and oh so time consuming. But in the end, some of the best years I have spent on this earth thus far. And good for you that you get to travel with your H. I love that!

It is a rough road, but it is/was time well spent.  

Sounds like we share many travel interests...BVI is amazing.  One of our favorite stops on our honeymoon was Tortola.  I ache to go back.  Do you get much time down there?
Gasparilla Island is also one of my favorite places, so I hope you do make it there too.  My mom and stepdad have a winter home very close to Gasparilla/Boca Grande.  I didn't know they had a pirate festival, so neat!  Also, it would be kick ass to be a Great Loop Cruiser.  Not sure if Mr. P and I will get to do that down the road, but it sounds heavenly! 

I cherish the rough road I got to travel with my H's father.  (dementia also)  

Re:  Tortola, we get down at least twice a year for 10-14 days at a time.  I get to go a third time this summer as some of the other owners within the estate where we own will be there.  We are having a planning/where do we want the "estate" to go in the future type meeting.  It will be a short trip/long weekend but that is okay since I will be in the BVI!  

We love the west coast of Florida, so we will need to check out the festival at some point in our years.  As for the Great Loop Cruiser, we need to do this before we sell the cruiser or that proverbial ship will have sailed.  It makes me sad to think at some point we will sell the cruiser for a house on the river.  I love being able to take the boat and go anywhere on the St Lawrence that we want.  Long weekends in Kingston, Canada are by far my favorite!  

Sorry for the run on and unrelated sentences.  Get me talking about traveling and I can be like a bouncing ball.  Thanks for asking!

[dragon's breath]

Retirement is 20 years away, but I'm still looking forward to it! Assuming I'm still doing well mentally, physically, and financially, I hope to travel overseas as long as possible (would love to live somewhere a few years--Ireland, France, Germany... but not sure I could). Once I decide I'm done with all the hassle that comes with flying and living out of a suitcase, I want to buy a truck and camper or camp van and drive all over the states (I haven't been to many places in the US).

Not sure where my son will live, or if he will have a family, but I'd spend time visiting him as well.

I should have a small house built in the woods by then, so would spend my time there when I wasn't traveling. I have enough hobbies I want to pursue to keep me busy for a very long time.

[zelda25]

I'm dubious that I'll ever be able to retire.

[flex]

Apr 19, 2016 7:36:29 GMT -5 mags said:

Apr 19, 2016 7:11:38 GMT -5 flex said:

I am retiring in Fall 2017. 58 is when I would get full retirement, and with each full year I retire early it's 6% off my pension check. So I'll be 57 years and 9 months when I take that big step.

I have a delightful pension coming to me, and I'll get it for the rest of my life, so barring any major medical issues, I should be able to live comfortably.

Since you will only be 57.9 will you be taking a hit?

It's 6% if it's 12 months early, so since I'll be retiring 3 months early, it'll only be 1.5% of a hit.  Not a lot.

[mags]

Apr 19, 2016 15:21:13 GMT -5 flex said:

Apr 19, 2016 7:36:29 GMT -5 mags said:

Since you will only be 57.9 will you be taking a hit?

It's 6% if it's 12 months early, so since I'll be retiring 3 months early, it'll only be 1.5% of a hit.  Not a lot.

May i ask why you arent waiting the 3 months?
1.5 per year for hopefully many years!
just curious since i deal a lot with this topic at work.

[flex]

Apr 20, 2016 8:43:38 GMT -5 mags said:

Apr 19, 2016 15:21:13 GMT -5 flex said:

It's 6% if it's 12 months early, so since I'll be retiring 3 months early, it'll only be 1.5% of a hit.  Not a lot.

May i ask why you arent waiting the 3 months?
1.5 per year for hopefully many years!
just curious since i deal a lot with this topic at work.

That's a very good question.  I think for every full year I wait to retire it's an additional $300-400 I'll have on my monthly check.  6% of $400 is $24.  A half of a percent of $24 times 3 is not a big deal to me. Based on the figures the pension office has given me I should be getting close to $7K a month even if I retire a mere 3 months early.  lol  Life is to short to quibble over such  a small amount.  I really would like to retire even sooner than 57 and 9 months.  My mom has Stage IV cancer and it's doubtful that she'll live long enough to see me move back to Oregon next fall.   But unless I win the lottery, I can't pay off my debts any sooner.  Luckily, I should be able to pay it all off by mid-2017, and after that  I want to be able to have funds to make the big move from Alaska to Oregon. 

 My original idea was wait to retire until 58 and we would move to Oregon.  But when DH died in 2007 (I was 47), I had to re-think that plan.  I realized I didn't HAVE TO wait until 58, and I could move back to Oregon sooner than that.  I decided to retire at 56 or 57.  However, even with the best laid plans...I realized as 56/57 got closer I still had a good-sized credit card debt to pay off, and it would be very foolish of me to have that debt hanging over me while I was living on a pension.  

But to answer your original question:  I know several people who are in the same pension fund that I am that worked until even past 58 to add more to their pension, then they retired, and died within months after retiring.  I'm not going to do that.  I've been in this pension fund for 31 years so far and I want to be able to enjoy it while I'm still young.  : )

[flex]

Oh and the cool part about my pension is I can work down in Oregon (doing whatever) and still collect my pension on top of wages, if I choose to work. Time will tell if I get bored enough to want to join the work force again in any sort of capacity.

[mags]

Apr 20, 2016 9:43:15 GMT -5 flex said:

Oh and the cool part about my pension is I can work down in Oregon (doing whatever) and still collect my pension on top of wages, if I choose to work. Time will tell if I get bored enough to want to join the work force again in any sort of capacity.

Thanks for answering. I was curious because the question comes up a lot at work. My pension is good, but nearly as good as yours. I've been in for 30 years but have to wait until 55. I still have 2 years left. It is 3.6% penalty per year for early retirement. 

You are right life is too short and full of a lot of unexpected surprises (good and bad)Congrats to you
! :drink:

[moolarkey]

Pom and seabitch - we have friends who live the Great Loop life. They first did it 2 years ago, took 12 months. Made GREAT looper friends. They came home for a year, got their house ready to rent, sold almost everything in it and are storing a few things. She can work from the boat, he retired They just got back to the States from the Bahamas, will start working north at some point. Their plan is to spend summers on Lake Erie and the rest of the year moving South and then back North. When they go back South the next time, they plan to meet up with the Looper friends, different ones joining at different points, and all go on to Panama. The Looper friends all met up for this year too.

I had hoped to retire in 36 months but since H lost his job recently it might be 5 years or more. That's just a knife in my heart. My plan was to move on to our boat about May 1, come home about Oct. 30th. We'd like to loop but our boat can't hold enough fuel at one time for one of the Mississippi stretches - size of boat is fine, fuel tanks are too small! We had talked about a bigger boat but we love the boat we have and except for that, it's perfect for us so why take on more debt.

We also love the BVI, bareboated down there and it was wonderful.

[scout8]

We are hoping to "semi-retire" in about 10 years in our mid 50's. We will likely have some sort of part time job. We want to spend the first year living somewhere in central Mexico. Then, we will decide if we want to stay long term in Mexico or move back to the US, but not to Chicago where we live now. We still haven't figured out where in the US, but maybe somewhere in NC or VA.

[MixedBerryJam]

I "took the summer off" at 53 after my husband died (2010) to be home with the kids. Something (laziness) has consistently gotten in the way of going back. Since I collect his pension and keep myself busy volunteering I finally admitted I won't ever go back and have considered myself retired for the last 4 years or so. I do look at postings every now and then where I used to work and where I volunteer now, but I just don't want to make that commitment anymore.

I think we just received the last of the kids' survivor benefits this month since he graduates HS before the last day of May, so I assume we won't get a May benefit. My tune may change when I have to start dipping into savings!

[dirtyred]

I quit regular work several years ago (still employed on an "as needed" basis, averaging about 1 day a month).  I have a very small pension from a previous job that I will take when DH formally retires.   DH (who just turned 60) has cut back to what his company calls "Irregular full time."  He can work anywhere between 21 and 39 hours a week and maintain full time benefits, and he is the only person they let work from home, so he will probably stick with work for at least a couple more years just for the health insurance.  We just put a contract on a new house--smaller lot, on a golf course--that we'll stay in until it's assisted living time.

[CrazyLucky]

We have about 20 years before retirement. Dh and I have always said we wanted to purchase a small house on a lake. We love being on a lake and kayaking, swimming, etc. I've always thought the people who retire and then move to wherever their kids are were nuts. But now that I have kids, I can totally see myself doing that. Retirement is so far away, it's kind of fun to dream, but there's not much point in making any solid plans.

[kathybela]

I've already given work my retirement date - March 31, 2020 (I'll be 66 and at that time I'll have been there for almost 44 years, yikes!).

The current plan is to move to the city my son lives in and help with my grandchildren. My grandson has special needs and this is something that we have talked about as a family for a couple of years.

[10nille]

Apr 18, 2016 23:10:29 GMT -5 @stalkermom said:

Apr 18, 2016 23:00:16 GMT -5 @courtneyl said:

So as "full time" RV'ers will you still keep a homebase? Where will you start once you hit the road?

Nope, we'll be getting rid of everything. We'll be storing some artwork with DD1 and DD2 but we'll have nothing in storage and no home base. We will probably establish legal residency in Florida for tax reasons. We plan to RV until our mid 70's and then settle into retirement community with a golf course. As to where we'll start, we plan to follow the sun. Winters in the south and summers in the north.

We got the RV, but my DD kept me from hitting the road as much as he would like to see us travel. We consider the South Dakota residency and there are several companies that handle everything for you.

At least we get spring training in AZ as we are big fans of your obvious team, lol.