It's a waiting game ....

If I were to leave now would take a 33% hit in my pension. By waiting two more years it will increase by a full 1/3 more than it's worth today.

Otherwise I'd have left five years ago when I turned 55. I can't afford to leave yet.

I've been with the same employer for more than 30 years. It's been like a marriage, only to my job.

I'm ready to retire. So many interests and things I'm looking forward to doing like travel, volunteering, and probably more tinkering in the garden. And then there are my dogs. They are like having children under foot in the house 24/7. Not only are they entertaining, they're a f/t job ! :)

With children living overseas, and extended family all over the place, there will be plenty of opportunities for travel. My family wants to visit me, especially if I make my permanent residence in southern Utah. I haven't needed to send out invitations, they've already been coming in lol, and I'm not even there yet. I was looking at southeastern Idaho when one of my cousins told me I can't move there because then she wouldn't be able to visit me in St George (she's in SE Idaho.) Well, whatever I decide that isn't going to be my bottom line. :)

Anyone else close to retiring, or have retirement tips to offer?

Great News, let's run away TOGETHER :)

Bora Bora?

Costa Rico?

How about Hawaii so we don't have the hassels of borders, etc.?

Maybe Sequim in summers, SoCal for winters?


(are U onboard?)

I'm not so sure that I'm that adventurous.

Would like to meet my Jewish cousin who lives in Hawaii. She travels a lot more than I do to places like Europe and Israel. But then she's from England. She recently became a dual citizen of Germany because she's a granddaughter of Holocaust victims and survivors. She gives speeches to children where she lives on the Holocaust. Her mother was good friends and business partner with Eva Schloss, Otto Frank's stepdaughter.

I am working a part-part time job, about 2 hours a day. I don't have to have much money coming in as my ex is paying for the little we have left on the house with his pension (which I could get half of if I divorce him) and my boyfriend has good retirement. He is 66, but is probably going to continue to work until 70.

His daughter owns property on an island by Vancouver and we plan on living there part of the year. His son lives in Denver and owns several homes. We will probably spend time in Denver, too. And we'll spend time here at my house in Cache Valley.

I plan on driving the highway to Alaska sometime. Probably my only bucket list item I have. My dogs and my boyfriend's dog will travel with us.

I hope U don't have to travel far for only 2 hours work!

remember, U'll need a passport to travel thru Canada, 'eh?

I can work when I want--no schedule, so I work when I have time when I have time and feel like it. I've worked at home for FOREVER.

I also already have a passport.

My "husband" is still working and that is where I get my insurance so I don't have to worry about medicare.

I was somewhat forced into this as my good job ended in October 2018. I would have continued to work that job until I died IF it had lasted. It has been a rough 10 months in terms of getting a decent job. I had been working medical transcription for GOOD MONEY for over 30 years. It doesn't pay what it used to, but it gives me a little extra spending money now.

I can work anywhere there is internet. In fact, right now, I do a hospital out of Ontario.

OK, Pam, I'll bite: How many DAYS (not counting today) <work days, calendar days> before U retire???

That's TMI. Sorry. But soon.

I was seriously considering retiring in 2015. Then again in 2017 when I made an offer for a house in St George that was accepted. Then I cancelled that before I left there for home because of a snafu with the real estate sales, and it fell through. But the house was my dream house in a really nice location where I could see Zion Park mountains in the distance from the hillside where my house stood.

Then after returning home to upstate NY later that year I was diagnosed with breast cancer. If I'd moved to Utah I'd have lost my health insurance provider and the doctors here who treated me during my illness. Although my realtor cousin there in St George tells me that there is a huge new cancer wing added onto the hospital there that wasn't before.

My father died in the Eastern Idaho Medical Center from a botched biopsy because the radiologist didn't know what he was doing. Whenever I consider my hometown of Idaho Falls to retire to I think about my dear old dad dying there in that hospital, and I can't bring myself to wanting to move there because of that. I know accidents happen at all hospitals, but I've lost confidence in that one for the rest of my natural life. They killed my dad. Then following that, when the supervising physician came into the room with my brothers and the radiologist the radiologist asked the doctor, "Why can't we put accident on the death certificate, when it is an accidental death?" The supervising physician bellowed at him, "Because we NEVER put ACCIDENT even when it IS an accident!" So they listed my dad's death as "natural causes" on the death certificate.

The coroner for Idaho Falls had to override the bleeping hospital by ruling it an "accidental death." Bleeping liars that they are. Oh, they are LDS too. Professional liars. Our lawyer at the time told us that doctors there in SE Idaho have a "license to practice murder and get away with it." He wasn't kidding. They dummied up the medical report to make it look like what they did to my dad never happened once they knew we had a lawyer involved. That's what they do for a living, and their legal/ insurance department. Our lawyer said if he came in on a gurney from a car accident to the ER there those doctors would leave him to bleed to death because he was about the only one or two lawyers in town willing to take them on.

Idaho Falls has urban creep - population growth has spread out so far and wide I barely recognize it anymore. The farm I grew up on is now a part of the suburbs.

It will be here before you know it! It is so nice not to have a boss! Hopefully your boss is tolerable so that the next two years won’t be too bad. My boss and her boss were and still are awful. They made so many employees cry and it was crazy how our place was a revolving door. I took an early retirement 2 years ago and it was getting pretty bad; good people getting fired for no good reason. One lady who gave our boss 3 months notice of her retirement was told “why don’t you just leave now?” I though:” you’re not going to do that to me”! So quietly, I planned and got ready. I told NO ONE that I was retiring and less than 1 week before, I sent my boss an email notifying her that it was my great pleasure to inform her of my retirement; boy, was she mad! Utah is a hire and fire at will state. I’ve never regretted retiring because I’m with family and my sweet little dog most of the time now. Both my husband and I would hear all the time “ I don’t have enough money to leave now “, but no one really ever has enough but you’re never going to find the perfect retirement. For us, it was do it now and enjoy life. That sounds like you have some great plans!

You know Valkiery, I hear you. I keep thinking about what does it mean to "have enough to retire?" because once I no longer need to drive into work every morning and pay to park, gasoline, and face the commuting rush hour, with work clothes, all that expense, etc., I'm going to save a ton of money right there.

Plus, the stress of work.

There is a sense of identity from my work that I derive. So I'll miss that when I leave. But I actually had closer friends when I worked in Manhattan than I do after transferring upstate with my employer 20+ years ago. The beauty of transferring was I was able to buy a house here. Something I wasn't able to afford in NYC. Since we moved away the housing prices in NYC have gone through the roof! Now I really wouldn't have been able to have afforded to live there had I stayed on raising my children there. So I'm very thankful we moved away when we did. The public schools were good in both downstate and upstate. The single biggest difference was the taxes got to the classroom in the upstate schools. Downstate the taxes only get to the board of education where the coffers are bloated.

My children and the other kids were using 50 year old textbooks when we were there, and the computers were being purchased by the PTA! Upstate my children were able to have brand new textbooks and state of the art computers purchased with our tax dollars at work. Big difference. :)

New York is a "employee at will" state also. Where I work is a public agency so I'm with civil service and a union. Otherwise I would be at the beck and whim of my employer as well. We have had some really petty people over the years to deal with. If not for the union and civil service, that is our "go-between" that protects people in our workplace from abusive bosses who violate EEO.

I've heard of bosses who have been fired over EEO stuff in our workplace for violating some of those things, so they are taken quite seriously there.

One of my supervisors reported some guy once for me who was propositioning me that I hadn't even reported, just because I mentioned it to him. He was really looking out for my back, lol. I was his administrative assistant. The other guy was called on the carpet for his behavior and I hadn't said a thing to EEO, but Charlie had for me. That was years ago. Charlie's retired now. I was a "Charlie's Angel." :) (He hired me.)

I had zero difficulty adjusting to being retired. (I hadn't expected any; I was meant to be retired.)

Yeah, they docked a few bucks off my pension because I squeaked out early. Ask me if I care.

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had zero difficulty adjusting to being retired.
> (I hadn't expected any; I was meant to be
> retired.)
>
> Yeah, they docked a few bucks off my pension
> because I squeaked out early. Ask me if I care.

Catnip,

If it weren't for the 33% factor keeping me there, I'd have been gone already. It's a permanent reduction to my annuity by leaving otherwise I'd be doing the Toledo shuffle by now. (When was the last time you heard that song?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIrpylob9Y

My concern in retiring in the near future is healthcare. How do you bridge the gap between retiring and being eligible for Medicare??


HH =)

Happy_Heretic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My concern in retiring in the near future is
> healthcare. How do you bridge the gap between
> retiring and being eligible for Medicare??
>
>
> HH =)

That is something I worry about too. Especially if I retire to Utah or Idaho since my insurance here doesn't carry participating providers out there. Or hardly any in southern Utah. There are zero elsewhere throughout Utah and Idaho. I'd still have to wait the three years from 62 to begin applying for Medicare. I will still carry my health insurance because it is an umbrella insurance plan that will carry into old age. Guess if I get tired of Utah or Idaho and move someplace else it is widely accepted in the Sunbelt. (a favorite place of retirees to move to from east coast!) If Arizona or Nevada were on my radar, or even New Mexico where I'd be neighbors with Catnip, then I'd be just fine in the interim.

My retirement lessons.

1. The cost of living out paces any increases in income. Property tax, utility costs, home and car insurance and of course food and medicine have all gone up taking an extra $150 a month now vs from when I retired.

2. Your expenses really don't go down unless you sit at home. I drive about as much now as I did when I worked. If you're going out and about they still prefer you wear clothes. I still eat the same number of times a day.

3. Everyone thinks you've got nothing to do so could you.....babysit, grab meds, pick up the mail etc etc

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My retirement lessons.
>
> 1. The cost of living out paces any increases in
> income. Property tax, utility costs, home and car
> insurance and of course food and medicine have all
> gone up taking an extra $150 a month now vs from
> when I retired. ,

My dad learned that when he retired at age 62. He took his early and his wife waited to take hers at full retirement age. I think in hindsight he wished he'd waited longer but he made out alright in the end. He had a small pension to add to his SS. He and his wife sold their home that was paid for to downsize after she retired. But he didn't expect she would go before he did. That caught him by surprise. He was older and she was the one in better health until she became sick. He lived an additional 20 years after he took his early retirement, and was pretty well off all things considered. But the cost of living was always there one step behind or in front of him, that was for sure.

In today's economy I think we notice it a little bit more because of inflation.
>
> 2. Your expenses really don't go down unless you
> sit at home. I drive about as much now as I did
> when I worked. If you're going out and about they
> still prefer you wear clothes. I still eat the
> same number of times a day.

I see your point.
>
> 3. Everyone thinks you've got nothing to do so
> could you.....babysit, grab meds, pick up the mail
> etc etc

I could see doing more than volunteering if a good opportunity presented itself for a paying occupation in retirement. Whether full or part time will depend on my health and wellness and whether the position is something I can see myself doing and am good at. It will be nice not to have to work though if I don't need to. If I can keep my debt lower than my income ratio, I should be okay. And that is going to be a challenge! But I think that's true for most folks. Except those with silver spoons in place of budgets. ;)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2019 06:55PM by Amyjo.

I have 4-5 years to go, but I wish I could retire now. It is getting tougher and tougher to return to school after the summer off. I will be entering a specialty branch of teaching this fall, and I'm hoping that will make my work life easier once I make the adjustment. Public school administrators in my neck of the woods have been turning classroom teaching into a miserable job. At first it was gradual, but it has escalated rapidly in the last few years. It's like we simply cannot do enough work to please them. Most teachers try their level best to meet all of the demands put on them, but this past year for the first time I saw colleagues giving up. We simply couldn't do it.

I went to a retirement workshop that is put on periodically by my school district. The district's retirement coordinator stressed the importance of being financially ready, and not retiring simply because you can't stand the job anymore.

I agree with Heartless that inflation is something you need to consider. My mom took early retirement and by the time she died, close to age 80, the rising cost of living put a severe hit on her savings. I'm hoping that having my mortgage paid off will be helpful in this regard.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have 4-5 years to go, but I wish I could retire
> now. It is getting tougher and tougher to return
> to school after the summer off. I will be entering
> a specialty branch of teaching this fall, and I'm
> hoping that will make my work life easier once I
> make the adjustment. Public school administrators
> in my neck of the woods have been turning
> classroom teaching into a miserable job. At first
> it was gradual, but it has escalated rapidly in
> the last few years. It's like we simply cannot do
> enough work to please them. Most teachers try
> their level best to meet all of the demands put on
> them, but this past year for the first time I saw
> colleagues giving up. We simply couldn't do it.

Isn't that something? They are driving good educators away, and unable to retain quality teachers because of poor decision making. They themselves could use a "makeover" in their own department! The students suffer for lack of quality teachers @ the end of the day.

>
> I went to a retirement workshop that is put on
> periodically by my school district. The district's
> retirement coordinator stressed the importance of
> being financially ready, and not retiring simply
> because you can't stand the job anymore.
>
> I agree with Heartless that inflation is something
> you need to consider. My mom took early retirement
> and by the time she died, close to age 80, the
> rising cost of living put a severe hit on her
> savings. I'm hoping that having my mortgage paid
> off will be helpful in this regard.

So true. Add the Social Security predictions of a possible reduction in our pensions starting in 2035, could make for another shortfall in that department by 25% for those of us still kicking the can down the road in another 16 years and counting. My mortgage is low now. But were I to sell my house, and take the equity I'd sink that into another house out west, and then be into another mortgage out there. So it may not be that productive for me to start over with another mortgage.

My half-nephew recently retired from his engineering job he held for 35 years in Salt Lake City. He moved with his wife to their now forever home back to Idaho where they're from. They built that home starting in 2010 following the housing market crash. He told me there'd be no way they could've afforded their "dream home" if they were trying to build it now. They got in at a good time when the market was recouping from the crash.

Summer,

I was just thinkin' that I find it hard to return to work recently with just a weekend off, or a holiday off, or a vacation off from work. The more time I take off it gets harder for me to go back. There's a timing mechanism me thinks in the body that sends signals to the brain when it's time ....

like a built in alarm clock or something akin to that. Mine's been going off now for a while!

I've been planning for retirement since 2012. Have been looking for places to retire to since then. That's been seven years so far! The closer it gets now the longer it seems as the home stretch is almost here.

I've been thinking about your comment because I've been trying to puzzle out why exactly I feel ready. It's for a variety of reasons. One, at age 62 I've been in the workforce full time for forty years now. And it feels like it. Another reason is that I don't have the same energy level that I used to for a very active job. I was friendly with a first year teacher this past year who was all of 22 years old. Just watching her zip around was exhausting. She had a very lively class, too, and she could more than keep up with them. I had an easy class, and they still tired me out.

I have arthritis that is usually on the moderate side of things, but is occasionally awful. It's also getting harder to lift heavy things (teaching is more physical than people think. We are constantly moving heavy packages, shoving desks around, etc.)

I'm also getting increasingly cranky with keeping up with changes in my job, especially with regard to technology. I've been keeping up very well so far with the essentials of the job. But whenever yet another change is announced, I often groan. It's getting to be too much. I've had it. I want to leave my profession to the younger folks.

So that's where my head is at, lately. I've had enough. I want to go. I want them to leave me alone. I want to be at home, doing my own thing.

I retired four years ago, after 39 years as an elementary school teacher. I substitute taught during the past 4 years, but was lucky to be able to choose when and where I worked, and what grade levels. I only subbed at the school I had worked in, and limited myself to 4 to 5 days a month. At first I felt guilty turning down jobs, but I learned to remind myself that I had no obligation to work if I didn't want to. I have decided to give up the subbing, so this upcoming school year will be the first that I am completely retired. No regrets, retirement is awesome!

Looking in, I've somethings wondered if I might sub after I retire. At this point, I'm thinking not. I don't plan on retiring until I'm 66 or 67, and at that point, I think I'll be fully finished with it.

It's certainly not for everyone. I hadn't actually planned to sub, and sort of fell into it because the school division made it easy for me to. If I lived in a larger centre, I wouldn't have been able to dictate where and when I worked. In that case I definitely wouldn't have become a sub!

I hope your last years of teaching are good Summer. It's a career that I found tremendously rewarding even when it was difficult and exhausting. I thought about retirement for at least 5 years, and when the time came I really *knew* I was done. :-)

I semi-retired in 1981.

I tried to fully retire at the end of 2017 and got lots of well wishes and ”job well done”s. And then kept getting requests for a little bit of help. Some I accepted, some I happily told ”I'm retired!” because they were jerk client's.

Be seen as useful is a nice shot to the ego. So is Saucie!

185 days for me.

448 Days, will have medicare, should have enough money if the market does not tank.

I would be willing to work part time, but enough is enough with this full time gig. They removed my staff over the last 6 months so now I am doing along what 3 of us used to do.

The only saving grace is my boss is in another country and I see him maybe twice a year. He has no clue what I actually do, so I am left to my own devices 95% of the time.

With all that extra time you can start your own BB.