Dh has suddenly discovered FIRE

[Chicken lady]

>8)

Early retirement for dh was not something we considered when we were younger, because he envisioned working into his 70’s, and I couldn’t imagine him retired.

now his attitude toward his job has, um, evolved. And he is eager to retire or at least do something else.

last night he started telling me about this “new” movement. Again >8).

anyway, he did the math, and if we don’t spend any money at all for the next 4 years, he can retire and not work again at 56. :laff:

[SteveinMN]

Borscht Belt comedian Jackie Mason:

I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.

Getting the message later than sooner is better than not getting the message at all...

[Ultralight]

I have said this before: Your DH is just tired, real tired.

[Chicken lady]

The thing is that dh probably could retire now.

he is the most conservative guy I know. His current plan says he can retire at 60.

his assumptions include:
we will both live to our late 90s,
in this house with all of it’s associated expenses adjusted for 3% inflation.
Our day to day expenses will stay the same (adjusted for inflation) - no cost savings from his 45 minute commute and he still trades in his car every 5 years. At 90!
our investments will provide only the minimum rate of return in the range of “reasonable expectations” (based on historic performance)
we will never inherit anything (his parents are living and own free and clear property worth several million dollars, I don’t know what their liquid assets are - but they believe firmly in treating all offspring equally, and I feel like he could easily count on, say, 50,000 in our 80s )
once he retires my income will also disappear (I love my job. I only make about 12,000 a year, but that isn’t nothing.)
our medical expenses will steadily increase based on my father, who is the least healthy of our parents (and unlikely to see his 90s.)

he does have a chart that tells him how much the company buy out would have to be (if there is another round) in a table indicating 6 month increments, to allow him to retire before 60.

if there is another round, I am going to push really hard for him to take it. No matter when or what it is.

[Tybee]

>8)

Early retirement for dh was not something we considered when we were younger, because he envisioned working into his 70’s, and I couldn’t imagine him retired.

now his attitude toward his job has, um, evolved. And he is eager to retire or at least do something else.

last night he started telling me about this “new” movement. Again >8).

anyway, he did the math, and if we don’t spend any money at all for the next 4 years, he can retire and not work again at 56. :laff:

I think this is great news! I remember how happy I was when my husband agreed to go to the Dave Ramsey class with me, and how truly lifechanging it was for us!

This is a really positive development.

[iris lilies]

Yay, good news even if it is just in the ideas stage.

[Teacher Terry]

Why does your income have to disappear if he retired? You love your job. I could see if you wanted to travel retiring together but you hate traveling. Maybe a part time job that he enjoys would be a good idea for awhile. I still work part time at 64 and love it.

[Williamsmith]

CL , my wife and I are 59. She works two part time jobs. A teacher’s aid and a preschool teacher. We have had the “retirement” conversation a million times. After fiddlefarting around the topic ad naseum, I have determined.....she will do what she wants, when she wants to....and that’s how it should be. My best to you husband in his decision making.

[Chicken lady]

It’s not that he expects me to also “retire”, it’s that he refuses to put my income into his calculations. On the theory that if he has retired, I should also be free to simply announce one day that I am not going to work any more.

I left my classroom, while my students were engaged in a project, to carry a heavy object down three flights of marble stairs. I told my (teen) class “i’ll be back in a couple of minutes. If i’m not, I probably fell down the stairs, so maybe you should tell the teacher next door.” And one of the boys said “or you found something better to do with your life and left.” I smiled at him and said “highly unlikely.” He responded ”hey, I can hope for good things for you.”

[Teacher Terry]

I think that’s fine for him not to include it. Since you are a introvert I bet working is good for you. I actually started working more and really enjoying it. I don’t include my consulting in our budget. I do include teaching my class. Kids are so funny!

[eleighj]

It’s not that he expects me to also “retire”, it’s that he refuses to put my income into his calculations. On the theory that if he has retired, I should also be free to simply announce one day that I am not going to work any more.

I left my classroom, while my students were engaged in a project, to carry a heavy object down three flights of marble stairs. I told my (teen) class “i’ll be back in a couple of minutes. If i’m not, I probably fell down the stairs, so maybe you should tell the teacher next door.” And one of the boys said “or you found something better to do with your life and left.” I smiled at him and said “highly unlikely.” He responded ”hey, I can hope for good things for you.”

Sounds like a good plan. I "retired from corporate life" over two years ago. It was the best thing I could do. My wife kept her private music lessons going for nearly two years afterwards mostly to get her last group graduated from high school. Now she is retired except for a few music gigs here and there. You and your husband are going to find that retirement evolves which is a good thing. From your description of the plan, it is very conservative, "which is good", but I bet that you both will find that you may have more than you think as things progress.

Good luck.

[catherine]

I left my classroom, while my students were engaged in a project, to carry a heavy object down three flights of marble stairs. I told my (teen) class “i’ll be back in a couple of minutes. If i’m not, I probably fell down the stairs, so maybe you should tell the teacher next door.” And one of the boys said “or you found something better to do with your life and left.” I smiled at him and said “highly unlikely.” He responded ”hey, I can hope for good things for you.”

So cute! Kids are great.. I'm sure they love you.

I'm jealous of your DHs Saul/Paul conversion. Not sure if I'll ever be that lucky. I keep reminding DH that I'm not interested in working until I'm 80. I don't mind just doing my consulting things until it dribbles away, whenever that might be. In fact, once I've sold the NJ house and become eligible for full retirement benefits at age 70, I don't mind picking up 5-10 projects a year, as long as people hire me. what the heck. It's hard to turn down decent money for a job I can pretty much design around my own schedule, working from home. I just don't like the "have to" part.

I think you guys sound like you're in a place where you truly don't have too many "have-to's". That's wonderful. Congratulations to your husband for wanting to turn on the heat for the last mile before retirement.

[Teacher Terry]

Catherine, it is really different working from home p.t. then working f.t. in a office. Seems much less like work. Getting rid of your NJ house is going to be the key to your success.

[Chicken lady]

So I am getting more clues about where this is coming from. Last night he went out with friends from work. All his work friends are older. I shall name them alphabetically.

Al and Bob are retiring by the end of the year. Chris is retiring next year. Dan has reached the point where he is simply evaluating each day wether or not he wants to come back tomorrow. His plan is literally to one day toss his few personal items into a plastic bag, hand in his ID and tell his boss he quits. Possibly mid task. Eric is going to work until he dies. He has no family but an out of state brother he last saw at their other brother’s funeral 6 years ago, and a girlfriend with a full and independent life. He took 48 days off last year.

we have been talking more. Dh wants to work from home more and take more days off. He is also thinking about asking for transfer to a less demanding (lower ranked) job in the next three years (like, I don’t want to be store manager anymore, I just want to stock shelves) only in his case the equivalent of shelf stocking could be done from home. Or any location with internet.

[Teacher Terry]

Great idea for him to downshift into working at home with less stress. His friends leaving made him seriously think about it.