Does anybody have an escape date?

[miradoblackwarrior]

Okay, I didn't know what else to call it, without offending language. It is, in essence, a ta-ta account, when you finally quit your job and don't look back, because your money will get you to the next stage in your life, or get you over the final hurdle to SSI or pension. I have one, and I'm finding it harder and harder to hang in there until that date, 1 year, 2 months from now. I belong to several forums, and they all call it something that begins with the 6th letter of the alphabet, and then the twentieth letter. It's a glorious feeling, they all write, to finally reach that goal.

I did invest in one of those reverse retirement clocks, which ticks away the seconds, and reassures me that it will actually happen some day. Does anyone else out there have experiences to share? 'Cuz I could sure use a little reassurance today!
Susan

[pinkytoe]

My retirement date is either September 2015 or January 2016 (if I can hold on that long) - it seems so far away and I too am having a hard time with having to wait. Especially hard as I have lost complete interest in my job and all of my work friends have already retired. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the preparations still needed to make it all come off smoothly. Selling house and a lot of stuff, moving, and the things I will devote my time to when it is my own. I know in speaking to my retired friends...every single one says why didn't I do this sooner? Fear, I suppose...

[iris lily]

I've got a date on the sketch pad, to be finalized as a few things crystallize. I have 3 goals before I get there:

1) figure out what our living expenses REALLY are (yes, I am embarrassed to say, I do not know)
2) live on that amount for 6 - 12 months months
3) figure out the tax obligations from the various income streams we will get

In other words, I need to get a better financial picture of how things will work in retirement. I don't expect too much detail, just an executive summary.

And really I DO have 1 big goal at work to finish before I leave, a big database cleanup project. I do not want the person who takes my place to have to think about this thing because this project is dull as dishwater, it is huge, we've never done it, and it requires my unique skill set*--haha. I also see places in my work where I can retire certain attitudes, approaches, and projects, and let the next person come in with new ideas to move things forward in a different way.

Fortunatley, I am having a lot of fun at work with new reporting technology so that will keep me entertained for the time I need to remain there. "Cause it's all about me. haha.

*my unique skill set is my ability to intimidate people to do their part in this project, one that is essential and one that we have put off for 30 freekin' years. I also love the data in a way that no one else does, so I'm the natural person to clean it out.

[Teacher Terry]

My retirement date hung on my office door for years-it was my 60th b-day. Then about 2 months before I turned 58 I checked on my pension and found I was only sacrificing 300/month by going right then & I was retired a week later. We immediately started to look for a smaller home, found one, bought it, remodeled it and then sold our bigger home. I then also went thru all our bills and started to cut to meet our obligations because a month after I retired my hubby got laid-off which was unexpected. HIs unemployment ran out & he had still been unable to find a job. Thankfully, he had a pension take early or we would have had to move to a part of the country with more jobs. 6 months later I was bored & started my own consulting business & teaching a university course. For instance once you retire if you drive less then 5,000 miles per year/per car you can get much cheaper car insurance since you are not driving to work. No one actually checks either. One of many ways to cut costs. Iris Lily I do think it is a good idea to live on what you will have to before you retire instead of the way we did it but it worked out.

[catherine]

*my unique skill set is my ability to intimidate people to do their part in this project, one that is essential and one that we have put off for 30 freekin' years. I also love the data in a way that no one else does, so I'm the natural person to clean it out.

haha! IL, I believe you on that.. and I also love having you as a fellow data-geek!

[iris lily]

.... Iris Lily I do think it is a good idea to live on what you will have to before you retire instead of the way we did it but it worked out.

I am actually looking forward to getting back to the core "me" --a frugal person. I look forward to tallying up No Drive and No Spend days. Those are concepts I learned on this website, and I always had fun with those challenges. I'm nervous about the belt tightening that is necessary yet am excited to get back to living my core values. And frankly, dmc on another thread threw out a challenge that attracts me like no other: can we grow our net worth while retired? But that one is a BIG goal and I won't let it come before retirement. I won't live decades longer and there is no point in being Silas Marner, living for the growth of a pile o' cash.

[bae]

11/1/1999

[Gardenarian]

I am retiring as soon as my mother's estate is settled. We're going on 2.5 years now...so any day!
I am taking this summer off as a little test of retirement. I actually find my job enjoyable and satisfying, and I really love the people I work with - but I'm ready to move on.
So no specific date, but I'd be surprised if I were still at work 2 years from now. (though I will stay on the books as a substitute librarian.)

[Spartana]

Retired already (as of 9/11/1999 at the age of 42) but when I left work it was for a longggggg sabbatical of about 5 years, never with the intent to never work again. Funny how things work out :-)! One HUGE problem I had was waiting until I was ready to make the break to take my sabbatical. I loved my job but still wanted my free time for myself and didn't want to wait until I was older to do some things I wanted to do RIGHT NOW!! I was very (obsessively) worried that I'd die or become injured or sick or get sued or lose all my #.&. money or the zombies would attack or...... before that date - and before I could do some of the things I wanted to do. Just wild unstoppable whirling thoughts in my mind constantly. It was actually a huge relief when I finally did quit work (although I went back as a p/t consultant for a year afterwards) and I never regretted it. So you may experience that shortly before you quit - sort of a feeling of impending doom that you need to do it NOW because something might happen. I talked to other people and that seems to be a common feeling. Of course others may feel trepidation at the thought of leaving their jobs and living off savings/investments more so (I didn't) as that seems to be very common too.

[Lainey]

I'm another one who is looking at Sept. 2015, but also need to run the numbers before then. By then I'll have 20 years in at my company and I think that's enough.

I've told others that I started first grade at 5 1/2 (no kindergarten at our local school), and have been in school full-time or working full-time since then. So if I retire at age 60 1/2 that means I'll have been on the clock for 55 years - it will take a while to decompress, so to speak, when I'm actually retired.

[Teacher Terry]

One the things we do is we have our budget set on our pensions only. That way if we are not working we won't have to withdraw $ from our savings to live. We use the $ we make for extra things so we will not have to use our savings for now. So we use the $ we make for travel, home improvements & to save more. WE also naturally have many no spend/no drive days. Combing thru our bills to reduce things really helped a lot too.

[Blackdog Lin]

We do the same thing, Teacher Terry - our budgeting and spending are based only on our incoming (1) my pension, and (2) DH's social security. The retirement accounts are for the future, for emergencies, catastrophic health issues/spending, roaring inflation, etc.

I agree wholeheartedly with the concept, mentioned above, of living for a year or so within your projected retirement income. I realized one day that I had been sending 40% of my paycheck to retirement accounts for several years, and we were living very comfortably with what was left. All I had to do was discontinue the large retirement contributions - and become old enough to get outta there.

The really funny thing is that we seem to have more discretionary funds now, on a monthly basis, than we did when I was working. You know, more money left over than month, every month. I keep telling myself I'm gonna dive into some Quicken graphs and charts to try to figure out why this is. Maybe tomorrow.

Yeah, I'll do that tomorrow. THE RETIREE'S CREED.

:)

[Spartana]

I do the same as Teacher Terry and B.D. Lin and just live off mysmall pension for my basic expenses and use savings on as needed basis for fun stuff or needed repairs, etc...

Lin I also found that I lived on much less per month once I left my job then I did while working. It was the main reason I was actually able to turn my sabbatical into perm. retirement. I crunched the numbers years ago and what I came up with was several things.

One - no commuting costs. And I don't just mean for fuel but less maintenance needed, fewer repairs and tire/brake/oil replacements due to driving less, and the ability to keep my car much longer before having to replace it.

Two - food expenses. I found that I was eating out more - or just doing the latte and bagel thing - much more often when working. Plus add in meals with co-workers and other little work-related food things. Those really added up.

Three - I'd say that was work related expenses such as clothes, training and education to keep my skills up, etc... Lots of little expenses that I no longer incurred once I wquit working.

Four - would probably being able to do more home, yard and car maintenance myself because I had the free time. So rarely had to pay the big bucks to have someone else do stuff for me due to lack of time.

and five - that would be those misc. things like treating myself to more lavish vacations, trips and "things" because I was working and didn't have to really budget. Now on a more stricter budget I find other, less expensive things to lavish myself on :-)!

[Jilly]

Mine was the end of January, 2009. It took a few months, but I went from a regular job, to retirement, to taking on three volunteer gigs. I just added a part-time paid job.

[Spartana]

Mine was the end of January, 2009. It took a few months, but I went from a regular job, to retirement, to taking on three volunteer gigs. I just added a part-time paid job.I wonder what percent of people go back to work - full or part time - after they have officially retired. Do you think they do it for the extra money? Out of boredom? For social contact? Personal interest in the work? Or is it something most people planned to do once they retired anyways?

[Teacher Terry]

I knew before I retired that I would get bored and want to work P.T. I don't have a lot of hobbies, most of my friends are younger then me/still working and I knew I would do some volunteer work but not a ton. I also like the $ because it enables me to do things I could not otherwise. I found my career later in life (37) so that may be why I am not sick of it and still do it on a consulting basis. I discovered thru a job offer to teach a class that I love it so that was a pleasant surprise.

[bUU]

Okay, I didn't know what else to call it, without offending language. It is, in essence, a ta-ta account, when you finally quit your job and don't look back, because your money will get you to the next stage in your life, or get you over the final hurdle to SSI or pension.Yes and yes and no. We have this idea that we're going to move on to the next phase by November 2024 at the very latest. My spouse will be 70 1/2 by then, and the idea of delaying the start of our comfortable retirement later than that just seems foolish. Work until my spouse dies? What's the point of that? That November 2024 barrier is that absolute latest point in time that makes any rational sense to us to continue working -slash- not start enjoy a comfortable retirement together. On the other side of things, July 2020 is likely to be the earliest time we'd pack it all in: That's when the mortgage is paid off.

I think my spouse aims to stop working well before 2024, perhaps by mid-2021. There's a matter of principle at work there, that roughly breaks down as me working at least three, but more likely five, years more than my spouse works. Of course, a five year difference, with that November 2024 date in play, puts my spouse's retirement around 2019. There are a lot of problems with that, not the least of which is current job satisfaction that my spouse enjoys right now, and sees a seven years path of happy working ahead - why waste that?

Another problem there is that I have a little less than ten years of running room left in my current career. What I've got to offer employers probably will lose value quickly starting no later than 2018. I really don't see being able to keep working in this business past 2020, and any job after I get after this one will have a questionable ROI (the "I" being the investment of years of retirement we don't enjoy together).

Of course, underlying all this feelings stuff regarding retirement is all the money stuff related to retirement. The numbers side of it may or may not support the non-numbers side of it - currently three retirement planners show green lights for the plans alluded to above. But my current career ending early can really throw a wrench into the machine (though I just ran Quicken Lifetime Planner with me experiencing a 40% pay cut next year, as would likely be the case if I had to start another [third] career then, and while it definitely slid the curve down a bit, the numbers still work, out as far as age 86).

[Jilly]

I wonder what percent of people go back to work - full or part time - after they have officially retired. Do you think they do it for the extra money? Out of boredom? For social contact? Personal interest in the work? Or is it something most people planned to do once they retired anyways?

I know only what is means for me. I am never bored or lack for any kind of social contact, and whilst I do not have much money I have always been a frugal person and know that I need much less than I sometimes think.

I do it because I love my work. Coming to it was hard won and I feel as though I am just only hitting my most effective working experiences. That I can afford to do most of it as a volunteer makes it all the sweeter. I knew that I would continue my main gig, but that work has brought me two more opportunities, one volunteering with some of the homeless population here, and the other paid, working along the same path.

I wonder how difficult it would be to find statistics on this. As I am home ill, I have plenty of time between naps to find out.

[Alan]

Mine was October 5th, 2005. But that only lasted about a year before I got bored and decided to go back to work, which worked out well for me since I then lost nearly 50% of my retirement portfolio in the recession. Thankfully, that was only temporary, but at the time, who knew?

I'm pretty happy at my new job, no stress, good environment and they keep giving me stock incentives which fully vest 2 to 4 years out, which makes it hard to leave voluntarily. Part of me hopes they'll make it easy and just fire me sometime in the next couple of years, although barring that I'll probably walk away in 2018.

[dmc]

Mine was May 15, 2007, my 50th birthday was coming up on the 25th so I wanted to retire before 50. My boss asked me to stay until September so I ended up working when I was 50. I only worked till noon and really didn't do anything, they just wanted me around for the transition and if anything came up.

I initially planned to work until 55, I made up a spreadsheet and started keeping track when I hit 40. Sometimes I think of all the money that I could have earned the last few years, but then I wouldn't give up the last few years for that amount. And how do you know how many years you have?

My father sold his company and retired at 57, I remember him saying he wished he had done it sooner. I know when I quit working he got a kick out of telling everyone that I didn't have to work anymore. He is 80 now and not in the best of health, but he had a lot of years doing whatever he wanted.

I'm trying to do the same.

[citrine]

I have been semi-retired since Sept 2009 :) DH will be able to retire in 2024 on his 60th birthday. We will be mortgage free by then and will be using the money from the house to buy another one in a lower cola with enough funds left over for 4-6 years of living. We plan on having a part time gig on the side to help supplement our lifestyle.