In the bell lap and don't want to chicken out

[walkinwood]

Welcome.
Look at this thread for peoples expenses as the years pass
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...0-a-53971.html

and search for similar threads from earlier years.

Knowing your expenses in DETAIL is one of the key things to successful ER - not only financially, but also for peace of mind. If you are not recording every $ of expense, start now & build a history so you can look at any new expense in relationship to past experience.

In my experience, getting off the hard-work-grind is not difficult if you are curious and have some interests outside of work. It is harder to accept the loss of status (or whatever you want to call it). You are no more an executive, owner, manager, engineer or whatever-you-were that commanded respect in an organization. In social settings, you'll hear people talk about work & you may find yourself giving them advice. But, you're not in the game any more, and your input will not have the same weight as it once did (irrespective of the accuracy of what you're saying). That is hard to see and accept.

On the other hand, your stress levels will fall drastically. You'll have the time to take care of yourself - health, food, family, friends, spiritual, community - you name it, and you'll have time to do it.

Once last piece of advice. Don't over commit your time. Relax for a year or so and then decide how you want to divide your time - if at all.

All the best. The best years are ahead. Always ahead.

[Hnicols]

As to annuities, I understand, I think, some of the reasoning behind annuities but can't bring myself to paying others a skim For essentially promising to give me back the money I gave them minus the time value of money. And yes I know it is possible they will return more than that, although the annuity companies come with offsetting credit risk too. All in that leaves me a bit frozen as I debate adding annuities. Scares me not to have them but here is how I rationalize what I am doing.

I look at my modest pension (about 12 percent of my desired income) and my eventual social security (about 12 percent more) as an annuity weighting to my portfolio. When I think of my asset allocation (about 65 percent equities) I measure the percentage against all sources dedicated to funding my retirement (so I include in my portfolio the present value of my pension and socialsecurity). Allof this means I am pretty heavy equities. So to balance risk and keep from going crazy in this volatile market I have my first four years of retirement covered in current money market accounts so I am not watching the market bounce everyday. A weird approach I guess but it keeps me thinkingmedium to longer term and since I have to protect a 40 plus year retirement that seems right to me.