martyp
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I started looking into retirement last June and made the decision in early July. I've sat on the decision for a couple of months to make sure it was still a good idea. It is. I've been following this forum for a couple of months. This week I resigned from my position effective February 2011. My last day at work will be December 17th.
The push was the advancement of technology which made my engineering position uninteresting and obsolete. The pull was the realization that I had a pretty good defined benefit plan. A former employee of mine once told me that when he looked at his retirement benefits he realized he was working for free. It's just about the same thing for me. I suddenly realized the power of living below your means. The other pull was that my wife thought it was a great idea.
As everyone probably knows, the math behind a defined benefit plan is: age factor x salary x years of service. At 55 years age sort of works against me. However, I make a decent salary and I've worked at the same place for 30 years. I get to count my 7 months of accumulated sick leave toward my service credit. I get to burn off 12 weeks of accumulated vacation time to extend my service another couple of months. My car payment will be done in two years. My house mortgage is really low and will be paid off in three years. My CA Prop 13 property tax is low. No kids and no debts.
In June, my wife and I put together "The Spreadsheet" of income and expenses for a gap analysis. We were pretty generous on the expenses and we still came out with $2500/mo extra income so even if I underestimated some expenses I've got a pretty good buffer to work with. All growth assumptions in the spreadsheet are ultra conservative.
The benefit has a COLA built in. I get full health benefits. The Health rate is low right now but is not guaranteed to stay low. We have our retirement 403b savings which I figure we won't have to touch for at least 10 years. My wife intends to continue working but we've built in her retirement at 55 too (in three years).
I expect to have to budget more closely and to have to cut back in some areas but I don't see that as a real hardship. My biggest challenges don't seem to be financial. They more along the lines of keeping myself socially occupied.
I hadn't even considered retirement until 4 months ago. It surprised quite a few of my friends and family but I've gotten a lot of support. It's a pretty big deal for me. I'm comparing it to graduating high school or college. There is a whole new world and way of life out there that I know little about. A little scary but exciting too.
The push was the advancement of technology which made my engineering position uninteresting and obsolete. The pull was the realization that I had a pretty good defined benefit plan. A former employee of mine once told me that when he looked at his retirement benefits he realized he was working for free. It's just about the same thing for me. I suddenly realized the power of living below your means. The other pull was that my wife thought it was a great idea.
As everyone probably knows, the math behind a defined benefit plan is: age factor x salary x years of service. At 55 years age sort of works against me. However, I make a decent salary and I've worked at the same place for 30 years. I get to count my 7 months of accumulated sick leave toward my service credit. I get to burn off 12 weeks of accumulated vacation time to extend my service another couple of months. My car payment will be done in two years. My house mortgage is really low and will be paid off in three years. My CA Prop 13 property tax is low. No kids and no debts.
In June, my wife and I put together "The Spreadsheet" of income and expenses for a gap analysis. We were pretty generous on the expenses and we still came out with $2500/mo extra income so even if I underestimated some expenses I've got a pretty good buffer to work with. All growth assumptions in the spreadsheet are ultra conservative.
The benefit has a COLA built in. I get full health benefits. The Health rate is low right now but is not guaranteed to stay low. We have our retirement 403b savings which I figure we won't have to touch for at least 10 years. My wife intends to continue working but we've built in her retirement at 55 too (in three years).
I expect to have to budget more closely and to have to cut back in some areas but I don't see that as a real hardship. My biggest challenges don't seem to be financial. They more along the lines of keeping myself socially occupied.
I hadn't even considered retirement until 4 months ago. It surprised quite a few of my friends and family but I've gotten a lot of support. It's a pretty big deal for me. I'm comparing it to graduating high school or college. There is a whole new world and way of life out there that I know little about. A little scary but exciting too.
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