This is just my experience being around a lot of retired people. Some that retired early lose touch with their friend and former work groups because most of those are busy still working while the early retiree is disengaged from that life. I've seen it happen with a couple of people.

Sounds like a good plan. Your first day, week, month, several month might change your mind that it's that easy.

Fat fingered the emoji.

This.

I want to retire early enough that I'm still healthy and active enough. Wife and I have dreams of taking our camper across the country to see all the National Parks and being able to hike, fish, etc.

I can't imagine being bored unless I didn't save enough or I'm too stingy

AgsMyDude said:

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This.

I want to retire early enough that I'm still healthy and active enough. Wife and I have dreams of taking our camper across the country to see all the National Parks and being able to hike, fish, etc.

I can't imagine being bored unless I didn't save enough or I'm too stingy

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This part happens to a lot of people once they retire, including a lot of people who don't think it will be a problem. Hard to live with the uncertainty of having money for an unknown period of time, and many cannot handle living with that risk.

topher06 said:

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AgsMyDude said:

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This.

I want to retire early enough that I'm still healthy and active enough. Wife and I have dreams of taking our camper across the country to see all the National Parks and being able to hike, fish, etc.

I can't imagine being bored unless I didn't save enough or I'm too stingy

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This part happens to a lot of people once they retire, including a lot of people who don't think it will be a problem. Hard to live with the uncertainty of having money for an unknown period of time, and many cannot handle living with that risk.

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For sure. It was talked about earlier in the thread. Some really good points on both sides of it.

Medaggie said:

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I am in my early 50's and I have zero regrets. I have yet to meet someone who regret retiring too early.

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I started asking retirees in their late 50s+ about this. Every single one said they hadn't ever known anyone to regret it early.

Then I met a guy who was a CHRO at Chevron until about 15 years ago. He said the only person he knew who regretted retiring early was a woman executive who jsut couldn't stand her husband. He had counseled/known of hundreds of people who retired on their own (not fired) in their 50s.

MyMamaSaid said:

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Medaggie said:

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I am in my early 50's and I have zero regrets. I have yet to meet someone who regret retiring too early.

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I started asking retirees in their late 50s+ about this. Every single one said they hadn't ever known anyone to regret it early.

Then I met a guy who was a CHRO at Chevron until about 15 years ago. He said the only person he knew who regretted retiring early was a woman executive who jsut couldn't stand her husband. He had counseled/known of hundreds of people who retired on their own (not fired) in their 50s.

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In the engineering world, I've know plenty of late 50s and early 60s that retired and were back as contractors in under a year because they were bored and usually make it quite a few more years. Heck, we have an engineer in his 70s who won't retire because he says he has nothing to do at home, made his life work and doesn't have any hobbies (fortunately he is still an excellent resource so far).

I don't plan to be one of those and will be out in my early 50s.

My dad was an ME who planned to retire at 65, but when he made the announcement, his employer made him a sweet offer to stick around that included a big pay bump and reporting changes to stick around another 2 years. At 67, he retired, but then got an even better job offer from a competitor. He worked another 2 years, got fed up, retired again. Got an even sweeter deal with more pay and freedom, worked another 2 years at that job, before finally retiring in his early 70s.

I think for him, one of the hardest parts of retirement was the loss of social interaction. While an engineer, he was also in a sales role and he's a people person.


Now he spends his time with grandkids, house projects, and international travel with my mom a couple of times a year.

YouBet said:

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I think anyone who is unable to separate their persona from the career they've made is going to have trouble retiring. Most people who retire early likely were able to do this or they wouldn't have done it. If you let work define who you are, you will struggle with it.

When I left corporate at 47, everyone I worked with was floored because they just thought I would be there forever. What they didn't think about was that while I was 110% with my career there, I still never let it fully define who I was. Admittedly, that mindset was touch and go for a bit, but the last couple of years I was there I had mentally separated work from life. And I'm not talking about work/life balance. I'm talking about how you define yourself.

Are you the person on your LinkedIn profile or is that just your resume. There is a difference.

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Very wise words. My boss should read it a few times. He is 68 and will never retire because he has nothing to do or interests outside our power plant fences. In my 4 years working for him, he has taken maybe 10 days vacation, and that is being generous.

Alr3111 said:

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8/21

57.5 YO, wife 53

Utilizing rule of 55

Downsizing a 38' class A to mid 20's bumper pull for more domestic travel flexibility while we downsize number and size of dogs, then good mix of domestic and international.

Can't imagine being bored with all we have planned.

Think I covered all the pertinent information I've seen here.

Gig'em

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Not quite sir you haven't told us your plan for healthcare yet…..

Kidding, congratulations!!

Congrats to you. What was your reason(s) for retirement? Frustration with work? Hit a financial target? Window closing on activities you wanted to pursue?

I guess maybe a little bit of all those.

The biggest was financial. Most of my money is in qualified plans so wait until 59.5 was my original plan. When the 401k catch-up had to be in Roth, our plan rules changed to allow partial withdrawals (instead of total) for former employees allowing rule 55 utilization.

Some recent back issues illustrated the uncertainty of health, mobility,etc. I didn't want to waste what good time I had left.

I began to feel the work stress would be more detrimental long term than the benefits of the money that I was being paid to for the work.

A big obstacle was healthcare. We will COBRA and then ACA. I have looked at the options and budgeted max out of pocket each year until Medicare. Whatever is left when that time comes goes into the fun money bucket

People do need to retire TO something. But sometimes life happens.

I retired TO taking care of my 97 yo FIL. Well, at least helping my wife take care of him.

So please, as part of YOUR retirement have a plan for your future when you cannot take care of yourself. I had always heard being a caregiver is hard. I had no idea how hard and life changing it could be. Now I have a SIL who has S for Brains but thinks she is always the smartest person in the room. My in laws were good folks but never had a plan for their future needs. Fortunately my FIL had his own business so $$ is not a problem.

But do not put this burden on your kids.

Rant over. Thanks.

And this was meant for all. Not any one person on this thread.

Can you elaborate some? If money is not the problem, what is that could have been helped with better planning? I'm genuinely curious as this could be relevant to me in the near future with elderly parents (and for my own planning needs)?

I'm 57 and looking at retiring later this year. So this is all relevant to me.

Guess the biggest thing is health care - COBRA for 18 months and then we can purchase insurance from wife's employer (even though she's retiring too) at full price. This is pricey but when I looked at the exchange, the plans all seemed to have holes.

The other thing I'm worried about is spending. I've saved probably more money then we'd ever use, but it seems the biggest issue is actually spending it. Seems from what I've seen - this is a huge issue. Being cheap when you don't have to be.

Alr3111 said:

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I guess maybe a little bit of all those.

The biggest was financial. Most of my money is in qualified plans so wait until 59.5 was my original plan. When the 401k catch-up had to be in Roth, our plan rules changed to allow partial withdrawals (instead of total) for former employees allowing rule 55 utilization.

Some recent back issues illustrated the uncertainty of health, mobility,etc. I didn't want to waste what good time I had left.

I began to feel the work stress would be more detrimental long term than the benefits of the money that I was being paid to for the work.

A big obstacle was healthcare. We will COBRA and then ACA. I have looked at the options and budgeted max out of pocket each year until Medicare. Whatever is left when that time comes goes into the fun money bucket

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This was my biggest stressor when I retired last year. I went through all of the machinations of this at the time. I would recommend researching private insurance. It does exist and while not fantastic insurance it's still better than ACA and should be cheaper. Roughly equivalent ACA plan for what I got in private was ACA cost of $1,700 per month vs $1,200 per month in private.

Of note, the ACA subsidies expired which I doubt you qualified for anyway.

MAS444 said:

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Can you elaborate some? If money is not the problem, what is that could have been helped with better planning? I'm genuinely curious as this could be relevant to me in the near future with elderly parents (and for my own planning needs)?

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A couple of problems. One, he had no plan.
Two, against my advice and the advice of his attorney who prepared his will and other estate documents, he named both his daughters as Co-Power of Attorneys for his business affairs AND his health care decisions.

When he was 92 he had over $1.1M in cash, plus his house that he is still living in, though he does have 24 hour/7 days a week in home care.

Why is he still in his house? Because that is what he "hoped" he could do. That no plan thing kicking in. To keep costs down my wife and her sister each provide the care one full day a week. But still, his money is being rapidly depleted.

Two big problems with this. We do not use an agency and our daytime caregivers can be very undependable. So usually my wife and I are the ones who fill in. And this has been going on for almost 6 years. Has just gottem worse since last fall.
Secondly, he now does not know who anyone is, including his own daughters. He keeps expecting his parents to come over and see him. Earlier this week his caregiver called and put him on the phone. He said he had swallowed $6,000 in coins and he needed to go to the ER. My wife could not calm him down so I got on the phone, played like I was his Dr. I told him to drink lots of water and I would see him at my office first thing in the morning. That calmed him down. 2 minutes later he had no memory of it.

He no longer realizes or recognizes his own house nor pictures of him and his wife. He thinks he is in a facility already.

He tried to hit my wife last November but missed. But a few weeks ago he slugged her in the face. And he hit one of the care givers. That was it for me. When an old person gets violent, it is time to go to a facility.

My wife and I can hardly plan anything. And if we do, and get to carry out our plans, her sister puts my wife on a guilt trip. My FIL averages 2 Dr. appointments a week. My wife and I take him to 98% of those. He fell and broke his hip in 2022 so taking him any where is not easy. And he gets more confused when we take him any where in a car so that adds to a long day. And that is when he usually gets combative. And with Aggie FB season approaching I foresee several problems.

A funny incident to me, but certainly not my wife. He thought my wife was my wife's mother, so FIL had a husband/wife conversation with his daughter (my wife). Really creeped her out because it got sexual. I laughed out loud.

When making future plans for yourself or your parents keep in mind the worst case scenario, both emotionally and financially. My FIL's brother lived to be 101. My FIL is in very good physical health. His money may not last.

My father died of Alzheimer's. My FIL has very bad dementia bordering on Alzheimer's. There is a fine line between the 2. I don't know if he has crossed that line yet, but he is getting there.

Long story. Still venting. My SIL is a huge problem I will not get into.

Damn. Sounds awful. Sorry you're going through it. So, you can't get him into a facility because of SIL?