I turned 58 in July and my wife turned 55. We both worked hard all our lives and maximized our savings and investments. One kid is still in college, but we have her education fully funded. So, we finally sat down with a fiduciary to discuss our financial position and our retirement goals. I expected it to be the case, but he officially told us we can quit the daily grind.
As we start to disengage from the rat race, we'll start trying to finalize our plans for a retirement home/property and get that ball rolling.
I don't expect me to quit working outright, but I'll start getting choosier on the jobs I take in the coming year or so.
Lot of interesting and helpful comments here. Also commend you on hiring a "fiduciary" for planning purposes. That's what my wife and I did over 30 years ago and it was worth every penny.
I suspect we were like a lot of folks on these forums. We worked hard, saved everything we could, moved much more than we wanted, fixed everything, etc. But we had a goal and stuck to it.
Additionally, some of those of us from rural backgrounds seem to come with skill sets that young people today simply don't have. Basic carpentry, wiring, plumbing, auto repair knowledge, etc., has allowed a lot of us to save a good amount of money through the years. And invest it... That sort of practical knowledge seems lacking in many of the young folks I interact with. Fixing up houses we bought or fixing used cars was kinda' second nature to us.
But there's a time to pack it up and do what you want. The cute girl I talked into marrying me years ago had to move and travel...a lot. But you do what you have to do. Still, decades ago, after writing out our personal plan with a lot of specifics, my wife walked in with a small yellow sheet of paper and showed it to me. She said, "So if everything's paid off and we have this amount of investments, we can go back to the farm, right?" I nodded yes. Then she said, "Sign it." And I did. Still have that little sheet of paper. And the girl. When we hit those targets, we went home and never regretted it at all.
But you do need something productive to do after retirement, to keep healthy physically and mentally. For me, a farm fits that bill perfectly. Sounds like you have those kinds of opportunities for work by choice as well.
So, congratulations. You worked for it, you earned it, enjoy it. (and keep a little invested in the market to offset inflation - a little market risk is called for).
Best of Luck
