Retirement is Looming!

[China Expat]

I have decided that the upcoming academic year will be my last. I have been a school administrator since 1991, both in the US and in Asia. I love my work, but I am tired. As a breast cancer survivor two years out of treatment, and two years from turning 65, I feel a sense of urgency to shake it up and do a hodge podge of interesting things...just in case. On my list....apply to and work at Stanford University's pre-collegiate summer program, leaving the rest of my year open for travel. Spend three months annually at an elephant rescue center in Thailand (where I am headed next week for two weeks). Apply to work in national park resorts as a manager, whale watch naturalist out of Juneau, AK, gift shop empoyee, and more. Have time to volunteer more with my golden retriever rescue group. Finally, do remote work with a wonderful student volunteer travel company with whom I have traveled the world with the last 20 years. I know I will need to bridge health insurance for a year out of pocket. I don;t think I will be bored! Is anyone else planning to retire a bit early? What exciting things are you doing, planning to do?

 

[Christine]

Wow, sounds amazing. I'd like to retire but financially it's not the best move for me. And my 401K has been not looking good lately so not sure how long I'll need to make that up. BUT, I was actually planning to work until 65 but I might cut that back a few year as it gets close. I'm 58 now.

 

[Cadiewampus]

I had planned working till I was 70. Mainly because I have no hobbies and I actually like my job so why retire? But lately I have been thinking going to back that down to 67 (5 years). I can always develop a new hobby.

 

[MICKIMINI]

What a dream retirement!! Go for it and live your best life!!

 

[luvnwdwgal]

My husband retired on May 1st after working over 40 years for a Catholic Church/School. I hope someday he can relax and enjoy his retirement. He and and siblings have been taking care of elderly parents 24/7 for almost 2 1/2 years now. I hope your retirement is wonderful!

 

[GAN]

I have decided that the upcoming academic year will be my last. I have been a school administrator since 1991, both in the US and in Asia. I love my work, but I am tired. As a breast cancer survivor two years out of treatment, and two years from turning 65, I feel a sense of urgency to shake it up and do a hodge podge of interesting things...just in case. On my list....apply to and work at Stanford University's pre-collegiate summer program, leaving the rest of my year open for travel. Spend three months annually at an elephant rescue center in Thailand (where I am headed next week for two weeks). Apply to work in national park resorts as a manager, whale watch naturalist out of Juneau, AK, gift shop empoyee, and more. Have time to volunteer more with my golden retriever rescue group. Finally, do remote work with a wonderful student volunteer travel company with whom I have traveled the world with the last 20 years. I know I will need to bridge health insurance for a year out of pocket. I don;t think I will be bored! Is anyone else planning to retire a bit early? What exciting things are you doing, planning to do?

Wow that's quite a list! Good for you. I still have a few years left, but how about I join you ...sounds like an interesting plan!

 

[tvguy]

Our plan was to retire at 62 but health insurance costs prompted us to put it off.
Then we planned to retire at 63, but health insurance costs prompted us to put it off.
We finally retired one year ago at 64, and just decided to bite the bullet and pay the $1,400 a month for health insurance.
As of June I went on Medicare, so that cut our health insurance costs. My wife goes on Medicare in November, so that will drop our total health insurance costs to $600 a month. We could have dropped it to $400 a month with a Medicare Advantage Plan, but opted to go with a low deductible ($233 a year) Medicare Supplement.
As for exciting things, well the Pandemic has kind of put a damper on what we feel comfortable doing. We have been doing day trips by car, went to two State Parks yesterday*, but no way are we ready to get on a plane or a cruise ship yet.
*One of the places we went yesterday only allows 11 people in at a time in due to covid concerns.

 

[Minnesota!]

That all sounds amazing - 11 years for me. I started working at 19 with a goal of 55 for retirement, just like my parents. Come hell or high water, it is happening. I hope to find fun, fulfilling, help-the-world type stuff afterwards.

 

[mikehn]

Sounds like a dream retirement to me.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

Your retirement plans sound divine @China Expat. Enjoy! My goal is to retire at 62 as my husband is older than me and I want to enjoy retirement years with him.

 

[mrs. magoo]

I have 5 more school years to retirement at 55, but once I retire from teaching I plan to continue to work since I would be bored sitting home. Even during summer vacation I get bored after 3 weeks. I do all my Professional development during the summer months so I keep busy. My husband is not in education and he may or may not retire when I retire but both of us will still be working in some way since he saw what not working did to his father. He basically became a hermit and did not do very many of things he had planned to do. I will have health care when I retire at 55 and I can pay for the kids to stay on my health care as well. Currently my husband is also covered until we reach Medicare age.

 

[CdnCarrie]

9 years left for me. Or maybe 7. Plan on retiring at 62 but maybe 60 if stars align.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Wow, you need to retire so you can get all that done! More power to you!!!

TC

 

[wannabee]

I have 8 to go until I retire at 65. DH and I have just started talking about what we plan to do. I like your plan. Sounds like an adventure

 

[Snowysmom]

Wow! Busy retirement and sounds like fun too.

I don't have any plans to retire soon. I am 66 but I need to keep busy working for now. I am able to financially retire when I want to so as my DS says, if they really tick you off at work you can tell them off and quit. We did have plans to travel alot but not sure if I will do much of that since DH passed last Fall. I am trying to get one friend to go the Alaska with me to see Denali. She wants to see it too. We have a family trip to Disney this Fall and a potential family trip in a few years to England, Scotland, and Ireland. The grandkids just have to get old enough. Now I need to come up with some more family and friend trips. I do hope to volunteer too.

 

[focusondisney]

My husband retired on May 1st after working over 40 years for a Catholic Church/School. I hope someday he can relax and enjoy his retirement. He and and siblings have been taking care of elderly parents 24/7 for almost 2 1/2 years now. I hope your retirement is wonderful!

Very similar situation, I totally feel for your husband & his siblings. I retired April 2nd after 44 years years as a hospital RN & turned 65 in May. My siblings & I cared our parents in their home for about the last 8 years. My dad died in 2015. Mom could be alone some of the time until 2 years ago. We’ve been 24/7 since then. She just passed away 10 days ago. Mom was a bit of a hoarder, so now we have to tackle cleaning out her house. No idea how long that will take. As much as we loved our parents, caring for them while aging ourselves & dealing with work & our own health issues was challenging & exhausting.

I feel like my retirement is starting now. I have some closets & storage areas of my own that need to be purged, nothing like my mom’s house tho. My DH is 66 & still works 2 days a week so no extended traveling in the immediate plans. He used to work 60+ hours a week & I was either working or at my moms. For right now we’re looking forward to just relaxing together at home. We’ve started walking together & separately to improve our health. Long term, we’ll enjoy doing things in our area we never had time for before, traveling & projects around the house. I am however, over commitments. I want our time to be our own. I don’t see anything that involves schedules & repeated time commitments in our future.

 

[ronandannette]

Although we never really had a firm plan from the outset, life made the decisions for us and quite differently than we would have preferred. We both see ourselves working until 70 (Lord willing), which is 3 more years for DH and 14 for me. No grand adventures in our golden years, and accepting that, we try to balance diligence, prudence and enjoyment of life now, while our incomes are substantial and our health is good. We plan a quiet life of community service and enjoying time with our family and friends once we are finished working. It’s all good.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Although we never really had a firm plan from the outset, life made the decisions for us and quite differently than we would have preferred. We both see ourselves working until 70 (Lord willing), which is 3 more years for DH and 14 for me. No grand adventures in our golden years, and accepting that, we try to balance diligence, prudence and enjoyment of life now, while our incomes are substantial and our health is good. We plan a quiet life of community service and enjoying time with our family and friends once we are finished working. It’s all good.

70 is really late to work. You must really enjoy your work.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Tentative plan is for DH to retire at 65--he's currently 59. Theoretically, he could retire now--we have enough financial resources. BUT--there are other issues at play. One is, we'd rather have more money in retirement than less. DH loves his job. And we had our kids late--youngest is 16--so we've still got college expenses looming for the next 6 years.

OTOH, we definitely have retirement thoughts in our heads. DH will continue to work with the Boy Scouts. He's also gearing up to be an NRA instructor. And his job isn't interfering with our grand travel plans at this time--big trip next month, then next year he'll go to South Korea with our youngest, to attend the Boy Scout World Jamboree.

 

[longboard55]

I closed my office a little over a year ago after 43 years in the industry, but I still do a few things. Retirement is great, not bored in the least. The biggest change is more focus on health, no more 12 hour days. I do a physical activity every day, usually hiking or biking and eat a lot better. We actually spend less than I calculated we would spend. A lot in gas savings. Now we can staycation on weekdays and save on hotels.