I ran the numbers and ...

cgrab

cgrab

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cgrab
I'm eligible and financially able to retire.

Today is my 20 year mark on the job and since I'm over 60 I'm eligible to retire. I've run the numbers and can pay my bills with my retirement and savings. I still like what I do and at this point will do it a little while longer until it isn't fun. I have prepared my retirement package and can sign and date it when the next person ****es me off enough to make me want to go home.

Freedom is a great thing and it has taken almost 50 years of work and study to get there. It's been worth it.
 
Congratulations!
 
Congratulatons! I pulled the plug myself two months ago, today. Don't regret it, yet, and my life hasn't slowed down all that much. My days are so full, I don't understand how I was able to accomplish things AND work.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Don't do it.

I'm no where near 60, but from what I've seen humans are very energy efficient, like a new computer monitor, when the human doesn't have a task they begin to shut down.

The happiest people I've met ether never retired, or left main job to start a small fun business or took a retirement job.

Someone once said, people need three things.

Something to do.
Something to aspire to do.
Someone to love.
 
James331 said:
Don't do it.

I'm no where near 60, but from what I've seen humans are very energy efficient, like a new computer monitor, when the human doesn't have a task they begin to shut down.

The happiest people I've met ether never retired, or left main job to start a small fun business or took a retirement job.

Someone once said, people need three things.

Something to do.
Something to aspire to do.
Someone to love.
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Yea because working until you die is a way better option. Just because you retire, doesn't mean you become useless. There are plenty of things to do. If you choose to be stationary, that's your problem. If I can cut it financially, I'll definitely be retiring before the mandatory 65.
 
jordane93 said:
Yea because working until you die is a way better option. Just because you retire, doesn't mean you become useless. There are plenty of things to do. If you choose to be stationary, that's your problem. If I can cut it financially, I'll definitely be retiring before the mandatory 65.
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Depends on the quality of life you want.

Personally I love my work.

But humans are built to do tasks, the ones who do a lot of nothing in retirement don't last long.
 
James331 said:
Depends on the quality of life you want.

Personally I love my work.

But humans are built to do tasks, the ones who do a lot of nothing in retirement don't last long.
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I love my work too. But I work to live not live to work. I agree, a stationary retirement lifestyle won't be good. That said, I don't think people need to get a retirement job in order to keep active. There are plenty of activities to do.
 
Give us the details of what 'numbers' need running.
(Always had a hard time with the variables)
Will investments continue to make me 15% (kidding)
Will my household expenses remain about the same.
What about health costs, the gov is putting more of the burden on the elderly consumer.
Will airplanes always be this cheap? (also kidding)
 
James331 said:
Don't do it.

I'm no where near 60, but from what I've seen humans are very energy efficient, like a new computer monitor, when the human doesn't have a task they begin to shut down.

The happiest people I've met ether never retired, or left main job to start a small fun business or took a retirement job.

Someone once said, people need three things.

Something to do.
Something to aspire to do.
Someone to love.
Click to expand...

Ignore this greeting card garbage, I retired at 51 a few years ago, never been happier and my blood pressure dropped by 25. To stay on topic I get to fly anytime I want, almost 200 hrs a year.
 
I plan to keep busy, my grand kids are 4 and 7 and we meet them for a week at the beach every July. Next Spring we are all going to Disney World and the following year we have a vacation planned in Alaska. I have a Professional Engineers license and will continue to consult. One thing I've been mulling is a lawn tractor storage business to allow husbands to park their cars in the garage during the winter. Around here in the winter the wife keeps her car warm in the garage until about ten when it is warm enough for her to go out. Next to her car is the family riding mower. The husband has the car in the driveway and at 6 am is out scrapping ice off of it so he can get to work. I can pick up lawn tractors in the fall, service them and store them and return them in the spring and still have plenty of time to fly.
 
Congratulations! I'm nowhere close enough in my "Go Pound Sand" fund to be able to retire, but I'm approaching 50, so have a little time before I can retire anyway. But in the last year, I've been sorely tempted to pull the "eject" handle multiple times.

If you can hang on until 62 or 65, I believe the retirement monthly payout amount is substantially more. Especially if you like what you're doing.
 
James331 said:
Don't do it.

I'm no where near 60, but from what I've seen humans are very energy efficient, like a new computer monitor, when the human doesn't have a task they begin to shut down.

The happiest people I've met ether never retired, or left main job to start a small fun business or took a retirement job.

Someone once said, people need three things.

Something to do.
Something to aspire to do.
Someone to love.
Click to expand...


I agree with the principle, but continuing your job isn't necessarily the best way to implement it. The happiest retirees I know simply got too busy doing other stuff to go to work anymore.

God and 401k willing, I'll retire in about two years. I've started lining up stuff to do in retirement, and that's largely why I'm taking flying lessons. I'm an engineer, so I've already begun doing some pro bono work overseas, and I'll step that up after I retire. I'll find time to take some classes, though I doubt I'll pursue another degree. I may look into teaching a class or two at the local college, if it can be done without excessive hassle and bureaucracy. I hope I'll be able to spend some serious time scuba diving again. Plenty of other things.

I'm looking forward to choosing when and where I work and what projects I take on, without having to worry about making money while doing it.
 
James331 said:
Don't do it.

I'm no where near 60, but from what I've seen humans are very energy efficient, like a new computer monitor, when the human doesn't have a task they begin to shut down.

The happiest people I've met ether never retired, or left main job to start a small fun business or took a retirement job.

Someone once said, people need three things.

Something to do.
Something to aspire to do.
Someone to love.
Click to expand...
I disagree.
Work doesnt' mean "nothing to do".

If someone is unhappy, lazy, boring and has little personal motivation when they are working, they will be worse off after retirement.

But I have found retirement to be richly rewarding and busy. Like Wanntaja said, I often wonder how I ever managed to hold down a full time job and still have time to do all the things I want to do. The answer is that I didn't have time and that was very stressful.

But the important thing is to make sure you are financially well off enough to support yourself, and your hobbies.
 
I looked into teaching but even the community colleges are part of the school system here so you need a teaching certificate and I won't do that. I may hook up with the high school physics teacher as a lab assistant a couple days a week.
 
rtk11 said:
If you can hang on until 62 or 65, I believe the retirement monthly payout amount is substantially more. QUOTE]

I have run the numbers on that as well. Although by delaying social security, your monthly payout is greater, the fact that you get a smaller amount for a longer time means that for most of a retirement it is better to take the money and run. I made the curves .65 x years starting at 62 versus 1 x years starting at 66.5. I think I break even when I'm 87. By then I will either not need it or my 401k will have grown to where I won't notice.

Ask yourself who is the Government looking out for when they tell you to wait to take your retirement
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I retired five years ago at 52. I am still young and healthy enough to chase dreams that I could not do while I was still working. Can't say I regret retiring early. I do keep busy with projects and a few businesses we have acquired.
 
cgrab said:
I plan to keep busy, my grand kids are 4 and 7 and we meet them for a week at the beach every July. Next Spring we are all going to Disney World and the following year we have a vacation planned in Alaska. I have a Professional Engineers license and will continue to consult. One thing I've been mulling is a lawn tractor storage business to allow husbands to park their cars in the garage during the winter. Around here in the winter the wife keeps her car warm in the garage until about ten when it is warm enough for her to go out. Next to her car is the family riding mower. The husband has the car in the driveway and at 6 am is out scrapping ice off of it so he can get to work. I can pick up lawn tractors in the fall, service them and store them and return them in the spring and still have plenty of time to fly.
Click to expand...
You guys ever hear of a yard shed?
 
JOhnH said:
I disagree.
Work doesnt' mean "nothing to do".

If someone is unhappy, lazy, boring and has little personal motivation when they are working, they will be worse off after retirement.

But I have found retirement to be richly rewarding and busy. Like Wanntaja said, I often wonder how I ever managed to hold down a full time job and still have time to do all the things I want to do. The answer is that I didn't have time and that was very stressful.

But the important thing is to make sure you are financially well off enough to support yourself, and your hobbies.
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Unfortunately my hobbies require a full time income to support.
 
cgrab said:
I looked into teaching but even the community colleges are part of the school system here so you need a teaching certificate and I won't do that. I may hook up with the high school physics teacher as a lab assistant a couple days a week.
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Really, even adjunct?
 
Congrats, always happy to see folks who can comfortably retire!
 
paflyer said:
Unfortunately my hobbies require a full time income to support.
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What kind oh hobby requires an income? Mine dont care where the funding comes from. I worked and planned for almost 50 years to get here.
 
This is something I am looking at as well, but it will be more like semi retirement... Don't think for a minute that I could just one day be working and the next day not... I have had a job since I was 13 (paper route.. remember those?)

I have looked at a few things aircraft brokerage being one of them, but one close friend that is a real-estate broker has recommend a real estate license... tells me some agents nowadays make money in spite of themselves...
 
One of the retirement triggers for me was a co-worker of equal vintage. He had raised six kids and, like me, had worked 40 years in the aerospace industry.

He could have retired, as well. He didn't. About a year ago, he had a stroke. He's come back to a considerable extent, but not enough to work...or to travel without difficulty.

***** that. There are things I've always wanted to do, and for most of them, I have to be reasonably hale and hearty. If there's a heart attack or stroke in MY future, I want at least some time to do the stuff *I* want to do. My wife beat cancer once, but if it happens to her again, or to me, I want some good times on the left of the timeline. So I saw the hardware for my last program go out the door, finished the final report, closed the last interface documentation, and bailed out.

The transition has been...remarkable. The first two weeks, I was in a frenzy to get long-delayed tasks completed (hauled three truckloads of junk out of the crawl space, for instance). After working for 40 years, the mind doesn't immediately grasp that the one's time off is bounded by an upcoming return to work. You feel that you've got to get everything done NOW, since your brain thinks you've got to be back to work on Monday. Took a couple of weeks for that to ease back. Now? I should have dropped off a package at the Post Office this morning. Instead, I'm making this post...since I can drop it off in the afternoon instead.

Ditto for trips and vacations. Get back late Sunday night and to go to work next morning? Not anymore! Just returned from a trip to Tucson, crawling around airports, museums, and blowing holes in the desert with machine-gun-collecting friends.

No worries about upcoming customer meetings at work, or the need to Made the trip a day longer to take advantage of cheaper first-class airfares.

If you can handle the financial aspect, go for it.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Finished first career with the Air Force at 43. While I enjoy the work I'm doing now, I expect that in six years (employer matching contributions become fully vested) my timeline to become independent will be based on my mortgage. We can be done with that in six years too, which might considerably change who I work for, why I work, and when I work.
 
I got involuntarily retired from my job of 23+ years. After I decided that I wasn't going to go back to do something else full time, it was pretty liberating.
 
JOhnH said:
What kind oh hobby requires an income? Mine dont care where the funding comes from. I worked and planned for almost 50 years to get here.
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Ummm flying, golf, shooting ...not exactly cheap pass-times.
 
In December 2015 my employer of 33 years offered an early retirement plan which I qualified for. At the time I was about 2 years from planned retirement, but the early out included 16 months lump sum payout so the decision was easy, I left on 4/1/16. This spring they called and asked me to come back and work a 30 day shutdown, I spent the month doing test and calibrations on a system while training a newer tech. It was great working as a tech again with no supervisory duties, plus as I reminded the supervisor often, I had a "use by date" as a short term contractor. Have had no problems staying busy for the last year with 2 grandsons under 4 years, and expect more of the same, first granddaughter is due on Thursday.
 
Dont do it I was forced to retire at 65 ,wish i had gone to 72. I'm still healthy.
 
I think the real thing to understand is that one person's answer is not the same as another person's. So this whole "don't do it" concept may apply to you, but not to someone else.

My father turns 89 this year, still works 80+ hours a week as far as I know, maybe he cut down to 60. He'll work until he dies, and if he had to stop working, he'd die. But he loves what he does and it works for him. Not for me, but it is for him. I know other people who are the same.

My mom is the exact opposite. She retired in her mid 30s. Hates work. Been retired nearly 40 years now, and it's exactly what she always wanted to do - nothing. Not for me, but it is for her.

I'm probably about 3/4 my dad's side in that regard. I see myself retiring from the normal job to pursue some other more fun things. But I do fully plan to "retire" somehow, or at least adjust work so that I do something as a job that's just for fun and allow my wife and I to do some of the things that we, too, want to do just for fun that aren't particularly likely to accomplish while we have kids in the house.

But, do as much of your bucket list during your career years as possible. Nobody on their death bed wishes they spent more time in the office.

To the OP: congratulations! A wonderful position to be in.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Give us the details of what 'numbers' need running.
(Always had a hard time with the variables)
Click to expand...

There's all sorts of ways to run retirement numbers.

The simplest way is to figure out what income you need to live whatever lifestyle you want, then invest enough until the investments replace it, monthly. Passive income goal.

The main variable then becomes ROI and you can estimate low until you see actual income numbers rise to meet the monthly/yearly whatever goal.

Then you get into tax stuff, and almost no mater what ANYTHING you can do to remove taxes is a guaranteed ROI of your TAX RATE or at least the delta between your working years tax rate and your retirement years. This is a huge deal and the second most important part folks don't think about. It's often 8% or much more depending on income level. (It's really way more because your not spending it and being triple taxed, nor insuring what you bought, etc etc etc.)

Growth at no taxes and withdrawals at no or very little taxes is a VERY big deal. Especially growth when it's being reinvested.

Just dealing with those two major variables will get most folks on a very conservative track fiscally that can then be tweaked for stuff like investment fees, what you'll get in SSI, sales of assets when downsizing, etc etc etc.

When the passive income hits a certain monthly number it becomes obvious -- you don't have to go to the job anymore. Then you find something else to do, money-making or not, that's your call at that point.
 
GlennAB1 said:
Congratulations! I'm getting close to running the numbers... but why quit what I'm getting paid to do right now?
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It doesn't seem like the OP is planning to quit now anyway, it's more a point of running the numbers and realizing that he can retire. If you enjoy what you're doing and it works for you, no reason to quit until the right opportunity comes up. A lot of times the right opportunity will come up, and it's just nice to know when it does whether or not you can reasonably accept it without becoming a greeter at WalMart.
 
Congratulations!
Don't you love the way that makes you feel?

cgrab said:
I'm eligible and financially able to retire.

Today is my 20 year mark on the job and since I'm over 60 I'm eligible to retire. I've run the numbers and can pay my bills with my retirement and savings. I still like what I do and at this point will do it a little while longer until it isn't fun. I have prepared my retirement package and can sign and date it when the next person ****es me off enough to make me want to go home.

Freedom is a great thing and it has taken almost 50 years of work and study to get there. It's been worth it.
Click to expand...
 
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