DH is 57, I am 54 & we are both school librarians.
Our district allows full retirement at 55 with 30 years of service, so meet that milestone next spring, though we will finish the school year. This quarter of remote learning has been odd to say the least, and we anticipate the next school year to be far from normal...we were considering it & this seems to be the sign that it is time.
Our retirement income will be a bit lower than our normal income, so we actually began to make some changes a couple years ago.
We downsized from a 5BR home to a 3BR townhome, and it will be paid off in 18 months. We have no debt. We own 1 van & lease a car; the lease is up next spring so we will have to outlay cash for that but we will be DEBT FREE.
Our children will be 26, 23 & 20. The older 2 are on their own in CA & TX(tho with the current environment we are playing insurance/cell for the older 1 until things ramp up again--things we could afford anyway, tho would rather not!) 20YO is in college, fully funded with scholarship & 529, and he will get an apartment in a year. (we will fund his car & health insurance/cell phone for 2 more years at an expense of $300/mo for those 2 years, as we did for the older 2 through college) They each have a reliable used car that we bought them; they can choose to drive it or trade it in. They each have investments that will allow them to buy a home within the next 2 years if they so choose. (and we encourage) Our son in CA JUST moved there in January, and then Nike closed in March. They have been paying him amazingly & will until this ends; though he was making more when actually working. But he had some savings so he can weather the storm.
We live in a midwestern city where expenses are reasonable. My parents live here & his are 90 min. away. They are all in good to very good health & will not need any financial assistance from us. My brother lives here & DH's DS lives where his parents do, so we know they are cared for if we move.
And that is our goal--DONE with winter & humidity we plan to move to Las Vegas, a city we have visited over 100 times over 28 years. We love the weather, the parks for hiking, nearby lakes for boating, the nightlife, the gambling. We like the proximity to California & all it has to offer. It appears
the cost of living is about 10% more there; we will have no house or car payment when we go but we will have OOP for health insurance (available through our teacher's union).
We are blessed that we have investments that will provide us the ability to enjoy what we love the most--travel. (we have considered traveling the country by RV for a year as a friend has; we shall see...). We know our retirement income will easily cover our daily living expenses with nice bumper room. (just attended that retirement seminar in early March & exhaled afterward that we were looking good to go for next year)
We hope to take a trip to Vegas in March to look at properties (2BR condo or townhome $250-350K) & hopefully get that ball rolling.
I want nothing more than to be planning travel right now. (DM & I were taking DD on a Med cruise departing next week for her college graduation
; we are hoping to postpone to a UK cruise (DM's dream) in 2022. Here's hoping. BUT on a good note--our expenses are much less since we aren't traveling at all nor going out (we do takeout from a local establishment once a week).
I think I just wrote a novel, my apologies. Work is winding down this week so lots of time my hands...researching retirement info seemed like something to plan & look forward to since I really cannot plan travel. (I participate in several travel forums on the web; I am even "Destination Expert" on Trip advisor's Las Vegas forum)
Time to go read what everyone has to share!
Our district allows full retirement at 55 with 30 years of service, so meet that milestone next spring, though we will finish the school year. This quarter of remote learning has been odd to say the least, and we anticipate the next school year to be far from normal...we were considering it & this seems to be the sign that it is time.
Our retirement income will be a bit lower than our normal income, so we actually began to make some changes a couple years ago.
We downsized from a 5BR home to a 3BR townhome, and it will be paid off in 18 months. We have no debt. We own 1 van & lease a car; the lease is up next spring so we will have to outlay cash for that but we will be DEBT FREE.
Our children will be 26, 23 & 20. The older 2 are on their own in CA & TX(tho with the current environment we are playing insurance/cell for the older 1 until things ramp up again--things we could afford anyway, tho would rather not!) 20YO is in college, fully funded with scholarship & 529, and he will get an apartment in a year. (we will fund his car & health insurance/cell phone for 2 more years at an expense of $300/mo for those 2 years, as we did for the older 2 through college) They each have a reliable used car that we bought them; they can choose to drive it or trade it in. They each have investments that will allow them to buy a home within the next 2 years if they so choose. (and we encourage) Our son in CA JUST moved there in January, and then Nike closed in March. They have been paying him amazingly & will until this ends; though he was making more when actually working. But he had some savings so he can weather the storm.
We live in a midwestern city where expenses are reasonable. My parents live here & his are 90 min. away. They are all in good to very good health & will not need any financial assistance from us. My brother lives here & DH's DS lives where his parents do, so we know they are cared for if we move.
And that is our goal--DONE with winter & humidity we plan to move to Las Vegas, a city we have visited over 100 times over 28 years. We love the weather, the parks for hiking, nearby lakes for boating, the nightlife, the gambling. We like the proximity to California & all it has to offer. It appears
the cost of living is about 10% more there; we will have no house or car payment when we go but we will have OOP for health insurance (available through our teacher's union).
We are blessed that we have investments that will provide us the ability to enjoy what we love the most--travel. (we have considered traveling the country by RV for a year as a friend has; we shall see...). We know our retirement income will easily cover our daily living expenses with nice bumper room. (just attended that retirement seminar in early March & exhaled afterward that we were looking good to go for next year)
We hope to take a trip to Vegas in March to look at properties (2BR condo or townhome $250-350K) & hopefully get that ball rolling.
I want nothing more than to be planning travel right now. (DM & I were taking DD on a Med cruise departing next week for her college graduation
; we are hoping to postpone to a UK cruise (DM's dream) in 2022. Here's hoping. BUT on a good note--our expenses are much less since we aren't traveling at all nor going out (we do takeout from a local establishment once a week).I think I just wrote a novel, my apologies. Work is winding down this week so lots of time my hands...researching retirement info seemed like something to plan & look forward to since I really cannot plan travel. (I participate in several travel forums on the web; I am even "Destination Expert" on Trip advisor's Las Vegas forum)
Time to go read what everyone has to share!
