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I will say I have 3 years until retirement from the public sector. I will agree with the statement, go as early as you think you can. I can retire at 55 with no hit on my pension. That's what I plan to do. I've tailored my life and savings around the 100K I'll pull in after I retire. I stay within my means, have fun and travel when I can...but I also don't have kids to save for. It's all a personal journey depending on your wants and needs.
I've never spoken to anyone that says they should have worked longer. I don't want to work after 55. If I need to I will but at this point with my pension, savings and home equity...I should be fine.
Good luck on your choices and retirement!
That reminds me of an old Reader's Digest (or something) joke. Nobody can recall anyone saying, on their deathbed, "I wish I'd spent more time at work."
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
10,356 posts, read 8,588,422 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbear99
Only one bit of advice: Enjoy life while you can. You never know what might happen next year. For me, it was getting a call one day with routine scan results: stage 4 cancer. That after being totally, completely healthy up until that point. 3 surgeries and many tough treatments I'm still around, but life is different....
You will also find when you head into your 60s or so that you'll need to come to grips with what you can't do anymore. For example, I realized I'll never hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon again, and probably not do my life long dream of visiting Skoki Lodge (near Lake Louise in Canada) in the winter. YMMV
I won't list all the medical issues I have, but there are many. My one regret when choosing my retirement home was not looking into the medical providers in the area. In Phoenix, it was fine. I had the best doctors ever. Here in Prescott it's very different. One hospital. Most practices are run not by MDs but by nurse practitioners. If you get to see the doctor, ever, count yourself lucky. And many don't stay. They do not find it lucrative to be in a small town with mostly retirees.
I prefer university medical centers, none of which are within an easy drive. I have had some medical "professionals" who have been totally clueless. I never thought it would be this way.
Retired at 48, as did my spouse. None of my buddies did. Wish I had gotten a part time job in something that related to my various hobbies. My spouse did and it worked out very well financially for us, albeit involving higher stress and less freedom to travel. There has been a short window where most of my buddies retired and we were able to enjoy doing things together, but that is now threatened by their failing health. I know I have been fortunate—it has all been good, but not as good as I expected it to be.
If you can travel or have other experiences, do those when you are relatively young. In fact, make sure to enjoy your life in the NOW as much as possible. You might not be as happy to travel as you become older. And next year, or tomorrow are not guaranteed. So, live life fully now, but with an eye to the future.
I agree that retiring young if possible is good.
Neither DH nor I have ever missed working. At first I missed the contact with others, but I soon adjusted. It turns out that this moderately extroverted person does not mind being her own company much of the time.
You can use your freedom from work to learn new things, devote yourself to a hobby or pastime or do volunteer work. I think those of us who branch out after our work life, have the best retirements.
OP, do you have Long Term care Insurance? You are young enough and healthy enough it is the time to consider it. We got a policy in our early 50’s that covers both of us. It doesn’t stay cheap. Just got a notice the premium is going up 33% to keep the coverage we have BUT now DH has early stages of dementia and since his mother died of Alzheimer’s my guess is we will be using it. Thank goodness his father had LTC as the bills for the private nursing home he was first in were incredible.
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