Countdown to Retirement: How fast or slow does it come? (social security, state)

[Escort Rider]

I made my own count-down timer by marking the number of work days until retirement on my calendar. Since I knew the exact date of my final day of work about six months in advance, I just started backwards: The day before that was "one" (i.e., one day of work remaining). I didn't count weekends and holidays, just work days. It probably sounds tedious to sit down with your appointment calendar and do that, but it actually didn't take all that long. It may have been more than six months worth of calendar markings, but it was definitely less than a year. I would sometimes say to people, "72 work days to go!"

Funny, but I had forgotten all about that until reading this thread!

[elousv]

Ahhh, I see a psychological advantage to counting weekends and holidays. You get a rush when you come back after a long weekend and the numbers take a big jump down.

[katie45]

For me, if I spent too much time 'counting the days' it made it seem as if the time was dragging - until the last year of working. Fortunately I was able to retire a little sooner than originally thought.

I would have loved to retire at 62 but financially it wouldn't have worked for me; so I viewed the additional four years as a means to save money.

Also, I used the the last five years of working as a way to reduce my spending significantly because I budgeted my expenses as if I were already on s/s; not only did that aid in saving, but once I retired, it wasn't so hard to adjust to the reduction of income.

Many coworkers who still had decades before retiring would tell me how much they envied me; I told them to look at it in a positive way: the years they had left to work are years they have to save as much money as possible to ensure they could retire and not be strapped for funds. With that outlook, they saw the bright side of working.

It seemed at times as though time was dragging and retirement would never arrive; of course now as I look back, the time flew by. Typical.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by elousv

Ahhh, I see a psychological advantage to counting weekends and holidays. You get a rush when you come back after a long weekend and the numbers take a big jump down.

Exactly, and especially after a vacation. My bggest leap down was when I decided to retire two years earlier than I'd originally planned and reset my count-down clock accordingly. I gave my employer six months notice and once done the time flew by. My only folly was the hope that I'd be able to train some people for succession planning purposes but my employer, as it turned out, wasn't that far-minded so when I left my last position I took over a decade of policy area, legal and legislative expertise with me. Oh well!

Quaintly enough I still have former employees emailing me with technical questions and wishes that I was still there which I don't mind although, truth be known, I'm getting rusty on the details and warn them of that. According to them I still know the issues more and better than their current crop of managers. Thankfully, I really liked my employees.

[akck]

While I still have a couple of years to go, so far there have been several milestones on the journey.

First, was when I became vested in the retirement plan. This was a small milestone to me, but really was bigger as it included a medical benefit. The second milestone was when I hit 50. At this point, I started to include SS in my estimates which reduced the number of years I thought I'd have to work. I'd say from 50-55 dragged for me. The numbers firmed up, but it seemed like time slowed down.

At 55, I qualified for early retirement. It was a small milestone in that I could quit at any time and get a reduced retirement benefit if work p***ed me off. The next 3 years dragged a little, because I was always thinking 55 = 5 more years wishing it was 4, 56 = 4 more years wishing it was 3, etc.

At 58, means only 2 more years of work. They have retirement seminars that they recommend you attend at least 2 years before you retire so you can get a handle on your benefits and can plan what you need to do to get ready. I attended one and retirement became much more real.

I think the next 2 years will go quickly since projections show we'll have enough to retire on. I'll likely be constantly updating the numbers and re-positioning my portfolio to better fit the retirement phase. I think I mentally set the 2 year mark as a point where I could survive at work no matter what happens.

While I do have a countdown clock on my retirement spreadsheet, I think at 1 year will be the real start. I think at that point, time will go quickly because the end will be in sight and it won't matter to be if things go to hell at work, not that they will as it's a pretty good working environment. The only factor is the longest I've worked at any one place is 11 years and retirement will put me at just over 12 years here.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by akck

While I still have a couple of years to go, so far there have been several milestones on the journey.

First, was when I became vested in the retirement plan. This was a small milestone to me, but really was bigger as it included a medical benefit. The second milestone was when I hit 50. At this point, I started to include SS in my estimates which reduced the number of years I thought I'd have to work. I'd say from 50-55 dragged for me. The numbers firmed up, but it seemed like time slowed down.

At 55, I qualified for early retirement. It was a small milestone in that I could quit at any time and get a reduced retirement benefit if work p***ed me off. The next 3 years dragged a little, because I was always thinking 55 = 5 more years wishing it was 4, 56 = 4 more years wishing it was 3, etc.

At 58, means only 2 more years of work. They have retirement seminars that they recommend you attend at least 2 years before you retire so you can get a handle on your benefits and can plan what you need to do to get ready. I attended one and retirement became much more real.

I think the next 2 years will go quickly since projections show we'll have enough to retire on. I'll likely be constantly updating the numbers and re-positioning my portfolio to better fit the retirement phase. I think I mentally set the 2 year mark as a point where I could survive at work no matter what happens.

While I do have a countdown clock on my retirement spreadsheet, I think at 1 year will be the real start. I think at that point, time will go quickly because the end will be in sight and it won't matter to be if things go to hell at work, not that they will as it's a pretty good working environment. The only factor is the longest I've worked at any one place is 11 years and retirement will put me at just over 12 years here.

At two years there are only a potential 104 Mondays. Knock off holidays and vacation time, if available, and you're down to the low 90s. You'd be surprised how quickly they evaporate.

I worked 45 years, beginning at an early age, and 25 of them for the organization - our former state - from which I retired. My Social Security was healthy enough for me to retire at age 62 as were my vested pension and life-long medical and dental coverage. My wife worked for the state for 15 years and because we're old-timers, was also fully vested. It all combined to make earlier than planned retirement possible. Another two years and I likely would have been on the raw edge.

[jm02]

The time will fly, but it will go much faster if you are able to enjoy (or at least tolerate) what you are doing.

We consulted a financial planner five years out from my projected retirement date to help us ensure our plans were sound and we were on the right track. At the time, 5 years seemed a lifetime. One year later, during one of my boring workouts on the treadmill, I realized a year had passed - 20% of the "waiting period". I looked at the treadmill timer and calculated what 20 % of my workout would be. I was amazed at how quickly I got to 20% and how quickly the rest of the workout went. Not only did it make me realize how quickly I would reach retirement, it also made a pretty mind-numbing workout go more quickly, as well. As the months ticked away, I would look forward to hoping on the treadmill and celebrating another percentage milestone of being closer to retirement.

Geeky, I know. But it worked for me.

[HappyTexan]

I found this desktop widget (just a normal countdown timer for events) and set it when I was 1 year out. Popped up on work laptop every day showing one less.

Got to be folks came by my office and asked.."how much longer now" ?

Part of my planning was to live 1 year on what my post retirement income would be (I discounted work related items that I would not incur). I started doing this 3 years before retirement and the first year I blew the budget. Regrouped and my second year was much better and so was the third.

But that first year got me thinking..do I want to retire early or have "extras" ..non-essentials.
I decided I wanted to retire early and started cutting back. But only cut back what you can live without. I really didn't need cable TV and landline+cell phone so I cut out cable and the landline which was near $200/month. I started shopping/eating different (still go out but only once per week and more made from scratch foods at home) and was Ok with that too.


But three years before retiring try living off your "retirement income" and see if you can do it.
If not you can either work longer to save more or start trimming the budget and try again.

It worked for me and the transition was not even noticable.

[choff5]

I work in a school system and am hoping next year is my last year, so I'll probably do what a friend of mine did, "the last....". As in the last first day of school, the last back to school night, the last holiday program, the last ____ testing to coordinate, the last parent conference, which will probably be the last day at the rate things go.

[Sagitarrius48]

Originally Posted by choff5

I work in a school system and am hoping next year is my last year, so I'll probably do what a friend of mine did, "the last....". As in the last first day of school, the last back to school night, the last holiday program, the last ____ testing to coordinate, the last parent conference, which will probably be the last day at the rate things go.

That was me this year! I even cried as I picked up my keys for the "last time" and taught a "last" unit. However,this school year has not gone as I planned and too many of my students could care less about learning and what I can offer them, so I decided Tuesday (and there was a "last straw" that broke the camels back) to end it after this nine weeks, and March 17 will begin my new life! I am lucky that I was able to do this since I am already "retired" per my contract but was working more years to build up some additional income. BUT I have discovered that "sanity" and eating healthy, exercising and smiling is MORE important than a few extra bucks.

SO with that said.... good luck to you with these remaining few months!

Oh... to answer the OP's query, I had a "D Day device on my phone that I used; but to me it didn't move fast enough, so not too sure it was beneficial.