jppe

I have a very creative financial advisor. He thinks long term as I do. He's come up with several suggestions that took me by surprise but I like what he's proposed. An example, I had an option at retirement to take either a pension or a lump sum payment. I opted for the pension because it represented a much higher "guaranteed" annuity than the lump sum. We couldn't have invested the lump sum and earned an equivalent income stream as the pension. He would have earned more dollars himself if I'd taken the lump sum and allowed them to manage it for me. He truly is looking out for what's best for my wife and me.

I sleep a lot better at night having these guys helping me.

volosong

Going to a small, but rapidly growing town about five miles NW of Coeur d'Alene. Named Rathdrum. Nothing there. Just out of the way, away from the tourist stuff. I expect to make frequent trips back to CdA and/or Hayden.

"They" say that if one were to flatten out Idaho, it would be bigger than Texas. There is only one, mountainous road between south Idaho and North Idaho. The easiest and fastest way is either through Montana on the east or Oregon/Washington on the west.

I'll check Penske. Hear they have diesels too. Thanks for the tip.

bikeridesteve

Sounds like very smart moves, congrats! We are pension poor, but I had good days (financially) at several Fortune 100 companies over my career, and stock options, so we are theoretically in good shape so long as spending doesn't get out of hand...famous last words!!!

xraydog

Thanks everyone... great posts! Retirement thoughts / questions seem to creep into my thoughts more and more as I enter the last 8-10yrs of my career. After reading the posts, seems like everyone has or had the similar questions. It is very helpful to me reading how each of you resolved these issues.

I really like the advise to start downsizing early. I am realizing that I have way too much "stuff" that is of little use or interest to me. Keeping and/or maintaining all the stuff I realize takes a lot of energy and money time to let it go.

Doc_Wui

I took an early retirement package when I was 53. Now 15 years later, I didn't do half the stuff i could have done with my free time, so it wasn't a productive or newsworthy retirement, but on the other hand, it's been great fun.

This year being active has really cost me. Caught bronchitis from riding a bike in January. Now Doc has me on antibiotics after golfing in cold weather. I think I lose too much heat from my balding skull. Can't slow down too much though, but will keep myself warmer. Maybe get a hot tub.

Piratebike

my problem with retirement is going t be trying to decide between fishing and biking. Now I fish on weekends and ride y bike every day after work. But if I could fish every day.................it is going to be tough.

Flip Flop Rider

with you on this 100%

bikeridesteve

Gotta be careful about downsizing if places to live in the area you plan to move to has gone up more in price than the area you're coming from. We potentially might be in that situation if we move from Raleigh, NC to Ft. Lauderdale/Palm Beach Florida area as prices have run up there much more than here, although housing prices in Raleigh are starting to go up big time.

bikeridesteve

Heck yeah...

reppans

Retired in '08 and started my life pension last year at 55. Youngest off to college in fall so we'd like to start downsizing, sell the house, and move into a condo. I sometimes miss work in a grass-is-always-greener/ying-yang sort of way - kinda like how some cold rainy days allows you really appreciate the warm sunny days. Always had a procrastination problem - retirement has exacerbated it. Then there's all the time wasting on internet hobby enthusiast sites - I personally enjoy it, and it keeps my mind working, but the Mrs.... not so much, I suppose it's akin to my son playing video games. Also, my younger outdoorsy adventurous friends are still working and don't a lot of free time, while my older retired friends have the time, but are not really outdoorsy or adventurous anymore. I'm not ready for golf yet. Other than that, retirement is great!

JohnJ80

With our approaching retirement (weeks away), I'm down to part time but my wife is going full out (teacher). We feel like we ought to celebrate and do something big this summer but we just don't have time to plan it yet. The other problem is I've traveled extensively for work (all over the world) and I'm not all that excited about getting on an airplane for fun..... at least so soon.

All in all, great problems to have.

j.

bargeon

^^^ my situation was similar.

Funny thing: expect people to ask you if you're going to travel.. Everyone who hasn't retired seems to think, not unreasonably, that that's what you do in retirement. I suspect they will be surprised if you say No, I've taken up cycling.

linberl

I took a 4 month road trip around the US right after I retired. It made me realize I don't want to move from the area I live, but it was great to noodle around little places that were barely on the map. Then I settled down to biking around 20 miles a day among other activities. I'll take a couple weeks every year to go one place (with good cycling), other than that I am happy being at home doing the 3 R's (riding, reading, relaxing).

JohnJ80

Retirement is about having the time and leisure to do things you didn't have time to do when you were working. If you traveled for work maybe that means not traveling.

When I look at the entry and exit stamps in my passports and add up the time that was sitting on an airplane, in a lot of ways I want those months back. It literally was the equivalent of months of sitting in an airplane seat 24/7.

For me, that was the price to pay for early retirement, I guess.

J.

downtube42

Man am I ever ready. I had a taste, I suppose, when I was laid off last year with seven months severance. Kids are gone so we downsized from a house to a condo, eliminating over half our belongings (including 2nd car). Aside from downsizing, I used the months to do a bike tour down and back up the Florida Keys, do a couple short camping rides, travel a bit with my wife, do some hiking, move across the country, and eventually get another job. The extra time with my wife was fantastic. Aside from the getting another job part, I loved it. At 55 I'm a few years away financially, unless I can get creative one way or another.

John E

My scenario is somewhat different.

At age 66, I CHOOSE to continue working in an encore career in academia, following 35 years in industry. I enjoy college life even more now than I did as a UCLA student in the 1970s, meeting interesting people and dropping in on engaging lectures and presentations in various departments around campus. During any given academic quarter I work somewhere between half- and full-time, usually closer to the latter, depending on my teaching load. I particularly appreciate my flexible schedule -- this quarter I teach classes on M, W, and F and host office hours on Saturdays, which allows me to work from home on Tu and Th after bicycling and hitting the local YMCA in the morning.

With my younger son still in medical school, my continuing income has enabled me to avoid selling my investments or starting to pull money out of Social Security or any of my IRAs or SEP-IRA. Given the number of nonagenarians in my wife's family tree and mine, I currently plan to postpone retirement at least to age 70, as my maternal grandfather did. At that point, between Social Security and required IRA distributions, it will no longer make economic sense to continue working.

jppe

Makes sense and you have a solid plan. I can see the attraction to academia at this stage. You should be set financially with postponing SS to 70 along with the required distributions.

What types of courses are you instructing?

johnu

We decided to be debt free and have me quit at 60 (live off my cash until 65) and my wife works winters at a Phoenix location her employer has and Summer's at the mothership in MN. Her job is "fluid" so she can work at any of many locations and interacts daily with 3 countries. Working is her hobby.
We love the cycling in Phoenix and instead of renting for 3 months we decided to purchase a home on the cycle path overlooking a golf course and Camelback mountain.
We paid cash using market gains achieved since the last election. Still debt free but it is sure scary refitting a second home not drawing an income yet. By fall we'll have all the painting done etc (sweat equity by me) and can relax again.
The biggest underestimation retires make is the cost of healthcare.

John E

I teach various lower-division, upper-division, and graduate courses in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and the Computer Science and Engineering department, plus the Master of Advanced Study Wireless Embedded Systems program (WES | Master of Advanced Study Degree UC San Diego), where my students are working stiffs -- my old UCSD Extension customer base -- juggling careers and families while earning a graduate degree. I also co-teach and helped create a relatively new hands-on freshman course, ECE 5, "ECE Encounters -- Making, Breaking, and Hacking Stuff." I teach the robotics / controls portion, which overlaps nicely with my volunteer work with First Lego League, where I try to corrupt the 5th through 8th grade youth of America into a life of STEM.

tarwheel 

I retired at the end of January, just after my 63rd birthday. My wife retired 2-1/2 years ago.

I haven't missed work for a minute. So far I've just been enjoying sleeping late, piddling around the yard, and riding my bikes a lot. We have taken several short trips this spring and have 3-4 longer trips planned for later this year. I'm starting some art classes next week and plan to do that a lot in my spare time. Also plan to do some volunteer work, as soon as I figure out where to devote my energies. My wife has become a bit over-committed in that regard, and I don't want to do that.

Financially, we both are drawing pensions that meet all of our living expenses for the time being. If we need extra money for trips or other expenses, we can draw from our retirement accounts, but so far we haven't withdrawn a dime. We both plan to start taking Social Security at full retirement age (66), but could delay to 70 if that looks beneficial at the time. According to various financial calculators, we could draw 4% a year from our retirement savings until we are 100 years old without running out, so there probably isn't any point in delaying SS past 66. We both have low-cost health care coverage from our previous jobs and we paid off our mortgage and car loans several years ago, so our expenses are relatively low.

My advice to younger folks is to contribute as much as possible to your retirement savings while you are working. We always saved diligently, and it has paid off for us in being able to retire sooner than we had planned. We have never owned fancy cars, second homes and other expensive luxuries, and that makes it easier to live on a fixed income.

StanSeven

I retired from the Federal government at 55. Then I went to a private company for a planned couple years. That was 15 years ago and I'm still working and thoroughly enjoy it. I did cut back to two days a week when my wife retired. We moved to the beach three years ago and I work from home.

I do the same type of work as I did with the government without all the hassles of managing. The work is interesting, challenging, and in demand by my clients. We use the money for travel, bikes, and helping out our children.

Tony G

I have also got to the point that I'may planning to sell my home in San Francisco and move a bit North to Santa Rosa. The real estate here has gone bat s-it crazy again, going for well over $1,000 per sq foot. There is too much equity in this home not being put to good use.... like fly fishing trips and new bikes :-)

I'll miss the city and the rides from here. Santa Rosa has a reputation good riding but I think it's better from here.

jppe

$1000/sq ft is insane. That's almost 10x prices here. That's a LOT OF BIKES!!

jppe

That's great!! I spoke to a lot of middle school classes about technology during engineer's week in February's past.

I went the power option in scho but that was 40+ years ago. I took a few controls classes. Heck, I had a course on vacuum tubes and transistors. We had a brief overview of new fangled stuff called integrated circuits and microchips. It sounds like you've done a great job of staying on top of the latest technologies.

Cougrrcj

As the Joe Walsh song says "I'm an Analog man in a Digital world"