Retirement celebratory splurge?

[Ronstar]

IIRC, I bought a kayak, a new computer and a bunch of woodworking tools and camera stuff near my retirement date.

 

[COcheesehead]

You might want to talk with Hermit about that. He has had lots of maintenance issues with his.

I’ve had 4 jeeps. Loved everyone of them.

 

[Walt34]

We went on a spending spree that I'm pretty sure will never be repeated. We sold the paid-for house in the Washington, D.C. area and moved to WV. Within a six-month period we bought a brand-new house, a brand-new 2003 Buick Century for DW, and a brand-new 2003 GMC 4WD pickup truck for me. DW's car replaced a 14-year old Oldsmobile, and the GMC replaced an 18-year-old Chevy pickup. All were long planned purchases but the timing just fell into place. We still have the 2003 GMC, but the Buick with 173k miles was traded in when we bought the Honda Accord.

But it sure did feel weird blowin' the dough like that!

 

[athena53]

I ER'd a bit suddenly (the money was there, just happened that I suddenly realized my BS bucket was full and left the company a week later). It was May and we already had an Alaskan cruise booked for August, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I was also in the process of getting a couple of dental implants and still wasn't comfortable with "Blow That Dough" mode, having lived so long in "No Matter What Happens, Do NOT Tap the Investments" mode.

I'm feeling more comfortable now, almost 4.5 years post-retirement with good investment results overall. When my assets crossed another multiple of $1 million, I celebrated by going shopping at Chico's. They were having a sale, 40% off everything. I shamelessly squandered $250.

 

[Bigdawg]

DW and I retired three years apart, so when I retired we didn’t do anything special. After she retired, we did a two week Celebrity cruise out of Southampton to the Baltic countries, followed by a week in London. We splurged for a suite on the ship and an upscale hotel in London. It was a wonderful trip, and St. Petersburg was fabulous. We loved all the ports except we didn’t get off in Germany because it was pouring rain that day, the only bad weather day.

This will be our plan. DW is 6 years younger and currently would like to work until 55(46 now). I anticipate a large long vacation of some sort at that point. Budgeting for it now.

 

[Bigdawg]

But it sure did feel weird blowin' the dough like that!

Robbie would be proud.

 

[38Chevy454]

I sold the old house, moved out of state approx 1500 miles leaving the same day as retirement day, lived in my motorhome for about 6 months (me, DW, 3 dogs, 2 cats), bought a new construction more expensive house and detached garage using old house proceeds and after tax money. Then spent last 6 months working on the new house. Spending a good amount on setting up the new house and landscaping, including an in-ground pool. In total probably spent $250K since retirement, with almost all of that put into the house. I would call that a pretty big celebratory splurge.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

...I suddenly realized my BS bucket was full and left the company a week later).

OMG, a lot of these stories made me smile, but this one really did make me LOL!

 

[Music Lover]

I had planned for years to buy a new (used) car when I retired, but it took me 2 years to finally do it.

 

[cooch96]

I have a list of things I’ve been putting off. Mostly it’s house maintenance stuff (water heater is 19yrs and 10 months old). But my biggest splurgey items are a new truck and slide in camper. I’ve come up with grandiose names for them (e.g. Indigo Montoya, Fructus Operis, Roving Coach, etc.).
It’s fun to dream. It’ll be more fun to hit the open road and do some boondocking.

 

[ohyes]

I wanted to take DH and two of our adult kids on a celebratory trip, ASAP after my last day of work. I asked them for ideas and both the "kids" mentioned Las Vegas. Las Vegas had not been on my radar, but it sounded like a fun idea.

What's not to love about Las Vegas in July? It was not a ritzy trip (stayed at the Flamingo) to a destination with moderate temps, but we had a wonderful time.

 

[MarieIG]

I don't have any splurge planned. I'd like to sleep late, take some walks and naps, spend some time with family, and read a bunch of books from the library. Any expense I would like to budget for and plan carefully, well in advance.

On the other hand, DH wants to buy a Volvo SUV.

 

[Scuba]

DH and I ER’d on the same Friday in Nov. of 2016. That night, we celebrated alone together - just a low-key celebration at home on our balcony with some champagne. We had a retirement party with about 30 friends at a nice seafood restaurant on the water the weekend after.

We spent the next few months visiting family or having them visit us, and then in April following our ER, we went to the USVI for 3 months. We had planned the trip before we ER’d but wanted to wait so we could get used to being retired before we took off on a long trip. While we were in the VI, some good friends came down and 6 of us chartered a catamaran together and sailed through the BVI. Absolutely loved our time in the VI!

That was our big celebration, but we’ve done lots of other travel since and have another big trip coming up soon - 6 weeks in Greece. Life is good!

 

[marko]

I RE'd involuntarily as my company was sold and I was part of the redundant team.

We flew from our Paris digs to spend two months at a cliffside rental in Hawaii.

It was January and it was more of a "FU!...I'm on a beach tanning in 80 degrees and I hear you're digging through a foot of snow at HQ in Boston" sort of move. I had to be in contact after my departure for transition issues so I made sure they knew where I was; "Sorry I missed the call, I was in the pool"

We didn't worry about the cost; three years pay for severance.

 

[Bamaman]

No Big celebration unless you count taking two overseas vacations in one year a celebration. In the year following my retirement I visited both Turkey and Bulgaria.

Both were very interesting, but Turkey stood out as one of the best trips I have done. The Turkish people are wonderful, the country's history very interesting, the food great and the culture enjoyable different. I enjoyed everything about the trip, even being woken at 5:00 AM by the call to prayer.

I too have been to.Turkey,.and found it to be a completely modern country. But current politiccs and a recent announcememnt of.tariffs has reduced th.country's currency by some 20%.

Turkey should be saved for more stable times.

 

[jollystomper]

I am still trying to decide. We have spent close to $20K on things outside of our normal spending since my RE the end of June, but none of it for "celebratory" items (repairs, travel related to visiting relatives, and expenses/gifts related to sons wedding). It has been so busy that I have truly felt "retired". I'm considering getting an SUV for our road trips (and potential camping with a popup trailer). DW and I have never been on a cruise so we are looking at taking one to celebrate (I just have to get mentally attuned to being at sea away from land for a couple of days at a time ).

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I RE'd involuntarily as my company was sold and I was part of the redundant team.

We flew from our Paris digs to spend two months at a cliffside rental in Hawaii.

It was January and it was more of a "FU!...I'm on a beach tanning in 80 degrees and I hear you're digging through a foot of snow at HQ in Boston" sort of move. I had to be in contact after my departure for transition issues so I made sure they knew where I was; "Sorry I missed the call, I was in the pool"

We didn't worry about the cost; three years pay for severance.

I was going to say, there is no "had to be in contact" if you're ready to FIRE, but I'm guessing the three years of severance was dependent on your transitioning the new person/people in, so it sounds very worth it! Nicely done!

 

[marko]

I was going to say, there is no "had to be in contact" if you're ready to FIRE, but I'm guessing the three years of severance was dependent on your transitioning the new person/people in, so it sounds very worth it! Nicely done!

Yes. I was an officer of the company so there were legal issues in the decoupling and was part of the severance contract.

It was mostly signing legal papers, stock and confidential corporate issues and other stuff. Worth tearing myself out of the pool/beach for an hour phone call every so often.

 

[Splash]

I turned 55 on 1/30/17. DH and I both retired on 2/1/17. On 2/6/17 we left for 2 weeks in Hawaii followed by a month in the Florida Keys. We flew our adult kids to Florida to spend a week with us. It was an amazing way to transition to our new life. We enjoyed the Keys so much that we now winter there.

 

[Midpack]

No expensive celebration at all. We had a nice steak dinner out, that was it. Unless someone else was paying, why blow a bunch of our $ on an elective expense? If others choose to, perfectly fine.

 

[Ginny]

Before I retired, we bought a Harley trike. As soon as I retired, we bought a 27' travel trailer and drove across the country and I felt like I was running away from home. The next year, we sold our home in a high cola area, moved to a low cost area, bought a much bigger house, bought a 24' boat, a new kayak for me and a new car. We are personally supporting the better economy!

 

[iloveyoga]

We did some dinners and trips for both of our retirements. Our big hurrah has been completely redoing our backyard, two decks, and adding a small inground pool. It was my 59.5 present.

 

[misshathaway]

In my reader these 2 thread titles appear one after the other:

what if you run out of money
retirement celebratory splurge

We are a conflicted bunch for sure. Except for Robbie.

 

[Christine]

I started researching and looking at motorhomes - but it took me a year to get around to actually buying one. But I enjoyed the process and did not feel any need to hurry.

 

[Red Badger]

A planned and budgeted three week trip to Europe. We delayed our trip as DW went to home country for six months last year. We leave for Europe in about 3 weeks. I did a thread on it a few weeks ago, and, as always, received sage and gracious counsel from many members here.