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Over the past few months I have enjoyed reading this forum, and this is my first post. I am 59 and working full time in a management position, while DH is 64 and will retire in 2017. After working hard for many years, I find myself dreaming about retirement. I’ve been telling myself that the shortest timeline to retire is 3 years from now when I'm 62. The biggest hurdle is my obsession with whether we have enough money to retire. And yes, I’ve noted from other posts that the answer depends on our spending. That’s just it—the numbers seem to support retiring, perhaps even sooner than 3 years. It’s just pulling the trigger on retirement that seems so permanent and irreversible. Here is a brief summary of the numbers:
My non-COLA pension (already receiving from a previous career) and our combined SS will provide between $65K and $72K/year in guaranteed income, depending on whether I take SS at 62 or at 66.5 (DH will take at 66). Our other resources--two paid-for rental homes and our investment accounts--will generate another $35K-$45K/year after expenses, without depleting principal. At retirement we will have no debt, and I believe our after-tax expenses will be about $80-85K/year, or about $100-105K pre-tax. Based on our numbers, Firecalc supports retiring at 62 at 100 percent success.
So what's the issue? I keep thinking about worst-case scenarios with healthcare costs, economic downturns, one spouse dying, etc. and the idea that leaving my job at its annual income would be a no-return decision. If you have been in my position and then retired, how did you finally let go and make the leap? Is it really about the money?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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There is never a perfect time.
You cannot be 100 % sure of any plans, as stuff changes a lot (like A(?)CA removing all my affordable HC options, and my property taxes up 1000% since my age 49 retirement.)
Make the best choice you can at the time, stay flexible,
It's the emotional part of retiring that will be the last and highest hurdle for you. This is what I have found the case to be among myself and others I have counseled, all of whom are 100% capable of pulling the plug right now.
I was a hourly employee al my life but am accustomed to living frugily. I thought about it and calculated if I could afford to retire at 62 as soon as you can get SS
I did, never regretted it for one second and now my financial adviser says I need to spend more.
Heraclitus of Ephesus, (born c. 500 B.C.), said, (or wrote), "πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει". It is commonly translated as "Life is Flux", or more commonly misattributed as "all things change" or "the only constant in life is change".
People who are a lot wiser than I am say that once we accept that nothing stays the same and we are to expect things to be different; only then can we live a life without being ruled by fear of what might or might not happen in the future.
My wife and I both retired two years ago; me at 65 and her at 64 . We figured that 50 years of working was enough.
Our current income is a very small pension she has, her social security and my spousal benefits. Total of about $3k per month. Should get about $1700 per month boost when I switch to my benefits when I turn 70. I've managed to make enough trading stocks to fill in the gaps, like the $500 we just spent for a new pool filter. We have our IRAs but trying to keep them intact for now.
We just sat down, looked at everything from all angles and figured we could do it. Our thoughts were that yes, something bad can happen, but also may not. And if it does, we are prepared to deal with it. We decided to not let the "What if" thoughts rule the time we have remaining. So far, no regrets whatsoever about our decision.
You obviously have the necessary financial resources to retire, Your projected income figures are way above the average for a family so why would you be worried about not working any longer? I'm guessing you may have some other concerns, and that could account for your not being able to rectify your finances with the thought of retirement.
Wanting to be secure is understandable, but, wanting to secure the odds in such a way that thwarts the unknown is just not being realistic. We all begin our adult life as novices among the cognoscenti, and we learn as we go until we become the knowledgeable ones, but at some point we just jumped in, took risks, made adjustments, learned, and generally benefited from all that foraging in the unknown. Retirement does require some faith, aside from that we can only do what seems best for ourselves, something you obviously have done well at in the past.
It seems that you can do it from the info given.
Life expectancy is an unknown.
The performance of the stock market is an unknown. I would assume the performance will not be good for the next few years.
Thus can you postpone SS which will increase your guaranteed monthly income down the road. Cover your current expenses with some of your investments?
You may also consider having a financial planner review your plan once you have it put together.
I pulled the plug at 58 without a pension or social security. I walked away from quite a bit of money, but sometimes your sanity is more important then chasing bucks.
It's been nearly a year since I retired and our checking account has nearly doubled from what we started with a year ago.
Money comes and money goes, but you only have one chance to live.
If your math is right then jump in with both feet. I had major anxiety about retiring and doubted whether I could handle it.
All I can tell you now is that this has been one of the best years of my life.
Don't become paralyzed by the unknown and the what if's. Anxiety driven decisions can be the worst decisions. Retirement is awesome, but only if you're prepared. It sounds like you'll be fine. Check your math again and go for it if it looks right.
It's partly about the money, and partly fear of the unknown, and a feeling of loss of control. You are in a situation very similar to ours, pension + SS + rental income. The way I found the confidence to make the leap was to track our expenses for 3-6 months and make lists of random, non-recurring type costs (emergency vet trips, new tires, etc) we might incur and create a tentative retirement budget based upon those costs. It was a little harder to do since we were planning to move cross-country, and I had to research a few of the costs in our new state. I also took our income streams and created a chart showing our various income streams and when they would stop and start to create a levelized income over our retirement years. After doing this I could see that we were 1) very much capable of retiring and 2) what our limits on certain costs (travel, charitable giving, etc) would be per year.
The rest is just resolving to do it. You just have to make the leap of faith and trust that, if you've planned well and taken precautions, that all will be fine. Some of those precautions might be LTC insurance, pension survivor benefits, health coverage until you are both 65, emergency funds, and investments that will continue to provide your inflation cushion. It sounds like you are going to be fine if you have these precautions covered.
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