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.
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
yeah I retired for medical reasons forcing me out of my chosen field. They need people with fully functioning brains, go figure. But, it was only 2-3 years early. I got to work at the highest levels in my field. Work with the biggest challenges and companies in the whole world. No regrets here either. Still working on the post work life. Besides having fun and traveling.
Sorry to hear about the memory issues. Enjoy to the fullest. I plan to do the same, probably next year. We will see. I need more time to bang my avatar....LOLOL!!!! [Reply]
a celebratory lunch with my wife
a retirement luncheon at my company
a couple of friend lunches
two concerts
two massages
some sort of special movie viewing that my wife arranged
a role as an extra in an Imax movie
a road trip
I also bought a new computer, so I'll spend some time getting it set up. I'm switching from a PC system to an Apple system, so I'll have a learning curve. [Reply]
There better be some book writing in there, sirrah!
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
Over the next month, I've scheduled ...
a celebratory lunch with my wife
a retirement luncheon at my company
a couple of friend lunches
two concerts
two massages
some sort of special movie viewing that my wife arranged
a role as an extra in an Imax movie
a road trip
I also bought a new computer, so I'll spend some time getting it set up. I'm switching from a PC system to an Apple system, so I'll have a learning curve.
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I'm retired as of today. If you throw your ball into my yard, I'm keeping it.
Congrats! I always thought that I was older then you and i'm not 65 for two more years so did you retire early? Sweet pension or just wise with your money? [Reply]
Originally Posted by philfree:
Congrats! I always thought that I was older then you and i'm not 65 for two more years so did you retire early? Sweet pension or just wise with your money?
We're about the same age. I'm 61. At some point I did the math and realized that I had enough savings to retire. All those years of being anti-social and staying home at night added up to big cost savings. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
We're about the same age. I'm 61. At some point I did the math and realized that I had enough savings to retire. All those years of being anti-social and staying home at night added up to big cost savings.
Good for you! I just turned 63 and I'm looking at retirement by the end of the year. I blew a lot of money being....married and then being me. Blew a lot on being a Chiefs fan. That's turned out to be worth it.
So now that you're retired are you going to get out and be social? [Reply]
Originally Posted by philfree:
Good for you! I just turned 63 and I'm looking at retirement by the end of the year. I blew a lot of money being....married and then being me. Blew a lot on being a Chiefs fan. That's turned out to be worth it.
So now that you're retired are you going to get out and be social?
I'll probably be more social just because I'll have more time, but that probably won't bring me up to average. I'm a wallflower at heart. But I suspect I'll end up putting myself into more new situations, and those tend to generate more social stuff.
Good luck with your retirement plans. I've been retired for over four hours now, and I'm really enjoying it. [Reply]
Congrats and good luck. I think we met once when you threw a draft party 15 or 20 years ago. I retired early at my minimum SS age because it's set-up so that if you wait, you don't break even unless you live to your 80's. Depending on your lifestyle and genetics and our countries long-term economic outlook, I decided to get started getting the money I'd paid in sooner rather than later. [Reply]
