Yes Medicare starts at 65. I didn’t have a long commute and packed lunches. We didn’t get all dressed up because our clients were poor and it makes them uncomfortable and harder to establish a relationship. When we worked we were too tired to do stuff on the weekends. Now we spend more doing things because we have the time and energy.
Correct about the age Medicare starts. I will make an edit to my post.
My question for the OP is "do you really need 70% of your current salary?" I ask that because when I look at my personal situation the answer is probably not. Currently my out of pocket expenses are about 40% of my salary, my taxes are about 33% of my salary and the rest goes to savings. Yes, my health insurance cost would go up potentially a lot if I had to buy an ACA plan (haven't looked into how to tweak that via deffered earnings and such so that I'm eligible for subsidies but will when I get to that point) but everything else will stay the same or go down. (we plan to move somewhere cheaper at retirement so housing costs will hopefully go down by at least half, which is currently over 50% of my current spending.)
Before having a freakout I'd suggest look at your current expenses and your theoretical retirement expenses and then try to come up with a retirement spending plan that allows your same lifestyle given the changes to your day to day reality. (ie, more health insurance cost, less commuting and whatever else cost, and the same costs on eating out and etc costs)
Thank you all for thoughtful advice. I know that I will be fine financially including health insurance. This is changed which is tough for me. I do feel this will happen in the next six months, I’m getting my head around having an open mind to see what new gig, full or part time has in store for me. The pluse is that my wife is emotionally supportive
I retired at 56 and have absolutely no regrets. Although some of the details of the YMOYL book are beginning to fade, I was and am a strong deliver in their philosophy around the real meaning of money it's relationship to the value of time. Among the folks I know who have considered leaving work early or just retiring is less what they might loose by leaving traditional work and more a fear of the unknown. If I could offer just one suggestion, it would be to write down or mentally decide how you are going to spend your new free time. If you have a plan, the unknown becomes more known. For me there was catch up on home projects and travel to places on my bucket list. For the longer term, there has to be some core activities that make you look forward to and wake up with a little excitement everyday, even on the most ordinary of days. But when you manage you own time, there are a lot of possibilities.
And this is where I'm at. I don't plan to retire for another decade or so but I've already begun to think about what i'd like to do day to day on an ongoing basis once I no longer work. Yeah, the first month or so I'd probably like to just be lazy, read a lot of books, relish the reality of not needing to do anything. But after that I need to find something I want to do. I've got some ideas and over the next several years I'll keep pondering so hopefully I don't end up like my dad. He had no plans for retirement so he started offering advice to my mother, a decades long homemaker, on how to do her work better. It all worked out for my parents but I don't want to be "that guy".Originally Posted by Rogar
I have vague recollections of the time management concepts Scott and Helen Nearing used. They had the day roughly divided into thirds. One third was sustenance for home improvements and food provisions, a third for self improvement, and a third for leisure. At least that is how I remember it, which may only be close. I can't say that I've followed something like that exactly, but it's a good concept. If a person can just include a few basics like learning about new things and new skills, exercising and more attention to healthy eating, giving back a little more to help friends and family or volunteer, and hopefully spending time with casual recreation and entertainment. The time has filled up for me just on a loose schedule of a few basic categories like that.
I'm REALLY glad that DH is working. I enjoy my alone time and it has given me the space to figure out exactly what I want out of my life.
Retirement sure does change the relationship dynamics. For me, it's been for the better.
I could have written almost the same post, San Onofre Guy. I'm financially fine to retire in a few months, but the concept of spending rather than saving is very weird to me. And although I have gotten to the point of almost hating my job, I absolutely love that paycheck.
What has worked for me (though I recognize that it is less than optimal, mathematically speaking) is having a HUGE cash stash. Some of it will get invested immediately, but I will always keep 2-3 years of expenses in cash or near equivalents so that my Inner Bag Lady never has to deal with the prospect of selling off investments during extreme market downturns.
I also don't track finances as closely as I used to, which has also eased some of the anxiety I used to feel.
"Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite." Seth Godin
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote