Retirement. How do you like it?

[robert.]

I'm not sure how my retirement boat will sail. I'm 50yrs.old have a 6 yr.old kid,Wife and no debt. I do not own a house. I have set aside funds in an IRA. dating back to 1989. I have a struggling business that i wont be able to sell. Business costs are up and demands are down. Government regulations are not helping either. I hope to have my finance part covered well in 15 years.
It's the structure part that may get me. As Healy mentioned some guys can't handle the lack of structure. That's me. My brain chemistry wont allow me to sit still. I'm not a fidgeter. I need to do something. Need to be around people. Maybe i'll be a waiter and pour coffee for people. I need the interaction.
Mitch i hear you on those wheels. I would move marble statues with hand trucks. Now i rent a bobcat. That's one reason business cost are up.

[rogruth]

Mitch,
I understand.

Robert,
I also find that I need something to do.
I just can't do as much as I would like to do.

Some may find my comments useless but
IMHO it is nice to know that others may
agree or have the same problems.

[E7]

I'm still far enough in debt that I can't quit, so it seems the only way I'm leavin' the dealership will be on a gurney out to the ambulance to take me to the morgue. Life sucks, and then you die!

Not trying to pry, but if you haven't taken Social Security yet you should do pretty well there. I worked until I was 66 and would have gone longer had I been physically able.

"Life sucks, and then you die!" a favorite saying of one of my buddies. One of his others which you can likely appreciate: "If it has tits or tires, sooner or later it will cause you trouble!"

[E7]

I have set aside funds in an IRA. dating back to 1989.

I would highly recommend a ROTH IRA. The taxes on the conventional 401K are a bitch.

[robert.]

Yes it’s a roth.

[healey36]

Mitch - I agree with E7...you should go to the local Social Security office and work through getting that going for you. You're less than eighteen months from hitting the maximum benefit. If nothing else, you could use the proceeds from SS to wack down the debt balance. Maybe after you get that down to a manageable number you can get the hell out of the service bay. I know there are income limits for SS, but that can be manageable dependent on how much you're making. Look into it, man, you owe that to yourself.

Healey

[robert.]

ss. Takes back money if you earn to much while collecting. Something around $1 for every $2 you earn. Over x amount. Then $1 for every $3. Over a higher amount. I dont know exactly when they stop. I know that on the eastern side of the state. Their office is one of the most unpleasant places to deal with.

[v8vega]

Yes when I worked part time while collecting SS the 1st year I read their instructions and followed their rules exactly. a couple of years later I had to prove to them that I was right, they wanted me to pay back a bunch.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Mitch - I agree with E7...you should go to the local Social Security office and work through getting that going for you................

Look into it, man, you owe that to yourself.

It cannot hurt to get the facts and be able to make informed decisions.

[chuck]

I found the hardest part of retiring to be resetting my internal clock. When you have been on a set schedules of hours being awake and days per "work" week it is surprisingly hard to break those patterns.

I don't have to mow the lawn on Saturday morning. I can start preparing dinner at 3 pm instead of rushing through everything at 5:15. Even when you realize and accept this intellectually your body keeps trying to revert to the old patterns.

Things I don't miss, daily traffic grind, white knuckle snow drives, having to clear driveway at 6 am to do the white knuckle snow drive, "staff" meetings (and pretty much every other kind of "meetings"). I don't miss the work per se but I do miss the comradarie of most of my former colleagues.

I informed my supervisor at my second to last performance review that I was not planning on having to do any more reviews (timing required I do one more about two weeks before I left). This gave me a year to mentally adjust to the upcoming separation. I think I was the only one that took this seriously. Several labs started asking about hiring me back as a consultant No way, a). I was done, and b) the organization and Feds changed the rules that could screw up your benefits. I explained all of this to my supervisor. If I kept working the financial benefits were being eroded by tax burdens. You can do things to make more or spend less money. Time is a one way street, you can't get it back. Part time wouldn't work as I was already putting in more like 60 hours a week. Getting paid half as much for what would wind up as 40 hours wasn't attractive either.

I had set five life "events" that were necessary to trip for me to retire on my terms and all had done so. I was not getting any younger and had been working continuously for 41 years. There were things I still wanted to do and I had to get started on those while I still was physically able. Deb and I took a slow drive through the Finger Lake district of New York to visit my sisters out east. We toured wineries, visited Letchworth State Park, Watkins Glen, Corning, took our time. It was great. Hope to do more of these.

Only down side to all of this is dealing with Deb's 97 year old father. A whole/hole nother story.

[E7]

I found the hardest part of retiring to be resetting my internal clock. When you have been on a set schedules of hours being awake and days per "work" week it is surprisingly hard to break those patterns.

I don't have to mow the lawn on Saturday morning. I can start preparing dinner at 3 pm instead of rushing through everything at 5:15. Even when you realize and accept this intellectually your body keeps trying to revert to the old patterns.

Things I don't miss, daily traffic grind, white knuckle snow drives, having to clear driveway at 6 am to do the white knuckle snow drive, "staff" meetings (and pretty much every other kind of "meetings"). I don't miss the work per se but I do miss the comradarie of most of my former colleagues.

I informed my supervisor at my second to last performance review that I was not planning on having to do any more reviews (timing required I do one more about two weeks before I left). This gave me a year to mentally adjust to the upcoming separation. I think I was the only one that took this seriously. Several labs started asking about hiring me back as a consultant No way, a). I was done, and b) the organization and Feds changed the rules that could screw up your benefits. I explained all of this to my supervisor. If I kept working the financial benefits were being eroded by tax burdens. You can do things to make more or spend less money. Time is a one way street, you can't get it back. Part time wouldn't work as I was already putting in more like 60 hours a week. Getting paid half as much for what would wind up as 40 hours wasn't attractive either.

I had set five life "events" that were necessary to trip for me to retire on my terms and all had done so. I was not getting any younger and had been working continuously for 41 years. There were things I still wanted to do and I had to get started on those while I still was physically able. Deb and I took a slow drive through the Finger Lake district of New York to visit my sisters out east. We toured wineries, visited Letchworth State Park, Watkins Glen, Corning, took our time. It was great. Hope to do more of these.

Only down side to all of this is dealing with Deb's 97 year old father. A whole/hole nother story.

The most important thing you wrote.

[E7]

Yes it’s a roth.

Good to hear that! It will be way less painful when you go to make withdrawals!

[Mitch]

E7 and healy 36, I've been collecting SS for nearly 3 years. The plan was to use all of it monthly to pay off those cards, and I figured in less than 2 years, that debt would be gone. I knew, (or thought I knew) that we only had 3 credit cards, of which I only had one and hadn't used it since 2015. It turns out "we" had 6 credit cards, all maxed out at over 12K each. That's nearly $800 a month in interest alone. Couple that with being the "old man" in the dealership, I'm the redheaded step child and get stuck with every no pay shit job that they can come up with, so my flat rate hours are down. Last pay, I had 89 hours clock time, but my two week pay check was for 39.3 hours flat rate. Don't take long to see how you're gonna be in the hole for a long while.
BTW, you only get penalized if you go out early. That's why I waited until I was 66 before I filed. I can make as much as I want, (or can). If you go out early, you can only make $15,300 or you pay the penalty.

[J. S. Bach]

...snip... "If it has tits or tires, sooner or later it will cause you trouble!"

Or rudders/sails!

[Tranz4mr]

I retired last February at age 60. I had worked as a aerospace test engineer/test conductor basically rocket scientist for 33 years. High stress, exciting at times but it was obviously taking its toll. When we went to our investment guy and he said we were all set to go it was a no brainer.
So far I’ve learned the “what are you in a hurry for?” lesson. I’ve been exercising more - there is really no excuse. I’ve been working all those things around the house that were put off forever. Trains now get much more time. The number one lesson learned is if your not having fun why are you doing it. Learned that one after 12 years on our TCA Board of Directors which led to another basic rule don’t volunteer to be on a BOD. Bottom line is I have been extremely busy, exercising, skiing, fishing, traveling, playing trains at a local layout club, repairing and selling transformers and trains, just having fun!
Best thing I’ve ever done!