Just a few more years until retirement from Northern Massachusetts

[georgemoe]

Been a member slightly over a year and finally getting to my hello post. Been a great year reading everyone's experiences, book suggestions, and taking notes.

About to turn 60 and plan to retire at 64 (2023). DW is currently 64 and she will retire at FRA in two years and 2 months (2021). Both of us are in pretty good health. I bike and run along with light workouts at home. DW is not as active but recently got her a bike and hope she takes to it. She is celebrating 30 years of being cancer free after bouts of both cervical and lung cancer. We are both planning 90 years for longevity. DW's Mom still going strong at 83. I on the other hand have a poor family history other than my maternal grandmother who lived to just a few months shy of 100. Dad passed at 79 and Mom currently in assisted living with Alzheimer's.

We are still in a planning stage. DW will take her SS at FRA. I'm deciding what to do. Take at 64 or defer later for the survivor benefit. DW will be on Medicare next year so that's what I've been reading up on lately. For me I'll need to figure out HC before Medicare to cover 1 year.

I've gone back and tracked our last two years of expenses and have a pretty good handle on what our future expenses and budget will be. We will be mortgage free in 2022 and our current Fidelity RIP score is 115. I still plan to run FireCALC and i-orp. We plan to draw down 4% a year from our retirement accounts. Legacy would be left to one daughter we have between us and two grandchildren.

We have no current plans to retire south at this point but I may buy a snowblower to make New England winters a bit more enjoyable. I've always considered snow shoveling to be great winter exercise. We will do some cruising and domestic travel. Maybe a Mediterranean cruise or trip to Europe thrown in somewhere.

Other pursuits will be staying active with my running clubs. Biking. Volunteering on the soon to be built rail trail in our city. Finally learning to play guitar. Finding a local chorus or barbershop group. I'll come up with more I'm sure.

Next up is more research on HC. Developing a firmer income strategy once we are both retired. Looking forward to my daily visits here as we get close.

Thanks for all the help and wishing everyone the best.

- George

 

[Teacher Terry]

Sounds like you have a great plan. Welcome to the forum!

 

[friar1610]

Welcome from a fellow "Masshole". As I'm sure you're already aware, no state tax on SS in Mass.

 

[brucethebroker]

Welcome. Keep us posted on thoughts, progress.

 

[georgemoe]

Thank you for the welcomes!

 

[georgemoe]

Quick update as things have escalated a bit. DW will now retire at the end of this year 6 months earlier than originally planned (FRA). She will be on Medicare starting in April and will starting drawing SS in January of 2021.

My time frame has changed a bit from my first post. After spending the last year reviewing savings, income, and our retirement budget, I decided to retire at 62 (61 this June). We came to this decision because our savings had enough to fund up to 35x our yearly budget needs.

Just last month I was offered early separation from megacorp. Was blindsided a bit and only had a week to apply for it. Nine months pay, plus a healthcare payout, and access to use my RMSA once retired. Was hoping for this offer to come up in 2021 but decided I was close enough to take it now and bridge to SS at 62. Currently waiting on if I was excepted and what my release date will be.

I'm currently researching bucket systems and funding a paycheck in retirement and still need to figure that out. DW and are have most of our saving at Fido and will probably just stay there. Just need to figure out the best low cost accounts to use to create Bucket 1 (3 years expenses). I'm guessing one is the Cash Management at Fido but do I need more than one and if so, which ones are low ER. Do I even need to keep Bucket 1 at Fido or can I move it to another online bank. All of our accounts are tax deferred so need to determine how to make these moves, if possible, without immediate tax implications. We are just moving things not drawing just yet.

Will be spending a bunch of time searching threads in these forums for answers. I've already followed the links to Retirement Manifesto. Great reading.

Thanks!

 

[finnski1]

Been a member slightly over a year and finally getting to my hello post. Been a great year reading everyone's experiences, book suggestions, and taking notes.

About to turn 60 and plan to retire at 64 (2023). DW is currently 64 and she will retire at FRA in two years and 2 months (2021). Both of us are in pretty good health. I bike and run along with light workouts at home. DW is not as active but recently got her a bike and hope she takes to it. She is celebrating 30 years of being cancer free after bouts of both cervical and lung cancer. We are both planning 90 years for longevity. DW's Mom still going strong at 83. I on the other hand have a poor family history other than my maternal grandmother who lived to just a few months shy of 100. Dad passed at 79 and Mom currently in assisted living with Alzheimer's.

We are still in a planning stage. DW will take her SS at FRA. I'm deciding what to do. Take at 64 or defer later for the survivor benefit. DW will be on Medicare next year so that's what I've been reading up on lately. For me I'll need to figure out HC before Medicare to cover 1 year.

I've gone back and tracked our last two years of expenses and have a pretty good handle on what our future expenses and budget will be. We will be mortgage free in 2022 and our current Fidelity RIP score is 115. I still plan to run FireCALC and i-orp. We plan to draw down 4% a year from our retirement accounts. Legacy would be left to one daughter we have between us and two grandchildren.

We have no current plans to retire south at this point but I may buy a snowblower to make New England winters a bit more enjoyable. I've always considered snow shoveling to be great winter exercise. We will do some cruising and domestic travel. Maybe a Mediterranean cruise or trip to Europe thrown in somewhere.

Other pursuits will be staying active with my running clubs. Biking. Volunteering on the soon to be built rail trail in our city. Finally learning to play guitar. Finding a local chorus or barbershop group. I'll come up with more I'm sure.

Next up is more research on HC. Developing a firmer income strategy once we are both retired. Looking forward to my daily visits here as we get close.

Thanks for all the help and wishing everyone the best.

- George

wow. very similar to me.
Grew up in North central mass. I'm about to turn 61 and my wife is 64 as well.
we are both retire already (me at 54 her at 61) and both relearning to play guitar!

We don't want to retire south either and love new england fresh air (even in the winter) though don't mind a week visit.


Don't happen to work for Raytheon?

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

Quick update as things have escalated a bit. DW will now retire at the end of this year 6 months earlier than originally planned (FRA). She will be on Medicare starting in April and will starting drawing SS in January of 2021.

My time frame has changed a bit from my first post. After spending the last year reviewing savings, income, and our retirement budget, I decided to retire at 62 (61 this June). We came to this decision because our savings had enough to fund up to 35x our yearly budget needs.

Just last month I was offered early separation from megacorp. Was blindsided a bit and only had a week to apply for it. Nine months pay, plus a healthcare payout, and access to use my RMSA once retired. Was hoping for this offer to come up in 2021 but decided I was close enough to take it now and bridge to SS at 62. Currently waiting on if I was excepted and what my release date will be.

I'm currently researching bucket systems and funding a paycheck in retirement and still need to figure that out. DW and are have most of our saving at Fido and will probably just stay there. Just need to figure out the best low cost accounts to use to create Bucket 1 (3 years expenses). I'm guessing one is the Cash Management at Fido but do I need more than one and if so, which ones are low ER. Do I even need to keep Bucket 1 at Fido or can I move it to another online bank. All of our accounts are tax deferred so need to determine how to make these moves, if possible, without immediate tax implications. We are just moving things not drawing just yet.

Will be spending a bunch of time searching threads in these forums for answers. I've already followed the links to Retirement Manifesto. Great reading.

Thanks!

Congrats from a fellow Bay Stater - you sound like you are well on your way planning wise. Be ready for any social isolation - make sure you have activities and relationships to fill in place of the grind.

 

[georgemoe]

wow. very similar to me.
Grew up in North central mass. I'm about to turn 61 and my wife is 64 as well.
we are both retire already (me at 54 her at 61) and both relearning to play guitar!

We don't want to retire south either and love new england fresh air (even in the winter) though don't mind a week visit.


Don't happen to work for Raytheon?

Hi and Wow! Talk about similar. No not Raytheon. Old tech!

 

[georgemoe]

Congrats from a fellow Bay Stater - you sound like you are well on your way planning wise. Be ready for any social isolation - make sure you have activities and relationships to fill in place of the grind.

Thanks! Lot's of things planned fun and other.

Biking, music, my running club, hiking, de-cluttering. Oh, and a honey-do list.

 

[Onward]

Congrats on your impending retirement.

Avoid buckets unless you like needless mental accounting.

 

[DrRoy]

A WR of 1/35 (2.9%)sounds good to me.