Into The Stretch

[yakers]

I am one year away from when I can retire on a somewhat reasonable pension (reasonable as my wife & I are simple living folks who would consider a missionary/Habitat For Humanity type life). I probably want to build *up my pension a bit and I actually like my job but mostly I still have one son left in high school and I want to know his college forecast before leaving my job. So as I figure right now, I am 2 to four years from retiring unless my son gets into Stanford or CALTECH (not likely). So my question is what to do planning, saving, learning or whatever in this "final stretch"? I see people talking about what they would do differently if they were starting over but here there is only a few years but they could be good years as I can build up resources a bit and maybe learn something now that would be harder to learn later. How did you retired folks (early and regular) use your last working years to set up the structure of your retirement?
Just some reference points, I have a small paid off house, I am maxing my Roth IRA and 401k type retirement plan. I am not worried about medical coverage as I should have adequate insurance. My wife expects to retire in about two years with a small teachers pension but that will help a bit. *

[Bob_Smith]

Yakers, good question. I really didn't have a to-do list designed to set up or structure my retirement. It was more like a gradual 13 year process. My life is very much the same as it was before ER - except the job is replaced by activities of my choosing. So if your life is working before retirement, and you have enough money allocated appropriately, you'll probably do fine with very little effort.

One thing I didn't expect; I guess I just hadn't given it much thought before retiring: what you do at work, how you treat people, the kind of person you are there - you take it with you. It will matter to you after you leave. I am very glad I did what I did all those years. So if I had to make one suggestion to prospective retirees, I'd suggest they keep that in mind as they prepare to exit.