We retired three years ago. I was 64, my wife was four months from her 64th birthday.
Really the countdown for us was the last 10 years of work. Started with deciding whether to down size, or remodel our house. We decided to remodel, and we did that 8 years before we retired. Our house was 34 years old at the time, we had lived in it 30 of those years. It was exactly as built. We remodeled the bathrooms, the kitchen, replaced all the flooring, and doors, removed the popcorn ceilings, and put a new roof on. We set aside money for a new HVAC and water heater. Water heater died six months before we retired and the HVAC six months after.
A big concern was health insurance as we would not be old enough for Medicare yet. Our original game plan was to buy private insurance, and we budgeted for that based on what it cost before the Affordable Healthcare Act went into effect. Not a very accurate name as it has really made healthcare insurance unaffordable IF you don't qualify for subsidies. We don't. (The Affordable Healthcare act however has been a life saver for those who previously did not have access to health insurance) So that pushed back our retirement to 18 months before we qualified for Medicare because we would be using COBRA coverage from my wife's work. Early on in our planning, private health insurance was cheaper that COBRA coverage, that flipped after the AHA passed.
Three years before we retired bought our retirement car, the plan being it would be paid off when we retired and that it would last the rest of our lives. We are easy on cars, and the car it replaced we had 31 years, so that is a realistic expectation.. We had it paid off in 2 years, and then decided we were comfortable taking on a car payment in retirement, so we replaced our second car with a new one. That old car was a little over 20 years old and had close to 160,000 miles on it and in good shape, but this way we have two cars that will likely last the rest of our lives. And our first retirement car is a seven passenger Ford Flex suv that is perfect for the 400 mile trips to see our Granddaughters, with room for them and their stuff. Our other car is a Toyota Camry Hybrid, perfect for running around town and trips that my wife and I go on by ourselves.
And the final consideration, and biggest,....... income in retirement. We were private sector workers, where pensions are rare. Although I did discover AFTER I retired that I did in fact have a pension. But $28 a month doesn't go very far. We waited until this year to start our Social Security. We both hit our full retirement age of 66 1/2 this year. So our Financial Planner focused on our 401k/IRA money. My wife maxed out her 401K for 40 years. I had a rollover IRA from my first job that I worked in for 10 years, an IRA rollover from my second job that I maxed out for 16 years, and an IRA rollover from my last job 401k that I maxed out. We designed that last rollover as our source of income. It covered all the bills for 3 years, and has now been depleted. It ran out just as our Social Security kicked in. And our combined Social Security is $2,500 a month more than we were living on the past three years, so we have breathing room now. Reading some of the other posts, I forgot about mortgages. We have been in our house 41 years, and it has been paid for for 25 years. Refinanced twice with the goal of paying off the house as soon as possible. A 15 year mortgage made that possible
So the top priorities for us before retiring was to make sure you have adequate money, health insurance and transportation in retirement.
Of course I did not love my job, and that can certainly make a difference in a countdown. My husband is still working 3ish days a week and loves what he does. He takes time off whenever he pleases (self- employed) and that works for us!
