Hi to forum

[James5v]

I retired in Feb at age 55 and having a great time. I use to speculate quite a lot in the stock with both winners and losers. Now, I am more interested in investment producing as safe as possible income. This current crazy market is not what I want.

I work as a mental health counselor in Federal Civil Service as a mental health counselor for 25 years. They offered an early retirement and I jumped on it. So far I have had absolutely no regrets. I continue to retain my license and made practice again but not right now. I am having too good a time.

I own my home, and am married to a school teacher. This is Louisiana and you can guess she does not make much, but we live rather simply and have a great life.

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by James5v I retired in Feb at age 55 and having a great time. I use to speculate quite a lot in the stock with both winners and losers. Now, I am more interested in investment producing as safe as possible income. This current crazy market is not what I want. I work as a mental health counselor in Federal Civil Service as a mental health counselor for 25 years. They offered an early retirement and I jumped on it. So far I have had absolutely no regrets. I continue to retain my license and made practice again but not right now. I am having too good a time. I own my home, and am married to a school teacher. This is Louisiana and you can guess she does not make much, but we live rather simply and have a great life.

Welcome. Glad to hear you are enjoying ER. I am positive you can learn/find much valuable information here in the forums. Check out the Money and FIRE subforum, and the FIRECALC section especially. As well as the other subforums.

You mention wanting to avoid "speculating" anymore, but wanting "investment to produce as safe as possible income". I would suggest you do a search for threads on "asset allocation", and read them thoroughly. Also read up on the idea of "safe withdrawal rates" from your nestegg. The FIRECALC calculator embeds this notion.

Pose more details of your story and ask specific questions as you think of them. This place is most interesting because folks like you share stories and ask questions.

Welcome.

[TexasGal]

Welcome, James, and congrats on ER.

There is so much valuable information here that it will take you quite a while to read through some of it. I especially like the Early Retirement FAQ section.

TG

[Dawg52]

Welcome from a neighbor in MS! Hope ER goes well for you.

[SteveR]

Welcome to the forums JamesV5,
Glad you found us and welcome to the ER (Early Retiree) club as well. I retired last May and have not stopped since. We just got back from a 6000 mile RV trip that lasted 2 months. We are back home now but are getting ready for the next one.

Take a look around the various forums and use the Search tool to zero in on topic that have already been discussed. There are a lot of early retirement topics that go beyond just how to get here or where to invest your money. There is nothing wrong with being safe as long as inflation does not eat it all up before you can spend it.

Good luck and again, welcome to the board.

[template]

Hi James,

Welcome to the forum. Like you, I didn't discover the forum until after I had retired. It is a great place for guys like us to compare notes.

Enjoy your stay.

[James5v]

Thanks for the welcome. I will probably spend a good deal of time here, it seems full of information.

I am currently also having a great time. I play in two bands, a jazz band and a country band. We don't make much money but play a lot and always have a good time.

One band plays every Tuesday night at one of our local nursing homes. The other plays a variety of charity events, the next one being Moss and Misitole in Lake Charles, La. on the 14 th of November. If interested you can look at our website, Home Page. I am currently moving it to another provider so it made be down for a while.

I now look forward to Monday morning.

BTW, the market looks like it will have a bad opening as I write this.

Thanks again for the welcome.

[kestrel0222]

Hi James,

Welcome to the forum!!! Lots of great people and advice here. Congrats on your retirement.

Tom