Retirement Thread

[Mosbonian]

After the positive responses and congratulations on my Retirement thread, the idea came to me that there should be a thread that helps everyone prepare for the eventuality of retirement.

There were many great ideas, comments and great suggestions that came out of the conversation. What I would like to do is put this here as a repository for information for anyone who is:

• Ready to retire
• Close to retirement
• Beginning to plan for retirement

One of the things I came to find out is that no matter how much I had thought I was prepared for retirement, there were still things I had not pondered or prepared for.

So this thread is for all your questions, comments, advice to help others that are close to retirement.

I mean....this board is about a year and a half away from being around for a quarter of a century, and many of us who have been around are there already.

So, please feel free to contribute!

[philfree]

We just sold a family property, and I got a pretty big chunk of change from it. I may owe $20,000.00 in taxes but that's not enough for me to want to do 1031 exchange so I'm just going to pay the government so they can send it off for tranny research on monkeys or something. After that I'm going to use the majority of it to buy a house out in the desert. Gonna be a "Snowbird" starting next winter.

[philfree]

I dreamed of work once. I was young and stayed out partying so at lunch I went and racked out on this chicks sofa and I dreamed of work. When I woke up I thought it was ****ed up. Dreaming of work!

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I stopped working about six months ago, but with the agreement that I'll go back for roughly three months this summer. I'm starting to ramp up for that now.

The weird thing is that I'm having "work dreams". These are not interesting dreams. They're dreams where I'm back working in the office, having meetings with people, and planning out proposals and stuff. Nothing happens in these dreams that didn't happen in an ordinary work day for me. I find this to be an odd phenomenon. I assume that it's related to going back to work, and maybe some part of my brain is getting warmed up after sitting in the cranial garage all winter.

I still have them on occasion having been retired over a decade now. Mostly related to travel and the trade shows we did.

[RedRaider56]

I am officially retired as of midnight last night....

No more work emails, texts or calls.

It's kind of eerie, being so quiet without all the distractions..But I think I will get used to this....

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by RedRaider56

I am officially retired as of midnight last night....

No more work emails, texts or calls.

It's kind of eerie, being so quiet without all the distractions..But I think I will get used to this....

Be ready for the dreams. Night after night, working at your job without pay or respite.

But other than that, congratulations! The daytime part is really cool.

[RedRaider56]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Be ready for the dreams. Night after night, working at your job without pay or respite.

But other than that, congratulations! The daytime part is really cool.

Thanks! I think I'll actually sleep like a baby.. IRA and 401K accounts dwindling will be what keeps me up at night.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by RedRaider56

I am officially retired as of midnight last night....

No more work emails, texts or calls.

It's kind of eerie, being so quiet without all the distractions..But I think I will get used to this....

Congratulations! Now be prepared for the endless calls from the person who replaced you because they forgot where you told them you put all your notes...

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by RedRaider56

Thanks! I think I'll actually sleep like a baby.. IRA and 401K accounts dwindling will be what keeps me up at night.

Congrats!

[RedRaider56]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Congratulations! Now be prepared for the endless calls from the person who replaced you because they forgot where you told them you put all your notes...

Thanks! I know. They will start at some point in time. *sigh*

[crayzkirk]

Yay! I finally get to start taking out of Social Security. Reached my full retirement age of 66 & 8 months. First check comes at the end of the month.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

Yay! I finally get to start taking out of Social Security. Reached my full retirement age of 66 & 8 months. First check comes at the end of the month.

Make it rain!

[crayzkirk]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Make it rain!

First time I've gotten anything from the government. Overpaying your taxes and cheering a refund doesn't count.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

Yay! I finally get to start taking out of Social Security. Reached my full retirement age of 66 & 8 months. First check comes at the end of the month.

Are you going to continue to work or have you retired?

I worked for an additional 16 months from reaching FRA and that additional amount of money is a nice little bonus to invest in retirement.

[philfree]

Originally Posted by philfree

We just sold a family property, and I got a pretty big chunk of change from it. I may owe $20,000.00 in taxes but that's not enough for me to want to do 1031 exchange so I'm just going to pay the government so they can send it off for tranny research on monkeys or something. After that I'm going to use the majority of it to buy a house out in the desert. Gonna be a "Snowbird" starting next winter.

Originally Posted by crayzkirk View Post
Yay! I finally get to start taking out of Social Security. Reached my full retirement age of 66 & 8 months. First check comes at the end of the month.

I think I'm going to take mine at 64. Hopefully they get the tax package passed so there's no Federal Income Tax on it. I've got it figured where it will pay the small mortgage, property tax and monthly home owners insurance on the Snowbird House. I have my other investments working for me and I own all my other stuff so I should be able to live quite comfortably till the inevitable occurs. Rock till you drop!

[crayzkirk]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Are you going to continue to work or have you retired?

I worked for an additional 16 months from reaching FRA and that additional amount of money is a nice little bonus to invest in retirement.

I decided to retire on 10/15 because the company I was working for was acquired and all work had stopped. I just couldn't sit around and collect a check anymore, even gave up a 10k bonus. I was done. I thought I would miss the IT work yet the only thing I miss is creating solutions for the people I cared about. No regrets after working for 51 years.