Roadblocks

[Whisper9999]

A question for those of you who ER'd or are far along the way: what was the biggest roadblock (psychologically, logistically, financially, etc.) on your path? Did anything significantly delay you and/or almost make you turn back? If so, how did you overcome it??

 

[unclemick]

Mental - I was 'in ER' for at least a year before my brain adjusted.

And chickenheartedness being what it is - I was unemployed or a private investor - until age 55 - when the first pension check made me 'officially retired."

 

[John Galt]

Excellent question! Once again I am the "odd duck".
I ignored all "roadblocks" (real and potential) and just
retired when I decided I wanted to. I expect not many
could do it. Kind of a "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" approach, or maybe "I'll just work out the details as we go along." If you will permit me, here
is an analogous story. In 1991, I had about 6 weeks total
of motorcycle riding experience, and was leaving on a 2
week cross country trip. My wife said "Are you sure you are ready for this?" My reply was that I would learn
on the way. Same deal with my retirement.

JG

 

[Whisper9999]

Excellent question!  Once again I am the "odd duck".
I ignored all "roadblocks" (real and potential) and just
retired when I decided I wanted to...Kind of a "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" approach, or maybe "I'll just work out the details as we go along."JG

Why am I not surprised?

 

[John Galt]

Yeah Whisper, my ER experience could be a metaphor for my entire adult life. My supersized ego gets me in trouble, but it is surely nice to sail along really
believing you will just roll over whatever roadblocks
life throws at you.

JG

 

[Whisper9999]

Yeah Whisper, my ER experience could be a metaphor for my entire adult life.  My supersized ego gets me in trouble, but it is surely nice to sail along really
believing you will just roll over whatever roadblocks
life throws at you.

JG

Well, one thing I've learned from reading this site is that there's a (very pleasantly) surprising degree of flexibility in ways to ER and how to ER.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

While I'm not FI or RE yet, I would think that a significant roadbloack would be the psychological identification with a particular job or profession. There are many jobs where the degree of dedication to the particular field is so all-consuming that leaving the field can cause one to feel listless and without passion. I've read that death of a loved one and divorce cause similar feelings.

 

[Tadpole]

Compulsive disorder will keep me from ER unless I lose my job. Each time I think about it, I also think about the money I can save from my paycheck if I keep working. I am compulsively saving money and cannot stop.

 

[Cut-Throat]

A question for those of you who ER'd or are far along the way:  what was the biggest roadblock (psychologically, logistically, financially, etc.) on your path?  Did anything significantly delay you and/or almost make you turn back?  If so, how did you overcome it??

Like unclemick it was mental. Also wondering if you had enough money. Working 5 more years would have added extra security.

 

[retire@40]

I can't think of any roadblocks, but I'm only semi-retired. I've faded into semi-retirement (or away from work), so for me there has been no sudden shock.

 

[Bob_Smith]

Fear that it won't be "enough" and knowing that there's no going back. I did it anyway, but it was very difficult to do. It was the most difficult decision I ever made.

 

[Whisper9999]

Fear that it won't be "enough" and knowing that there's no going back. I did it anyway, but it was very difficult to do. It was the most difficult decision I ever made.

And no regrets I take it?

 

[LEX]

Excellent question!  Once again I am the "odd duck".
I ignored all "roadblocks" (real and potential) and just
retired when I decided I wanted to.  I expect not many
could do it.  Kind of a "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" approach, or maybe "I'll just work out the details as we go along."  If you will permit me, here
is an analogous story.  In 1991, I had about 6 weeks total
of motorcycle riding experience, and was leaving on a 2
week cross country trip.  My wife said "Are you sure you are ready for this?"  My reply was that I would learn
on the way.  Same deal with my retirement.

JG

John:

You are the ZEN Master of ER. Perhaps that is one ER method that is truly under reported. Just retire, one day at a time, and eventually the process will make sense.

 

[MJ]

My FI spreadsheet clock continues to count down towards my unofficial retirement date next year.

Unlike JG, I like my FI nest egg to be very comfortable so I set up my spreadsheet to easily delay my retirement date. Changing my date, incremently increases all my projected savings components (payroll, CD interest, stocks, 401K).

Over a year ago, I began mentally distancing myself from my job so I feel, leaving it won't have quite as much of an impact on me as it would have several years ago.

But,

I am beginning to get a bit nervous as the clock shows fewer days, weeks and months (I have all 3 being calculated as I am a bit of a control freak). Like some of us pre-ERs, I am nervous about not having enough money for the next 40 years. I would certainly feel a lot more conformtable continuing to earn my salary for another +++ months or years as I save over 70% of my after tax/401K salary (being single and very frugal). I'll try to keep to my projected timeline but I may delay my departure for 1 or 2 months to recoup some of the 18k for an unexpected recent house improvement expense.

MJ

PS: I figure if I continue to work for another 50 years, at a young age of 106, I finally might have a very comfortable nest egg to be buried with.

 

[Bob_Smith]

And no regrets I take it?

Not yet... but only seven months down and ___ years to go!

 

[John Galt]

Cut-Throat provided the perfect segue................
"working 5 more years would provide extra security"

Of course, but you will be 5 years older and you might be dead, or worse. I could have made piles of money by continuing on. Didn't do it, and it was exactly the right
decision. BTW, retiring was one of the easiest
decisions I ever made in my life, as well as one of the best.

JG

 

[charlie]

When I ER'd in '89 I had already been operating
a laundromat for 20 years on the side. The
knowledge that I could expand that business
if necessary gave me a great deal of confidence.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[AltaRed]

At the risk of challenging a frequent and respected poster here, it is a lot easier to say 'damn the torpedoes' and just ER when you have a working spouse. It's a lifeline, at least pschologically, if not physically. Very few people can just up and ER and roll the dice. Planning with detailed spreadsheets and budgets is the norm, not the exception.

I've reached 55 and can ER today with a discount on my DB pension plan. We look at our yearly expenditures from our Quicken database and are generally budget conscious without actually having a planned budget. We can almost manage on the current value of the annual discounted DB pension today allowing us to grow our investments some more for the day when pension payments won't be enough due to inflation. So finances are not a key driver for determining retirement timing.

But I am not retiring today. I've set a goal of between mid-2005 and mid-2006 for retirement depending on how well (or not) I continue to enjoy my work. Mid-2006 would drop pension discount to 15% and would round off to 35 years in the energy industry. That's a nice milestone to walk away with. I've pretty much already developed the mental attitude that I do not need to work, have no desire to advance more in the company, and don't care much about retaining any personal relationships with the people I work with after retirement.

So to Whisper's original post, I'm prepared financially at current time to retire. I'm not quite prepared mentally to retire but have set a target so that I can continue my current mental preparation for the big day. The biggest issue seems to be logistic preparation as spouse and I will re-patriate (at least part time) to Canada to retire and we do not yet know where we specifically want to be or what kind of housing we want. I suspect it will be this logistical issue that will really determine when I walk out the door for the last time.

I also think that despite having already started mental preparations for ER, I suspect I will still be somewhat like UncleMick and require upwards of another year after commencing ER to fully adjust.

 

[Whisper9999]

I've reached 55 and can ER today with a discount on my DB pension plan.

Thx for the post. Out of curiosity what does DB stand for and what do you mean by discount? You mean the "penalty ratio" for taking your pension pre-65?

 

[AltaRed]

DB means Defined Benefit pension plan. The discount is related to the degree my monthly pension is reduced 5% per year (cclculated on a monthly basis) from age 60. Should I retire at precisely age 57, this would result in a discount of 15% from entitlement at 60. If I retired at age 57 + 2 months, then pension discount would be 14.2%.

 

[ESRBob]

AltaRed,
Thanks for clarifying on t he discount situation. That sounds like the definition of "Golden Handcuffs'!

Good luck with your decision...

 

[bhb]

I did not have road blocks to ER as much as I had road blocks to continue my soul sucking job. Each day management raised the bar and took away resources until it was impossible to continue. I quit within two weeks of a coworker having a heart attack. For me it was a choice between life and death. I was good enough to suceed way beyond my "qualifications" and was specialized so there was no where else to go.
Once I decided to ER, this group has been a great help. We eased into ER with the wife continuing to work for a few months until she was comfortable with our spending and my calculations. It is tough watching your savings going down without any replacement. We compensated by stashing enough in our personal accounts to take care of our mad money until our small pensions start.
Adjusting to the slower pace kinda comes on gradually. Like a tightly wound clock. You can wind it up tight every day or let her run down and just give her a couple of twists once in a while to keep things ticking. The clock will run either way, but you have a better chance of breaking the spring when you are all wound up.

The price of happiness seems to run a minimum of 24K.

 

[Spanky]

I am still working because we still have two young children, age 15 and 12. They will need financial support for college. We do have an education IRA account and 529 plan for each of the children. However, the accounts only contain sufficient funds for tuition - not room and board. It will help if they stay at home while attending college. If not, we could use some of our retirement saving or take out a student loan. I prefer the ladder. We should not pay for their entire college cost.

Another factor of not ER is that I do enjoy software development as an individual contributor. I do sometimes feel dejected because it is hard to move up or getting a promotion unless you take up a leadership role and start playing politics and doing more administrative tasks (i.e., project planning, scheduling, fire prevention and termination).


Spanky.

 

[AltaRed]

ESRBob, government data I read somewhere suggests that an appropriate discount factor should be in the order of 6-7% to match up with actuarial tables (rather then my discount factor of 5% per year from age 60). If so, it encourages early retirement at 55 rather than waiting for 60 who have the FI to do so.

It's those who have yet to reach 55 to have the option for a discounted pension, or those who feel they 'have' to wait to collect full pension that are constrained by the 'golden handcuffs'. Until I became 55, I would have agreed with you. Now that I've reached that milestone, the other factors become the drivers.

Course every DB pension plan is different and thus the answer could be different.

 

[yakers]

I am still working because we still have two young children, age 15 and 12. They will need financial support for college. We do have an education IRA account and 529 plan for each of the children. However, the accounts only contain sufficient funds for tuition - not room and board. It will help if they stay at home while attending college. If not, we could use some of our retirement saving or take out a student loan. I prefer the ladder. We should not pay for their entire college cost.

Spanky.

A similar issue for me. I could retire late in 05 at 55, my wife plans to retire in 06 at 58. But we have one 15 year old son left at home. Older boy has education, job & preganant wife,( never thought I would see this day). The school planning for my younger boy is a key unknown in my retirement planning. If he goes to junior college, I have it covered in my spare change jar. If he goes to a state school the EdRoth and savings are about up to it. If he goes to Stanford -I keep working. I am a strong believer in education and was lucky enough (and parents were poor enough) that scholarships covered a first rate college for me.
But one nice thing for me is that when I become retirement elligible it "jerk proofs" my work life. My current manager is great but he is retiring next year and if I get a jerk boss then I will leave. Had one for 4 of my 31 years of work and you couldn't pay me enough for that time. If I get a good manager I will be happy to work on for another 2 or 3 years to build up my DB pension, cover some of son's school expenses and generally stay active in a job I really do like.