Retiring Is Awesome

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
zoomzoom

zoomzoom

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
7,304
It's so nice doing what you want to do, when you want to do it.

If you're not already retired, please plan and hit it hard.

My wife and I planned. I retired at 53 and she's close behind me but has to take care of medical benefits for the family so she's keeping her job.

I've known people that have $3K to their name at age 68. Don't be that person. Scrimp, save, invest... and get yourself taken care of for your senior years.

If you planned, you can't even spend the interest you've made. There's more interest than what you're used to spending in a year.
 
I've been planning for quite some time. I wish I was 53 but I'll need to supplement with SS so I am going to retire in 4 years at 62 1/2....I really can hardly wait. I have SO MUCH I want to do other than work at a job. I will so enjoy spending my every waking moment doing what I want to do....I am Envious Zoom Zoom....
 
Sage advice. My wife and I have a "wealth manager", as a perk from her employer, who assists with things like retirement planning. We work very hard and live below our means to make sure we are able to have a very comfortable retirement.
 
We've been planning for 20yrs now. We have 1yr 10months and 13days left till we can go. We already have a place in the Mtns paid off and part way done with the renovations. We will also have everything but this house paid off but we aren't keeping it so it doesn't matter.
 
My early retirement came from a woman driving an old car without insurance who rear ended me at a stop light. I had to spend my retirement on medical bills and surgeries. I'm OK, and recovering nicely but it has taken 14 years to get here. I don't have any debt due mostly to the good planning of having good insurance and being able to sell my business and house in Seattle. I bought my new house the day after I moved here and started building the garage and shop. With a bit of help from good friends and family it all went surprisingly well. As I continue to build my strength and lose the weight I gained I am looking forward to the next 50 years.
 
A friend of mine who has the financial restraint and acuity of Congress, and is in his mid-50's, just emptied his wife's retirement account (something I did not realize you could do) so they could go on an extravagant vacation. They decided his retirement income will be more than enough for them both when they retire. I asked if he realized that his pension will only cover a portion of his retirement needs. He replied "Between my pension and social security we should be just fine". Meanwhile they somehow refinanced their mortgage a few years ago on a 20 year fixed to pay off a pile of debts, just bought a new $50k SUV and have 2 adult children in their 20's still living at home. o_O
 
I retired at 52 and I have loved every minute since then. My wife stopped working when she had our second child.
I guess I do still write books so I am not completely retired but it is at home with no schedule so it is not like a job.
 
Ouch. I hope he realizes that his withdraw just came with an income tax liability on it as well as a 10% early withdraw penalty. A $50K withdraw may come with $15K worth of payments due to the government so I hope he doesn't blow it all on vacation.

He's also going to find having a mortgage payment going into retirement may be more difficult than what he's expecting.

Some of our rules prior to retiring included:
  1. Having no payments other than utilities, insurances and taxes. All vehicles, properties... must be fully paid off.
  2. Besides having the vehicles paid off, make sure the vehicles can make it for the long haul. Last year I replaced my 16-year-old truck with a new one so I don't have to worry about it again, possibly for the rest of my life.
  3. Address any items that may become a big payment in the years to come. (E.g. replace roofs & furnace)
  4. Don't rely on getting anything from Social Security.
  5. As much as possible, have any "want" purchases behind us. This includes things like the extravagant vacations.
 
zoomzoom said:
Ouch. I hope he realizes that his withdraw just came with an income tax liability on it as well as a 10% early withdraw penalty. A $50K withdraw may come with $15K worth of payments due to the government so I hope he doesn't blow it all on vacation.

He's also going to find having a mortgage payment going into retirement may be more difficult than what he's expecting.
Click to expand...

He expects to retire by age 60, but he will never actually be able to retire. He will be working right up until the reaper comes for him. His wife quit her job to go back to college 10 years ago, she wanted to reinvent herself. After 3 1/2 years and $70,000 in student loans, she quit college and went back to her old job. They are still paying through the nose on those loans. I don't know anyone who makes as much money as they do ($200k or so annual household gross) and yet have no savings, no emergency fund, no real property, no investments, massive amounts of debt and no ability to see past the next paycheck. I presume banks look at their paychecks and decided they are worth the risk or something.
 
Co-worker complains that after his wife paid the bills they didn't have any money left for groceries. But every noon he "borrows" money at the ATM (credit card) to pay for his and the secretariat's lunch. He refinanced his house mortgage for a longer term to pay off all of his credit card debts. Brags on how much lower his monthly mortgage is now. When I asked if he cut up his credit cards he said no they need those to live on. When I explained that by borrowing more money for a longer term he is just digging a deeper hole he told me to "SHUT UP".

Another co-worker borrowed from her 401K (again) to buy the latest iPhones for her, her husband and 30 year old son. Refinanced their primary living residence and lake cottage to purchase a second lake cottage. Second cottage is going to be a rental for retirement income. A year after the purchase cottage is unrented and still in need of major repairs.

25 years ago I went from public employment (job security with very low pay and low benefits) to a private job with higher pay and benefits. When our children where on their own I started putting 25% of my pay into my Employer's 401K (they match the first 3%).

I pay all of the bills., my wife is self employed and refuses to waste her money on bills. Asked the wife what she was planning on using for money when she retired. She said, "I thought you was taking care of that!?"

Children work their way through college so I have no debt from that. When they married I handed them a check. They could use the check towards their wedding, housing or what ever they wanted but any additional costs were on them.

My 12 year old truck is paid off and has just under 90,000 miles on it. By the time it needs to be replace the children would have already taken my Driver's license from me. Wife has her car paid off with 120,000 miles on it. This is the only car she has had that I refused to pay for because I was tired of the repair bills. She ignored the temperature gauge until the engine sized (water pump), bent two rims on two different cars while claiming she didn't hit anything, front right fender, grill, three rear bumpers, right fenders twice and totaled two cars.

Next spring the house mortgage will be paid off 5 1/2 years early and I'll be debt free!

Medical insurance for both of us is through my Employer. Wife has some medical problems that I figure it would be wise for me to work until she is eligible for Medicare.

Roof replacement before I retire would be the last big expense.

I found out a year back wife has several credit cards maxed out that she had kept hidden from me. Her sad brown eyes didn't work this time. I guess she'll be working to pay HER debts until the Liberals start cooperating with the Conservatives.
 
Sentry18 said:
He expects to retire by age 60, but he will never actually be able to retire...I don't know anyone who makes as much money as they do ($200k or so annual household gross) and yet have no savings, no emergency fund, no real property, no investments, massive amounts of debt and no ability to see past the next paycheck. ...
Click to expand...

It is nice to know that he is helping my wife keeping the economy growing...:cry:
 
One thing Mrs. ZoomZoom and I did different than most married couples is we keep our income and bills separate. What she makes is hers, what I make is mine and we each do with it as we please. She likes to travel, I like my toys and neither cares what the other spends things on.

We also agreed on who pays what for the family and household. She has her car purchases and maintenance, I have mine. I pay the mortgage (now gone), household utilities and property taxes. She pays for food, whatever the kids need and any capital purchases for the house (new kitchen, carpet or whatever).

This approach has made our lives a lot easier than most since we're never dickering or fighting over who's contributing how much or making withdraws out of a combined account. Actually, even after 20+ years of marriage, we don't even have a joint banking account.
 
My retirement was set for me in my early 30,s through the actions of an uninsured motorist. Settlement was enough to pay off most of the bills and pay the mortgage down. I have been on a small fixed income since. ( nearly 30 years). Wife was disabled for a long time after that. We get by, certainly not an opulent life style to say the least but we are content.
 
Sorry about your uninsured motorist accident. :( Glad you're getting through it.

Is it just me that feels awkward clicking "Like" on a post when someone shares something bad in their life? I don't necessarily like the content as it's not good, I just like that it's been shared.
 
zoomzoom said:
One thing Mrs. ZoomZoom and I did different than most married couples is we keep our income and bills separate. What she makes is hers, what I make is mine and we each do with it as we please. She likes to travel, I like my toys and neither cares what the other spends things on.
Click to expand...

We also have a system, but in our home her income is hers and my income is hers. :D

She works with millions of $ a day and is very adept at money management. She runs all of our financials and deposits a stipend into my account every month. I of course have access to all accounts, budgetary spreadsheets, projections, investments, etc., we discuss all plans and projects, and I have to sit through the long boring meetings with the wealth manager. But otherwise I just spend the money she gives me and watch our balances grow and our debts shrink. I will be retired for 5-10 years before she retires and even then she will be retiring young. So we intend to have a very healthy amount of money in savings/investments; not including my pension, my Roth IRA, her 401k and profit sharing plan, social security, etc.
 
When we got married 40 years ago my new wife bought a budget ledger. She said she was going to set up a budget for us. I said OK you do the budget and I'll just spend whatever I want on what I want. She never filled in one page of her new ledger. We both came from frugal families and each of us knew the value in saving. We never had a problem with money our whole life. Most of the time we did not have a lot of money but we never lacked for anything we needed. We have owned three houses in that time period and each of them we paid off. The first took a long time and last two we paid cash for when we bought them.
 
Oh, yes. Paying cash. That's an absolute in our household. You're welcome to use a credit card to buy things (and we regularly do because of the perks offered) but at the end of the month, the credit cards must be paid off 100%. Same with vehicles. If you can't hand the previous owner or the the dealership a check for the total, you're not buying it.
 
zoomzoom said:
Sorry about your uninsured motorist accident. :( Glad you're getting through it.

Is it just me that feels awkward clicking "Like" on a post when someone shares something bad in their life? I don't necessarily like the content as it's not good, I just like that it's been shared.
Click to expand...

I click like on bad news for the same reason as you do
 
I click like when I like something, I click like when I want to acknowledge something and sometimes I click like just to remind me where I have been. I don't see it as liking something bad that has befallen someone.
 
It's not how much you make, it's how much you spend. And how much you save. We retired in our mid-50s with absolutely no debt and enough income from pensions and social security where we don't have to pull from the IRAs. We live on basic food, shelter, transportation (both vehicles are 20 years old and running fine), and clothing. We're on Medicare now and have a Medicare Supplement through USAA with a Humana PDP so our medical needs are covered.

We recognize we are fortunate and we would not be in this position without the blessings of the Lord. We tithe to our church and pay for some smaller projects, we support the local food pantry that also does Meals on Wheels, and a few other pet projects.

Retiring early has its benefits as long as you plan correctly. You're young and healthy enough to do a myriad of things. Not planning correctly puts you in the position of running out of money before you run out of life.
 
We have less than a year to go until we both (semi) retire and are both pretty young. DH wanted to retire at 50 and he's worked his behind off to make that a reality. He won't retire completely, but he's just going to be the "fill in" guy if they need him. Somehow I'm thinking he may be just as busy as he was before, but at least he won't feel guilty saying NO. He's looking forward to some already planned hunting and fishing trips. Everyone seems to think we are too young to retire, but if we can afford it (which we can) than why is it so bad? Were excited to travel the states with the camper and the pups. Plus, it's not like we can't go back to work. We're both very employable in fields that are desperate for workers. Our issue is going to be finding decent health insurance that we can buy.....but we deal with that now, so I guess we'll deal with it as we go. Thankfully we're both healthy. I wouldn't be surprised if I find a part time job somewhere else too.....just to do something different. Or maybe do some volunteering at the Humane Society.

Sentry18 said:
We also have a system, but in our home her income is hers and my income is hers. :D
Click to expand...

That's the system we use! LOL! He doesn't want anything to do with personal finance. As long as the frig is full, his wallet has cash, and the electric/heat is on, he's happy. I show him the statements and such but he doesn't really care. I do a personal asset sheet at the end of every year so it gives us a pretty good idea where we stand from year to year and I make him look at it. He knows where the accounts are at but he never goes there. We always have cash so there's no need for an ATM......haven't use one in over 20 years. It helps that we're both pretty simplistic and have frugal tastes.

I agree with the others who state that living below your means and paying cash for things is the way to go. We paid our mortgage off in 12 years on a 15 year note by putting extra savings toward the note since we HATE to pay interest. Plus, with extra savings we were able to take advantage of opportunities throughout the years that otherwise we would have missed out on. Hubs has flipped fishing boats, tractors, trailers, 4 wheelers, and a bunch of other things by buying them and fixing them up (if need be) and re-selling them at a profit. He likes to tinker with stuff like that and he's good at it too, so he has a hobby that is quite profitable. Cash is king, so when you flash it in front of someone, they are more willing to deal with you.

We also are not planning on any inheritance, which I'm sure there will be. It amazes me that many folks I know are PLANNING their future on inheritance money.:eek: Although I know a lot of people like the ones already mentioned in this thread who make some pretty stupid money mistakes. So, it really shouldn't shock me. Common sense just isn't very common anymore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top