Final Prep for RE

[RetireBy90]

Hi, I'm planning on RE in 2 months and my planning has mostly focused on having sufficient funds to be FI. I have done some thinking on my days without a job and have some ideas to get me started.

My question today, for those already retired, where there any steps in the final months of work that proved to be especially useful ?

Health care: I am 62 now and will rely on Tricare from military till I can get Medicare and back to Kaiser.

Income: We have 3 retirement checks today and a pile sufficient to replace my take home pay with a draw of about 3 to 3/12 % rate and in 8 years with SS and other income kicking in about then we won't need a draw (but then there will be RMDs) I think our pile is sufficient.

Daily activities: I have grown fond of a nap about 10AM but boss doesn't share my fondness. Seriously, I plan to work about 2 days a week with Habitat for Humanity, spend a day or 2 with Salvation Army and another charity that provides help to distressed families. I know this will be a work in progress and require adaption as time goes along.

Travel: We are budgeted for 3 or 4 trips each year, couple short trips and 1 or 2 longer trips.

So any checklist items I can add that you found useful or wish you had completed prior to RE ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Bamaman]

Sounds as if you have already done your homework.

Your retirement will take on a life of its own. There is nothing wrong about watching Let's Make a Deal and Price is Right before taking a short nap.

And my hat's off to you for wanting to give back something to the community.

You have so many great experiences ahead of you and the resources to do them.

 

[24601NoMore]

Great question, and I'm on a hopefully similar timeline though I haven't committed mentally 100% to actually pulling the ripcord yet.

Things that come to mind:

- Get all final healthcare (dental work, new eyeglasses, Colonscopy ) done while yu have the corporate insurance

- Get a yearly physical (assuming the timing is good)

- Do a double, triple and quadruple check of your budget and estimated expenses

- Call SS and confirm your expected benefits

- Make any big purchases and do any big home repairs you need to. This for us is delaying ER as we put off a # of things for years and now I'm having to pay for them all at once. Makes me want to work OMM / OMY to pay for everything and not have to dent my retirement kitty to do so. I'm pretty close to a major milestone # that I really want to have in the kitty and am inches from it..so having income to pay the big expenses is helpful.

Probably more but those are my big ones..

 

[Bigdawg]

Great question, and I'm on a hopefully similar timeline though I haven't committed mentally 100% to actually pulling the ripcord yet.

Things that come to mind:

- Get all final healthcare (dental work, new eyeglasses, Colonscopy ) done while yu have the corporate insurance

- Get a yearly physical (assuming the timing is good)

- Do a double, triple and quadruple check of your budget and estimated expenses

- Call SS and confirm your expected benefits

- Make any big purchases and do any big home repairs you need to. This for us is delaying ER as we put off a # of things for years and now I'm having to pay for them all at once. Makes me want to work OMM / OMY to pay for everything and not have to dent my retirement kitty to do so. I'm pretty close to a major milestone # that I really want to have in the kitty and am inches from it..so having income to pay the big expenses is helpful.

Probably more but those are my big ones..

In the same boat. Already FI but building retirement house. Construction starts in October. Should be complete in March/April. Current work contract goes thru Sept 2019. Thinking about going to 75% at that point. Then down to 50% after a year.

 

[MBAustin]

Personally, I'd suggest taking it easy on volunteer commitments the first few months. I took on too much too soon and got burned out and stressed which is not what I wanted ER to be.

 

[REWahoo]

Personally, I'd suggest taking it easy on volunteer commitments the first few months. I took on too much too soon and got burned out and stressed which is not what I wanted ER to be.

^ What she said.

I also overdid the volunteer thing after retiring - bad experience.

My recommendation would be to delay committing your hard-earned free time to any volunteer gig for at least six months after pulling the plug. Then if you still feel the need, wade in slowly and do not over-commit.

 

[MRG]

If you don't have a HELOC it's worth getting approved while you still have income. You don't ever have to use it, but post retirement getting approved for larger sums is difficult.

 

[Alan]

^ What she said.

I also overdid the volunteer thing after retiring - bad experience.

My recommendation would be to delay committing your hard-earned free time to any volunteer gig for at least six months after pulling the plug. Then if you still feel the need, wade in slowly and do not over-commit.

+1

I totally misjudged my ability to enjoy myself in retirement without having some sort of organized work to do.

 

[travelover]

Another vote to reconsider commitment for volunteering. I worked with Habitat when I first retired and quickly came to resent having that commitment hanging over my head. They wanted to make me a house leader (all for no pay) and I decided instead to back away instead. So, my advice is to commit slowly, it is easier to increase than decrease. YMMV

 

[Red Badger]

Personally, I'd suggest taking it easy on volunteer commitments the first few months. I took on too much too soon and got burned out and stressed which is not what I wanted ER to be.

+1.

Did same mistake right after retiring. Busy enough with 1-2 days of volunteering, honey-do's, travel, - - - and the occasional wife swoop.

 

[Aerides]

As with many others above, I'd say you already have far too much planned. For those first 90-180 days, less is better, especially anything that commits you to others beyond a little travel.

Allow yourself some decompress time. Get to know yourself once you forget your work persona, discover new hobbies or local interests you never noticed before. Some of the things you like to do now in your free time might not be so much fun once you have much more of it - others will fill their place.

 

[Dtail]

I volunteer for assisting in running many events in our community, but nothing more at the present time. Thus it is not a set day and time as a commitment, which can feel like PT work to me.
Some retirees feel there is almost a commitment of sorts to immediately jump into volunteering. If that floats your boat, then fine but don't feel an obligation to do so.
As for RMD's, you just have to worry about paying the taxes as part of your "WR" at that time.

 

[Mdlerth]

Penetrating the intraweb

On my countdown agenda will be compiling a list of all the phone numbers, websites, usernames, passwords, etc., which you will need to access all the retirement benefits you earned.

While I'm still an employee, it's easy to reach via internal links, or at worst, I can speak to some one who can connect me. But retirees have to go through more hoops because they're trying to connect from external computers.

Congratulations on your pending RE. Keep posting as the Big Day nears. I will be curious about where your thoughts take you the closer you get to punching out. Excitement? Terror? Befuddlement? Anticlimax? Strangely compelling animal urges?

 

[JDARNELL]

I think we all had great aspirations when we retired. However you may be surprised how your BS meter is not what you think. Really think about why your are volunteering. The best thing about retiring is you can decide what you value and what you want to do. It probably will change over time. You will have no problem with TRICARE. Worse case is your max out of pocket allowable.

 

[Hermit]

I have been working on a Habitat for Hermit since I retired 5 years ago.

I get to work on it when I want to and do other things when I feel like it too. I guess swinging a hammer is therapeutic for me. Who knows? I may even get to move in to it some day.

 

[gauss]

Realize there are what I would call "white collar" and "blue collar" volunteer opportunities.

With the "white collar" variety, you may find yourself responding to emails, going to meetings, giving updates on progress of deliverable, etc. etc. Much of the work is at home on my own time.

In other words, this can start to feel like the old job all over again.

The one thing that I have found useful is that I only volunteered for gigs that had a 1 year cycle time. At the end of the 1 year a new team is formed each year. As such there is a convenient exit strategy built in each year.

I have just chosen to keep renewing OMY.

-gauss

 

[gretah]

I agree with limiting structured volunteer commitments at first.

I've done lots of volunteer work all my life. Now I am happy to do project work, like building a website and updating it several times a year. Or helping at events, like fundraisers.

But no more meetings for me with more than just a few people to decide some things. No board or committee meetings at all.

 

[ABQ2015]

This is a 2017 thread that has some suggestions for final preparations. And it links to another thread from 2006 with more suggestions.

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/year-by-year-pre-fire-checklist-84926.html

I took out a HELOC and ended up using it to buy a car. I had the cash but my government pension and 401k access were taking so long that I decided to use the HELOC just in case as did not want to deplete my cash reserves. Sort of a temporary cash flow problem.

 

[ocean view]

We sat down with our insurance agent to review all of our home/car/umbrella/earthquake policies to make sure we had appropriate coverages. It had been more than a decade since we had last done this, so it was good.

The agent suggested that we get a home inspection done, like you would get if you were buying a house, to get a thorough look at the state of the mechanicals and structure of the house. We came out of it with a long list of recommended repairs, which helped us budget appropriately. They ranged from safety items that we took care of immediately (electrical sub panel that was a house fire waiting to happen) to many DIY items, to somewhere in between. I think the inspection was $600, worth every penny for the sub panel alone.

 

[RetireBy90]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I posted this morning then got caught up on calls at work. I’m in the process of transferring my last group of servers to another team right now. Big business can be harder than dealing with the government

I think I’ll try to do one or 2 weeks with habitat, then one or 2 with Salvation Army. Perhaps a week between them. That should keep them from relying on me to be there all the time.

We already have 2 trips booked and paid for, so leasure is accounted for.

I meet with FA from Fido next week, she has already confirmed our financial plan and recommended we update our wills (will go on-base after I retire when we can do a week day morning, less people Tuesday mornings). Also got a review of insurance, and made couple changes including a new universal policy.

So, for now I need to nail down tri-care then update wills and medical POA when we can get to Ft Belvoir. I’ve always worried I’m forgetting something, and this time no different.

Thanks again for the advice. Guess only thing I forgot is

 

[Scuba]

Congratulations to you and it sounds like you’re indeed ready for a great retirement. I agree with the advice to get a HELOC while you’re still working. For us, it’s been reassuring to know we can use it if need be, particularly if there is a down cycle in the market.

The most important advice I got from this website pre-ER was to “let retirement come to me.” Rather than making loads of plans and having a detailed “to do” list, retirement has been an opportunity for me to relax and do what I want to do each day. I’ve learned after 18 months of ER that I enjoy volunteer work that doesn’t have committed “shifts” and that doesn’t have too much similarity with my prior work life. Anything that consists of lots of meetings, calls, emails, etc. feels too much like a job. YMMV

 

[Serenity]

Another vote for not jumping into a lot of commitments right away.
Almost 2 years into Fire and loving the freedom. Tried lots of different activities, ditched some stuck with others. Finding i like to be indoors in winter and outside in what passes for summer here.
I am not doing any structured volunteering but finding I am doing a lot of support activities for groups I am involved with. Facebook, newsletter, organising music etc.

Good luck and enjoy your time

 

[RetireBy90]

Just wanted to post a quick update. I'm about 24 days out. 31 Aug will be the last day I will get paid to work. Only item left on my checklist is to sign up for Tricare medical.

Also need to swap out 2002 TrailBlazer for a newer used vehicle. Looking at Nissan Rogue. We rented one 2 times recently and were happy with it. No intimidation factor like with full size SUV but seems to be sufficient room and large enough to see somewhat in traffic.

Thanks for the tips and advice up to this point. I will certainly continue to look here for advice and tips as I adjust to new schedule. Scuba anyone ?

 

[Scuba]

Yes - SCUBA! Congratulations [emoji322]

 

[Lukeee]

Congratulations and glad to see you far exceeded your “retire by 90” goal