Countdown to retirement

[DizneyFamof4]

Not planning on retiring for another 7 years (70), I have great benefits that we need to keep and I work a hybrid schedule 3/2 and really like my job. I have also accumulated 2 months of annual leave and another 2 months of sick time and we still take regular yearly vacations, as you can see by our many WDW trips lol.

 

[hertamaniac]

I wanted to retire before 55 and met my goal. Rather than countdown the days/years, I targeted financial metrics as a key decision maker. The best part was doing it by myself without leaning onto a spouse/partner. For me, retiring but using a "we" income/assets doesn't invoke the same sense of accomplishment.

 

[permavac]

...When I say working and reworking the numbers - we were obsessed and still are. I keep a budget. We know all our numbers. On any given day I could probably accurately recite our entire financial picture. (I say that because I'm sometimes surprised when talking about retirement how many people I talk to that are of that age that haven't really sat down yet and crunched the numbers. I think fear keeps some of us from wanting to know. For us it helped us feel ready.)

This is us! My husband retired pretty early (two years ago) and I didn't get a new job after I was laid off during Covid so I was already a SAH spouse. We have always lived on a budget and it's strange to us to hear people complain that, when times are hard they have to "budget". If you're not budgeting when times are good then you're not doing it right But, we know we're in the minority. Years ago when I told my brother that we were almost fully funded for retirement he said, "I don't know what that means" because he's a paycheck to paycheck kind of guy even though he makes a lot of money.

I'm just trying to stay busy and not stress too much about work. After a particularly stressful week, I purchased an annual pass and have 4 disney trips scheduled from April 25 to April 26. Then I will have just over a year and a half left. Also, working on being healthier in general. Trying to eat better and do more exercise. Love to hear what others are doing to get thru those tough last years of work.

We just focused on making our plans during the final two years my DH was working and that kept us busy but mostly because we knew we wanted to move. Since my DH was able to work from home during Covid it actually sped up our ability to find where we wanted our initial retirement home to be and we ended up moving to Daytona Beach a year earlier than we expected.

We also only had a general timeframe on when he would retire as opposed to a hard and fast date and, for us, that made it seem better because we were not hyper-focused on an end date. I guess we didn't want to be disappointed if we had to push things back for financial reasons. We actually ended up retiring on the earlier end of our time spectrum and with less money that we had targeted but my DH was done and it has worked out really well.

Theresa

 

[robinb]

I "retired" a long time ago, my DH just retired in May. One thing we were not ready for was that his retiree healthcare plan does not have to follow ACA rules. Our DD25 was kicked off our insurance and we have a copay of 20% for preventative care like mammograms and annual checkups and associated bloodwork testing. Thank goodness neither one of us was due for a colonoscopy. And .... those copays do not apply to our deductible! It's like I'm in a pre-ACA twilight zone. I don't like the before times one little bit. My DH turns 65 in December and I'm going to ditch the current plan to get on the marketplace until I turn 65.

 

[GAN]

Yup, I'm retiring in September 2026. I'm old enough now but my mortgage and home equity loan rule otherwise! Every Single Day I wonder how I'm going to go another two years! I have a friend who was killed in a car accident last week, and more and more I wonder if the extra social security money for holding on until I'm 70 is really worth it.

Everyone’s situation is different but if you do the math it generally isn’t worth waiting. Strictly from a SS point of view, taking the money as “young” as 62 returns a payback of around 78 years old.

My personal take on it all is I’m 61 and am going to 65 just for the Medicare, otherwise I’d be out at 62 -and depending on my parents situation(healthy 93 & 87) will stick to that unless I retire to help them. I look at it this way, my parents were very active traveling, etc up to close to 85 but slowed considerably around 80 ….not sure why I would need the “extra” money after 78 from SS by waiting till 67/70. Hopefully my best years will be from 65-80, after that is gravy …I want to have fun not work!

 

[GAN]

DH and I stepped down rather than retire cold turkey. He went to 75% for several months, then 50%, then 25% and finally a one year consulting-as-needed agreement for an hourly amount. That gave him time to fully train a replacement - it was a fairly complex job with a lot of "once a year" responsibilities. It kept his brain in the game.

I retired from my full-time position but kept my very part-time consulting position working with my profession on it's professional exam. I did that for about 10 more years. I liked the people I worked with (all younger than me), the travel involved, and it kept my brain from rotting.

We both continue volunteer work for NFPs that can use our knowledge but we do it on our time.

I may consider the same. I enjoy working now just to recover from the weekends! There’s no way I could keep that pace up everyday of a year!

 

[China Expat]

If you can retire, do it! I retired in June at age 65 one year earlier than planned due to a toxic school environment led by a terrible new principal. Stepped away from a six figure salary. Will start collecting social security in October. Not worth waiting another year to collect for a few more dollars. I plan to start driving for Lyft in January (my 70 year old friend LOVES it), just to make a few extra dollars on MY schedule a few hours a day near my home. I have had five friends this year die of cancer, cardiac arrest, or be diagnosed with alzheimers. I am busier now than before and plan to go go go until my dime is up.

 

[tvguy]

If you can retire, do it! I retired in June at age 65 one year earlier than planned due to a toxic school environment led by a terrible new principal. Stepped away from a six figure salary. Will start collecting social security in October. Not worth waiting another year to collect for a few more dollars. I plan to start driving for Lyft in January (my 70 year old friend LOVES it), just to make a few extra dollars on MY schedule a few hours a day near my home. I have had five friends this year die of cancer, cardiac arrest, or be diagnosed with alzheimers. I am busier now than before and plan to go go go until my dime is up.

You're in California and paid into Social Security? I thought California teachers were exempt from Social Security and had CSTRS pensions?

 

[China Expat]

You're in California and paid into Social Security? I thought California teachers were exempt from Social Security and had CSTRS pensions?

I've been in private/independent schools for 40 years.

 

[monsterkitty]

I will be eligible to retire with a pension (55 with 21 years) at the end of this school year. I'm considering one more year (gotta call & compare how it'll affect the numbers). DH has been retired for 2.5 years now with two pensions plus social security. We've had the mortgage paid off, no debt, savings, making home repairs (new roof, gutters, painting, etc.) DH has Medicare/Tricare for life and I still have Tricare Prime. I've had us on a retirement "budget" for about 4 years now.
I feel myself getting more receptive to the idea of retirement by the day.

If you can, retire! I retired at 53 with 30.5 years in May 2019. They asked me to do one more year under what is called the 110 plan here in CO - You receive your pension plus the district pays you 70% of your salary but no benefits. DH was still teaching so he could put me on his insurance. The 2019-2020 was supposed to be my last year but the person the hired to replace me quit the day before school started in Aug 2020. They asked if I would come back for two weeks until they found a replacement. I was there all year.

If you can retire, do it! I retired in June at age 65 one year earlier than planned due to a toxic school environment led by a terrible new principal. Stepped away from a six figure salary. Will start collecting social security in October. Not worth waiting another year to collect for a few more dollars. I plan to start driving for Lyft in January (my 70 year old friend LOVES it), just to make a few extra dollars on MY schedule a few hours a day near my home. I have had five friends this year die of cancer, cardiac arrest, or be diagnosed with alzheimers. I am busier now than before and plan to go go go until my dime is up.

I decided to retire earlier than planned in 2019 because of our principal as well. Nothing like having admin walk in and yell at you in front of your class for something you supposedly didn't do. Then he would walk in and yell at you in front of the kids because the kids were texting their parents and telling the principal was bullying their teacher.

 

[happybaker]

I had a co-worker retire this year, so his countdown made me set a Plan A retirement date. If all goes well, I will retire on April 12, 2030. I'll be a few months shy of 62. I'm tired of woking and want my time to be my own.

My DH is partially retired; he works part-time at a local grocery store now. He put in 21 years as a corrections officer, so he can start collecting that pension in 2028. We'll bank that until 2030. He also put in 20+ years in the USAF, so there will be a little money from that too. And then, we'll both take our social security at 62. Last time I checked our break even ages were around 79.

My retirement countdown app says I have 1374 more working days The app takes into account your working hours, holidays and vacation days.

 

[robinb]

I've been in private/independent schools for 40 years.

So, not in a union .

 

[kymom99]

Another thing I do besides work in schools, is work in hospitals. I’m a patient safety companion, aka, a sitter. I make my own schedule. I plan to continue to do this after I hang up my teacher hat.

 

[tvguy]

So, not in a union .

Being in a Union does not necessarily mean there is a Union pension. My wife worked in a Union job for 42 years with the Union only negotiating pay, working conditions and handling grievances. They never had any involvement in benefits like vacation, sick time or pensions.
Company got sold and the new corporate owner only provides pensions to non-union workers. They were surprised that the Union didn't provide a pension. So my wife lost out on a modest $1,500 a month pension, that her non-union co-workers get.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We're doing a lot of planning, but not exactly counting down. Mostly because my husband likes his job a lot, and we had our kids late. He'll retire at 65-67, maybe later.

We've been reviewing benefits--he gets health care in retirement (federal employee), but we're still working out the particulars if it's worth it.

I'll start taking SS at 62--in a couple years. DH plans to wait until retirement/70 (his choice--we're still planning).

Our youngest started college this fall, and we promised to help DD21 with law school--if it weren't for the tuition payments, we might have DH go earlier.

We also still have a mortgage, because the interest rate is low. We could pay it off, but are making more on investments than we're paying in interest.

We do want to make some home improvements before retirement. Our house has 2 master's--one upstairs, one down, which will help. But, the bathroom doors are oddly narrow--we'll redo all the downstairs bathrooms, including replacing the downstairs master tub with a walk-in shower. And the house is quirky--not only are there steps front and back, but 2 steps down to the dance room, which has the laundry off of it. Steps are wide enough that a ramp could go in over part of them, but that's the stuff we have to work out at some point. We also have a step down to the sunroom, which leads to the back yard.

I have a Retirement binder with tabs for finance, travel, home repairs, and medical.

 

[MillauFr]

My husband had a job with some pension and the ability to keep health care benefits reasonably, so he retired the minute he was eligible at 56. Even then, he counted down! I was planning on working longer because I took a bunch of years off with kids but had ended up retiring early too to care for elderly parents. For us the decision was based on working and reworking the numbers to see if it worked - and the minute we were really confident it did we were out! (We were fortunate with a modest paid off home, some pension money, investments, etc. that made it possible.)

When I say working and reworking the numbers - we were obsessed and still are. I keep a budget. We know all our numbers. On any given day I could probably accurately recite our entire financial picture. (I say that because I'm sometimes surprised when talking about retirement how many people I talk to that are of that age that haven't really sat down yet and crunched the numbers. I think fear keeps some of us from wanting to know. For us it helped us feel ready.)

Biggest problem you are going to have is changing your spending habits so you can ensure you are spending down your retirement accounts.

 

[MillauFr]

You're in California and paid into Social Security? I thought California teachers were exempt from Social Security and had CSTRS pensions?

My wife worked for a suburban city near Seattle and didn't pay into Social Security. They put the money into a 401k type plan instead. When she retired at 53 after 28 years it had $700k. It was very lucrative. She also will still get social security too as she got 40 quarters of payments into the system from previous other jobs. Not a bad deal.

 

[kymom99]

My wife worked for a suburban city near Seattle and didn't pay into Social Security. They put the money into a 401k type plan instead. When she retired at 53 after 28 years it had $700k. It was very lucrative. She also will still get social security too as she got 40 quarters of payments into the system from previous other jobs. Not a bad deal.

In Kentucky we operate under the WEP/GPO. Teachers do not pay into SS but we contribute 13-14% into our pension system. Our pension is nice, but if we contribute to SS through other jobs, we don’t see any of the money. The only way you can draw some of it is if you have 30 years of “significant” earnings paid into SS. The other thing is, we cannot draw our spouse’s SS if they predecease us.

 

[sk!mom]

Also starting to plan for May 2027. Actually “plan” is not accurate. I’m getting emotionally ready and convinced. My house is paid off and no other debts so financial pieces are already in place.

 

[focusondisney]

In Kentucky we operate under the WEP/GPO. Teachers do not pay into SS but we contribute 13-14% into our pension system. Our pension is nice, but if we contribute to SS through other jobs, we don’t see any of the money. The only way you can draw some of it is if you have 30 years of “significant” earnings paid into SS. The other thing is, we cannot draw our spouse’s SS if they predecease us.

Well that stinks! Especially not being able to get survivor’s benefits from a spouse.