Retirees - What age did you retire?

[disykat]

If you don’t mind sharing, where do you work per diem? Other than healthcare and substitute teaching, it seems like it would be difficult to find this type of work. But it sounds great!

I work at a library. It is not something that brings in much money, but it's a great low stress job that keeps me active and I get to pick if I accept shifts they offer.

 

[Turn the Page]

We are aiming for 59 1/2. For partial retirement at least. I imagine we will still do part time jobs for fun and something to do.

DH always gets nervous about where we are in our retirement savings so we have to visit our financial advisor a couple times a year for reassurance. We currently have about 1 1/2 years of our salary in various accounts and are putting about 12% into his 401k plus an additional $200 a month in my IRA and $400 a month in a money market savings account.

We are 20 years out so fingers crossed!!!

 

[peabody58]

57 hit 30 years with company, had our retirement home in Georgia already purchased. Renter broke her lease, company ticked me off one last time and I submitted my notice. 8 years later, still the best decision we have every made. We'd been planning for a 60+ retirement, but everything fell in place and the numbers worked.

SS at 62 for both of use (cash flow equation).

Now both 65 and on Medicare, Doing ok.

 

[antmaril]

I retired at age 56 after 36 years of service. My husband was terminally ill and it made sense. He passed two months after I retired. I have not worked since I retired in 2008. I worked in the Hospice office as a volunteer for a few years.

 

[soccerdad72]

If you put yourself out there and try new things you won't be bored. My sister retired as well and has 100% completely and utterly fallen in love with pickle ball. For someone who wasn't into sports or athletics it is amazing to see her really love a sport. I only share that because it has given me food for thought on what hobbies I can take up when we become empty nesters.

Ironically enough, our boys got us pickleball paddles for Christmas. My wife was talking about picking it up as a new sport (we also golf) and they thought we could use a set.

I also got certified to referee soccer last year, so I've been doing that on the side, both for the exercise and a little extra cash. I figured I yelled at enough refs in my parenting days, I should probably pick up a whistle now.

 

[The Mayor]

64 but had planned on retiring at 65. Went out early for two reasons. i was a regional sales manager for a global manufacturing company and a new President was hired to run our facility in MA. He was lacked confidence and wanted to be surrounded by yes men/women. I was not a yes man. One day in a meeting he berated and humiliated me in front of my peers. I went home that night and spoke with my wife and the next day went in and gave my two weeks notice and retired.

Second reason was we had had our first grandchild and my DIL was getting ready to go back to work so I jumped into the role of Papa Day Care. Best decision I ever made.

Now this was made easier by the fact that my wife continued to work so that we had health insurance until I turned 65.

 

[tzolkin]

We are work hard play hard people and don‘t feel like we are ””old” enough to retire.

I think we have the opposite concern. I'm more worried about not being young enough when we retire.

We still haven't cemented our plans, but we are planning to "retire" early to be able to do things that we weren't able to do in our early 20s because we already had a family. We want to spend longer periods abroad to experience actually living other places. We want to do some sort of medical volunteering; either shorter trips or something more long term like the Peace Corps where you stay in one country for a few years. We would both love to do some archeological work. Maybe farm-sit for a few months in a remote location. The possibilities are endless, but for health concerns I really don't want to wait until we are 65 or 70 and then wind up not able to do any of these things because we are too ill.

We have also toyed with the idea of us taking several years as a "mini-retirement" to have all the adventures that we want to, and then when we are older and want to slow down a bit we may come home and go back to work for a few years.

I would totally recommend some kind of per diem work.

This is factoring into our plans as well. My husband is a nurse so we have looked into doing travel assignments (both in the US and abroad) as an option. That would allow him to work full-time for a specified period (ex. 3 months) and then take a gap of time off in between assignments. Whenever we decide to stay home and not travel, he will probably continue to work per diem. He's currently a manager and has a salaried position, but then still picks up extra days staff nursing. So, unless we are engaged in some sort of project or travelling, I think he's going to feel compelled to work some.

 

[kanerf]

63 and still working. Not sure when I will cut and run. Probably 65 for Medicare, but I need to see what the company does, if anything, for retiree insurance coverage. Might pull the plug a little earlier if such coverage is available.

 

[rangerxenos]

I would have retired 3 years ago when I lost my position at work, but I'm too young to go on Medicare. I'm fortunate, I work for a great company who did not lay me off, but I hate my new position and am completely disengaged.

I think I'm going to retire at the end of this year, I'll be 60. DH is older than I am, so he can go on Medicare, but I will have to self fund my medical insurance until 65, which is the reason I've been hedging.

 

[barkley]

Now we are on Medicare with a Medigap supplement, our healthcare is $600 a month. If we had selected a Medicare Advantage plan, it would have been only $400,

YIKES! we have medicare advantage plans that are fantastic and we only pay $30 a month over the basic medicare premium. as of this year that $30 per month is largely offset by the introduction of an otc benefit that provides us w/ quarterly $70 disbursements so that brings it down to about $7 a month over the basic premium. shows how much these plan costs can vary state to state.

Basically before Obamacare to get a new individual insurance policy if you were over 55 was about impossible.

yup. when i started with civil service in the late 80's the bulk of people hiring into my department were in their late 50's because they could work 5 years become vested and qualify for retiree healthcare as young as age 50. people who had left much better paying careers, wanted to retire before medicare kicked in but couldn't afford to buy a private policy. by the early 2000's they raised the vesting time to 15 years and then after a certain point new hires got retiree healthcare.

 

[mjkacmom]

Ironically enough, our boys got us pickleball paddles for Christmas. My wife was talking about picking it up as a new sport (we also golf) and they thought we could use a set.

I also got certified to referee soccer last year, so I've been doing that on the side, both for the exercise and a little extra cash. I figured I yelled at enough refs in my parenting days, I should probably pick up a whistle now.

My husband gets re-certified with our son, but never takes any jobs. He coached rec and travel forever, even the high school teams in the off season, and after our 20 year olds graduated HS he still went to the HS games. I’ve encouraged him to ref for the money and exercise, he really loves the game (he did ref the HS alumni game that 3 of our kids played in, while other alumni his age just watched).

 

[soccerdad72]

My husband gets re-certified with our son, but never takes any jobs. He coached rec and travel forever, even the high school teams in the off season, and after our 20 year olds graduated HS he still went to the HS games. I’ve encouraged him to ref for the money and exercise, he really loves the game (he did ref the HS alumni game that 3 of our kids played in, while other alumni his age just watched).

Last year, I ended up doing 56 games (had 11 cancelled due to weather) and I didn't do many in the fall because of my own son's soccer season. Now that I'm certified in HS as well as US Soccer, I wouldn't be surprised to end up doing upwards of 100 games this year.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Last year, I ended up doing 56 games (had 11 cancelled due to weather) and I didn't do many in the fall because of my own son's soccer season. Now that I'm certified in HS as well as US Soccer, I wouldn't be surprised to end up doing upwards of 100 games this year.

That's a really nice side gig.

 

[robinb]

I recently learned a couple interesting things about the ACA Insurance Marketplace I'll pass along. I have a friend whose DH60 just retired in November and she's deciding between Cobra and the ACA Marketplace.

(1) The price of your insurance depends on your current income and your age. There is a MSRP price and then you get a tax credit to bring down your monthly premiums depending on how much you make during the year. You make a best faith effort in estimating your income and your the year and the IRS will give you a tax credit that you can use monthly or at the end of the year once you do your taxes. The tax credit can be surprisingly high for people over 55 with incomes as high as $100,000 (and over!).

Here is my "duh" moment. For wealthy(ish) retired people, you can control your income by choosing which savings to spend. Pre-tax savings like 401-K's count as income, but if you spend post-tax money your income remains low and you get a higher tax credit to help pay for your premiums. That makes things far more doble for my DH and I who are in our early 60's.

(2) Your young adult children (under 26) who are covered by your employer's insurance may not be covered under the ACA Marketplace. You must declare your child as a dependent on your taxes to have them covered with you under the Marketplace. The rub is that you can no longer declare your child on your tax returns in the year they turn 24 unless their income is super low (I think about $4500 per year). My friend ran into this with her DD23 who is still in school for her DPT. The DD, who turns 24 this year, will make too much to qualify to be a dependent for taxes even though they pay for nearly everything for her education and living expenses. The DD is in a no-man's land of ACA Marketplace insurance right now because she can't get on the Marketplace with her parents and she makes too little to be on the Marketplace on her own. Luckily, she does have options. She applied for Medicaid, and she could also stay on her father's Cobra plan or she could get insurance from her college. But, it's something to think about if you have a young adult in the family aged 24 or 25. This is us because our DD is 23 (24 in August) and can no longer be a dependent on our taxes.

 

[tvguy]

YIKES! we have medicare advantage plans that are fantastic and we only pay $30 a month over the basic medicare premium. as of this year that $30 per month is largely offset by the introduction of an otc benefit that provides us w/ quarterly $70 disbursements so that brings it down to about $7 a month over the basic premium. shows how much these plan costs can vary state to state.

Well basic Medicare Part B is $164.90 a month per person. I have had some health issues and did not want to pay the higher Medicare Advantage deductibles or have to get pre-authorization for treatments.

 

[barkley]

(2) Your young adult children (under 26) who are covered by your employer's insurance may not be covered under the ACA Marketplace. You must declare your child as a dependent on your taxes to have them covered with you under the Marketplace. The rub is that you can no longer declare your child on your tax returns in the year they turn 24 unless their income is super low (I think about $4500 per year). My friend ran into this with her DD23 who is still in school for her DPT. The DD, who turns 24 this year, will make too much to qualify to be a dependent for taxes even though they pay for nearly everything for her education and living expenses. The DD is in a no-man's land of ACA Marketplace insurance right now because she can't get on the Marketplace with her parents and she makes too little to be on the Marketplace on her own. Luckily, she does have options. She applied for Medicaid, and she could also stay on her father's Cobra plan or she could get insurance from her college. But, it's something to think about if you have a young adult in the family aged 24 or 25. This is us because our DD is 23 (24 in August) and can no longer be a dependent on our taxes.

something else to look into when considering the way to go insurance wise for these 'kids' who can no longer be dependents/are in no man's land aca wise is-what kind of financial assistance the major medical providers in the area they reside offer. the two biggest players in our area have programs that cover emergency and medically necessary health care services, pharmacy services and products, and medical supplies for people whose income is at or below as much as 300-400% of the federal poverty level (in 2022 for a single person this was $54,360 which i think many are well within). for college students it's also worthwhile to investigate just what their school's 'health and wellness fee' covers and who they may be contracting with b/c many schools may have an on campus mini clinic but if you dig a bit you find they are contracted with a local medical group so if you apply independently for that group's financial assistance program you can have pretty substantial coverage without having to pay out any more than you're already paying within your existing college fees.

Well basic Medicare Part B is $164.90 a month per person. I have had some health issues and did not want to pay the higher Medicare Advantage deductibles or have to get pre-authorization for treatments.

i have multiple health issues that contributed to my very early retirement due to disability but in any case my advantage plan has no deductible or pre-authorization requirements. max out of pocket for in-network per year is $4800/in and out of network combined is $10K.

 

[mjkacmom]

something else to look into when considering the way to go insurance wise for these 'kids' who can no longer be dependents/are in no man's land aca wise is-what kind of financial assistance the major medical providers in the area they reside offer. the two biggest players in our area have programs that cover emergency and medically necessary health care services, pharmacy services and products, and medical supplies for people whose income is at or below as much as 300-400% of the federal poverty level (in 2022 for a single person this was $54,360 which i think many are well within). for college students it's also worthwhile to investigate just what their school's 'health and wellness fee' covers and who they may be contracting with b/c many schools may have an on campus mini clinic but if you dig a bit you find they are contracted with a local medical group so if you apply independently for that group's financial assistance program you can have pretty substantial coverage without having to pay out any more than you're already paying within your existing college fees.








i have multiple health issues that contributed to my very early retirement due to disability but in any case my advantage plan has no deductible or pre-authorization requirements. max out of pocket for in-network per year is $4800/in and out of network combined is $10K.

Our oldest stayed on our healthcare until she turned 26 (even though her company offered it), our 24 year old is still on it. Every college my kids attended required they either have health insurance or buy it through the university (all were good plans).

 

[stitch'sgirl]

I am retiring in 2 days!!

 

[GAN]

I’ll be 60 this year and would retire, but I’m having way too much fun(and getting paid)….

 

[NotUrsula]

Again, because of the Gordian knot of health insurance, we won't be retiring for a good long time yet, unless we simply can't work anymore. We've still got a 15yo at home, and she plans to go to grad school, so we probably cannot risk voluntarily retiring until she has a full-time salaried job after she finishes school. We will be in our early 70s by then.

FTW, libraries offering per-diem work is fairly rare. I'm in a metro area with 8 public library systems and 7 universities, but only 1 of the public systems and one community college offer that kind of shift work, and not all that often; they basically use it only to cover when regular staff are on vacation or out sick.