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Who All is Retired and How Do You Do It?

I'm eligible at age 52 1/2 (1/1/2034) and hope that's my last day although I could see myself doing something part time after retirement. Doing okay on putting money away, have pretty good company retirement plan, will almost certainly never live in a more expensive place in Idaho than I do currently, and wife has to work another 12-15 years after my retirement date so I should be able to hop on her insurance.
 
Interesting thread. Both my folks are retired. One with a career in the military and one off saving her whole life.

I'm 33, have 3 kids, and will retire when I'm dead.

Pretty much the same way that I feel. I'm also self employed which makes retiring even harder. I'm reminded of something that I saw on Facebook that said something like..."everyone talks about enjoying retirement. I'm going to have to work until lunch on the day of my funeral."
 
I have some time to go, but putting 15% away for the last 21 years "should" get me there when I am eligible. Company added another 5%.
Biggest mistake I made was not starting out at that rate. Can't take the paycut now to up the %...
 
I’m retired for 3 years now and am currently 62. I’m happy as hell but find myself thinking if I’d rather be working and 20, 30, or 40 years old or, retired and 60? Guess what I’m trying to say is don’t spend too much time at work dreaming of the day you can retire as with retirement comes old age for most of us! Use your days off, vacation, sick leave! etc to hunt and fish as much as you can while you’re young and before you know it you’re retired.
 
Just curious if any of you guys that are delaying pulling SS have looked into pulling it out at 62 and investing it if you don't need it instead of waiting? As an LEO I'm going to be gone long before 62 and will receive a SS supplement up until I can pull my regular benefits at 62. It has always been my plan to draw everything as early as I can and reinvest whatever I don't need.
 
I'm 42 and following the thread. Hope to be able to retire around 60 if I'm still around Been contributing to a 401K for the last 15 years, should have started earlier as others have mentioned. Biggest issue is- how to pay for health insurance if retiring early. I wonder what it will cost in 15-20 years.
 
I'm curious how all of you are calculating how much you will need per year to reach say 80 years old and what that total number would be from the day you retired. Now I know we can't all predict what things will cost in the future, but I did a "geusstimate" and I have 14 years before I retire, have always put away maximum 401k, have 2 pensions, saving account...etc.etc.. My guesstimate to live basically the way I do today is I need 3-6 million dollars...yes, that's million...to live like I do today not knowing what things will cost from age 65-80, so 15 years. Curious if anyone else has done this type of guessing. What I did was total all the bills I believe I will have at that time, taxes, insurance, food...etc.etc and that was the number I came up with and added in a schwag as well.

Also, what things HAD to change for you once you retired?
 
"Also, what things HAD to change for you once you retired?":

Putting up with someone's Dumba$$ Bull$hit, no matter who they were. :)

What are they going to do? Fire me ?
 
my Dad retired at 62, is now 65. lives only on a modest Social Security check (no other savings) and has to watch his money very close but he never even thinks about getting a part time job for extra spending money. hunts and fishes all the time and couldn't be happier. you can cut back on expenses you don't need. he also stocked up on hunting and fishing gear the last couple years he worked, knowing he wouldn't have the money to buy it once he stopped. people don't need near as much money as they think they do especially when you have so many outdoor hobbies
 
my Dad retired at 62, is now 65. lives only on a modest Social Security check (no other savings) and has to watch his money very close but he never even thinks about getting a part time job for extra spending money. hunts and fishes all the time and couldn't be happier. you can cut back on expenses you don't need. he also stocked up on hunting and fishing gear the last couple years he worked, knowing he wouldn't have the money to buy it once he stopped. people don't need near as much money as they think they do especially when you have so many outdoor hobbies

Your (wise) dad's model is the one I plan to utilize.
Live small and simple, but live lot's.
Hope it works well for him and me............

And I hope to have enough left in the tank to be an even bigger pain in the ass [to certain] folks than I can currently get away with.:D
 
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I'll be 49 in March. Just got off the phone with my Financial Advisor and I'm still on target to retire at age 60......11 more years!! That hurts!!
 
MN public,
I plan to use the 4% rule - take 4% of the amount of invested retirement $ every year to live on. The theory is your investment should make 7% and the 3% will be reinvested to keep up with inflation. This should allow you to live forever. I would like around 2 mill invested to be able to live on about 80K. I may try to reduce spending and retire earlier with less. Nice work maxing out your 401K you didn't mention an IRA I assume because you are above the income limits. if so look up backdoor Roth it will allow you to contribute to a Roth IRA. You will likely have another 1/2 to 1 million dollars of net worth that is not invested (house, vehicles, toys). You sound like you are set up very well.
JBS
 
I retired at 43. Yes 43. That was 8 years ago. From the day I started work I put money into savings plans. I worked at the same place for 26 years. They had a pension fund. House was paid off, vehicles were paid off, boat was paid off, etc. I didn't have any kids.



My pension will never change. I do get a 3% raise every year. My savings will last until I get social security. Social security will replace my depleted savings.


My wife is still working. She plans on working for several years. Probably social security age.

The only thing I didn't account for was my health insurance premium going up 600% in 4 years and my deductable going up 400 % in 4 years.

So...... I started working 4 years ago. I work 3 to 6 months per year to cover the health insurance costs. Otherwise things are still going great.
 
Just curious if any of you guys that are delaying pulling SS have looked into pulling it out at 62 and investing it if you don't need it instead of waiting? As an LEO I'm going to be gone long before 62 and will receive a SS supplement up until I can pull my regular benefits at 62. It has always been my plan to draw everything as early as I can and reinvest whatever I don't need.

I am retired LEO (30 years). When checking into Social Security (I'm 64 now), they told me about a "Windfall Elimination Provision" and "Govt Pension Offset" or some sort of garbage about me not collecting my full SS benefits, due to me having paid into a Pension at the PD. That is even though I paid into Social Security while working paid details on the job, working before the Police Dept, and after the Police Dept. So, instead of $1280 a month that I should get from SS, my benefits are reduced to $214 a month due to the "Govt Pension Offset". The Penalty also affects teachers, and anyone who paid into a pension. I was just wondering if things are different for the other LEO or Teachers who apply for SS Benefits??

I do not collect the $214 from SS. I am working as a Deputy/Training Officer (Firearms, SRT, Taser) at the Training Facility for the local S.O. I am not paying into their Pension and use my salary to chase Elk in New Mexico and Colorado every year.
 
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Biggest mistake I made was not starting out at that rate. Can't take the paycut now to up the %...

1pointer what I like to do is if we get a raise say 1.9 I throw that into tsp and never miss it if I never see it. It's worked well for me so far.
 
1pointer what I like to do is if we get a raise say 1.9 I throw that into tsp and never miss it if I never see it. It's worked well for me so far.
I do that as well, now. Which helps, but still wish I'd be "more smarter" earlier...

Besides, at the current rate of occurrences it's not like we have to worry about making those changes too often... :rolleyes:
 
I do that as well, now. Which helps, but still wish I'd be "more smarter" earlier...

Besides, at the current rate of occurrences it's not like we have to worry about making those changes too often... :rolleyes:

We need to do more with less...
 
We need to do more with less...
That is the exact motto adopted by us. Shortly after I retired, my wife said, "What about me?" Once we determined how we could actually do more with less, life has become increasingly better. We are blessed to be healthy and to be happy with a cruise in the canoe on Bowman Lake westside of Glacier NP or a backpack trek in the Bob Marshall, rather than join the ocean cruise ship trip or a catered trek through Europe purchased by many of our retired friends.
 
I am retired LEO (30 years). When checking into Social Security (I'm 64 now), they told me about a "Windfall Elimination Provision" and "Govt Pension Offset" or some sort of garbage about me not collecting my full SS benefits, due to me having paid into a Pension at the PD. That is even though I paid into Social Security while working paid details on the job, working before the Police Dept, and after the Police Dept. So, instead of $1280 a month that I should get from SS, my benefits are reduced to $214 a month due to the "Govt Pension Offset". The Penalty also affects teachers, and anyone who paid into a pension. I was just wondering if things are different for the other LEO or Teachers who apply for SS Benefits??

I do not collect the $214 from SS. I am working as a Deputy/Training Officer (Firearms, SRT, Taser) at the Training Facility for the local S.O. I am not paying into their Pension and use my salary to chase Elk in New Mexico and Colorado every year.

LA,
I was recently at a retirement seminar and we were told we'd receive the full benefit because we fully pay into SS. The only exceptions were 2 of the old heads who were Civil Service employees hired in the early 80s before the FERS system but they're going to get 80-90% of their salary anyway.

I also pay into a pension plan so I'll be able to pull that as soon as I retire as well.
 

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