6 month FIRE anniversary, interesting times

[jollystomper]

Personally I think the risk of missing out on one's most active and healthiest years doesn't receive enough attention. At 60, maintaining the ability to live the way I want for the next 15 years or so is as important as any other planning variable.

This is so true. Just this week one of my former Megacorp co-workers died. Almost 20 years ago he was playing tennis with someone who dropped dead on the court at age 60. My co-worker was 57 at the time, and right after that he decided to retire. He had almost 20 years of an active, happy retirement.

 

[Youngblood]

Great post! This helps to keep me motivated and to keep grinding. My date is still about 10 years away, but everyday it gets a little closer


As others have mentioned, your health can go anytime. I had my big scare with cancer last year, but I'm in the clear now. Forget OMY, when my numbers line up, I will FIRE!!

 

[SlowlySaving]

Awesome! Congratulations!

 

[Perryinva]

I hadn’t thought about the retirement month. Makes perfect sense. Luckily, my last work day will be May 30 this year, age 61 and 4 months. No healthcare worries (company supplemented, will cost about $200/mo) and a nice pension that starts 8/1 and full time severance pay through July 2020. DW is already 66 on Medicare. Plenty of income, time to blow that dough!

 

[RetMD21]

But your excellent point about taking the most income during your best years is making me rethink that. We are also minimizing income now so that we can get ACA subsidies.

People have different approaches to the SS timing. I think the ACA subsidy is an amazing benefit. Of course there is no point in depriving yourself in early retirement if accessing retirement accounts would improve your quality of life.

 

[meleana]

I have been out the past 6 months at age 62 and just living my life. Nothing exciting.



My husband is still working until next year when he retires at age 66. So I do not really feel retired, just home being a homemaker full time instead of squeezing it in evenings and weekends.


Very busy with a lot of things. No fun yet, but certainly better than employment. (except for the missing paycheck)

 

[Dynaflash]

1 day for me. I did think about the weather and decide that Spring was a good time to FIRE. I really don’t think it will be an issue for me. I am already very busy with grandchildren, travel and other hobbies. I just hope that I have time to take it easy some haha.

 

[catii]

My retirement came very abruptly, less than a week after DW & I had started discussing it. A severe medical problem put me in hospital for 15 days, & the company we owned was sold by her to our employees before I even got out.

I wondered whether I would miss the hectic days of being a high-end computer consultant, but to be honest, the answer is No. Although I no longer see them in a work environment, we still see the same people, just when we want to, not because we have to. Wife works at a different company, & I'm more worried about her when she retires in June after 30 years.

I'm perfectly happy reading, writing a couple of technical books, & doing some occasional consulting projects, but she's a lot more frenetic, & I hope she won't be bouncing off the walls in retirement. Wish there was a roadmap for that!

 

[Rdub]

Congrats! I am coming up on my 2 year retireversary. I was a finance exec in silicon valley. Nearly everyone told me I would be bored and would go back to. I don't miss the stress, the commute, the firedrills, etc. I've been too busy spending time with family and friends, improving my golf game, working out ~6 days a week, guitar lessons, learned to play over 70 songs, picked up another rental property and have been spending about 1 month a year in Hawaii with the fam. With proper planning, early retirement is amazing.

 

[kimcdougc]

Congrats! I haven't ever know anyone who wanted to go back to work. Just saying. There must be a reason why. Life is short. Enjoy you retirement!

 

[PointBreeze]

18 months for me. I have been doing some light to medium consulting ever since pulling the trigger, and for the last few months I've known I'm ready to be completely retired now (60 yrs old). It took me some time to transition from someone-who-w*rks-with-others-on-an-organization's-projects to someone-who-spends-pleasurable-time-on-her-own-projects

 

[mijoy]

I appreciate the OP post. Sounds very much like my wife and I in many ways. I retired 2 months ago and have been waiting for the weather to improve. Finally it is spring. I also share planning ahead to qualify for ACA to keep the health care cost reasonable. Trump, I understand just stated that the republicans will not be changing the plan until after the 2020 election, at which time I will be 64. So worst case scenario is I get hit with higher cost (may also be lower) for my final year before Medicare. So not much to worry about there.

I also retired from high-tech. Have not and will not look back. Deadlines were my life. Not just deadlines but (what almost appeared to be) deliberately impossible deadlines to attain. So life was always stressful, even during the days off when I would find myself constantly thinking of it.


Bored? Not a chance! Two boats (one is just a skiff) that need constant work, a large yard, a house that needs constant upkeep (I love the work) and 4 Grandkids (3 only 10 minutes away) and a new puppy (beautiful black lab). Although originally a sceptic, I have been seeing a chiropractor who has been able to straighten out my twisted spine from 37 years of sitting in front of a keyboard with terrible posture habits. Now I am back to lifting weights and am attempting to conquer the 1000lb club. That is 1000lb total between the three powerlifts (bench press, deadlift and squat). I think I have a chance, I am over 900 but still have a ways to go.

Loving every day! Keep them coming.

 

[tmitchell]

Amazing

Wow I need more posts like these! So inspiring.

I’m on the cusp of my “number” and OMY. Keep having fears of “what will I do” and “will I have enough” etc. I’m sure the story is old by now.

But I love to hear the details of what it’s like on the other side. I’m 51 and am really starting to wonder/hope if 2020 will be my year to pull the trigger?? After so many decades of selling my time it’s just so hard to imagine as many NOT needing to.

Keep it coming folks! So helpful.

 

[Ronnieboy]

I have read all these posts and would agree with everything said about retiring while you can, when you still have your health, to be able to to the things you want to do.

But recently DW and I have had a scare. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer (Jan of this year), had a double mastectomy and is currently doing chemotherapy (one dose down and 7 more to go). At first I was thinking, o.k. we kick this cancers butt and then we really get serious and high tail it to retirement.

Slight pause here for a little background. The original plan was to semi-retire at 55 years old for me and 58 for DW (it will be the same time as DW is a few years older than me). Semi being the key word for me, for health insurance reasons, and DW would be 100% retired. This is approximately 4 years away and one of the 'goals' was to have the house paid off by this time. Well we've been lackadaisical about that goal and it would be tough to hit it at the pace we are going.

Anyhew, back to the main story. I have been reading all these claims coming into our insurance and I am in total disbelief. I carry the insurance on the family, through my employer, and it is darn good insurance!! The two day hospital stay alone, not including the general surgeon's fee, the plastic surgeon's fee, the anesthesiologist fee, you get the idea, basically the OR, recovery, and some ICU (DW went into afib after the surgery) the hospital billed my insurance (AETNA) $150,000.00!! of course the contracted rate is about $65k but that alone scares the heck out of me. One serious illness, surgery, whatever can kill your nest egg in a hurry.

I haven't added all the claims up yet, but I would say a good guess so far from diagnosis to genetic testing to surgery to first dose of chemo (that alone is almost $10k per round) Aetna has been billed over $220k and there is easily $80k more to go. Granted the contracted rate is much less, but even at 60% of the total it is mind boggling to think that someone would have to come up with $180k (and that is only if you could get the discounted rate) to pay for something like this. I can see why people have to declare bankruptcy over medical bills!!

Now I am scared about retiring and losing good benefits, especially now that DW has the Cancer scare and I am a fattie. We will be paying through the nose for healthcare (assuming we could get it) before medicare. Granted if I were to drop to PT my current company would still offer kick arse medical coverage, not as good as FT but still better than a lot of other employers. But also going PT doesn't afford me the 'security' or 'seniority' that a FT employee would have.

I am beginning to psyche myself out about early retirement with all the above when we should really be looking past this cancer treatment and trying to get out of the workforce earlier to enjoy the time we have left!!

Thanks for allowing me to vent

 

[james22]

To the question of finance,ACA and holding off on SS until Medicare, no, I wouldn’t hold off. Both my wife and I did computations on increased benefits in later years vs NPV for taking present day (early SS) benefits. The crossover benefit advantage age was 11+ yearrs so we concentrated on what the value was to our required (disposable) spend in that all important 60 to 75 year window. The driving force behind our decisions is that life doesn’t change in a month, a year, or a day, it’s a mere second. The phone rings, and we’ll, you know the rest. We’re going to live life at the maximum level until the call comes while still being prepared for the potential of a long life.

You actually get to spend more money at age 62, by delaying S.S. to age 70

http://www.early-retirement.org/for...off-maximize-my-ss-com-77660.html#post1604411

 

[meleana]

I have read all these posts and would agree with everything said about retiring while you can, when you still have your health, to be able to to the things you want to do.

But recently DW and I have had a scare. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer (Jan of this year), had a double mastectomy and is currently doing chemotherapy (one dose down and 7 more to go). At first I was thinking, o.k. we kick this cancers butt and then we really get serious and high tail it to retirement.

Slight pause here for a little background. The original plan was to semi-retire at 55 years old for me and 58 for DW (it will be the same time as DW is a few years older than me). Semi being the key word for me, for health insurance reasons, and DW would be 100% retired. This is approximately 4 years away and one of the 'goals' was to have the house paid off by this time. Well we've been lackadaisical about that goal and it would be tough to hit it at the pace we are going.

Anyhew, back to the main story. I have been reading all these claims coming into our insurance and I am in total disbelief. I carry the insurance on the family, through my employer, and it is darn good insurance!! The two day hospital stay alone, not including the general surgeon's fee, the plastic surgeon's fee, the anesthesiologist fee, you get the idea, basically the OR, recovery, and some ICU (DW went into afib after the surgery) the hospital billed my insurance (AETNA) $150,000.00!! of course the contracted rate is about $65k but that alone scares the heck out of me. One serious illness, surgery, whatever can kill your nest egg in a hurry.

I haven't added all the claims up yet, but I would say a good guess so far from diagnosis to genetic testing to surgery to first dose of chemo (that alone is almost $10k per round) Aetna has been billed over $220k and there is easily $80k more to go. Granted the contracted rate is much less, but even at 60% of the total it is mind boggling to think that someone would have to come up with $180k (and that is only if you could get the discounted rate) to pay for something like this. I can see why people have to declare bankruptcy over medical bills!!

Now I am scared about retiring and losing good benefits, especially now that DW has the Cancer scare and I am a fattie. We will be paying through the nose for healthcare (assuming we could get it) before medicare. Granted if I were to drop to PT my current company would still offer kick arse medical coverage, not as good as FT but still better than a lot of other employers. But also going PT doesn't afford me the 'security' or 'seniority' that a FT employee would have.

I am beginning to psyche myself out about early retirement with all the above when we should really be looking past this cancer treatment and trying to get out of the workforce earlier to enjoy the time we have left!!

Thanks for allowing me to vent

It really does come down to money. I mean- if you had the money to pay health insurance premiums on going after FIRE, then you do it. If you don't, there are the realities of life that have to be dealt with so you have to keep working for the health insurance. You are not alone!


Especially with your wife's situation I would not risk losing health insurance. Unless you want to brave it and move to another country where health care is decent but much less expensive. I have no idea where that would be.


You are going through a stressful time and I think the less changes the better right now. When the time comes and you reach age 55 you can reevaluate everything. In the meantime try to enjoy your lives as much as possible. Do some things you always wanted to do. Don't put them off.



The journey is the destination.

 

[RetMD21]

You actually get to spend more money at age 62, by delaying S.S. to age 70

Sure, it seems to me that it comes down to whether you "need" the money from ss. My cousin has a small inflation adjusted pension and apparently taking ss will improve his lifestyle so he is taking t early. I suspect that he has a substantial portfolio but he has been a saver all his life so he is probably reluctant to spend. In my view he is not financially sophisticated so I think this approach makes sense for him. After his !financial advisor! explained to him that early, late, and intermediate were calculated to be neutral by the social security actuaries he didn't feel foolish taking the payments early.

For myself, I have the "big enough" portfolio and I can fund my desired lifestyle without SS so why take it early? Also there is some family history of substantial longevity so I am planning to wait until 70.