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Hello DX! Your post was very sensible and readable.
If someone gave me your 2MM (after taxes), I still would not live anywhere near the NYC suburbs, or NYC itself,
obviously. Can hardly imagine anything worse. But,
if it works for you, then that makes me happy (for you). BTW, this is another area where Ayn Rand and I part
company. She loved the big cities. I avoid them like the plague.

JG
 
Hello

I've been lurking for several months and have found this board to be very interesting. I live in Ottawa, Canada (I hope John Galt is going to be kind when he finds that out :D).

The trivia buffs should know that Ottawa is the second coldest capital city in the world. As well, the world's longest skating rink (also known as the Rideau Canal) is scheduled to open soon. The politicians are all on vacation so there is no hot air to help warm us up.

Not sure I will ER since I am already 57, still working and still saving for retirement. I'm a self-employed consultant and have a current net worth around 1.1 million in Canadian funny money. That includes registered retirement plans and a mortgage free house. My wife does not work and the two kids are both married and doing OK. We have aging parents who so far have been managing for themselves.

I'm looking forward to finding out from other Canadians how they are doing in retirement or in their planning for retirement.

Happy New Year!
 
Welcome Trolleydriver! Always nice to hear from a fellow Canadian! I live in Calgary with hubby and two dogs...no kids yet. I've only been to Ottawa once but I remember it being beautiful.

I'm sure you'll find this board very informative and the regular posters are great to get info from!
 
Hi JG,

If I had a choice, I'd live somewhere within reasonable
distance to a major metropolitan city for all the benefits
a city provides, such as arts, culture and food, etc. yet
far enough not to have to deal with traffic, subway and
masses of people like I have to in my daily commute.

Regards,

dx
 
yet
far enough not to have to deal with traffic, subway and
masses of people like I have to in my daily commute.
Click to expand...

Don't forget; When you retire you won't have a commute.

One of my guilty pleasures in the winter, is staying home during a snowstorm and watching all the car accidents on TV with a Pot of Coffee :D
 
Welcome Trolleydriver! I am also from Ontario and live south of Hamilton near Cayuga and have been on this board for about six months. I am 51 and plan to retire in the next year or two. I always thought I would work till I was in my late fifties but changed my mind a year or so ago and am just making sute the numbers will work the way I want. I turn 52 in September and may pull the plug then. Networth is about $500,000 all but $160,000 in real estate. I will have a pension and will clear $2200 monthly from it and have about $400 monthly clear from rental income.

If you are not going to retire perhaps you could cut back to part time. In some ways I wish I could go to part time for a few years but with my occupation it is all or none.

Bruce
 
Welcome trolleydriver. I am a 55 year old Albertan currently on ex-pat assignment in Houston. Calgary is my designated home location despite having only lived there a total of 17 years on 3 different occasions.

Spouse and I kept an investment property in Calgary because of the rising real estate prices. We do not have any parental financial obligations to our adult children although we choose to help them out a bit financially as they get their careers established. We could afford to retire quite easily today on income from our investments and my DB pension based on disciplined investing and saving, moderate spending, and minimizing debt. Our only debt over our working lives was a house mortgage which we had paid off many years ago.

However, I plan to retire May 2006 with that particular milestone based on: 1) desire to reach a 35 year milestone of working in the energy industry, 2) milking this ex-pat assignment as much as possible for its extra monetary benefits, and 3) pleasing my spouse who loves living in our current location. All of that could change if the company wanted to send me on a new 2-3 year assignment or I got a new boss I disliked. So maybe I am really on a 30 day rolling forward retirement date.

You will find a lot of great information on this Board, most of which is also applicable to Canadians (things like IRA's, etc notwithstanding). I find the social and mental related materials of most use for that reason. Also consider participating in the Canadian www.wealthyboomer.com site which has quite useful forums (finance and otherwise).
 
Thanks for the many welcomes. Hope you all had a great time during the holidays and all the best for 2005.

Calculated the annual return on my investments for 2004. I'm not impressed with the 7.5%. Got to do better going forward.
 
Hello Everyone,

I am 55 and my husband is 62. He retired last week and I am planning on being retired by March. I recently found this forum and I am enjoying reading everyones experiences and comments.

I am going thru quite a emotional roller coaster concerning leaving my job. I want to, but something in me just doesn't want to pull the plug. Money is not the problem, we should have more than enough, but yet I can't bring myself to walk away. I think it's that old security thing. I have worked since I was 15 years old, what in the world will I do without working? I would appreciate comments of others who may know what I am going thru.

My husband and I live on a large lake. We have recently downsized from a large city home to our second home. We have had the second home for almost 5 years and we love this area. We live 60 miles from the big city where we had lived for most of our adult lives. The kids are in the area.

I don't know why I just can't turn loose and enjoy....
 
Work is both an economic and a social activity.

My husband and I were talking last night about what happened to his parents after they retired to a lake about 60 miles from the city where their children lived (you aren't in Oregon, are you?). She was very social and they spent a lot of time commuting to their social groups in town. When he got sick their life became very complicated. After he passed away she couldn't leave their dream home on the lake and continued the driving. When it came time to sell she found that their home wasn't easy to sell.

You already have the house on the lake and doubtless it is beautiful and your husband is busy fishing and keeping it up. Now think about hou you will spend your time when you retire.
 
Hi LakeRat! Although I suffered no such angst myself,
I can think of many reasons why it might be difficult
to "pull the trigger". I am 60. My wife is 55. Right now
I have no idea when she will retire. Doubt that she does either. I know she likes having her own income
(an independence thing). It makes sense to me, so
I don't try to nudge her one way or the other. It's
her decision mainly. The only problem is that she is tied to a
job while I am free to come and go.

JG
 
Hi JG and Brat,

I guess I am just having to work through all of this. We have had lots of change in the last few months and I am such a creature of habit that I guess I have been knocked a little off balance. I am just hanging on to the statis quo even though I want to let go so bad! I am not in love with the job, I am just having a hard time with walking away. I guess in all honesty I never in my wildest dreams expected to make the salary that I have been lucky enough to earn. I feel guilty about walking away from the money, even though I know that I can survive quite well with out another paycheck.

Brat, as I said in my original post we have had our lake house for almost five years. We have met a number of people in the community during that time. I have already gotten involved with some group activities for the winter down time. During the summer it is busy around here. We are very lucky that we have many wonderful neighbors who are here during the summer months, but kind of evaporate back to the city in the winter. This is party central during the spring and summer. And by the way, I'm in Texas. Texas native, married to a great guy from California. (He got here as fast as he could.) We love the lake life, but if anything happened to my husband, I would wave bye bye to the lake and be back in town as quick as I could get the Uhaul loaded.

I am amazed at how easy my husband walked away from his job of thirty years. He seems to have just closed the door on his past life and opened the next. I wish it were that simple for me.

Any suggests, deep breathing exercises, affirmations, etc. that anyone can offer, please.... help me make the decision to cut the cord. :p
 
...I am just hanging on to the statis quo even though I want to let go so bad! I am not in love with the job, I am just having a hard time with walking away.
Click to expand...
How about setting some goals and planning a few fun projects you can enjoy during retirement? Rather than framing retirement as "walking away" from your job, you would be more motivated if you view the process as progressing towards a better life.

Ernie J. Zelinski's book "How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free" addresses this aspect very well and is discussed in another thread.
 
Parnass,

Thanks for your reply. I am going to find that book and start reading....
 
Hey LakeRat..........what lake? Our Condo is on Lake Texoma.

BTW, for you non-Texans, there is only one natural lake
in the whole state of Texas. That's right! I didn't
believe it either. A box of used dryer sheets to any non-Texan who can come up with the name.

JG
 
LakeRat, I retired at 48 (the first time) when making very good money in a dysfunctional office. Did that to save my sanity. A year later I was recruited into a great, addicting, org; left a few years later only because my parents really needed me and I had trained my replacement. These days I do consulting gigs to keep up my skills.

We retired to the NW equivalant of "the lake"- the Sound, a ferry ride away from the big city.

I shared with you my in-law story because we all need to think about 'worst case'. In my part of the world we look out over magnificent vistas, many dream of retiring to a forrest cabin from an urban life. After retiring the next thing they do is sell the house and build a replacement out in the woods (for some reason they don't downsize the urban house and build a modest cabin). For the first time in their life they need to maintain a well and a septic system. After such a move I know of one wife in my age group who said it was her or the woods and the woods won. Big houses in the forrest or on rural lakes aren't hot properties.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the responses. Lake Caddo is not my cup of Tea. As someone said it's the only natural lake in Texas. It's on the border between Texas and Louisiana and looks more like Louisiana (read swamp...). Dark coffee colored water and moss in the trees, yuck....

Our house is on Cedar Creek. It's a little man-made lake with 328 miles of shoreline. It's the third largest lake in Texas, behind John's Texoma and Toledo Bend which is also on the border of Texas and Louisiana. We are 60 miles from Dallas and it's an easy commute into town.

I love the lake area, but as Brat pointed out it's a high maintenance existance. A property on the water can be a real money pit. I am not real anxious to do a lot of that maintenance myself so that is the reason I would be out of here in a flash if something happened and my husband was not here. He is really great about the maintenance. A real first class Mr. Fix-it. So I don't have to worry about that right now. I love being out here. We downsized into a smaller home and the cost of living in this more rural setting is much less than in Dallas.

Brat, I love my job, but my office is very disfunctional, and I have been unhappy with the office politics for a long time. I am working thru the lists of reasons why I would be better off without the aggravation of the politics. I haven't ruled out going back to work at some time in the future if I get bored.

I have had several wake up calls in the last year. I have lost three friends (all younger than me) and have watched my inlaws decline in health. It's time to get on with life and enjoy whats left. I need to open that door to my new life, I am just having trouble getting the courage to turn the handle.

I am encouraged to be meeting you guys and finding that others found happiness in walking away and opening that new door.
 
Only a Texan would call 328 miles of shoreline a
"little lake" :)

JG
 
When Mrs. Zipper's cousins were visiting from England for a couple of weeks in May of 2000 they wanted to see "The Great Lakes". :D

We spent a day in Toronto and did the tour. (Lake Ontario)

Then down to Niagara and along the North shore of Lake Erie to Pt. Stanley. They were amazed that we could stand on a 200' cliff and not see the other side. (Ohio)

Went to Pelee for a day and the marsh boardwalk on Erie.

Crossed into Michigan at Pt. Huron and up to "The Zoo" (Sault Ste. Marie). Had the best whitefish ever Cut-Throat! :D

Crossed the Mackinac Bridge and then back to Canada. Loaded up on cheap booze and drove just far enough to see Lake Superior and pick up a few rock souvenirs.

Then back to Manitoulin where we picked up the Chi-Chi-Maun ferry to Tobermory. (Huron-Georgian Bay) The Lake was as smooth as glass but Mrs. Zipper was getting sea-sick. Must have been the engines? ;)

No cruises for us!

Their famous last words were......."We didn't think the lakes were so big!" :eek:
 
Hello Zipper. That is some beautiful country. I have been all over it many times. Recognized all of the places
you mentioned. It has been my experience that people
who have not spent much time around the Great Lakes
can't quite believe it when they finally see them up close
and personal.

JG
 
Where should I send your dryer sheets?
Click to expand...

JG,

Better hang onto them, as I'm here in the snow belt and they might get lost in a snowdrift. :D

EngrGal
 
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