Chalupadrop
Dryer sheet wannabe
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2010
- Messages
- 11
First off, I apologize for the lengthy introduction. I have been reading this forum for a few months since I will be eligible for retirement through my employer on July 1st. I have found that there is a wealth of information here and hope to gain from using and contributing.
2010 is looking to be a momentous year for me. I am 57 and have never been married. However, more about ten years ago, I met a wonderful woman while on vacation rafting through the Grand Canyon. We began a long distance relationship a year of so later and have continued sharing holidays, vacations, and visits as frequent as possible. We are 570 miles apart, me in Ohio, she in PA. The good news is that we were engaged last year and will be getting married in October 2010. She recently retired from a long term teaching position at a community college. She has one son with wife and two small kids in CA and they are great to me.
To make things more complicated, it appears certain that my employer will offer an early retirement incentive at the end of this month. There will be a decent incentive based upon years of service and would be effective April 1, so I would just have to wait until July 1 to start getting my pension.
We both will have decent pensions and both have followed the 401k route to establish retirement funds, so finances should not be a problem, but want to manage the resources effectively.
So, I am facing retirement, marriage, and need to find a common home location all at the same time.
The request that I would make is for others to provide recommendations on resolving many of the issues that we will be facing so that we can better lay out a plan going forward. I want to take advantage of what I see as the best time of our lives.
Here are the issues that I see on the list in no particular order:
1) I have been an engineer married to my work forever. The career has been good to me and challenging to say the least. I am worried that the day I retire that there will be this huge vacuum not going to work and will have trouble filling up the days. Need feedback on what others have done to adjust. Did you ever find the need to go back to work just to be fulfilled? Or, can I hope to celebrate the good fortune and turn the page?
2) Would like recommendations on how to handle finances. Should we merge all accounts etc? I envision having a joint account to place all normal pension income to pay routine expenses, joint ownership in home and other major assests and still maintain separate investment accounts.
3) We both have homes with no mortgage to worry about, but need to decide on where to retire and how to handle existing property. She, and escpecially me, have always liked to vacation and travel the Western US. I had worked in Flagstaff years ago and have always liked the Northern Az area, so it is on the list for consideration as a retirement location. We are thinking of both keeping our homes temporarily and heading out to Flagstaff and rent for a while. At the same time would be looking for other locations that may be preferred. Would like input on steps to get a retirement residence and sequence to sell off existing property, downsize etc. Also recommendations based upon experience for other Western US locations for retirement.
So, I am blessed with good news, and overwhelmed at the same time.
Thanks for reading and your insight!
2010 is looking to be a momentous year for me. I am 57 and have never been married. However, more about ten years ago, I met a wonderful woman while on vacation rafting through the Grand Canyon. We began a long distance relationship a year of so later and have continued sharing holidays, vacations, and visits as frequent as possible. We are 570 miles apart, me in Ohio, she in PA. The good news is that we were engaged last year and will be getting married in October 2010. She recently retired from a long term teaching position at a community college. She has one son with wife and two small kids in CA and they are great to me.
To make things more complicated, it appears certain that my employer will offer an early retirement incentive at the end of this month. There will be a decent incentive based upon years of service and would be effective April 1, so I would just have to wait until July 1 to start getting my pension.
We both will have decent pensions and both have followed the 401k route to establish retirement funds, so finances should not be a problem, but want to manage the resources effectively.
So, I am facing retirement, marriage, and need to find a common home location all at the same time.
The request that I would make is for others to provide recommendations on resolving many of the issues that we will be facing so that we can better lay out a plan going forward. I want to take advantage of what I see as the best time of our lives.
Here are the issues that I see on the list in no particular order:
1) I have been an engineer married to my work forever. The career has been good to me and challenging to say the least. I am worried that the day I retire that there will be this huge vacuum not going to work and will have trouble filling up the days. Need feedback on what others have done to adjust. Did you ever find the need to go back to work just to be fulfilled? Or, can I hope to celebrate the good fortune and turn the page?
2) Would like recommendations on how to handle finances. Should we merge all accounts etc? I envision having a joint account to place all normal pension income to pay routine expenses, joint ownership in home and other major assests and still maintain separate investment accounts.
3) We both have homes with no mortgage to worry about, but need to decide on where to retire and how to handle existing property. She, and escpecially me, have always liked to vacation and travel the Western US. I had worked in Flagstaff years ago and have always liked the Northern Az area, so it is on the list for consideration as a retirement location. We are thinking of both keeping our homes temporarily and heading out to Flagstaff and rent for a while. At the same time would be looking for other locations that may be preferred. Would like input on steps to get a retirement residence and sequence to sell off existing property, downsize etc. Also recommendations based upon experience for other Western US locations for retirement.
So, I am blessed with good news, and overwhelmed at the same time.
Thanks for reading and your insight!