You want a year off but the answer is NO

[GTM]

50 years old, your job is OK, the money is good but you really need time off to travel and do things you been wanting to do for a while.

You probably will never get a better job if anything like this at all.

Finances OK but not great, no pension.
Health insurance is important to maintain at your own cost.

You can wait 3-5 years to build a minimal pension or quit now.
No other possibilities

What DO YOU do.

 

[Marshac]

Stick with it-

*50 years old, and getting close, yet the finances are 'not great'
*Self-Insuring will further drain the 'not great' financial reserves
*3 years until the pension vests... does it come with health care?

 

[dex]

GTM,
I'm in the same situation:
50y/o, easy job $150k/yr, net worth est 1.5m (includes 300k home paid off)
Will get 13K in pension @ 60
All the same as you; including your final question: What do you do?

You will get many answers saying "No brainer; do it, I did it with less."

I guess you should start with why don't we do it - that will point out our fears.
My fear - I would have too much time on my hands and wouldn't really know what to do. Work fill up the time. I know it is stupid. I'm working on it.

On the other hand there is the "jump and the net will appear point of view." Or "you will see it when you believe it."
Let us know why you don't do it.

 

[VoyT]

  No other pension coming from another job?  
  From what you posted, I'd suggest sticking it out for the next 3 years, and socking as much away as possible. It's a long way to Social Security at 62.
  But take some money and plan a trip for your vacation time...

 

 

[Jarhead*]

GTM,
I'm in the same situation:
50y/o, easy job $150k/yr, net worth est 1.5m (includes 300k home paid off)
Will get 13K in pension @ 60
All the same as you; including your final question: What do you do?


My fear - I would have too much time on my hands and wouldn't really know what to do.  Work fill up the time.  I know it is stupid.  I'm working on it.

On the other hand there is the "jump and the net will appear point of view." Or "you will see it when you believe it."
Let us know why you don't do it.

Dex: Not stupid at all. I've been retired for close to 19 years now, but I had very specific plans on what I wanted to do in retirement.

I have mentioned this before, and I firmly believe that "busted" retirements are usually the result of circumstances other than financial.

By and large, for me personally, it has worked out fine, but then again, I was highly motivated.
(Relocate, to area that I wanted to live in, pursuit of two areas of interest, that I had very little time for while working, etc. etc. My kids were pretty much raised, so a lot of the heavy lifting was done.

Anyway, no time table involved, so if things are fine with work, and you can't think of a real solid reason to retire, hang in there until you do.
It's been my experience that after age 50, especially if you work for a corporation, they will usually give you a pretty good reason to hang it up eventually.

 

[TromboneAl]

Hi GTM,

What does FireCalc tell you?

Have you done a detailed and rigorous calculation of your annual expenses?

If you have a clear idea of how much you spend each year, and how much you'll expect to spend after retirement, then Firecalc should be able to answer your question.

 

[FlowGirl]

I'd probably stick it out the 3-5 years, but I'm only 31 and a long way from ER so what the heck do I know?

The choice you're presenting would be a tough one for me to make - one of the reasons I'm so committed to traveling and living life fully now is so that I won't feel too much pain if our ER plans don't work out as expected.  In your situation I'd probably map out some worst case scenerios and see if I could live with them.  If not, I'd make a 3 year plan to continue working, take every bit of vacation I could in the meantime, and enjoy the process of researching the places I'd like to visit in ER.

 

[dex]

It's been my experience that after age 50, especially if you work for a corporation, they will usually give you a pretty good reason to hang it up eventually.

ex-Jarhead,
I almost wish where I worked was a terriable place to work. It is a prosperous televison cable company. Many of the staff is younger than me so I have experience they want and they are afraid to let go of anyone who is over 50, a woman, or a minority.

It is as if I have it too good. My boses travel a great deal, are in another city or another building. I have a staff of 13, TV in the office, in work at 8:45 and out by 5 to 5:30, 24 days of vacation; 10 company holidays.

It is not that I hate my job or even the work that much. It is that I know life is short, your physical and mental ability to enjoy it declines with age.

A slight fear of mine would to be in a car accident on the way to work and know I will be permentently disabled or die and thinking to myself "I was putting off life like a meiser hordes gold, only to see it stolen from me."

 

[dm]

Im close to the same boat your in. I'm 48 but only have my 401k and hopefully the wifes pension for retirement. Ive been tracking my expenses to get a handle on how much I really need. Ive also cut back some at work. I was spending way to much time there and really did nothing else. Ive started golfing and boating. I'm finding out there is more to life than work. I joined a golf league and the sailing club. When I do retire I should have plenty to do and I have started meeting people outside of work that have interest I share.

Im worried that if I put things off to long that it may be to late. You just don't know how long you have or how healthy you will be. My dad retired 13 yrs ago at 57. My mother passed away that year at 55. He is doing good, but it's a shame that it sometimes takes someone dying to make you realize there is more to life than work.

My biggest concern is health care. My net worth is only around 700K but if the wife continues to work until she is 52, she would get a very good pension and health care. She enjoy's her job and doesnt plan on leaving, but she has 8 years to go and alot can happen.

If it were just me, I'd be gone. But I also have the wife to think about. I could live on a boat or in a clubhouse. I could do without alot of things and still be happy. Not sure about the wife.

 

[greenhm]

Great topic, and one that I am now in the middle of processing also.

RE in 18 mths with a small to moderate private income. My wife is big-time on-board and would be happy to sell everything and live in an RV, with 6 months international travel per year and 6mths local travel. We are in our early to mid 40's and are fully realizing that life is short.

Our.. OK, my problem is fear.

Listing as follows

1. After waiting and working so long to get to RE, her aging parents require our/her attention for a term longer than I'd like (making me feel like a prisoner of home-care just like a prisoner of work)

2. I get bored. (I hate to relax, and need stimulation outside of my wife)

3. I feel I need a home base.. but I know that when I was 18 and traveling, it never occured to me to need the security of a safe home base.

I have taken a year off in the past, about 15 years ago. It took 3-4 months just to detox. Enthusiasm for life returned and I completed building my home. After running out of money, I wanted to go back to work as I felt that I might as well make money doing nothing, then to just not make money.

... just blabbing....

As I read the words above, I realize that the fears are just that!

F.E.A.R. = False Evidence APPEARING Real

We'll cross the bridge when/if we get to it

gReenY

 

[BigMoneyJim]

You can wait 3-5 years to build a minimal pension or quit now.
No other possibilities

There are always other possibilities. Too often we box ourselves in with false walls.

I'm not a fan of "building pensions". What happens if they lay you off or fire you in 2 years, and you haven't built up your "minimal pension"? You can always work longer for more security, but we are here because we want to retire early. We'll each have to figure out where to draw the line between security and retirement.

And if you can't get this type of money anywhere else then it sounds like you're in danger of getting laid off, anyway. You're either worth what you're making or you're not. What interests me is how many people around here who've retired got unsolicited job and contract offers after leaving. I'm not sure if that's an indicator that we are all worth more than we think or if the ones who've retired successfully are more valuable to their companies than the rest of us.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I had the same worries about boredom until I took the company paid sabbatical and didnt want to go back.

Despite my worst type-a wont be able to do this ER thing, my biggest fear right now is having to go back to setting an alarm clock and ironing a frickin shirt.

 

[uncledrz]

GTM
If your not set financially, that is under firecalc and a cushion, then I would not leave.

DEX
Although we're not in exactly the same situation, we are similar. I too am a little concerned about the "what to do" factor. OTOH I've never been in a situation where the time doesn't seem to fill up. So I'm trying an experiment: taking this summer at 25% time (which I can do) and will be taking blocks of time off, just to see how it works. Is that kind of time available to you? Could you schedule a 30 day leave? Something like that might give you a better idea of whether to go or not.

Like this site because it let's us throw around so many different kind of ideas.

Uncledrz

 

[dex]

uncledrz,
I took a year off when I was 45. I quit a job I had outside the USA and decided I would take a year off before I even thought about getting looking for a job.
I traveled a bit and I experienced the challenges of being fully retired.

I traveled to Austraila, Greece, Spain, UK & drove across the USA. I was happiest when I was in the right place for me which was in smaller cities or the outdoors. I was most unhappy when I was in large cities. In some ways I felt most isolated in large cities.

I think I will be RE next April. My next step is to start to tell people. Then I will have committed and put the plan in play.

 

[retire@40]

I think I will be RE next April.  My next step is to start to tell people.  Then I will have committed and put the plan in play.

Think that one through before you start doing it. Telling people you are going to RE could backfire. I'll bet 9 out of 10 people you tell will become jealous and hate themselves through you for not being able to do what you have accomplished for yourself. Indirectly, you are telling them you are better than them. It's just like walking into a cancer ward and pronouncing how healthy you are.

Besides people on this forum, I haven't told anyone except my wife that I'm semi-retired. People just think I have a lot of extra time to myself because I am self-employed.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wow I never had that problem. If I had a friend or relative that became jealous or hateful because I was fortunate, I'd unfriend or unrelate them pretty damn fast.

I cant think of one person that I know that isnt happy for me, and my relatives as a whole are proud. My dad usually cant restrain himself from telling people that his son retired at 39.

I think of it less like walking into a cancer ward and telling people how healthy you are and more like walking into the cancer ward and telling them you beat the disease and encouraging them. Any of them that arent happy for you...suck.

 

[Eagle43]

That's true, as long as he has his ducks in a row and he's certain he's gonna do it. No mind-changing after announcing. Makes you look like a politician.

 

[GTM]

GTM
If your not set financially, that is under firecalc and a cushion, then I would not leave.




Uncledrz

A passing grade on Firecalc would require a few adjustments.
Social Security and increasing medical costs are also two areas that make the calculations challenging.