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Retire early to hunt more?

This is a great thread. Interesting to see everyone's strategies and viewpoints.

I'm 45 now and I anticipate being to retire at 55 although I am not sure I will. I'm thinking it will be more of an opportunity to take a less demanding job or work part time.

My wife is the same age as me and I believe she will be eligible to retire with her pension from teaching about that same time. And by then we should have both of our girls out of college.

I don't have the exact plan mapped out, but I am 100% sure I won't be bored without a 9-5 job. I have too many hobbies and interests to ever be at a loss for what to do with my time.
 
We retired about 15 years ago and very early by others standards. No debt at all when we retired and our income went way down. We however never ever thought about going back to work. We still saved a percentage of our income just like we always had and have managed to purchase a couple of new cars (no loans) and a few other things. I fish a lot when it isn't hunting season and my wife has her own hobbies. We do not spend much so we do fine.
As I get older I am beginning to feel like I should have done a couple more hunts or fishing trips but I was saving money. Who knows who is correct but if you are careful you can live on less money than others think you need. I was told I would be broke in 5 years. Didn't happen. I was told I would get bored. No way.
Our biggest change was downsizing our house by a lot. Others are not willing to do that but it was the right thing for us to do.
My wife says she does not want a larger nicer home again and I believe her.

If you think you can afford it I would retire as soon as you have a budget you can live with worked out. We have never been sorry we retired.
 
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ElkFever2 said:
I’m considering retiring early to hunt more, and I’m curious to hear from others who have done it, considered it, or are planning on doing it. I know it’s still a long ways off, and a hundred things can change between now and then, but I’d like to have a start of a plan now rather than just stumble upon it and wish I’d planned some things out differently 15 years prior, etc.

There are a lot of factors involved, so I’ll list them below by topic, with some notes with hypothetical retirement ages of 50, 55, 60, and 65. Please comment on any oversights or misunderstandings I might have.

Here’s my situation - I’m 37 and I’m eligible for what is essentially an LE retirement at 48. My wife stays at home with our kids ages 3, 1, 1. We live well below our means and save/invest more aggressively then most.

Boredom
It seems that most retirees end up returning to work in some capacity within a year of retirement. This is difficult for me to wrap my head around as I have about fifty hobbies I like to do if I had more time, I’m a homebody, I don’t need to work to have a social life or feel like I’m doing something important, etc.

50 - still have kids at home, so unlikely to be bored, etc

55-65 - I figure I can always volunteer more, conservation, donate expertise related to my profession, etc, if I need to have a workplace-like activity.

Hunt financing vs youth/health
I’m enjoy small game hunting, and inexpensive big game hunting, but there are a few hunts I want to do that run a bit more (guided moose, caribou drop hunt, etc) so available funds to hunt is somewhat of a factor

50 - I’m likely to still be in great health. However, I’d really need to plan the higher dollar hunts carefully. If I stay at my job I’ll have 5 vacation weeks/year, but if I left I’d still need an income stream to bridge until age 55, as all my retirement funds are currently tied up in tax-advantaged shelters that I can’t withdraw early. I could open a brokerage account, but it seems risky to put any funds in there until my tax-advantaged contributions are maxed out, which as of today they’re not. My line of work is not conducive to being gone 3 months of the year during hunting season, so to have an income from seasonal work, I’d likely have to switch industries and take a pay cut on the order of 50%. Plus even with all the extra time available from leaving a full time job, I’ll still have kids at home so it’s not like I’ll be out hunting all the time anyways.

55 - If I keep taking care of my body, I have a very good chance of still being able to hunt hard on DIY trips in the mountains, etc. If I someday catch the bug to do a lot of higher dollar hunts I’d have to be selective on what I could do.

60 - My worry is I’ll regret having worked too many years and run myself out of health before I had the opportunity to hunt as much as I wanted to.

65 - I’d be able to go on just about any hunt I could imagine, but who knows if I’d have the health to do so or even still be alive. Retiring at this age seems less appealing than at 50.

Healthcare
50 - I’d have to buy insurance on the open market, join my wife’s employers’ plan IF she had even returned to full time work, or join a health sharing plan. All are riskier and more expensive than my current plan.

55 - Under current laws my kids can stay on my insurance plan until they’re 26. That seems a nice gift and one way to help them get established as adults, etc, but that’s a lot easier to do with my work-sponsored plan than an alternative.

60 - At this point bridging 5 years until Medicare would not be a significant financial burden due to accumulated wealth

65 - Medicare eligible

...

I’ve talked it over with my wife and retiring at 50 seems a bit of a pipe dream, unless something significant changes in our situation, and I’m not sure I’d really want to make any crazy changes anyways. I think 55 is fairly realistic goal as long as I plan carefully for it.
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I own a wealth management firm that specializes in retirement planning. The biggest piece of advice that i can share is that you have to have a written and stress-tested income plan that no matter what happens with the markets and long-term care planning, that you’ll have enough income.

Retirement is simply all about the income.

Then the most important thing is that your wife understands the plan and feels comfortable with it. Because statistically speaking you will probably pass way before she does, and you want to make sure that she is taken care of. Especially if she needs to tap in to the retirement plan to take care of you at later point in life if you’re sick.

Remember that a portfolio is not a plan. Using comprehensive software takes out all of the unknowns.

One last piece of advice... Taxation will have a big impact in your retirement years, especially if taxes increase in the future and the majority of your savings are tax deferred retirement accounts.

As long as you go through this exercise and everything looks great, go for it! In life there is “gogo years, slow go years and won’t go years”.

I’m always very excited to tell a person, you won the financial game and can retire. Good luck!
 
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Options,flexibility.
Lot's of overlapping scenarios here with me.
Decided in my 30's that being a go go go guy to be a millionaire was not priority...but.
I got a Park Ranger/LEO job in 92' to keep from dying from being a contractor and broken @ 55. Optioned to keep lic and use it for offset.
20 years in I get offered early retirement with a bonus. Still reeling from the 07-09 crash. 54,I took it. Sold my planned retirement cabin & moved to where I could live away from people & live a decent life. Affordably.

12 years in I am debt free on my little ranch living on my little pension,SS and now a life estate on the ranch. I also had a heart attack 6 years ago that was obviously unplanned in between being covered by HC & going on medicare. Luck. No damage & recovered well. And no bill.............. But.
I can't go pack an elk out by myself like I could 10-20 years ago and I can't afford those dream hunts or fishing trips anymore.
I do live better than most folks around me who are working and have the same healthcare anyone has today....lol. The elk hunts have gotten extremely simple and more successful.
I gave up a bunch of planned dreams and live the good one that worked out , for me.
 
Big Fin said:
It is interesting that you are thinking about this at age 37. I recall that same mindset and same analysis 19 years ago.

At the time I was dealing with some health symptoms that nobody seemed to be able to diagnose. Eventually, lacking any firm diagnosis, I just accepted this was how my life was going to be.

Roll forward three years from that and I end up in the ER, as the symptoms became so bad I could no longer function. They ship me to U of W in Seattle. They confirm what my situation is and tell me I am best to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester as they treat most folks with this condition.

Short version, I get told by the Mayo that I am done being a full-time CPA. I am told that this condition usually has a crossroads where 2/3 of the patients live a very compromised life and are gone in 3-5 years. The other 1/3 live a less compromised life and usually live long enough to die from some other cause.

So at age 40 I was faced with a huge change in my life that I could have never anticipated. It showed me the gamble I had taken by waiting until a certain age to do the things I dreamed of. There was no promise my health would allow me to do those things. I committed that if the Mayo could get me back to some level of health, I was not taking that for granted.

The Mayo was unbelievable in getting me back to some level of health within three years. I hit the reset button. I spent a lot of time with Mrs. Fin adjusting to a lifestyle where we would live on 25% of what we had become accustomed to. We went on a serious debt reduction mission, using a lot of savings to pay down debt and have been debt/mortgage free for more than a decade. I started to retract from the CPA firm and accept the financial realities that came with that decision.

With that financial reset and the Mayo getting my liver condition somewhat stabilized, I hope to never "retire" in the traditional sense. I want to be doing something where everyday seems like living and not like working. I think I have found that, though every endeavor has its days that seem like work.

The point of summarizing my complicated story is that you should factor into your analysis the risks of health events completely upending your plans. Odds are you won't have such an event and I hope you don't. I viewed myself as bulletproof at age 37. I had plans almost identical to what you were analyzing. Some might say I was unlucky to have such a big change to my life goals at age 40. I think I was lucky to be in the 1/3 that is likely going to die of something else. I was lucky to have a life event that caused me to get serious about the business of living and not the business of planning how I would arrange my affairs to live comfortably to the time of my death.

I don't have any answers, as we all have to make our own assessments. Good luck with your decision.
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Randy, you were the first person that I thought of when I saw the title of this thread. I knew what you were facing when you made that decision. I'm truly happy that it has worked out so well for you. And I hope you can continue living your dream for many more years.
 
Dougfirtree said:
Imagine how different this topic could look if health care/insurance wasn't tied to your job...
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I agree on so many levels America could do better.

@ElkFever2 here is my take from what I've read I'd look hard at 55 and if it happens before that great. Just prepare and prepare some more. My advice on the hunts do them asap as the older you get the harder they sometimes get and none of us are promised tomorrow.
I've seen many LEOs work their entire career only to make it to that magic date. Two years later gone from different illnesses. As we all know that line of work is pretty hard on the old ticker. Good luck in whatever you decide.
 
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I am 54 and my wife is 55. She just called it quits two weeks ago. I am in the process. I will be out of my business by August. Like mentioned in previous posts, insurance is the biggest issue. And for those of you that found it for $1000 per month, I salute you. I have been researching it and it is a $30,000 per year problem for me. The issue is income. I can't get it low enough to where I qualify for some of the programs. Insurance is just so f'd up. I guess somebody needs to pay for all the people leeching off the system.

We eliminated all personal debt two years ago. We will also be leaving an expensive state for one that will be less expensive. Not just from a tax standpoint but from an activity standpoint. Everyday is a vacation where we are going and once we have all the required toys, it's just gas money. I already eat what I kill, and it will just become easier. We have put a bunch of cash aside to purchase certain things, so we will not need to dip into investments for luxury items like a rubber raft and fishing kit.

When we purchase a new home, it will be with the cash from the old one. I refuse to spend any more. Debt free and minimal expenses will lead to a happy life for me and my wife.

How did we do it? Saved like crazy, especially the past ten years. Hardly ever went out to eat, no purchasing things like a cup of coffee in the morning, no fancy vacations. If I spent a lot of money on something it was because I would make more money with it. I got two kids through college and they have no loans. The last ten years I was able to put away about 80% of after tax income. Every penny was invested in the market or real estate. I own some commercial property with some partners. I purchased two townhouses a few months back in my soon to be new state. For now, my wife will be in one and one of my daughters and soon to be husband in the other. Once the market cools, I will buy a home, then the townhouses will become rental property. If the market cools enough, I will leverage the rental properties and pick off another one or two rentals.

The key for me at least, is to have multiple sources of income, at least until I get to medicare/aid age and then social security. By then the retirement accounts will kick in as well. Right now is the scariest part for me, insurance causing some stress and of course the..... unknown. If I have to, I will go bag groceries to make it all work.

There was a great book written years ago called the Millionaire Next Door. It is a quick read but the guy really laid it out well; how to retire early.
 
I’m 50 now and plan to keep working, and actively managing my investments, until I’m 80. This way I can do more physical hunts now and also enjoy the benefits of work e.g. regular income and engaging with interesting people.

While I enjoy my work i do focus on having an ongoing work life balance. I have about 7 - 9 weeks off a year and hunt 50+ days a year.

For me I’d rather not have a hard retirement date but have a good work like balance early (which for me was about 40 yo).

FWIW in New Zealand health care is publicly funded for everyone and government provided retirement payment is $NZ650 after tax per week per couple at 65 yo.
 
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brownbear932008 said:
I've seen many LEOs work their entire career only to make it to that magic date. Two years later gone from different illnesses. As we all know that line of work is pretty hard on the old ticker.
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In my observation, maybe 20% of people who serve 20+ years in public safety exit on their own terms and are still alive 2 years later.

Each of the last two years I’ve made a point to get out and hunt. A lot. This is the #1 thing that maintains my sanity, and balances my work life. I made it out 60 days in 2019, and 55 this year.
 
Retired after 29 years at age 50. I wanted to hunt more and was seeing folks that I worked with and retired just start passing unexpectedly. Lots of them had points and plans, but didn't get after it. I continued to work for the state in a part time role, which kept my insurance in tact. which helps. I take September, October and November completely off and work hours as it fits the rest of the year. I will tell you that I have been taking 5-6 hunts a fall for the last 5 years. I can tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. If I could give one piece of advice to guys/gals in the same boat is that I saved up tons of points so I would have the opportunity. The advice is that your buddies will still be working and most will not have the points you have. Get them going on points and plans. The hunts I have with family and friends are much better than the hunts that I do alone, even if I am not successful. No one is guaranteed tomorrow, so plan accordingly.

Rich
 
I am 45 now and it might as well have been yesterday that I was 37.. or 27 for that matter. Time simply flies. I have always had an eye on retiring at 55 but in truth, that possibility seems to have receded a bit every day since deciding upon it. Very very high cost state, some bad investing results, unlucky real estate timing, a change of career, a leave of absence, and a lack of discipline with my hobbies and of spoiling my kids have dragged the financial goals a bit. BUT - I keep plugging away and no matter what, have been an aggressive saver since the age of 22. I keep very little in the bank or wallet - as in almost none. Savings all goes into 401(k), Roth and kids' 529. While my finances (other than future college expenses) may have become more predictable over time, the question of health begins to creep in more and more. Physically, I'm am nowhere near as robust as I was 10 years ago and have lost my father, my mother-in-law, cousin, aunt, and a college roommate to illnesses before their time as well as watched my older sister have to deal with cancer. So I am aware there are no guarantees of anything and I have vowed to make it out west for a hunt once a year while still planning long-term for many hunts in the future. Based on preference points, my 50's and 60's and 70's will be my best draw years if I can keep it going and if the opportunities out west are still there. But lately I have not been waiting until then to hunt. With insurance costs the way they are and general expenses always rising, who knows if I will retire at 60, 65, or never - or if I'll make it to retirement age in the first place. I want to also enjoy my time now in my 40's even if its just that one trip a year and I am only after average animals. The only hunts I regret are the ones I SHOULD have taken in my 20's and 30's. I allowed way too many off-years to creep in. Can't get that time back no matter what the retirement date ends up being.
 
by the time you are 55 health insurance will be at least 2500 per month for you. unless we get single payer before then. Cost is becoming crippling for most who want to retire before medicare who have to pay all out of pocket premium cost on the open market. i am 55 and the only reason i still work is to pay my health insurance.
 
I have well conceded I’m not on the fast retirement in plan, so I decided to hunt as much as I can each year. Each year I push the envelope more.

We’ll see how things work out. I’ll be 50 this fall, and probably am looking at 8 more years full time. We’ll explore health insurance options through my wife’s employment as the time draws closer.

I agree on the balance. My best years physically were in my late 30s and early 40s, and it hasn’t dropped off much. I just have to be more intentional about fitness. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on those years because I was too busy working.
 
I retired at 57 and at 68 still living comfortably on a couple million invested and no debt. I kept fit and no frills or debt.

The bit about saving your health being more important than saving money is bang on. Keep your weight down and don't smoke and you'll have half a chance at getting to first base with bucket list.
 
My wife and I have been working hard to free ourselves of debt, with the goal being my last 8-10 working years, and her last 14 working being debt free, and saving everything we can. We have solid retirement investments as well. We also realize that hardship as Randy has described are a reality. Our plans always have flex. Same goals, different paths and timelines to get there. Whatever you decide, that flex is important. You still have to enjoy yourself and treat yourself along the way somewhat. I don't believe I will ever fully retire. I'm in a field where contract work is lucrative, and experience is golden. I could work 8 hours consulting under a simple contract and make what I make in 40 at my normal job, the difference right now being insurance and retirement. Once those are no longer a concern and I'm getting a retirement check, the contract stuff will be even more beneficial for me.
 
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