I am terrified about retirement!!!

[ArkansasTraveler]

Originally Posted by ScoutAZ

Got to be honest
Unless you want to tell us that a your nickname is
Is your nickname a reference to Druid worship?

This has been answered years back on another form, but we will enlighten the slow of thinking and those what have made the wrong choice.

Oh once upon a time in Arkansas
An old man sat in his little cabin door,
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear,
A jolly old tune that he play'd by ear.
It was raining hard but the fiddler didn't care
He saw'd away at the popular air,
Tho' his roof tree leaked like a water fall
That didn't seem to bother the man at all.

A traveler was riding by that day,
And stopped to hear him a-practicing away
The cabin was afloat and his feet were wet,
But still the old man didn't seem to fret.
So the stranger said: "Now the way it seems to me,
You'd better mend your roof," said he.
But the old man said, as he played away:
"I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day."

The traveler replied: "That's all quite true,
But this, I think, is the thing for you to do;
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright,
Then pitch the old roof till it's good and tight."
But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel,
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel:
"Get along," said he, "for you give me a pain;
My cabin never leaks when it doesn't rain."

Arkansas Traveler

[teachbeach]

My plan is to retire at 55. I'll have a 30 year teacher pension to collect upon retirement. Husband will have to take health insurance (I've been paying it all the years we've been married). We have no debt, 20 year old house is paid off, and everything major (appliances, floors, carpets, toilets, roof and heating/cooling) has been updated/replaced for future re-sale. I plan to substitute teach for a few years, figuring on an income of about $1000 per month for 10 days of work. I have to make the "big decision" by 2/1/2009, but more people (friends and co-workers) and our financial advisor are saying "do it". Figure I'll draw 403's, IRA's etc. at 59 1/2 if necessary and then Social Security at 62. Husband is 2 years younger and can work another 10 years until Social Security at 62. We never had any kids, so the "college expense fund" has all gone into 401's and 403's.