Retirement

   / Retirement #1  

RSKY

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
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2,442
Location
Kentucky, West of the Lakes, South of Possum Trot.
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Kioti CK20S
Made my mind up tonight.

I'm gonna retire before summer gets here. Probably in the next sixty days.

I have worked at the same job in two different plants for two different companies for more than thirty years. Production supervisor in a union setting with high rates and a lot of conflicts. Pay has been good but the stress will kill you. At my last plant I trained twenty two in my job and only four lasted more than two years. I am finished with it.

Now that I've made the decision I must try to figure out my finances. How much of which account to tap into.

What percentage of your working income do you retired fellows need to make it? By making it I mean to not lower your living standards by much.

Wife and I have worked, gone to school, raised kids, worked night shifts and generally not taken the time or spent the money to enjoy the things some of our contemporaries have. But we paid off all our debts and put money back for retirement even in the bad times. Now we can relax while others in our age group look to work until 65 or more. I will be 57 in a few weeks.

Also helps that we married at 20/19 and are still together 36 years later. Divorce seems to ruin retirement plans.

Our daughters are grown, educated, and have good jobs. Our sons-in-law are hard workers, respectful of us and their other in-laws. They both have good jobs and look to advance. We will not have to carry them, maybe just a little help now and then.

I'm hoping to work at an easy $10/hour job maybe twenty hours a week until I turn 60. I don't think I will have to do this to make ends meet. But I have read several articles about people working in high stress jobs retiring then not living for more than two or three years. The article that stands out in my mind advocated getting a low stress easy job and working it for a few years before final retirement.

I think I am tired and rambling.

Any thoughts on this.

Goodnight

RSKY

Thank the Lord for 401K's !!
 
   / Retirement #2  
Congratulation. You did the right thing in the past. We are in similar situation though I am little bit older. I am planning to retire in 2012 at 64. I also plan on working doing whatever is close to where we live.
You are right on keeping working. I used to work with guys (in generally low to moderate stress job installing instrumentation and process control equipment) that were counting years, then months, days and hours to retirement. They told us stories what they plan to do. How they will travel, play golf or tennis or garden. The problem is that those things, as opposed to a job, are optional and many of them just stayed home, slept too much, ate too much and watched TV to much. They were dead few years after they quit job. Only few actually did what they told us and many of those are still around many years later.
 
   / Retirement #3  
The article that stands out in my mind advocated getting a low stress easy job and working it for a few years before final retirement.

That there is some good advice. Find a part-time job doing something you actually enjoy and you're sure to be a happier person. Thats got to be good for your health right :thumbsup:
 
   / Retirement #4  
Retired at 59 and now 15 years later still have not needed the retirement funds. There is good jobs available to those who want to work. Construction has slowed but the repair type jobs are needed to be done. As soon as your known to be available people will call.
We have visited every state in the nation including Canada Alaska and are planning on a trip this summer to visit areas missed on previous trips. Just waiting on the weather to clear to travel to Wisconsin . Leave the lazy boy behind and enjoy the retirement.
ken
 
   / Retirement #5  
About the lowest you can live on is 2/3 of your former pay. Until your SS kicks in at 63. So, you can take quite a cut in pay, by working a less stressful job, but you cannot take too big of step down.

Age 59 1/2 for tapping the 401 or the fees and penalties are too stiff, imho.

If you are 100% out of debt and refuse to incur any new payments of ANY kind until your retirement funds start coming in, That will help a lot. Best regards on your new walk thru life. May it be good and blessed.
 
   / Retirement #6  
My Dad who retired from the Poice Dept. after 27 yrs. and the restuarant business after about 20 yrs. He was a world class putterer. He always had multible projects going on out at the house. He always said you have to stay busy, he'd seen to many guys retire from the police dept. who were going to spend all their time fishing and hunting who were dead in two years.
 
   / Retirement #7  
I retired from the Military reserves last September and now may retire from my school board job as early as June, when I will be 62. Between the missus and I, who retired after 34 years as a teacher, the income is more than our working salaries were when both working full-time. That does not take into account my funds available when I retire from the school board or my Social Security.

I felt like I needed to have about the same earnings whether working or retired on a monthly basis. I could have done with less, but I wanted to get out of Miami, own some land, build the house I promised my wife 40 years ago (okay, I'm a little slow), and enjoy "working" an outside job.

The main concern I have going forward is to have some hedge on inflation, as todays income may not look real good 10 years from now, and selling/renting my Miami property. What I'm going to do with my time is less of a question and more of an intracate selection process with the "HoneyDo" list that confronts me on the weekends I have on my place in North Florida. I think Mrs. Phiferpharm figures the longer her list gets, the more I will see the need to get my rear-end up here full-time.:)

I will keep working doing what I originally started my career as - a teacher. The difference is it is College classes and I do it all online, so there is no need to live in a specific place. Great part about teaching Virtual College is my students think I'm young and Handsome, and so far, no one has asked me why I'm wearing a polyester Leisure Suit on my Instructors homepage.;)
 
   / Retirement #8  
I am 48 , I have friends my age counting down to retirement:confused:not me...yet . I enjoy owning my own business and look forward to taking a few days off here and there . I go to a local restaraunt for breakfast every morning , before work and eat with several " senior friends ". Some stay very busy , some live to come to that restaraunt three times a day . IMO you have to have a reason to get up every morning . Congratulations, sounds like you have done a good job raising your family and providing for them , managing your money and planning for this time in your life .:thumbsup:It sounds like your doing the right thing , enjoy it .:thumbsup:
 
   / Retirement
  • Thread Starter
#9  
I have had a long nearly sleepless night.

Retirement has been in the back of my mind for more than six months but I always waited. Then the nurse called and said my PSA was rising. Not too high yet but going up a full number every four months. Had the biopsy on the 31st and it came out no cancer. But one of my three brothers in law had to have radical prostate surgery last November and another had a biopsy the same day as me and he now has it. He is younger than I am. That got me to thinking more about retirement. Wife is afraid I am ruining my health stressing over 'the job'. She wants me home enjoying what I have worked for all these years.

According to the 'retirement planner' on the Fidelity website, we will run out of money when I am 93! More about that after I fix my coffee.
 
   / Retirement #10  
I have had a long nearly sleepless night...

According to the 'retirement planner' on the Fidelity website, we will run out of money when I am 93! More about that after I fix my coffee.

I would not trust a retirement planner.

You can do this on your own. Don't even think about it as retirement. At the age of 63 I declared myself independently wealthy, and stopped working for an employer. Think of it that way.

You have almost 40 years of experience in living on your own -- you know what it costs. Sit down with a pad of paper and make a budget. That Fidelity planner assumed that your were going to give them a big piece of your money in the form of "management fees". Learn to manage your own money and leave management fees behind.

Just realize there will be rising medical expenses, and unexpected things will happen.

I didn't stop working, I just stopped working for someone else.
 
 
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