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Your superb post is a needed counter-balance to the many posters who write about their jobs as if the jobs were a prison sentence, and as if one only starts to live life when one is retired. I always wonder if the job was that bad why didn't they put serious effort into finding something better?
Mostly the last job for us. It's after 2009, the Great Recession, not a whole lot of jobs out there.
Not thinking about what my health might be like 10 or 20 years after I retired, before I moved. Not that I would have picked a different location/town but stairs would have been out inside or outside my abode. Thought about inside, not outside and had to move to the ground floor when I began to have leg issues. Luckily, everything else turned out okay regarding location, abode as it relates to health but that's what it was, luck. If I was me going back in time, I would make sure I lived within 3 miles of a hospital and my primary physician, someplace where food delivery was available if I needed it, in an abode with no stairs inside or out, wide hallways and doorways (you never know when you'll need a rollater, wheelchair or scooter and you need to be able to turn around those things and get through doorways), low cabinets, and that my vehicle was one I could easily get in and out of with bad legs. Oh yeah, and a front loading washer (I swear I shrunk).
This is a big part of our planning, one level for sure in our next home, oddly enough it will be in Tennessee. Where are you if you don't mind sharing?
I would have made the same decision, congrats on outliving your projections. However your alternate pan would had you living on savings alone from age 60 until your FRA of 66. Many people can not do that without severly crippling their savings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perryinva
If you can't do that without crippling your savings......then you can't afford to do that in the first place. So why bring it up? It literally is the same thing as a poor person stating "what I should have done was buy winning lottery tickets, not losing ones.". They can't and didn't so the statement says nothing except that they don't have enough money, and wish they did.
If Bayarea4 had the assets to have delayed filing, and at 69 still does and wishes they had filed later, then they still have the option to halt their SS, and pay back the previous year without interest, and start at 70. They will gain 2 years increase in SS. Essentially delaying at the end instead of the beginning. It costs nothing to look in to it.
It would have been OK to draw down some savings as we could afford to do so, and Mr. Bay's retirement income alone would have been almost enough to live on. But I just didn't want to do it. The reasons were more psychological than financial. I couldn't bring myself to start drawing down capital. Transitioning from saving to spending is a big hurdle and I suspect it's a not-uncommon issue for newly-retired people. Also, it was really hard for me to adjust to not having an income of my own and not contributing to the household budget. I felt guilty about every penny I spent on myself because it felt like "his" money and not ours.
Perryinva, I was under the impression that what you are describing is a strategy called "file and suspend" and was no longer an option, but I will check into it. Thanks!
Last edited by Bayarea4; 08-08-2017 at 04:52 PM..
Reason: spacing
Because we all don't have those opportunities but we do have requirements to be met.
And, at least in this culture, Gawd hep ya if you become too much of a job hopper trying to find your bliss. Some people say we should all strive to find what we're best at and do what makes up happy. I say you can strive but that doesn't mean you'll find it. Also, and this is very important, if everyone did only that which was their heart's delight and oh so fulfilling, who would do all the actual work in this world? The things that need to be done that nobody would find appealing but only hard, dirty, dangerous, tedious, or soul crushing. OOH! I want to do a tedious, dangerous, taxing, soul crushing thing for a living! No such demographic
And what if you find THE THING you are made for and actually get to do it? But it doesn't pay well enough? Then you're a bum, lazy, "not pulling the wagon," either down and out or getting some sort of "welfare" and will be castigated either way.
Just some thoughts and perspective ;-)
I see your point. However, in your post you are presenting two extemes. Hopefully, most people would be able to find something which is better than the extreme end of miserable.
It would have been OK to draw down some savings as we could afford to do so, and Mr. Bay's retirement income alone would have been almost enough to live on. But I just didn't want to do it. The reasons were more psychological than financial. I couldn't bring myself to start drawing down capital. Transitioning from saving to spending is a big hurdle and I suspect it's a not-uncommon issue for newly-retired people. Also, it was really hard for me to adjust to not having an income of my own and not contributing to the household budget. I felt guilty about every penny I spent on myself because it felt like "his" money and not ours.
Perryinva, I was under the impression that what you are describing is a strategy called "file and suspend" and was no longer an option, but I will check into it. Thanks!
First off thank you for the rep/note. It's so funny you wrote this, just this morning I envisioned my first few days of retirement when my income will all be on my own (well along with SS). It's an exciting and very scary time for sure. Once you shut off the tap you can't turn it back on.
We retired when we both were ready. We also didn't plan too much other than financially, which we did plan for since age 30. It is wonderful being truly free for the first time since grade school! No responsibilities is awesome x 100.
Not even a little twinge of regret you didn't stay in Italy?
Your spread in Maine sounds good, really, but if I were suddenly confronted with either having to move to Maine, or move to Italy, you know, I would at least check out the available real estate in Italy. Not that I have anything against Maine.
I never really thought about it.
Italy is okay, the work I was doing was very stressful, 12on / 12 off, some months I did not get any days off. I was armed and wore a vest. I had never lived in any place that had such high crime rate, so I found it very stressful. There were a lot of dead bodies, and dodging bullets.
While living in Italy I was pulled into Kosovo [the tail wags the dog], as an MP I had ethical issues about defending the 'ethic albanians' as they assaulted Christians. But again 'the tail wags the dog', and we all know how that works.
Earlier in my career, I was stationed in Scotland. I would love to retire there.
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