How to retire at 55 instead of 65 or 70.

[Paddy]

I'm 58 this year and no plans to retire any time soon. As an engineer working from home for nearly 20 years for the same company, good pay and benefits, why quit? They will have to force me out. My wife quit working 15 years ago, so we don't have either her income or S.S.

Looking at pros and cons it's clear to us to keep our current situation for the foreseeable future. We are home all day together, except when I travel, 1-2 weeks per month. Often I travel to nice places like Prague, Bangkok, Shanghai, Vienna. With all our hotel points, airline miles, my wife travels with me. I have a lot of vacation after all this time with the company so we extend the biz trip.

By delaying taking S. S., the payment goes up quite a bit.

Many engineers in my industry and age group are staying on until 70-ish. With the new engineers, they stay for such a short time they never achieve expert status. So us gray haired older folks are valuable. Our US based office of 12 people, only 1 person has 5 years experience or more. Half, less than a year! I spend a lot of time training and answering basic tech questions.

As long as I can keep the "Shell answer man" gig going, I'm staying put!

 

[Creamer]

avoid vending machines. It is so easy to spend a few dollars a day there and a lot of them have nothing that is good for you. So you pay for it when you buy it and then you pay for it in health later.

 

[CADplans]

avoid vending machines.
It is so easy to spend a few dollars a day there and a lot of them have nothing that is good for you.

My daughter and her husband learned this about a year ago,,
now, the wife and I have to save our Walmart type plastic shopping bags,,
they use two a day carrying in their lunch

Also, my daughter uses those water flavoring pouches,, WAY less than soda out of a machine,,,
and the business offers free bottled water, so, that is a savings also!!

You can even get the pouches with caffeine!! :thumbsup:

 

[4570Man]

If money is tight, try to track where EVERY penny goes for a couple of months. You will find out what to cut out of your spending.

Gary

I’ve always been pretty good at budgeting in my head so I don’t have a paper tab, but two of my biggest losses are fast food and fuel. Due to the nature of my job I haven’t figured out how to cut either one.

 

[Doofy]

I’ve always been pretty good at budgeting in my head so I don’t have a paper tab, but two of my biggest losses are fast food and fuel. Due to the nature of my job I haven’t figured out how to cut either one.

I haven't had "fast food" in 55 years. Brown Bag-sack lunch from home at a cost of maybe $1-2 per day. Didn't worry about fuel or vehicle because it was provided by employer during my working years. I should have saved more.

 

[Msamt]

It cost me money when I went under Medicare.

Didn't you qualify for tricare for life? It pays what Medicare doesn't

 

[Egon]

Credit Score: if you pay the bill every month on time the CC company makes no profit on interest.

If you carry a balance and pay interest on time you are a good customer.

 

[riptides]

We have used credit cards our whole lives. Big balances too. Excellent credit scores, and we of course managed the money.

Currently have one card we are using for medical bills.

They are excellent tools IF you manage them properly. If you come into a catastrophic situation, they can be used to bail you out.

In my situation, and I am not on the governments medical coverage, you MUST have a bridge to cover medical insurance for your family.
Unfortunate, at this time, it needs to carry a lot of capacity.

And also unfortunate, seems cash reserves never go quite as far as you plan them for. Double your cash reserves, then triple them. LOL.

 

[ovrszd]

Didn't you qualify for tricare for life? It pays what Medicare doesn't

My medicare monthly premium is higher than my tricare premium.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Are you kidding? I must be doing something wrong. I am 66 and have been retired for 11 years. Only income is my retirement and social security and I pay more fed tax than when I was working. Hopefully, Trumps Tax Plan will help next year.

Well, I'm still working but looking forward to retiring, especially since I work in financial services managing large corporate and government retirement plans! I just got my first paycheck with the Trump tax cut withholding changes. My tax withholding went down $85, which translates to $2,000 a year in lower withholding. Assuming my actual tax bill goes down $2,000, I'll be a happy camper! 3 point snowblower here I come!