All FIREd up in New Hampshire

[jonat]

Greetings, all...

I am a software engineer in New Hampshire who was "made an offer I couldn't refuse" for early retirement. I will be working through the end of the year and then retiring - I'll be 62 next year - my wife will turn 65 - she retired 15 years ago.

I HAD been planning on working to 65 or 66, but a number of changes at my employer (which has been good to me in general) convinced me that I made the right decision.

Financially, we are in pretty good shape - at least that's what our adviser tells us. We have lived below our means for many years and have saved and prepared well. So does that mean that I'm calm and collected and ready? Heck no! I'm still scared about no longer working for the first time in 38 years, and wondering how it will affect me psychologically.

Hoping to pick up some tips from others, and perhaps share things I have learned.

Steve

 

[Katiek]

Welcome Steve. You'll find lots of helpful friendly people here, so feel free to post any questions you have. I'm still working, but lots of people here express some trepidation, even if they're eager to FIRE as well.

 

[RobbieB]

As long as you don't drive wifey crazy you'll be fine!

 

[steveark]

Steve to Steve

As one engineer to another, congrats. I retired six months ago and couldn't be happier. My tips? Exercise, travel, stay social through church, charitable work, hobbies and dinner with friends. Also if you can find part time fun work, I'm doing one or two days a week political consulting (long story) then I recommend it. That nagging worry you might not have enough in spite of your advisor is much reduced if you can still earn some income. Plus it keeps that engineering brain tuned up just in case the worst happened and had to go back to the office full time. But mostly enjoy life and extra time with your spouse and family.

 

[jonat]

Thanks all. I do hope to find something to keep me occupied other than puttering around the house. Volunteering, maybe some part-time or consulting work, etc. More travel is planned. A new adventure!

Steve

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome, jonat! If you haven't seen them yet, there are two excellent resources here that might help you get ready for life after FIRE:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/some-important-questions-to-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html

and

Early Retirement FAQs - Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community

You'll notice that many people here are big fans of DIY investing, so you might try running your numbers through FIREcalc (link near the bottom of each page here) and checking out some of the FIRE and Money threads.

Enjoy checking your last days off the calendar!

 

[jonat]

I use Fidelity's Portfolio Advisory Services and have not only run numbers through their calculator but reviewed them annually with my account manager. Did it again after I received the ER offer. We have zero long-term debt, long-term care insurance and "sufficient" investments, so we are told. But we're going to need to establish a budget and stick to it - at least for a while. My wife is more paranoid about this than I am, but that's our respective nature. Still, I recognize that I need to reduce spending on "toys".

I figure that we'll be extra-careful the first few years and see how it works. The Fidelity folk strongly believe that we won't go broke - in fact they said we should "spend more"! (We are not intending to leave a "legacy" - children are already provided for. Anything left over will go to charity.)

As I mentioned above, I'm personally more concerned with how I feel about not working. I know people from work who retired recently and they tell me it's great, but their social structure is a lot different from ours. We'll see. I already volunteer some, will probably get more involved in things.

 

[Ready]

Jonat,

Congratulations and welcome to the forum. One of the things I might suggest you do with your newfound free time is to learn about the advantages of index fund investing, and the pitfalls of using an advisory service that charges you a percentage of assets under management, such as Fidelity Portfolio Advisors.

I've been with Fidelity for more than 25 years, but when I listened to the sales pitch from their Portfolio Advisor Services Group I ran as fast as I could. They tend to buy and sell funds frequently and they focus on actively managed Fidelity funds that generate maximum profit to them, rather than their low cost index funds.

Feel free to ask any questions if you're interested in learning more. But more importantly, best of luck with the upcoming retirement and I hope you find lots of fun things to fill up your time.

 

[jonat]

I've been with PAS for two years now and am reasonably satisfied, but I do watch it closely. My experience doesn't really match your description and the performance has been good. I know about index funds and not ALL of my money is in PAS. but I am not confident in my investment skills and am willing to give up some potential gains for having someone take care of it for me. My wife is more conservative and is happier with this approach.

 

[shotgunner]

Do you plan to say in NH or move after you retire? From my perspective NH is not a particularly retiree friendly state. Chiefly because of it's tax policies, which are great when you are working. Your property tax becomes a large annual bill once the house is paid off and when you retire it stays the same and goes up from there. Add to that the 5% Dividend and Interest tax which if you have done well will impact you to some degree. You may want to look around at other locations in the state because there are a few pockets here and there where taxes are low such as the town of Alton.

 

[jonat]

Staying right where we are (Nashua). We like it here. The Interest and Dividends tax has a $4800 exemption which means it is not of concern. Property tax is manageable and the overall cost of living is fairly low. The house is paid off already. And of course there's no sales tax.

We had actually built a small house in a rural NH town back in 2001, intending to retire there, but realized that it was too far from necessary services and didn't make a good retirement choice. (The property taxes there were even higher than Nashua's.) We sold it in 2014 and put the money into improving our Nashua house.

I've seen New Hampshire show up on more than one "best places to retire" list. Taxes aren't the only thing to think about.

 

[jonat]

And today it is official - I am FIREd. It will take some time for it to catch up to me, I have a lot going on this month so far. Will I be as busy in future months? Dunno. DW and I are already discussing which household chores she will permit me to take over (mainly the ones she hates to do, which is fine with me.) I am even being allowed to cook once a week! We still need to figure out a budget, but we really are FI so it's not going to be complicated.

 

[Ready]

What an awesome way to start of the new year. Congratulations!

 

[Katiek]

Congrats. It's natural to wonder what comes next, but I'm sure you'll find your days are busier than you ever imagined, only with things you enjoy and want to do!

 

[kimcdougc]

Congrats! Happy New Year to being FIRED. We have been retired for almost 2 years now. Don't know how we ever found time to work. Good luck in your new adventures.

 

[DrRoy]

Well done. It is truly a new year for you.