Retirement

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I grew up on a dairy farm and we had at one time over 400 acres. Had many tractors all different makes and sizes. If you look you will see and read something bad about all of them an then you will see an read something good also. I am not brand loyal and never have been. I like simple and easy to work on. Don't like to rely on dealers to have to use special software, and tools of some sort to fix or maintain the machine. It's a tractor and made to get nasty and dirty. I do clean mine up and maintain mine. Clean it twice a year. My thoughts is get the one you like best, be it color, options, size, horse power and just hope for the best. I've been retired for 7 1/2 years now and it's the best job I ever had and work from sun up to past sun down every day. Love every minute of it. Only things I recommend is cab and air conditioning. I ate enough dirt and dust and bugs when I was younger. And the bigger the better. Biggest tractor I have now is only 47 horse and I wish it was 200 horse so I could pull bigger equipment but on 20 some acres now I just can't justify something that big. Good luck and enjoy retirement.

 

[mike69440]

Currently living in Florida but moving to Georgia when I retire in a few years. I will finally realize my dream of owning some acreage! I will most likely need/want a tractor and know nothing about them so I joined to glean as much info as I can in the next few years to make my eventual purchase a little easier.

Just my experience.
Consider buying established property.
Had i started this farm life thing at my age (63) vs 50, the energy would not be there to have started from scratch.

 

[goeduck]

Congrats, I hope to get there some day.

 

[cat fever]

Congrats, I hope to get there some day.

Ya know what they say;

You can retire when you've got enough or had enough.

I'm really close on both counts.:laughing:

 

[Gary Fowler]

Yep, I am my own worst boss. Total slave driver. All my friends and family say I work harder now than when I had a job. I'd agree. Difference is I do what I want to do when I want to do it now. I totally don't have time for a "job" now.

Also, I never seem to know what day of the week it is.

Same here. I never sweated so much when I had a job (paying job). Wife says I cant stand to be sitting still, always looking for something to do. Right now I am thinking of what I need to do today.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Just my experience.
Consider buying established property.
Had i started this farm life thing at my age (63) vs 50, the energy would not be there to have started from scratch.

I guess that depends on what you like to do. We bought (brother in law and me) 42 acres that had been neglected for many years. It was grown up with bushes and weeds, needed major drainage work to remove the standing water. I really enjoyed working the land to make it look good. It did cost a bit of money in dozer work to put in ditches for the swampy area since it was too wet to use a tractor. We got a wide track dozer to level out some of the land and install drainage which turned the wetlands into good pasture. We found that the property line was off by several feet and got a dozer to shove up the existing fence which was overgrown with trees, cleared the property to the right property line (after getting permission from the adjacent land owner to correct the property line), trimmed up the trees so tractor could run under them to mow and much much more.
It was really fun work. Now all visitors say the land looks like a park and folks love the serenity of the woodlands and ponds.
Personally, I would rather take an undeveloped property and put it to my liking than buy something that someone else has made in their image, but I like the tractor work that was involved in doing it. Other folks may like to buy something and just sit back and look at it.
When I bought the property, I looked at where I would put my retirement home and then designed my home myself to fit the spot plus made the interior to suit me and the wife (mostly the wife). No ready made home or even house design suited us so designing it ourselves worked best, same with the landscaping on the property.

 

[ruffdog]

The problem with having acres when your body starts hurting is the pain keeping up acres. With the aches and pains, sometimes I dream of a small yard I can just mow with a push mower. Hey, I'm all for having some land. I'm just saying having pain all day is a drag.

 

[mike69440]

Re: Retirement Bucket list stuff you only want to do once.

Bucket list stuff you only want to do once.

Survive a motorcycle crash

Build a farm

Build your own Rifle

Build a Gazebo.

Care to add?

 

[Thomas]

:welcome: to TBN Eddie.
Congrats on the retirement. :thumbsup:
Great folks here w/LOTS good advice just ask a way.

 

[TripleR]

Been retired 10+ years and own several tractors and properties; I am reminded of the following: “No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy.” And: “Plans Are Useless, But Planning Is Indispensable.”

Follow the advice given, be flexible and you'll be fine.