Hi from an old hippie in Illinois

[Pegcarddave]

Well... just found this site yesterday. I'm planning to retire in January 2012. Have been contemplating this for a long time (I'm 62, my wife is 68) and I think I'm set financially. But I'm concerned about the psychological and emotional adjustment to retirement. Its hard to say "oops" if you don't like it and get your old job back.

I think I am going to like the freedom to share my situation, my thoughts, and my questions anonymously here and get feedback from people who have already done it instead of some financial advisor who's never been retired.

Briefly, we will both have pensions and social security totaling about $140,000 per year. We have about $600K in savings/investments and another $300,000 in real estate equity. We currently earn a combined total of $240,000 but have been saving about $40K per year before taxes for the last several years. We have two houses - Illinois and Arizona. Plan to spend about $100K per year in retirement. Doable? Everybody says you need millions in savings, but not sure they factored in my four income streams.

Got any tips on retiring at the same time (or different time) as spouse? How do you manage going from relevant to irrelevant? How do you discipline yourself to make the most of this exciting life transition?

Great line from the movie "Crazy Heart"..... "I used to be somebody, now I'm somebody else!"

Sorry for the long post... you all seem like a friendly and forgiving bunch.

 

[travelover]

Welcome. I'd encourage you to use the search function and also to look at the FAQ section.

It looks like you have plenty of money, you just need to decide what you want to be when you grow up.

 

[usafmd]

The only point I can comment upon is the "millions to retire upon." In general, if one does not have a pension or SSN, then the way to calculate the withdrawl rate, say over a 30 year time horizon is about3.7-4% inflation adjusted per year. Working backwards, your $140k annual income stream alone is roughly equivalent to having a $3.5-3.7M nest egg.

 

[REWahoo]

Travelover mentioned the FAQ's - here is a link to some threads you might find interesting:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/faq-archive-but-what-will-i-do-all-day-30655.html

 

[W2R]

Well... just found this site yesterday. I'm planning to retire in January 2012. Have been contemplating this for a long time (I'm 62, my wife is 68) and I think I'm set financially. But I'm concerned about the psychological and emotional adjustment to retirement. Its hard to say "oops" if you don't like it and get your old job back.

I think I am going to like the freedom to share my situation, my thoughts, and my questions anonymously here and get feedback from people who have already done it instead of some financial advisor who's never been retired.

Briefly, we will both have pensions and social security totaling about $140,000 per year. We have about $600K in savings/investments and another $300,000 in real estate equity. We currently earn a combined total of $240,000 but have been saving about $40K per year before taxes for the last several years. We have two houses - Illinois and Arizona. Plan to spend about $100K per year in retirement. Doable? Everybody says you need millions in savings, but not sure they factored in my four income streams.

Got any tips on retiring at the same time (or different time) as spouse? How do you manage going from relevant to irrelevant? How do you discipline yourself to make the most of this exciting life transition?

Great line from the movie "Crazy Heart"..... "I used to be somebody, now I'm somebody else!"

Sorry for the long post... you all seem like a friendly and forgiving bunch.

Hello, and welcome to the Early Retirement Forum.

Our free retirement calculator, FIRECalc (link at the bottom of each page), may be helpful to you in assessing your financial readiness to retire.

I have no personal familiarity with issues that may arise when two spouses are trying to coordinate their retirements.

Going from relevant to irrelevant? I think the shift is the other way. What we do at work, for pay, can often be pretty much irrelevant to our real interests and goals in life. Office politics, tedious meetings, and endless conference calls come to mind.

For me, retirement has been exciting and fun. When I worked, I never seemed to have any problem thinking of interesting pursuits on weekends or during vacation time. For me retirement is to a vacation as a vacation is to a Saturday - - longer and freer, with less hanging over one's head.

I have had a very easy adjustment to retirement so I haven't read it, but Zelinski's "How to Retire, Wild, Happy, and Free" has been helpful to many of our members who are concerned about the emotional adjustment to retirement.

Hope this helps! Enjoy our forum and I hope you find the answers you want and need.

 

[steelyman]

Welcome from a fellow Illini, Dave. We need more hippies in this state... but hey you are not old!

 

[grasshopper]

Welcome aboard the Magic Bus.

Question are you old and a hippie? Or are old and was a hippie. Full time life in SE Arizona, I still smell like patchouli and grow smudging herbs.

 

[donheff]

I'm the same age "old" hippy from Illinois (30 years ago). Welcome PCDave

 

[Arnie]

Welcome Dave. You have a nice list of interests - "Golf, music, cribbage, movies, friends, wine" - any of the friends already retired?

 

[kumquat]

Nothing like a hippie with a $140K income. Any product I can afford?

 

[obgyn65]

Welcome to the forum, Dave.

 

[Rambler]

Welcome Dave. Is the 100k spending including taxes or after taxes? Are the pensions COLAd, diet COLAd or fixed? If diet or fixed, and the spending target of 100k is post-tax, have you considered any changes to your spending habits that will increase the longevity of your success? Just some things to think about. But overall, if the pensions are COLAd and the 100k spending includes what you expect to pay in tax, I'd say you are in great shape.

Again, welcome. Look forward to your posts.

R

 

[lafljm]

hi from Louisiana. I just cam upon this site while doing some research work and just like what I was reading.

 

[Pegcarddave]

Thanks for the reply, Rambler. Actually, my budget is about $110K after taxes. Its padded to be sure, but wanted to be certain my anticipated income could support my lifestyle in retirement. Not sure what "diet" COLA is. Of course my SS income is COLA'd. My wife's public pension (which is about 65% of our retirment income) automatically increases by 3% each year. And my pension is fixed.

Thanks for the advice and welcome.

 

[DFA]

Well to the forum Dave. I like the hippie life too, I was just born about 10 years late and looked funny wearing tie-die in high school, but who cares that was a long time ago.

 

[Moemg]

How do you discipline yourself to make the most of this exciting life transition?

Welcome Dave ,
The only thing I discipline myself to do in retirement is no happy hour until 4:30 unless you are travelling or it's sunny or you are having lunch with some friends .

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome! I had some significant volunteer work lined up before I RE'd and that helped me out a lot. I also made the mistake of taking on some additional volunteer projects that were not a good match for me just because I thought I should since I had the time. Bad decision. Fortunately they are all wrapped up now.

Honestly, I don't know how I had time to w*rk 9-10 hours a day as I did for all those years. Have no trouble at all filling up the days and still have a very long to-do list.

In addition to the happy hour discipline (mine is 5:00), I also limit my online time on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and this board to once or twice per day.

DH retired (on disability) a few years before me, so he already had his routines. Other than going out together for lunch once or twice a month, we generally do our own thing during the day and meet up over a glass of wine while I'm cooking dinner.

Hope some of this is helpful. I have found this board to be a great resource, including for things I hadn't even thought about yet. So again, Welcome!

 

[packrat44]

Welcome Pegcarddave. Where is your place in AZ?

 

[Rambler]

Dave, fixed means the amount never changes, COLAd means it moves with the CPI, diet COLAd means it adjusts upward but a some percentage less than CPI.

Hope that helps

R