Mid-40s And Ready To Stop Working???

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gryffindor I would love hearing more about what people in their mid-forties are thinking and doing with part-time retirement. ...

The job you had just before going to semi-retirement is probably gonna be the biggest factor here.

My sister is a physician. She cut back to work just one or two days a week and sometimes doesn't even work for an entire month.

I was a VP in a tech company and stopped directly supervising projects to run a couple of projects with my own bare hands. That is, I supervise myself in the skunk works; kinda like being self-employed. I dropped back to about 30 hours a week with only 20 hours in the office. With no people to manage, I went back to working directly on a couple of R&D projects where a big part is software development which can be done from almost anywhere.

It's kinda like being a graduate student again. This was all arranged well ahead of time. I had to propose the projects and show how they would help the company's bottom line.

I will have to keep coming up with little projects or I could end up being fully retired.

[charlie]

I just hope you have a lot of outside interests. You need something
to "retire to".

Cheers,

charlie

[Leonidas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryan I exited at 43 .. now have 4 years under the belt. The wild card has been healthcare. Started at $583/month (BC/BS for family of 4) ... now pay $914/month. 36% increase in 4 years. This is not pretty.

No that's not pretty at all. I have BC/BS through my former employer, it's quite a bit less than what you're paying but it keeps going up. I just hope I can get the kids grown up and off the policy before it get's too high.

[PaulNZ]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tryan
I exited at 43 .. now have 4 years under the belt. The wild card has been healthcare. Started at $583/month (BC/BS for family of 4) ... now pay $914/month. 36% increase in 4 years. This is not pretty.



I just had a look at our medical insurance, We live in New Zealand, a couple early 40's with kids. We feel fully insured and our combined cost is US$85 per month for what we consider full cover.
I too considered full retirement recently, but instead reduced my working hours by half. We have a sizeable amount of investments and all calculations show we should be right, but I hope I've got another 50 years in me-could my wife put up with me for that long? Would half be enough? Maybe- but not certainly. Also we have young family which limits what we could do.
Since halving my hours life's been a lot more enjoyable. I have time to pursue sports and hobbies. I have dug out my old backpack and gotten short 'leaves of absence' from home to visit distant and exotic places, just a flight in and out, with complete freedom and acts of randomness in between. I help out at my kids school and coach a kids sports team, I even started a biking school bus.
I am glad I still have 1/2 a job, if I gave it all up I think I would feel a bit lost, also 'what would the neighbours think!'

[ksr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gryffindor I would love hearing more about what people in their mid-forties are thinking and doing with part-time retirement.

I left my full-time career almost two years ago, as I approached age 48. Since then I've worked part-time teaching classes. This amounts to maybe 10-15 hours a week, and I am earning enough to pay all my usual expenses. My plan is to tap into my investment income only for an unexpected expense.

In order to get to this point, I had paid off my mortgage and have no other debt. Admittedly I live a simple lifestyle and don't particularly enjoy travel, so my expenses are low. Despite the big drop in the market that coincided with my "semi-retirement", everything has worked out just fine and I have no regrets.