Just bumping this to the top after BRC's thread....

Anyone who has any advice.....stories to pass along...or just wants to vent about something you faced when you retired please feel free to jump in here

Yeah, I would have put my retirement post in here but I also needed to let planeteers know about my memory issues. I was worried many wouldn’t see it because they are not retired or thinking about retiring.

You wre absolutely right to put it in its own thread as most people nay not check out this thread until they have something to contribute.

I've got some CD's that are mature in a couple of months. I have a 401K I have to make a decision on in a couple of weeks. What have you guys done with these in the past or will in the future?

Gave it to me

I'm sure you'll have plenty by the time you retire.

Good thread. My wife plans to retire in a couple of years. Her job is just too stressful. She will still have to find some other employment as I don't think we can afford to live on my income and her retirement.

Me, I figure unless I can work some magic, I probably have at least 10-12 more years before I can retire.

Most people that I have ever talked to about retirement are looking at what health care costs and/or when they are eligible for Medicare. We are both early 50s so Medicare will be awhile. But she can retire and I'll just add her to my healthcare. We both work for the same main entity, just different departments. So, the healthcare should remain the same for her.

That is great that you will be able to add her on to your insurance.

I might suggest rolling over your 401k to an IRA. Once you hit 73, you will be required to take min distributions

There are a lot of different variables, a lot of which depend on your needs/wants but here are a few things I’d do if it were me. (Note: I’m just a schlub telling you what I’d do. No advice here)

Take your CD money and split it like 4 ways and then every 3 months put one section in a CD. Or you can do it 12 ways and do it every month. Laddering CDs can help offset the timing risk.

As for your 401K, I’d leave it in the market as long as you’re comfortable with the risk profile of your investments. One thing I would do is figure out if there are any client paid fees. They don’t advertise them so you’ll have to do some looking. If there are any fees, definitely roll that shit into a self directed IRA. Almost all the big ones have no fees. Then if it’s me I keep some index fund type exposure to the market.

EDIT: another thing you should probably figure out is how difficult it is to get normal distributions out of your 401K. If that’s very difficult, again I’d roll it to an IRA.

I'm pretty fascinated by people who could retire, but don't want to. I like what I do well enough, but if I could afford it, I'd never work again. I admire people who love what they do for a living, but it's a foreign concept to me.

Just under 5 months for my planned retirement. Question for those that have retired. Did you have any apprehension or second thoughts about turning in the paperwork and making it official? I have to give 1 month or more notice and sometimes I am feeling unsure about it.

I'm not gonna lie, I had those types of thoughts last month. But, I'm prepared for retirement and decided that me and my family deserve the best that I have left. The job just kept getting more and more in the way of that goal. Bottom line - I've never heard anyone on their death bed say " I wish I had worked more". That statement alone made my decision for me.

yep, you can’t get on Medicare until you are 65. Married filing jointly you have a limit of $129K in income. Anything over that, you’ll have to pay part of the Medicare costs. Since I retired sooner than planned, I had a lot of income on my W2.

I'm paying close to $400 a month for Medicare A&B, G plan and a drugs plan. But when I get the new tax return for 2004 taxes, we should get that down to around $150 a month.

I had a good PPO plan. Still charged me $500 co-pays for MRI ‘s and Cat Scans. $60 for an office visit. I don’t have to pay those co-pays on Medicare. So that’s saving me more than chump change.

I had none...I ended up giving my company 18 months notice but part of that was because of some events that elongated my stay.. when I finally said enough is enough I gave them my final date and said get my replacement or else the position will be vacant.