probably delaying retirement plan

[Exchme]

OP - You have not really revealed your spending, assets, current income, future pension, future SS, age, etc., so financial advice is not forthcoming.

However, if you are well on your way to financial independence, you can loosen up enough to get rid of the household jobs you hate and buy a good used car for a second car. The fact that these seem like unacceptable options to you when they would be an excellent use for your money suggests you need to re-evaluate what money is for. Being too tight with money is not only depriving you, there is no way you can have this much anger and not have it spill over onto your family.

My dad was super cheap, determined to either do every household job himself or force us to do it and he continually cursed out everyone and stormed around the house. It was a miserable existence growing up around that. Don't be that guy! Relax, spend a little money to make life easier and more pleasant. Maybe it will take you a little longer to retire, but so what. If not for you, then do it for your family.

 

[Al18]

I think your retirement assumptions are incorrect. NW of $5 million could mean you are not prepared to retire if your house is worth $4 million and you are paying $100K per year in taxes and fees to maintain the grounds and mansion. You need to plug your investable assets and actual expenses (don’t guess) into a retirement calculator to determine if you have enough assets to retire. You can’t afford a second car, even though you are making 6 figures does not sound believable. If you want a second car, definitely buy it now and have it paid off before you retire.

 

[CaptTom]

Going back a few posts, I was reminded of my first post here on this forum, where I introduced the idea of a "shoestring" retirement.

Interesting read. Things are pretty much going to plan. The forum seems to be even more skewed toward the "Blow That Dough" side of things these days, which I hope isn't discouraging anyone from participating. As someone pointed out, the concepts are the same, only the numbers are different.

But one thing struck me, which may be of interest to the OP. It relates to the fear of jumping in to the ER part without being 100% sure of the FI part. In one of my posts, I said something along the lines of "I don't worry too much about becoming poor. I've been poor. I can do poor.

Of course everyone's definition of "poor" is different. The point is, we've all faced financial hardships. We shouldn't let the fear of them paralyze us when it comes to important decisions like work/life balance.

 

[jollystomper]

Whiling walking a mile to the store under the noon sun. It hit me - if we are living this hard with a 6 figure salary and benefits, how could we manage without those in retirement? It is confirmed again when I have to cut the two week old grasses. I hate mowing the lawn and the mosquito bites.

If we could not afford second car or pay for occasional delivery, and I had to drag my tired body to cut the grass every week. Why do I want to voluntarily giving up a 6 figure income and all the benefits?

People say they enjoy retirement because every day is like a Saturday. But without the steady income from working, even Saturdays are not that much enjoyable. Does anyone else have this feeling right before they about to turning their paper?

Iif you want to delay your retirement until you figure things out, there is nothing wrong with that. When I was 54, the numbers from multiple sources said I could retire. But I was not fully comfortable yet with the notion. If I had retired then, I might have had the same feeling as you. So I ended up working another 6 years. I am glad that I did, as I feel I can enjoy things we wanted to do more with an increased financial foundation. The risk of course was that something could have happened in those 6 years to negatively impact things such as our health. But that is a tradeoff one has to make. There are many OMY (One More Year) stories here, including mine.

We here can convince you, from the money perspective, that you have enough to retire. We can do little to convince you, from a mentality perspective, if you should retire. That is a decision you have to make, as you will have to live with it. So do not do it, until you know you can live with it. If it turns our you never retire, well, that might be what you wanted.

 

[bigriver]

You’re not right. Sounds like the start of a murder mystery.

 

[GoodLife59]

Whiling walking a mile to the store under the noon sun. It hit me - if we are living this hard with a 6 figure salary and benefits, how could we manage without those in retirement? It is confirmed again when I have to cut the two week old grasses. I hate mowing the lawn and the mosquito bites.

If we could not afford second car or pay for occasional delivery, and I had to drag my tired body to cut the grass every week. Why do I want to voluntarily giving up a 6 figure income and all the benefits?

People say they enjoy retirement because every day is like a Saturday. But without the steady income from working, even Saturdays are not that much enjoyable. Does anyone else have this feeling right before they about to turning their paper?

I’m confused by your comments. Have you been proactively planning for retirement? Or simply counting down the days? BTW - I’ve known low to high six figure workers struggle to get to retirement due to the overhead costs and debt load of their preferred lifestyle. I’m having a blast in my debt free retirement.

 

[Dean56]

I'm guessing we won't see MARK2024 posting anything in the BTD thread.

 

[HGTVFanatic]

But how do you know for sure you have saved enough?

We live way below our means and save every penny we could. Our net worth is moving toward 5 million plus we have pensions and will draw decent SS. Every calculators we run says 90 to 100%. But all these calculator are using historical data to project into the future. How could you be so sure?

Before I saw this response, I was actually feeling sorry for you. Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Koolau]

Well, I've got a good stash, but no $5Mil and I moved to a condo to (among other things) insure that I never have to mow/do chores outside ever again. YMMV

 

[old medic]

Net worth of 5 million and can't afford to pay someone to mow the yard? Or buy a second car?

Plus pension and SS... I wish we were half that destitute.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Just because a few people on here throw out large numbers in this forum from time to time, the OP seems to think we all have 5 million dollars in our accounts.
I don't even have close to that, I've been retired for 5 years and have no fear of ever running out of money. Yes the first couple of years were a little scary because I really had no idea how things would pan out but I'm now very confident that money will never be a problem for me. I have not started my social security yet because I don't need the money but when I do it will more than cover all my monthly expenses. I have no bills and I don't need 8K a month to live on.
I think it's irrational fear in his case and I don't think he'll ever retire with that mindset and I'm sure he's not the only one. If I had not been laid off which in retrospect turned out to be the best day of my life, I would probably still be working as well because of my own fears.
I wish him well.

 

[anothercog]

This is a perfectly rational fear but if you are barely getting by on your salary then you aren’t likely saving enough to retire early (or at all).

I’m fortunate to have a good salary and even in my HCOL area I’m able to save half of it. I try to spend as little as possible on vehicles but splurge on vacations. That’s what’s important to me.

We’ve got a guy that cuts our lawn (it’s only about a 6k sq ft lot) for $100/mo. I don’t plan on going back to doing it myself so that is baked into the budget.

I’m fairly risk adverse so I suspect I’ll be doing OMY after I have hit my FIRE goal (hopefully in 3-5 years) but I’m definitely going to be out by the time I hit 60 in 7 more years.

 

[swakyaby]

Plus pension and SS... I wish we were half that destitute.

[emoji23]

 

[brett]

Finances aside, I believe that you will know when it is 'right' for you to retire.

Just as I did, as did a number of our friends. Sometimes it is about money, sometimes it is about anything but. Some people use finances as an excuse not to retire because they do not want to admit that they are not ready or that retire frightens them and their sense of purpose.

I was fortunate, everything came together for us when I felt it was 'time'. I was ready. My spouse never dreamed that I could walk away and not look back.
But that is exactly what I did.

I left at the right time for me. Made the decision and started planning how I was going to execute it and move forward.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Finances aside, I believe that you will know when it is 'right' for you to retire.

Just as I did, as did a number of our friends. Sometimes it is about money, sometimes it is about anything but. Some people use finances as an excuse not to retire because they do not want to admit that they are not ready or that retire frightens them and their sense of purpose.

I was fortunate, everything came together for us when I felt it was 'time'. I was ready. My spouse never dreamed that I could walk away and not look back.
But that is exactly what I did.

I left at the right time for me. Made the decision and started planning how I was going to execute it and move forward.

Makes sense brett, I can totally relate to the idea of needing to be emotionally ready regardless of financial preparation, but what I think many folks are having difficulty with is why the OP is living a lifestyle of hardship in the meantime.

 

[LateToFIRE]

"Why do I want to voluntarily giving up a 6 figure income and all the benefits?" Because Time > $, there is a distinct possibility that you could die before retirement. It's much more likely than running out of $ when you start with $5M.

Check out the "Rich, Broke or Dead" calculator. Should help with the fear of running out of $, which is much less likely than running out of time.
https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/

I love this simple, but powerful calculator (Rich, Broke or Dead). It is the perfect reminder that, I'm far more likely, by many, many, many orders of magnitude, to be dead than broke at any given point in the future. So, rationally, living my best (and healthiest) life should be my biggest priority.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Whiling walking a mile to the store under the noon sun. It hit me - if we are living this hard with a 6 figure salary and benefits, how could we manage without those in retirement? It is confirmed again when I have to cut the two week old grasses. I hate mowing the lawn and the mosquito bites.

If we could not afford second car or pay for occasional delivery, and I had to drag my tired body to cut the grass every week. Why do I want to voluntarily giving up a 6 figure income and all the benefits?

People say they enjoy retirement because every day is like a Saturday. But without the steady income from working, even Saturdays are not that much enjoyable. Does anyone else have this feeling right before they about to turning their paper?

Why did you walk your mile at noon if the store opens at 7?

My body is a lot less tired than it was when I was working. I've lost some weight (with still more to go). I'm swimming 2000 meters 5 days per week; before I did not have the time or energy to do so. I was standing on my feet at work for 40 hours per week, and spending another 10-20 hours completing patients' charts. With that level of exhaustion I couldn't think what I would do in retirement.

Regarding mowing the lawn, well, sometimes mow it a little wet in the morning. That's what folks here in PA do. In retirement, you don't have to fit lawnmowing around a work schedule. When you retire, and want to travel two months out of the year, maybe consider downsizing to a condo so you don't have any yard work. A six figure salary gets partly eaten up by your 401K contributions and taxes. When you aren't working, income tax should drop and you won't be making 401K contributions. If you work so long that you don't retire, what is the point of saving anything?

In your first post on July 8th, you said you had two small pensions and SS should give you about $10K per month to spend after taxes. That is inconsistent with what you are saying here. Maybe the fog of work and the heat of summer are weighing you down. It takes time after retirement to figure out how to enjoy your days. Each person is different. And if you want to spend a day here and there binge watching movies or TV, why not?

 

[Mark2024]

OP here. Very grateful to everyone who takes time to comment.

To Those who think I am a "troll" or my story is "inconsistent", all I could say is that everything I said here are the truth. Maybe you do not believe me or someone who live this way. That is ok. I think it is because we think differently.

Yes, we do have a decent net worth, zero debt, will have two SS and two pensions, plus currently a 6 figure salary and 5 figure dividend and interests. But I am still using an Iphone 7.

Why? I don't know and that is the reason I wrote this post. I do not understand those who voluntarily gave up their steadily income and doing BTD. It must be that those are loaded, me thinking.

 

[statsman]

In your first post on July 8th, you said you had two small pensions and SS should give you about $10K per month to spend after taxes. That is inconsistent with what you are saying here.

I debated whether to read this thread by going to the end of it for some sort of quick summary, which the above quote provides. To clear $10K after taxes, I am going to guess the pension sum in question isn't "small". It may be small in relation to the current (or previous?) salary. But this would require roughly $140K in taxable income, some of which would be SS (I could be off here). And that doesn't include anything from investments. I guess budget in retirement could be a problem.

 

[Mark2024]

In your first post on July 8th, you said you had two small pensions and SS should give you about $10K per month to spend after taxes. That is inconsistent with what you are saying here.

Just to clarify, the 10K/month before tax is the combination of SS, pensions and contributions from our investments. Not by SS and pension alone. I do heavily invest in dividend stocks.

 

[Aerides]

I do not understand those who voluntarily gave up their steadily income and doing BTD. It must be that those are loaded, me thinking.

Surely by now you have read enough threads here to know this is not true. Millions of people give up their income every year and retire. Those with little savings or a lot. SS and pensions, savings, whatever. They replace they paycheck with dividends, pensions, investment growth, etc. Some do it sooner than others if they plan and save earlier. It's just math.

 

[Mark2024]

Surely by now you have read enough threads here to know this is not true. Millions of people give up their income every year and retire. Those with little savings or a lot. SS and pensions, savings, whatever. They replace they paycheck with dividends, pensions, investment growth, etc. Some do it sooner than others if they plan and save earlier. It's just math.

It can NOT be just math. I can do math - including build a Monte Carlo simulation from the basic equation including variables with different distribution patterns.

It can NOT be just math. Of all the people who drove passing the walking me, the math would say I have more $ than at least 80% of them. But they were driving with the A/C on and I was walking.

It can NOT be just math. We have talked/interviewed several wealth management firms and they all say I could walk off work yesterday based on their math.

It can NOT be just math.

 

[Sunset]

OP here. Very grateful to everyone who takes time to comment.

.....

Yes, we do have a decent net worth, zero debt, will have two SS and two pensions, plus currently a 6 figure salary and 5 figure dividend and interests. But I am still using an Iphone 7.

Why? I don't know and that is the reason I wrote this post. ....

You must be RICH... using an iphone !

I use Android phones as they are much cheaper. I just bought two 2021 Motorola models brand new for $42 each, including a year of light phone service for each.

IF you think retirement is unlimited spending, caviar for breakfast and private jets, then nearly everyone cannot retire.

Track your spending, see the waste or under spending and you will know when you can retire.

If your actual cash/bond/stock assets are $1 million+ , and you have a private pension, and qualify for SS, then you can easily retire. I've seen a number of old retiree's living on less and they don't have to walk to the store.

How much more you want to spend, determines how much longer you need to work.

 

[Koolau]

OP here. Very grateful to everyone who takes time to comment.

To Those who think I am a "troll" or my story is "inconsistent", all I could say is that everything I said here are the truth. Maybe you do not believe me or someone who live this way. That is ok. I think it is because we think differently.

Yes, we do have a decent net worth, zero debt, will have two SS and two pensions, plus currently a 6 figure salary and 5 figure dividend and interests. But I am still using an Iphone 7.

Why? I don't know and that is the reason I wrote this post. I do not understand those who voluntarily gave up their steadily income and doing BTD. It must be that those are loaded, me thinking.

Thanks for checking in. I'm guessing the word "troll" came up because you are somewhat of an outlier here. Your net worth and income are somewhat above average here. Some folks are unable to relate to those who make/have more than they do. They forget that our "fears" (rational/irrational) are often controlling. And those fears are almost universal - no matter your net worth or income. You are not the first person who was very concerned about leaving a good salary.


I ran my numbers and they all said I could leave. I finally got to the point I had to believe the numbers or I'd stay forever. My employer helped me along by giving me a new assignment I didn't want to do. At that point, I jumped.


So, my recommendation: Run two or three good retirement calculators. Believe the results. Plan several back-ups for your retirement (what would you cut back on just-in-case.)


Can't recall if you mentioned a life-partner. If so, be certain s/he is on board with your plans. Good luck to you and check back often.

 

[pb4uski]

OP here. Very grateful to everyone who takes time to comment.

To Those who think I am a "troll" or my story is "inconsistent", all I could say is that everything I said here are the truth. Maybe you do not believe me or someone who live this way. That is ok. I think it is because we think differently.

Yes, we do have a decent net worth, zero debt, will have two SS and two pensions, plus currently a 6 figure salary and 5 figure dividend and interests. But I am still using an Iphone 7.

Why? I don't know and that is the reason I wrote this post. I do not understand those who voluntarily gave up their steadily income and doing BTD. It must be that those are loaded, me thinking.

No Mark, not loaded. But we have more than enough and would rather enjoy the rest of our time doing what we want rather than working. I'll concede that retiring is a big change and it is hard to walk away from a six-figure salary but it is better than working.

I walked away from my cushy, six-figure job that I still enjoyed at 56, much earlier than is typical in my profession. While they never said so, I suspect some of my colleagues thought I was bat-$h!t crazy, but it was the right thing for me. No regrets at all... in fact, the opposite... one of the best life changes that I ever decided. Come on in... the water is fine!

I think BTD is not immediate, but rather after one has been retired for a while and is very comfortable that they have plenty and prefer to and can afford to splurge on things that make them and their loved ones happy.

We call it SKIing, Spending the Kids Inheritance. [emoji16]