Another new member-retired today!

[llaurin]

Hi to everyone. I just signed my retirement papers today and figured it was time to actually register as a member. I've been reading the posts to this forum since last fall. I have really learned a lot from all of you and want to thank all of you who are generous enough to share the details of your retirement with others.
I guess you'd consider my husband and I early retirees. I'm 52 and he's 53. We each worked at government jobs for nearly 30 years and both retired with pensions. We also have medical insurance through CalPERS.
During the last six monthes I have spent all my spare time working all those online retirement calculators. The FIREcalc one is the BEST I came across. That's for sure. The most valuable info I gather from this forum relates to investing. I like to see the posts relating to everyone's portfolios, what they own, how their investments did, etc. I really think the info here is so much more useful than the info available through all the brokerage sites.
My husband and I are both total newbies in the investment world. We know only what we have learned the past few months. My husband picked three funds for his 401k and 457 accounts 25+ years ago. In all that time we never once opened a quarterly statement from the broker. Is that crazy or what? Fortunately, we have a nice, big nestegg that we otherwise never would have had. At times, we would think about that money and wonder how we could get to it. Thank goodness we only borrowed from it a few times to help pay the kids college expenses.
It wasn't that long ago that we were in debt to the max and saw no way out. But, all of a sudden, the kids were through college and we were out of debt in no time at all. That's when thoughts of early retirement began. And here we are.
So what are we going to do? Well, we knew for sure we had to do something different. So here's the deal. We are going to become PTs, or perpetual travelers, like our mentors, Billy and Akaisha Kaderli. We are selling our home and traveling around the world. We plan to begin traveling in June.
I'll be posting questions soon about the pros and cons of rolling over our 401k and 457 accounts and about diversifying our investments.
Okay, about dryer sheets. Here's the way it is at out house. I use one per load. BUT, my husband, who happens to do most of the laundry, uses 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[REWahoo]

Hello llaurin, congratulations on your retirement and welcome to the forum!

Sounds like you've got some wonderful travelling plans...maybe you can wean your DH off his obsessive dryer sheet overconsumption problem when you hit the road.

[perinova]

I read you'll have a lot of fun. Congrats on your retirement!

[Cattusbabe]

Congrats of your early retirement. It won't be long for me just three weeks. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

[chris2008]

Congratulations!
For travelling you may want to check www.servas.org. It is a great way to travel and to meet people.
We still have some years till we can join the travelling life. So let us know how it all works out for you.

[SolidA]

Congratulations on your retirement!! I'll be looking forward to reading about your travels - keep us posted!!!!

[Billy]

Hi llaurin!

Congrats on your retirement! Fabulous! Welcome to the Boards, too!

Where's your first adventure? Maybe we'll be able to meet up sometime while we're all on the road* Here's the view from our southern Thailand office right now: http://retireearlylifestyle.com/southern_view1.wmv

Best of everything, and do let us know how your travels go...*

Akaisha and Billy
Author, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement

[Mountain_Mike]

Billy,
What a wonderful view!!! There certainly is more to life than beeing cooped up in a cubicle!

(an envious) Mike

[Dawg54]

Originally Posted by Billy

Hi llaurin!

Congrats on your retirement! Fabulous! Welcome to the Boards, too!

Where's your first adventure? Maybe we'll be able to meet up sometime while we're all on the road* Here's the view from our southern Thailand office right now: http://retireearlylifestyle.com/southern_view1.wmv

Best of everything, and do let us know how your travels go...*

Akaisha and Billy
Author, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement

Keep an eye on those nasty tsunamis(spelling?)*

[Billy]

Boy, you know it! We have been imagining how it must have been for these people.

No one here wants to talk about it much...* *

The Thais pronounce it 'soo-n'MEE'* *

We see a lot of building going on, and not a lot of damage or left over damage...

Akaisha
Author, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement