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Meadbh - Thank you for your thoughful reply. My daughter took a test last year, through the school, to match up her aptitudes and personality with different career choices. Two careers (that I remember) that people like her enjoy were nursing and teaching. Funny because she is rather...

Amcan57 - Sorry in advance to take this thread on a tangent, but... I have a question for the medical folks here. My daughter will be a senior in high school next year. She is an excellent student and highly motivated. She loves biology, got a 5 in the AP class last year, and has planned for...

I'm in. Not sure how to add my name to the list, but I'm definitely going to be a member of the class of 2010. I finish up in June. I must admit that the last couple weeks, as the notification of my retirement spreads to various groups, have sucked. I know I'm doing the right thing, but...

Boy can I relate to this. The circle of people who know I am leaving is slowing expanding. It has just been decided that two of my key guys will be assuming some of my responsibilities. Yesterday I mentioned an issue to them that we would need to start thinking and talking about. One of them...

We (I) are thinking about renting an RV to go visit my folks down south over spring break. I've always wanted to do this, and my boys are totally psyched. My wife, however, is less than enthusiastic. She is a bit of a clean freak and likes nice accomodations. I did a quick search and found a...

Welcome. My situation is similar, and the concerns are similar. 50, 3 kids, OK financially, too much travel (I added up travel days during a 3 month stretch a few years ago - there were 60 travel days). I'm fairly sure that I am making the right choice, but it is certainly not without...

For me, the most relevant benchmark is how much I'll spend relative to what I spend now. I'm basically planning for spending to be flat. However, one of the major worries I deal with is that I will give up the opportunity to increase spending(significantly) if I want to in the future. This...

I have a European wife, and she and the kids spend summers there. The kids are dual passport. We sometimes think of retiring there, but I'm scared of the financial consequences. Not even getting into the VAT, all my income will be passive, so I think I'd have to pay income tax on all of it in...

Thanks for the topic. It IS hard for me. I'll be retiring in a few months. Only a few key superiors know yet. I think disclosure will be in a month or so. But I am anxious. I'm not sleeping as well as usual, I'm having trouble concentrating, I'm eating more crap. At least I am also...

Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey. On the contrary, great change dominates the world, and unless we move with change we will become it's victims. RFK

I was trying to make sense of a charge for food on the way out...

Onward- Very cool story. I also have lurked for many years...using the forum to learn about an alternative to the seemingly endless road of often soul deadening work. I'm exiting the world of compensated labor this spring. I'm sure there are many other lurkers who've had ideas for...

Seems like an aggressive equity % to me, but I relate to the dilemma of lack of alternatives (as cash yields nothing and bonds seems likely to go down as the economy recovers and/or inflation picks up). Is your equity % excluding real estate from the denominator? This is something I wrestle...

To parrot what others have said, "great topic!" This idea of phases really resonates with me (as did the idea of periodically reinventing myself), and I hadn't been looking at retirement from this angle. As I contemplate how things will be when I pull the plug this summer, I find myself...

Thanks for the links. I'm not seeing any red flags, and am leaning towards using Vanguard's fund to provide income after I pull the plug. It's funny(?) that in the WSJ article, they talk about "relatively low fees, ranging from .5 to 1.9%..." Only in an article talking about annuities would...

Vanguard seems to have changed the formula for managed payouts. The Vanguard calculator now requires $2.6 million to generate montly distributions from the Managed Payout Fund (the middle option that keeps up with inflation) of $10k, for a withdrawl rate of 4.6%. Interesting that the implied...

My perspective is theoretical as I haven't yet taken the leap. However, I'm lining up to do so, and very interested in this topic. In theory, it seems crazy to me that spending a lot more time with my kids while they are growing could be worse than going off to work - assuming we still have...

MasterBlaster - Although the payout feature is really a simple thing, I like the idea of a steady (smoothed) payment to going the account each month. It probably makes me feel safer than I should - if markets all tank together like they did recently, this predictability will have been an...

I'm anxious as I start to take concrete steps to execute my retirement, and although I'm confident I'm doing the right thing, it's a little hard to figure out how I feel about it. I like her take on it.

I'm looking at getting set up for the transition from a paycheck to living off of investment income. I came across Vanguards managed payout funds, and they seem to be a great tool for me to use for disbursements from savings to the "house account". I did a search on the sight to see what has...

When I was a hard charging young'n, I used to love the quote: "Money may not buy you happiness, but it'd take an expert to tell the difference." Now, a bit older, a bit wiser, I agree with the article.

I'm starting to spend more time working from home in preparation for retiring next year - I was basically always away from home except weekends. So I stayed home last week. Thursday morning, as I was sitting in the kitchen before school, my 16 year old comes in and asks "are you going to hang...

As I prepare to retire with kids in grades 4-11, I'm more worried about my kids remembering me as off working all the time rather than not demonstrating a good work ethic. Reading the above gives me a lot of hope that my overdoing it on work at the expense of family time will be forgotten...

Wow. Thanks for all the great feedback. This is helpful. I believe that I'm taking the right path, even if it isn't the easy path. To keep working is easier in the sense that I have all the momentum going in that direction, and I'm comfortable in my role. I generally believe that it is...

Greetings. I've been reading the forum off and on for years, and have been very impressed by the quality of the investment advice. Although I am probably guilty of confirmation bias, since I use an asset allocation with Vanguard index funds approach. The reason I decided to delurk(?) is that...