Early Retirement? (vacations, spouse, long distance, federal)

[lo6xzm]

I am 46 and healthy with 10 yrs to go before full retirement with the company I've been with for 20 yrs. I have a (paid off) 160 ac farm in the Missouri Ozarks (with a small house) that I would really like to go and grow my own food there. Garden, hunt, raise chickens etc...I am sick of my rat race job in Memphis TN. However...I have a 150k loan on the house I live in now, but it would likely sell in 3-6 months. I have a 401k with 183k in it.

I would not mind getting a CDL and driving for a major truck company to help make ends meet until I reach full retirement age. I know this would keep me on the road for days in a row. I can also stay where I'm at... but I'd much rather be on my farm while I'm still sort of young. This is probably more of a career change than retirement because I'll still be working either way.

[AlwaysReading101]

Unless you really like your present job, and it didn't come across that you did at all, work on ways to get you to that farm as quickly as you can, life is too short.

[GLS]

Originally Posted by lo6xzm

I am 46 and healthy with 10 yrs to go before full retirement with the company I've been with for 20 yrs. I have a (paid off) 160 ac farm in the Missouri Ozarks (with a small house) that I would really like to go and grow my own food there. Garden, hunt, raise chickens etc...I am sick of my rat race job in Memphis TN. However...I have a 150k loan on the house I live in now, but it would likely sell in 3-6 months. I have a 401k with 183k in it.

I would not mind getting a CDL and driving for a major truck company to help make ends meet until I reach full retirement age. I know this would keep me on the road for days in a row. I can also stay where I'm at... but I'd much rather be on my farm while I'm still sort of young. This is probably more of a career change than retirement because I'll still be working either way.

1. Any possibility you could keep your salary, accumulating for your retirement at your current company by telecommuting from your farm one to two days per week?

2. Anyway you could job share with another employee so you worked only 20 hrs/week and they worked the other 20 hrs? 0.5 FTE of your current salary may come close to what you would make starting new at another company.

3. Could you start taking your vacation one or two days a week so you could recuperate on your farm?

While none of the above may be the answer, I would encourage you to find a creative way to mitigate the job "burn-out" while trying to salvage some of the salary level and benefits you have worked for 20 years to accumulate. Good luck.

[StealthRabbit]

Don't kiss the job g-bye yet... but do some planning to do so when possible. Probably best to get your home sold BEFORE pulling the plug, as well as having a plan into the future, tho it may not be rock solid, just try to make it livable, and have a "plan-B".

It will be very hard to replace income if current job is good, tho you don't mention how high it is. Is there any chance of an early buyout? (age 50?) I left on an 'early-out', and not having health care is a problem, but my coworkers who stuck it out don't have a great retiree health plan either. It is ~ $800/month for self and spouse, which is not great for a $2000 deductible. If you have something golden, like federal, union, or government health care, then seriously look for options to stay.

We are also missing your 'equity' in existing home, (which you plan to sell). It could buy you some margin on future earnings if substantial.

The advice of long vacations is good.

The idea of the CDL is good for job security, but not strong earnings. Hopefully you could find a local line-haul route that would get you home every-other-day, and work 4 and off 3 or more. You really don't want to get a long haul position, as they can keep you out for weeks depending on how they schedule your backhauls. Another possibility for better driving pay is to pick up some weekend or night runs that a company has a hard time filling. They may pay better, and allow you more time off. Some retirees like driving airport parking buses which doesn't pay too bad. Driving can be a great job, since you leave it when you go home, but... the pay is usually less than $20/hr, and stress (& liability) CAN be significant. I find it very relaxing if I am doing a rural and long distance run, but not so if I am doing city delivery. Hauling mail and LTL freight terminal to terminal is my preference, as it saves you 'downtime'. You don't have to wait for places to open to unload or pickup, and you often don't have to deal with unloading, tarping, traffic, and negotiating the downtown areas that have those 'pretty' brick planters sticking way out into the street where you might need to turn your 70ft long rig...

[Tesaje]

We had a really nice (talkative!) cab driver in Ft. Worth who was a retired executive and did the cab runs for fun and extra income. He said he could work as much or as little as he liked and enjoyed meeting people from all over. Certainly another option.

[nancy thereader]

One that sounds great, in fact. Wonder if I could drive a cab in Portland. Not.
But, there must be something else I could do for one or two days a week.

[StealthRabbit]

Nancy..., in PDX you can take MAX light-rail directly to the airport and drive a parking bus! or shuttle, or any one of many jobs for early retirees. The rental car places hire a lot of them to shuttle cars, or you could drive a towncar. There is need for drivers, and I will bet you would do well on tips.

[lo6xzm]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I have about 35k equity after selling expenses. This would be a big change in lifestyle as my current income is almost 80k per year. So I have tried to think of everything. I'm pretty sure my expenses would go way down as my farm is in a very rural section of the Missouri ozarks. I'm basically planning on checking out of society and living a very quiet life on my farm...I will keep going thru the motions this year '08 in Memphis and perhaps there will be a life event that forces me to move, but I don't know the what, when and why of it yet. The farm is my plan B. Henry David Thoreau had it right. There could be some farm income from cattle too. I really think I could make out "ok". Thanks again.

[mccarley]

If your full retirement in ten years is attractive and includes health insurance, my advice would be to suck it up and stay. I've been retired 14 years and retirement is not cheap.