PandaBear
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2014
- Messages
- 313
Today is the day. Seems hard to believe it’s even happening. My timing may not be best, given inflation and market drops, but today was my last official day of work. Not an early retirement, I just turned 60. Dh retired back in 2019, just under 3 years ago.
I “think” we have things in place
My dh has already been receiving his pension and SS. As I “officially” retire July 1, I get my first “pension pay” July 31 (although I’ve already been informed I won’t actually receive the first one until mid August). As someone in education, I put aside money for summer paychecks, so not an issue.
We have retirement savings.
Our house is paid off.
Our kids are grown and flown. We do pay for a few things, such as paying the expenses for my dh’s family reunion each year (a weekend get together). We also have money set aside to help out with a home down payment (have already helped out one child) and weddings. And we still pay for the phone service (not their phones though).
We have LTC insurance, although it will only pay a maximum of $200 per day. But it is unlimited and only costs us about 2K per year for both of us.
What am I retiring to? I read that’s an important thing to consider. Right now, I have a few projects and plans I want to work on. I’m not good with nothing to do!
1. Remodel our front yard: I can’t even meet with the landscape designer until August. So this will probably be a year-long project, since at least some of it will be DIY.
2. Okay, don’t laugh, I want to learn how to decorate sugar cookies with royal frosting. The fancy kind that bakers sell for $3 or $4 each. I don’t want to sell, just learn for gifts, parties, and just the fun of doing it. I’ve been researching YouTube videos, inline courses and such that will help me with this goal.
3. Decluttering, decluttering, decluttering! I had to do my moms house last fall (the house we grew up in….6 bedrooms…..my mom saved EVERYTHING)and I do not wish that on my kids!
4. My mom lives about 2000 miles from me (we moved her to a lower cost of living area near my siblings) so I plan to visit 4-5 times a year.
5. I have also recently become a travel agent. This will hopefully give me some more options for reducing my travel costs. I’ve been helping friends and family with travel for years, so my hobby making me a little money is exciting. Not as a “real” job but a hobby (mostly doing it for the benefits and not earning any income). I don’t anticipate doing this long term, probably just a few years.
6. I’d like to learn to play golf. My dh golfs and so do 2 girlfriends. What it means for me is probably 9 hole courses and very short 18 hole courses, but I am taking some lessons.
7. As an educator in CA, I can’t work in public education for 6 months after retirement. After that, I can sub. I worked with more significantly impacted students, so that’s the kind of class I’d sub in. Retired staff get paid slightly more, so I’d get $220 per day (for my old district). And if I sub 20 days in a year, I get a $500 bonus. I’ll probably sub, to see colleagues and increase our travel budget. Also, my field is speech pathology and there is a huge shortage. I also have a “speciality” within this that most people don’t have, so I may be able to do some per diem work and make way more than subbing. We’ll see.
I know there are people here who say if you get paid to work, you’re not retired. But I consider anything I do to be bonus money, especially while we are figuring things our money wise from our investments. And if I’m not enjoying it, I won’t do it! It’s just an option on the table.
Longterm, we have things to think about.
1. I don’t anticipate our kids staying in our very HCOL area long term. Our oldest has already relocated to the East Coast and I don’t seem him moving back. Our daughter says she will be moving in a year or two (when long term boyfriend finishes his Ph.D. If we have grandkids, I want to be near them. However, dh LOVES our area and never wants to leave. We’ve discussed relocating, as well as possibly buying a condo or renting an apartment in a retirement community. We also are considering the fact that if all three kids are in the East Coast, we may just move somewhere near most of them. As of now, no changes, but I believe something will be on the horizon.
2. I need to figure out how to make new friends and build relationships. Again, because we live in a very HCOL area, many of our friends have left, once retired. Some left because they sold their house and used some of that equity to increase retirement savings. Others left because they came here, mostly in the 1980’s, for jobs and have gone back to where they were from. So that’s been hard already and going to get worse. I’m really struggling with this, and it’s only going to get worse (I have another friend moving this month!)
3. I need to learn more about what we should do moneywise, in terms of our retirement accounts. Take out 3 or 4%? Or less? Pick a number based on FIRECALC, and adjust upwards each year based on inflation? We’ve worked to save the money but now we need to figure out how to spend it. How do we balance this with the market decline? I’m pretty lost as to how to move forward. We don’t necessarily need the money right now, and I definitely want to leave some to our kids but I want to enjoy it as well.
I know we have to figure out some of these things mentioned above, but for at least a little while, I’m just going to enjoy the summer. I have multiple trips planned between now and early October. In between trips, my goal is to daily declutter a room, a drawer, the garage, etc and to exercise (walk the dog, ride a bike, etc) and move forward with other plans.
I’m a little scared, or nervous, excited and happy. Emotions vary day to day and even hour to hour.
I “think” we have things in place
My dh has already been receiving his pension and SS. As I “officially” retire July 1, I get my first “pension pay” July 31 (although I’ve already been informed I won’t actually receive the first one until mid August). As someone in education, I put aside money for summer paychecks, so not an issue.
We have retirement savings.
Our house is paid off.
Our kids are grown and flown. We do pay for a few things, such as paying the expenses for my dh’s family reunion each year (a weekend get together). We also have money set aside to help out with a home down payment (have already helped out one child) and weddings. And we still pay for the phone service (not their phones though).
We have LTC insurance, although it will only pay a maximum of $200 per day. But it is unlimited and only costs us about 2K per year for both of us.
What am I retiring to? I read that’s an important thing to consider. Right now, I have a few projects and plans I want to work on. I’m not good with nothing to do!
1. Remodel our front yard: I can’t even meet with the landscape designer until August. So this will probably be a year-long project, since at least some of it will be DIY.
2. Okay, don’t laugh, I want to learn how to decorate sugar cookies with royal frosting. The fancy kind that bakers sell for $3 or $4 each. I don’t want to sell, just learn for gifts, parties, and just the fun of doing it. I’ve been researching YouTube videos, inline courses and such that will help me with this goal.
3. Decluttering, decluttering, decluttering! I had to do my moms house last fall (the house we grew up in….6 bedrooms…..my mom saved EVERYTHING)and I do not wish that on my kids!
4. My mom lives about 2000 miles from me (we moved her to a lower cost of living area near my siblings) so I plan to visit 4-5 times a year.
5. I have also recently become a travel agent. This will hopefully give me some more options for reducing my travel costs. I’ve been helping friends and family with travel for years, so my hobby making me a little money is exciting. Not as a “real” job but a hobby (mostly doing it for the benefits and not earning any income). I don’t anticipate doing this long term, probably just a few years.
6. I’d like to learn to play golf. My dh golfs and so do 2 girlfriends. What it means for me is probably 9 hole courses and very short 18 hole courses, but I am taking some lessons.
7. As an educator in CA, I can’t work in public education for 6 months after retirement. After that, I can sub. I worked with more significantly impacted students, so that’s the kind of class I’d sub in. Retired staff get paid slightly more, so I’d get $220 per day (for my old district). And if I sub 20 days in a year, I get a $500 bonus. I’ll probably sub, to see colleagues and increase our travel budget. Also, my field is speech pathology and there is a huge shortage. I also have a “speciality” within this that most people don’t have, so I may be able to do some per diem work and make way more than subbing. We’ll see.
I know there are people here who say if you get paid to work, you’re not retired. But I consider anything I do to be bonus money, especially while we are figuring things our money wise from our investments. And if I’m not enjoying it, I won’t do it! It’s just an option on the table.
Longterm, we have things to think about.
1. I don’t anticipate our kids staying in our very HCOL area long term. Our oldest has already relocated to the East Coast and I don’t seem him moving back. Our daughter says she will be moving in a year or two (when long term boyfriend finishes his Ph.D. If we have grandkids, I want to be near them. However, dh LOVES our area and never wants to leave. We’ve discussed relocating, as well as possibly buying a condo or renting an apartment in a retirement community. We also are considering the fact that if all three kids are in the East Coast, we may just move somewhere near most of them. As of now, no changes, but I believe something will be on the horizon.
2. I need to figure out how to make new friends and build relationships. Again, because we live in a very HCOL area, many of our friends have left, once retired. Some left because they sold their house and used some of that equity to increase retirement savings. Others left because they came here, mostly in the 1980’s, for jobs and have gone back to where they were from. So that’s been hard already and going to get worse. I’m really struggling with this, and it’s only going to get worse (I have another friend moving this month!)
3. I need to learn more about what we should do moneywise, in terms of our retirement accounts. Take out 3 or 4%? Or less? Pick a number based on FIRECALC, and adjust upwards each year based on inflation? We’ve worked to save the money but now we need to figure out how to spend it. How do we balance this with the market decline? I’m pretty lost as to how to move forward. We don’t necessarily need the money right now, and I definitely want to leave some to our kids but I want to enjoy it as well.
I know we have to figure out some of these things mentioned above, but for at least a little while, I’m just going to enjoy the summer. I have multiple trips planned between now and early October. In between trips, my goal is to daily declutter a room, a drawer, the garage, etc and to exercise (walk the dog, ride a bike, etc) and move forward with other plans.
I’m a little scared, or nervous, excited and happy. Emotions vary day to day and even hour to hour.
Do something productive every day and you will feel successful.
