Did your retirement diverge from your plan? If so, how did it go?

[RobbieB]

My plan was to be out end of 2014 but I got out 6 months early. So plan was pretty accurate.

[1-31-18]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREd The Plan: retire in the US with my wife while enjoying a very comfortable lifestyle. The plan worked for a few years after I retired. Then the wife asked for a divorce. We split our assets 50/50. She kept the house and the cats. All of the sudden I found myself totally free - free as I've never been free before. No wife, no kids, no house, no pets, no job, no obligation of any kind, just a well-padded bank account. So I decided to completely change my life. I moved to Europe (where I came from before immigrating to the US) and rebuilt a life which I am eminently proud of. I won't gloss over the fact that my lifestyle is not as comfortable as it once was but I adjusted just fine and have no regrets. Who knows where I'll be in 10 years? Hey I'm still young enough to have kids...

Yours is a very positive story. Divorce doesn’t need to derail retirement plans. Even multiple divorces. All best wishes for continued happiness in your new life.

[calmloki]

Sorta like user ivinsfan. Now both 70 and we still keep being landlords. Back in 2007 and at 58 years old we sold a couple of the little rental houses and thought we would sell a place/year until fully divested. Next year was 2008 and selling real estate just was not attractive - no pensions and picayune social security to look forward too. The rents kept up though, so we just kept fixing toilets and cashing the rent checks. Did manage to buy a winter place in La Quinta Ca in late 2010 as prices were way down. 2013 rolled around and my heart tried to take an early retirement, but my Gal was having none of that quitter attitude, so I'm still ticking. We've rid ourselves of a few more places, but still have 4 rentals with 36 units total. Silly. We live the same adequate but thrifty life style we've always lived and bank too darn much.

[Bamaman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Badger I targeted between 62 & 65. Then, in 2015, a re-org changed my job from challenging but rewarding to something else. I sniffed around internally and externally. Through that process, I discovered that my corporate fire in the belly, was only smoldering ashes. I had a couple modest pensions, so I exited at 60 in 2017 and burned some portfolio to get to 62 when DW and I began SS. Three years in last month. Best decision ever.

I'm with you there. We were also caught up in "consolidation" which meant they were moving regional offices into home office in a very undesirable place to live. And in 2008, they "retired" everyone 55 years and older.

We were fortunate to have great termination benefits of MegaCorp and a RHSA that paid our healthcare expenses. No reason to work past 58 at that point.

And by the way, I know where your Hog Mountain residence is. Been there.

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I've worked for nonprofit organizations for most of my life. My wife and I originally made a plan in 1992 to retire by 2008; but the financial crash caused a delay. We had always wanted to live in Europe (Italy) at least part time in our retirement, so a job in italian speaking southern Switzerland (just over the border from northern Italy) attracted my attention. I got the job and we moved here in 2009. I then retired from that job five years ago.

The extra years of work/saving and time for our investments to recover were enough to allow us to have a reasonably comfortable retirement here in Switzerland, which is an expensive country and would have been out of bounds back in 2008. We absolutely adore living here, so, the forced detour in the end was a good thing for us.

-BB

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan Barnfellow We had always wanted to live in Europe (Italy) at least part time in our retirement, so a job in Italian speaking southern Switzerland (just over the border from northern Italy) attracted my attention. I got the job and we moved here in 2009.

DH and I visited Lugano years ago- beautiful place!

When DH and I married, I was 50 and he was 65. I planned to retire at 65 but- we plan, God laughs. I did well until the job I was in at age 61 became politically toxic. I'd been through the numbers over and over and had a couple of opinions of financial advisors along the lines of "Why are you still working?" so I left.

It's worked out well. The markets co-operated up until just recently, I was there for DH in his last months and I can visit DS, DDIL and my grandchildren 3 hours away without having to count vacation days. I've never looked back.

[Souschef]

We were married in November 2007. I planned to retire in early 2008 after I got my profit sharing (7.5% of my pay). Then I figured I would wait for my bonus. Well, after that I figured I might as well stay until January 2009 for the year's profit sharing. Then I did retire.
The bad part about my decision was that the workplace had become more toxic during that year. I also only spent weekends with my wife, as the commute from my house to work was quite a bit shorter.
However, it all worked out in the end. Two days after I retired we were on a plane to Chile for a 2 week South American tour.

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Souschef We were married in November 2007. I planned to retire in early 2008 after I got my profit sharing (7.5% of my pay). Then I figured I would wait for my bonus. Well, after that I figured I might as well stay until January 2009 for the year's profit sharing. Then I did retire. The bad part about my decision was that the workplace had become more toxic during that year. I also only spent weekends with my wife, as the commute from my house to work was quite a bit shorter. However, it all worked out in the end. Two days after I retired we were on a plane to Chile for a 2 week South American tour.

Wow, that sounds like it was pretty rough at the end...but that last part! That's very much why I feel like I should go back to work for a bit, I really want us to be able to indulge ourselves a bit when we are both retired.

[Aerides]

We hit our dollar-goal around mid-2015 and were planning to ER in summer/fall. DH gave notice in April of 2015 when his MC wanted to expand his role - he wasn't going to take that on and reorg his team only to leave 3-4 months later, but he did offer to stay part time, and his MC liked that.

Meanwhile that summer I started getting wind of a RIF coming. So I played myself into being a potential candidate. Of course my MC took months to get things situated, and there was a lot of uncertainty, but I ended up doing almost-OMY as a result (and DH stayed with his PT gig for the duration). It was worth it, as my package was just over 1 year, along with staying on full benefits for the duration of the severance. So between the OMY and the package, we added 2 years of my full salary, while only reducing 1 year off our retirement. I also earned 3 weeks of vacation paid out, as well has half-bonus for the extra time, and another year's full contribution/match to my 401k.

And this year with all the market volatility, I'm glad of that extra cushion.

[Ronstar]

I was ready to go in 2010 at age 55. But DW wanted to wait to get fully vested employer healthcare in 2014. So she waited. And she didn’t want me to retire that long before her. So I cut back to 1 or 2 days a week, and practiced retirement for a few years.

Then we both retired in 2014. It was exactly as planned. Lots of hobbies and travel. Spent 9 months in Illinois near family and the winters at our condo in Arizona.

Plan was to eventually move to az full time. Sell the Illinois house. Got MIL on board to move with us in 2019. So I sold the condo and started looking for a house in az. Then MIL got cold feet and refused to leave Illinois. DW said she wouldn’t leave her mom.

So now we are stranded in Illinois. This was not part of the plan. But it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I have a lot of hobbies to keep me occupied. But hopefully we get back on plan at some point.

[Red Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman I'm with you there. We were also caught up in "consolidation" which meant they were moving regional offices into home office in a very undesirable place to live. And in 2008, they "retired" everyone 55 years and older. We were fortunate to have great termination benefits of MegaCorp and a RHSA that paid our healthcare expenses. No reason to work past 58 at that point. And by the way, I know where your Hog Mountain residence is. Been there.

Yup, we're about an hour S-SW of Helen. A town that we frequent (weekdays and off season only).

[daylatedollarshort]

We retired when DH hit his number, his heart rate number that is. His job was high stress. We thought we'd both have to work until the kids were out of college, but once I started running the numbers we seemed good to go. I thought we would still have to downsize or maybe move to a less expensive city, but with the ACA coming along, optimizing expenses and being into sustainable living / low consumption, we haven't had to move and our expenses are lower than what we planned on. In hindsight, I wish I had watched our expenses closer and retired ten years earlier.

[aja8888]

I didn't really have a "hard" plan after being wiped out in a California divorce when I was 50. Broke, new job in Houston, two teenage girls living with me in an apartment with rented furniture, and college expenses facing us after the "ex" cashed in the college funds and spent it on herself. (Don't even believe attorneys will help you here).

Worked like a dog, put the kids thru college (no loans), married right this time, and saved like a crazy man. Bought two homes and paid them off, then worked a few more years and retired.

I am tired! But I lost a decade.

[samm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davef .....PC is looking for qualified people, typically with a few years experience, for shorter term assignments. /#[/url]

FYI. Covid19 killed Peace Corps for now.

The China program was killed for political reasons. I doubt it will start again.

[Sue J]

DH planned to retire after 30 years of service in his state employees pension plan. New leadership made it evident that long term employees from previous leadership were no longer appreciated. DH saw many before him not being renewed and we were surprised that he lasted another few years before they didn’t renew his contract.

He was able to take a reduced pension at age 55 with 26.67 years which was enough to be more than we needed monthly. It’s been 10 years now and we are both very pleased at how well it’s turned out!

Having the ACA go into effect in 2014 gave us options instead of using the retiree health insurance.

[samm]

Before C19 everything was going according to plan...

I went back to university @60 to study and become an instructor. I successfully taught a few classes and was developing next class when C19 hit.
I quit going to classes long before the University shut -- it was obviously unprepared. I think the university + teaching plan is over because the university cannot afford social distancing (distancing reduces allowed class size and revenues by ~ 50-75%).

Plan B was travel the world and cruise! Some friends did many long repositioning cruises and I was planning this.... not now!!

I need a new plan (besides posting here)

[JP.mpls]

Aja8888,
Impressive moves. It sounds like you took the high road, and just did what needed to be done.
Enjoy your well earned retirement.
JP

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I didn't really have a "hard" plan after being wiped out in a California divorce when I was 50. Broke, new job in Houston, two teenage girls living with me in an apartment with rented furniture, and college expenses facing us after the "ex" cashed in the college funds and spent it on herself. (Don't even believe attorneys will help you here). Worked like a dog, put the kids thru college (no loans), married right this time, and saved like a crazy man. Bought two homes and paid them off, then worked a few more years and retired. I am tired! But I lost a decade.

[bmcgonig]

I semi retired in 2016. Semi meaning that I wanted to work 2-3 months a year to pay for luxuries until I could no longer do it. In my field that was easy to do as I could pick up small projects here and there. My big plan in retirement was to travel as much as I could and so in Nov 2016 I visited my mom in Ireland on the way to Asia and realized she had dementia.

So after a long mental struggle I moved in with her and took care of her since then. She died a couple months back a week before her 102nd birthday. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my first four years in retirement but don't regret a thing. She was so happy in her last few years. Haven't worked in four years so I'm definitely retired!

Now Covid is doing its very best to thwart those same travel plans. Still not sure if I'll make it to Asia.

[ShokWaveRider]

We initiated our retirement plan immediately the ACA was passed! ACA was our catalyst. Plan was 55 for me and when DW felt like it. All went to plan THANKS to the ACA!

[flyingaway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcowan My contract ended and DW was still active so I decided to become an active trader. Over the next three years, i made enough to enable us to fully retire and we did. I gradually ramped down my active trading and by the time five years has past, we had become buy and hold dividend investors. At that point we also decided to buy a snowbird property in Mexico, and 6 months there reduced our withdrawal on our portfolio by 40%. So it did not go according to plan but, in fact, worked out much better.

If you have to maintain two properties, one in the U.S. and another in Mexico, does that actually increase your cost?