What are your retirement plans?

[lxskllr]

My back's been screwed up for half my life at this point, and though I'm not sure it's gotten worse, the interaction with age makes it feel worse. I need to keep moving and changing postions for it to feel it's best. Sit, stand, reach, stretch, bend over... whatever. Doing any single thing kills my back after awhile.

Anyway, you might not need anything "official" like physical therapy. That stuff's boring, and you aren't likely to keep it up long term. Lose some weight, find something fun to do where you're moving your ass, and do it. Just planting your ass in a chair will literally kill you, and make you wish you were dead before it does.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I hope to “semi-retire” within the next 10 years - by that, I mean not having a regular, full-time job. Instead, I will probably keep working but maybe contracts or monetizing some of my hobbies (such as 3D printing). I used to be on the “I’ll quit working the minute I can” train, but I figure if I don’t hate what I do and can keep pulling in money, why not do it? The current job is high stress but maybe it will calm down in a few years and I’ll just keep going - who knows. As Dr. Detroit said a few posts ago, it’s hard to give up the cash flow especiallly if you don’t really hate what you do.

As to where we’d move, that’s still up in the air. I work remotely now and did so before the pandemic, so if I decide to keep working this job longer or get a remote contract upon “semi retiring,” I can live anywhere in the US. The wife wants to move overseas and that’s something I probably won’t be willing to do. We’ve done a lot of travel the past decade and I’ll be honest - staying home the last year (outside of a week in Maine last month) is something I’ve enjoyed and has allowed me to get into new hobbies.

 

[Svnla]

5 years from now - annuity. (all timeline is subject to change due to external conditions/situations)
Many years from now - social security
Many more years from now - investments, savings, others.

Then I will do what I want, when I want. No more boss and office politic.

Happy panda, unless massive inflation then I am screwed and million and million of others too.

 

[Mai72]

Luckily for me I had an uncle who had a net worth of about $5m. He taught me to invest as early as possible. When you're young you have time on your side. I put money into index funds, and I've started off with a $100 a month investment at 17 years old. Since then, I've put in thousands, and tens of thousands into my index fund portfolio over the years. I've given up driving new cars just so I can pad my investments. I've also taken on side hustles like selling on ebay which has paid off well. When I lived and worked in Korea I took advantage of having to pay no federal, state taxes. Saved at least $40-60k a year for a few years. Basically, a large part of my income goes into my investments, and Roth IRA. I'm also working on my internet business, which I hope to make $3-10k on that per month. Overall,. I'm good. I'm going to purchase a condo in Vietnam in the next year or two. I want to live there in the near future. The low cost of living is a huge draw for me.

 

[brianmanahan]

I've given up driving new cars just so I can pad my investments.

same here

my 10 year old little honda kills my back when i drive it though, so i may have to upgrade to something nicer in a year or two

 

[IndyColtsFan]

same here

my 10 year old little honda kills my back when i drive it though, so i may have to upgrade to something nicer in a year or two

I buy a new car every 10-15 years and drive it into the ground. Thanks to the pandemic and also the fact that I’ve worked from home much of the last decade, my current car may go 20 years.

 

[ponyo]

I thought I would retire when I hit $1.5M of investable assets and that number/goal only increased as my annual compensation ballooned. How do you walk away?

So, now the goal is to retire next year in my mid 40's and try my hand at who knows what? All I've ever done is work, whether it be HS jobs, Army, college internships/part time jobs, or full time professional jobs since University graduation. 6-weeks PTO and I'm lucky to get two 1-week vacations in a year and haven't had a two week consecutive vacation since HS summer or thereabouts.

I left my last job 3.5yrs ago to cash out 320hrs PTO and started the new job 2-days later and now I'm sitting at the 300hr max.

I'm great at work - I excel at it, I'm a great saver, I have modest/frugal tastes and spend like 10% of my take home. Based on the 4% rule I should have retired a decade ago, but how do you walk away? I need/want to take some extended time off but work might suck me back in after a year or so off.

I'm not sure I want to own anything - the two of us can just travel every 3-6 months. But a home base would be nice.
I'd like to be a campground host, I like to talk to people and educate them while answering questions. I have a voracious appetite for useless information.
I love the outdoors so lots of hiking and camping out west is in my future. I'd like to take up Kite boarding with the folks on the Silver Strand.
I have no hobbies other than researching all the cool shit I'd like to do and places I'd like to travel to. Zero desire to hang out in Paris or London, but Oaxaca, Lagos, 4-Corners and the Gulf Coast (SPI to Florida) seems like places I want to spend significant time.
I thought about opening a tap-room, I love beer and once again I like talking to people.

So yeah, I have no idea - I just need to take some time off and NOT work for a while and come up with a plan.

Walking away is something I struggled with. I didn't love my job but I didn't hate it. While the job was stressful, I made really good money from my company while not doing too much of the actual work. But after certain point, your view of money changes and it just becomes a game. It becomes a game to see if you can top your old previous high score and increase your net worth or money by X amount of dollars. Then you ask yourself, for what? So you can see even bigger numbers on your screen? You start to realize, no amount of money will ever be enough and you have to be content with what you have and not obsess over trying to keep getting even higher score. After certain point, you have more money than 99% of the people on earth. You have to let go.

Time is money. Seriously. I didn't understand this when I was younger. But money is what you exchange to get more time. And we only have finite time and the countdown began the day we were born. So it's a race against the clock. After certain point when your liquid assets and net worth reach certain point, you'll make far more money from your investments than any job you had. You don't have to do anything and your money keeps increasing. And if you have modest lifestyle, money will grow way faster than you can ever spend in your lifetime. So even if you're not working, your net worth keeps increasing anyway. Having a job and keep working just increases your net worth faster since you're not touching any of your investments to live on but honestly, after couple millions dollars, you should make way more from your investments than your day job. Then having a job just becomes a game because you're just trying to see how high you can up your net worth and break your previous high score. Some people enjoy that. But you have to ask yourself, what's your end game and what's your purpose doing that? So you have to reach a stage mentally where you can let go of the game and say, "you know, I have enough money. I don't need the highest score and beat everyone else. Let's enjoy the time I have left on this earth." That's really hard. And sometimes I still struggle with that. But I'm getting better.

Anyway, that's my thought as I'm having morning breakfast on the hotel balcony overlooking the beautiful Caribbean.

 

[repoman0]

I used to think I wanted to move full time to a giant plot of land in the mountains of NH, but that’s starting to sound like a recipe for not doing anything or talking to anyone and just kind of fading away. Now I’m thinking it’d be great to keep our current place 10 minutes to Logan airport and walking distance to the train and lots of restaurants and add a place like that as a part time getaway. Probably will start shopping a couple years down the line so we can enjoy it now too.

We are 28 and 31 and are in a position to retire very early (under 10 years from now, probably less), especially if we left New England, but I have no desire to live in any other part of this country and both of us still really enjoy our jobs. There are plenty of older dudes at my work who keep working because they enjoy it and it keeps them sharp … they generally seem happier and more mentally there than people who retire and have nothing to think about and no problems to solve. Plus being university affiliated and not for profit makes it easy to be flexible and have part time working arrangements.

As for what I plan to do … probably live exactly as I currently do but more balanced toward hobbies than work. I’m thankful to have a pretty good balance as it is.

 

[brianmanahan]

I buy a new car every 10-15 years and drive it into the ground. Thanks to the pandemic and also the fact that I’ve worked from home much of the last decade, my current car may go 20 years.

i do the same, i'm just realizing now that i should've gone a little nicer on the last car i bought

unfortunately mine will probably last 25... not being able to drive for a few years has kept it at lower miles than usual

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Walking away is something I struggled with. I didn't love my job but I didn't hate it. While the job was stressful, I made really good money from my company while not doing too much of the actual work. But after certain point, your view of money changes and it just becomes a game. It becomes a game to see if you can top your old previous high score and increase your net worth or money by X amount of dollars. Then you ask yourself, for what? So you can see even bigger numbers on your screen? You start to realize, no amount of money will ever be enough and you have to be content with what you have and not obsess over trying to keep getting even higher score. After certain point, you have more money than 99% of the people on earth. You have to let go.

Time is money. Seriously. I didn't understand this when I was younger. But money is what you exchange to get more time. And we only have finite time and the countdown began the day we were born. So it's a race against the clock. After certain point when your liquid assets and net worth reach certain point, you'll make far more money from your investments than any job you had. You don't have to do anything and your money keeps increasing. And if you have modest lifestyle, money will grow way faster than you can ever spend in your lifetime. So even if you're not working, your net worth keeps increasing anyway. Having a job and keep working just increases your net worth faster since you're not touching any of your investments to live on but honestly, after couple millions dollars, you should make way more from your investments than your day job. Then having a job just becomes a game because you're just trying to see how high you can up your net worth and break your previous high score. Some people enjoy that. But you have to ask yourself, what's your end game and what's your purpose doing that? So you have to reach a stage mentally where you can let go of the game and say, "you know, I have enough money. I don't need the highest score and beat everyone else. Let's enjoy the time I have left on this earth." That's really hard. And sometimes I still struggle with that. But I'm getting better.

I struggle with imposter syndrome and have somehow fooled my C-Level bosses to pay me obscene amounts of money to which they give me more each year including gobs of equity. My passive investment income will never touch my salary or total compensation figures so why not be a gluttonous pig and collect more cash like people collect Pokemon cards?

Because you are right, its just numbers on brokerage statements that do nothing for me but provide a sense of comfort, that no matter what happens I'll be OK. Thats all I get from it and I'm way past what I considered comfortable.

I could go for some serenity! I know the rat race and how it affects others and so I want my adult child to have that sense of comfort and be able to tell their Mgmt team to F-Off. Another year of my work can easily provide 5yrs off their retirement timeline and so I struggle.

I'm 11-months out, my one good friend says I'll never quit, everyone tells me to go into consulting and grab a 3-6 month contract and then go fuck off the rest of the year. Maybe? But how do you go from being a beach bum at $25/night Mazunte hotels or a bearded wild-man Camp Host to re-entering the Corp world?

Envious of your ability to walk away!

 

[Exterous]

Slow travel is great. I like to stay a minimum of 3 to 4 days in one town and then move to the next town (I think that is far better than the "see all of Europe in 7 days tour" where if you blink you miss a whole country). It would be better to have the time to do a couple weeks instead of just 3/4 days and really get to know the location, but as I still work, that will have to do.

That said, 1 to 3 months in Queenstown might just bankrupt you. Lovely area but prices are insane for any activity. I'd rather do 1 month in that area and then 1 month in the north island. Be sure to take at least a long week exploring the sounds and fjords on the far south west coast by boat.

I think you are shortchanging South Africa in your list.

I mean if you are paying for adventure activities and constant boat tours sure but hiking is free and if you book well ahead of time outside their peak months accommodations are definitely affordable esp if you don't mind the nearby areas of Cromwell and Kingston. I double checked our car rental rate while we were there and it was $20/day but that was 2018 and the world's changed a bit since then so we'll see how it all shakes out.

I should have mentioned we've only been building the list after we've been to a location at this point so there are lots of places we think we might want to consider but haven't really done any research to know yet. And we haven't been to South Africa yet so its not on the list and while we liked Ethiopia and Kenya I'm not sure I'd want to spend a month in either country.

You should look up “waypoint of view” on YouTube. It’s a travel vlog that mrs Ned and I have really enjoyed. You might get some ideas from it

Thanks we'll give it a look

 

[Dulanic]

Travel and likely live somewhere much cheaper. Ecuador or Malaysia sound wonderful.

 

[Spacehead]

After certain point when your liquid assets and net worth reach certain point, you'll make far more money from your investments than any job you had. You don't have to do anything and your money keeps increasing. And if you have modest lifestyle, money will grow way faster than you can ever spend in your lifetime. So even if you're not working, your net worth keeps increasing anyway. Having a job and keep working just increases your net worth faster since you're not touching any of your investments to live on but honestly, after couple millions dollars, you should make way more from your investments than your day job.

This is something i need to keep remembering... my money will continue to grow after i no longer put money into it.
I'm not sure if this is good news or bad(depends on how you look at it) but in the first six months of this year my investments have made me more than i'll probably gross this year. If i can double what i have now by the time i retire(or before) i'll be set. And i'm nowhere near having a million dollars now. Fact is i probably won't have that much when i do retire.

As for plans... i have no idea now.

 

[Captante]

the interaction with age makes it feel worse

Could say that about a LOT of things lol ... in fact my neck and both knee's just starting spasming/throbbing in sympathy!



Serious back injury is something I've managed to avoid so far thank goodness.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hope I never get the back problems that so many people seem to get with age. If I actually plan to live off grid there will be a lot of physical work such as shoveling and snow blowing snow, taking snow off solar panels and chances are I'll always be building or doing something around the property. Even once I get it to a point where stuff runs itself, there are a lot of hobbies I will want to get into that are physical like building things. Welding, wood work etc. Once you have a bad back your days of doing physical activity are basically over.

 

[lxskllr]

Once you have a bad back your days of doing physical activity are basically over.

Depends. I screwed my back up in my 20s, and everything I do is physical. Some days are bad, and my back gets screwed up, but I'm usually back to doing stuff after a week. I tend to feel best when I'm doing the most, but I have be careful how I lift and pull. I need to use my arms/shoulders and not my back.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm going another 13 years until I'm 63 and dropping off the grid. Going to downsize and travel.

 

[KB]

Summers in Maine and winters in Florida is the plan so far. But I have plenty of time to figure it out. Retirement is a ways away.

 

[dullard]

I mean if you are paying for adventure activities and constant boat tours sure but hiking is free.

Going to the adventure capital of the world and just hiking seems wrong. I've hiked in that area and it is beautiful, but not beautiful enough for me to dedicate that amount of time there. I guess that I just prefer hiking in higher elevations. Boating along New Zealand's coastline, however, was beautiful enough to be worthy of spending 1 to 3 months there.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Summers in Maine and winters in Florida is the plan so far. But I have plenty of time to figure it out. Retirement is a ways away.

The wife and I just spent a week in Maine last month, which was our first vacation since the pandemic began. I really enjoyed it and it's a beautiful state.

 

[KB]

The wife and I just spent a week in Maine last month, which was our first vacation since the pandemic began. I really enjoyed it and it's a beautiful state.

We like the Kennebunkport and York areas, but really love Bar Harbor. Could stay there every year.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

We like the Kennebunkport and York areas, but really love Bar Harbor. Could stay there every year.

Yep, we started in Kennebunkport, went all the way up to Bar Harbor, and finished in Portland.

 

[Scarpozzi]

We like the Kennebunkport and York areas, but really love Bar Harbor. Could stay there every year.

My mom used to serve lobster there as a Summer job. She grew up a little ways from Bangor. I really miss the steamed clams and lobster.

Summers up there are usually nice, but mosquitos can be pretty bad. I could see myself renting up there for a few months, but I prefer the more Southern latitudes.

 

[deustroop]

I've been retired for 6 yrs and look at me !
Retirement is like a series of Saturdays, where every day is a holiday sure but lots of chores remain, especially those deferred from last year . These can include health care, like a new hip, or travel, " the trip of a lifetime", "gettin back to the gym", and mending fences busted and burnt along the way. I also include completing projects that have been presssing since christ was a child, like updating that cottage in the back 40 with running water, now housing the mother in law, and other things clearly in the headlights.
But projects get done, the children leave home, the wife remembers your name goes with them,and in the end, you have your habits, hobbies and interests to keep you busy.

Plans ? I don't got one, but its nice to see the senior hockey league is full up for next year.

 

[TXHokie]

My current plan is retiring at 59 yrs old when my last kid graduate from college, sooner if it's financially feasible. I've already moved to Florida with a house near the water and had it all planned out years ago. Daily life and work is really the only thing stopping me from full time fishing and boating and some travel. It will be cheaper and less crowded to do travel when I don't have to limit travel only when my kids are free (and so is everyone else's kids). My bucket list include hiking several major US National parks, spending weeks or months in Europe or SE Asia to get a taste of local life and street foods, not the 1-2 weeks rushing around doing what we call vacation while working. I have a backyard that's never finished with all the planting and gardening I wanted to do. Time in between with be padded with many books yet to be read and long list of unfinished Netflix series. I'd like to pick up computer gaming again although my days of rocking top 5 on CS matches are long gone with slow reflexes. But I could spend countless hours honing my flying skills on Battlefield or Star Wars Squadrons or maybe just buzzing around on Flight Sims. I go to the gym 5 times a week so hope my health will keep up.

I read that people get bored from retirement...I don't see how I will have spare time to be bored.