Last year, when I began researching the cost/probability of replacing our heating system with a geothermal system, I realized that it made little sense to spend the money to do this since we wouldn't be living here long enough to recoup the expense of said system.
Yes, it was at that moment that I realized that we only have to live in this school district, as of now, for 3 more years!
And going further, I realized that we only have to live in this area near Hubs job for another 7 years because Hubs has decided that he wants to retire early at 60.
All I can keep thinking is, "How did being near retirement age sneak up on me"!?!?
One day I am dealing with a Husband, 3 kids, 4 dogs and life as a suburban Homemaker and I turn around and I'm 52 years old with only 1 kid left at home fulltime, 2 dogs and a husband who is planning on retiring in 7 years.
Wow!
Other than throwing money into retirement/investment accounts before I get the Hubs paycheck every other week(for the last umpteen years), and glancing at the statements that come in the mail quarterly, we haven't sat down and actually crushed any numbers or figured out how much we will have or need to live in retirement.
Hubs use to tell me offhandedly that he wanted to retire at 55. He comes at that age due to his father, who was a laborer, who worked until he became physically disabled in his 50s. He was forced to retire in ill health/pain and never got to enjoy his old age fully.
Hubs wants to leave the rat race while he still has his health and wits about him.
And I so get that.
But I didn't pay him much heed when he started spouting off about retiring, because well, geez, 55 is a long way off, right?
But it's here now, knocking on the door and I am not wanting to open that door and let Mr. 55 in!
Then after the last few years of Recession/Foreclosures/Bank Bailouts/Stock Market Dives, Hubs stopped throwing around that 55 number.....especially after our investments took a nose dive in 2008/2009.
Last year he started making noises about retiring at 60 instead. He said he ran some numbers and with the hit we took in our savings(even with the rebounds lately), he feels secure about making age 60 his new retirement number.
Besides figuring out the savings balance, I am more comfortable with 60 than I was with 55. Mainly because at 55 we would still have a child in high school and one in college. So the kids would still be dependent on us for financial support. Kids + No income=Bad Planning 8-(
So I want to ask all of you dear readers.....
1. How many years from now do you or does your significant other(if that applies)plan on retiring? Is it a 'historically normal' retirement age or do you plan to retire early? Or is retirement going to happen the day you can no longer physically work or drop dead?
2. And when you retire, do you mean stop working fully?.....Or getting different job--one that is parttime and/or pays less but keeps you active?....or a job that you love?
3. Besides Social Security benefits, are you putting any money away for your retirement?
4. If you were to retire, in today's dollars equivalent, how much money do you think you would need to live on for 1 year? (Don't include the cost for major medical care(other than prescription meds and normal preventative care)in this, just the amount you would need to cover your normal living expenses in retirement with no one to support other than yourself and your spouse, if you will have one.)
5. If you will have savings/cash to live off of in retirement other than SS, do you think you will have enough to support yourself until you die(given no catastrophic medical bills that would bankrupt you)?
How many years do you think you will live until your savings run out?
6. Where will you 'park' your savings? Invest it? Bank it? CD it? Bury it in the backyard? An Annuity? Do you have a Pension?
Yeah, I know this post is pretty much a downer with all this death and running out of money talk?lol
But I am very curious to see how other people are planning for retirement and what they think about entering this stage of their lives.
Sluggy
Den is 37 so it will be a while before he can retire. That said, we should be alright. He is putting away 11% and our only debt is the house. And I hope it stays that way.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'll start, as everyone in the world knows I'm 50.No I don't plan on working full time to 67. Yep 67 for me folks! I could be dead by then!
ReplyDeleteIn reality I plan on working full time till 58, then 32/hrs per pay till I fully retire. You see I can still get health benefits at my employer.
My real goal, making $500/month on line. I'm building it up from 0 to about $150/month. If I could have some sort of passive income.
Next yes, I'm lucky I will get a pension. I could actually take it at 55 , they have a plan called an even pay, where I would get as much as I would on SS, then at 62 when I collect it would decrease. Its confusing, but works.
I also have a 401 K, so I do have a little savings.
I don't know about you all but when I'm 55 my baby will be 22, hopefully could support herself by then
My mom never had a lot of money but was very wise, she told me live life well, its over befroe you know it. I lost her 2 years ago and took those words to heart, life is just too short.
Oh by then way middle daughter just got engaged yesterday (she lives in Florida) so happy!
But then, no kidding I just my pack up and move. I loved Florida and Key West there was nothing better.
See where this is going? As usual my rambling thoughts and not even my own blog!
I would love to retire right now, but that can't happen. sigh. Hubby is retired due to health issues. He is really pretty healthy right now, but after a couple of years of not working when he had surgeries and other issues, we found that we did fine without his income. So, I told and him he didn't need to go back to work. But he is a good house husband, so he does work. I put 21% of my income in a 401k and have an IRA that was a rollover from a former job 401k. I think that maybe I will be able to retire at 65, so 13 years to go.
ReplyDelete1. How many years from now do you or does your significant other(if that applies)plan on retiring? Is it a 'historically normal' retirement age or do you plan to retire early? Or is retirement going to happen the day you can no longer physically work or drop dead?
ReplyDeleteI'm 47 and I'm 13 years older than Shane and do not work outside the home. As long as he is still bringing in an income, I probably won't collect Social Security until I can get the full benefit...whatever age that ends up being at the time. The union is trying to get approval for "30 and out", which means a member could retire after 30 years of service. If that passes, Shane would be about 52 (he's 34 now). If it doesn't pass, he will likely stay in the union until either he reaches SS retirement age or until he is physically unable to do the work.
2. And when you retirement, do you mean stop working fully?.....Or getting different job--one that is parttime and/or pays less but keeps you active?....or a job that you love?
For me, nothing changes, since I don't work outside the home. For Shane, the likelihood will be that he'll start up some kind of home based business (ie, small engine repair or similar).
3. Besides Social Security benefits, are you putting any money away for your retirement?
Shane has both a pension and an annuity plan through his union. The amount is complicated, based on how many hours he works per year, how long he is a union member, what's recently been negotiated by the union, etc. Other than that, we aren't putting anything away.
4. If you were to retire, in today's dollars equivalent, how much money do you think you would need to live on for 1 year? (Don't include the cost for major medical care(other than prescription meds and normal preventative care)in this, just the amount you would need to cover your normal living expenses in retirement with no one to support other than yourself and your spouse, if you will have one.)
I hope I understand this correctly. We plan to have our home paid off by and be completely out of debt by retirement. If that were the case, we'd need monthly funds for groceries, utilities, clothing, etc. My best guess would be about $35-$40K a year...in terms of today's dollars. We are used to living simply and frugally, so that part of our lives wouldn't change.
5. If you will have savings/cash to live off of in retirement other than SS, do you think you will have enough to support yourself until you die(given no catastrophic medical bills that would bankrupt you)?
How many years do you think you will live until your savings run out?
I have no idea -- there is so much to consider, and it's all guess work. It's not uncommon for folks in my family to live well into their 90s. Also, we have no idea at this point what amount of money we'll have when it's time for Shane to retire. It's hard to get firm numbers, although we always have a good idea how the entire (nationwide) fund is performing.
6. Where will you 'park' your savings? Invest it? Bank it? CD it? Bury it in the backyard? An Annuity? Do you have a Pension?
Shane has both a pension and an annuity through the union. We can decide at retirement the terms of disbursement.
My husband PROMISED me that he would be independently wealthy by age 25. Well, apparently that was a lie to get me hooked. I was expecting to retire by 24 and living the good life.
ReplyDeleteIf we're able to retire by 75, I'll be happy... or dead.
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ReplyDeleteI don't know if/when I can retire. Haven't had a square job since November 2002, but I've got some money in a 401(k) plus a small pension from my newspapering days. A few years ago I started a Roth IRA that I have been able to fund completely. I also have an emergency fund that I pitch money at each month (yay, automated savings!).
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a writer I hope to keep my hand in as long as possible. My sort-of plan is to keep doing what I'm doing until it doesn't work any longer -- and then I'll do something else.
This is where frugal living/low standards come in awfully handy. The money that I don't spend on new clothes, car insurance, nice furniture et al. is money I can set aside for my future and also use to do things I want to do now: get massages, visit family/friends, donate to charity, send irritating postcards to SonyaAnn....
Ahhh, well things have changed recently as you know (and as I keep mentioning ad nauseum), so I have no idea. I have money stashed away, but nowhere near enough to live on even though it's just me now and the house is almost paid off. Somehow, I still have some occasional trouble make ends meet every month even with all the utilities pared down to as low as I can get them (and still have them). There always seem to be things that change or I've forgotten about (like homeowner's insurance or local school tax going up each year). So if I'm lucky, I'll do a semi-retire gig here at the company where I'm working full-time now. There is another lady in our dept who's doing that - she works about 2.5 days/per week and that seems enough to keep her busy but let her enjoy some time with her hubs as well. In my case, time with my cats :)
ReplyDelete