Odd that it's generally considered rude to do so - except in the virtual world where we can be anything we want to be.
We dined Easter Sunday with our neighbors, with whom we've spent quite a bit of time over the past decade.
He's a retired 30-year Army CW-4 and now a civil servant running part of the Personnel office of the local Army base. He turns 66 in a few months but says he doesn't hate what he's doing and has no real reason to start collecting his FERS money or his TSP. His spouse (who also works 40-hour weeks at the base's childcare center and is at least 67 years old) wants him to pay off the mortgage before he stops working. He wants to golf but he gets in 2-3 rounds a week already so he doesn't feel that he can complain. He certainly doesn't "feel" wealthy as long as he has that mortgage hanging over his head. Their big debate is whether to pay off the mortgage with the TSP or to annuitize the TSP to the same size as the mortgage payment (despite the current sucky interest rates). It's refreshing to talk with someone who understands all the aspects of that choice.
They've watched us move into the neighborhood, stop wearing our uniforms, grow out our hair, and launch our daughter from the nest. We're always helping each other with home maintenance (us) and gardening (them). She's always feeding us. They understand our finances at least as well as we do (hey, he's a military personnel expert) but they certainly don't understand why a couple of healthy adults aren't chasing paychecks. Maybe they're waiting to see if we decide to make something of ourselves.
Apparently they don't consider us wealthy either. When we finished talking about his work & golf plans, I asked him how the Army does transition counseling for separating/retiring soldiers. He explained it-- just like the Navy so they're following the same DoD template-- and I asked if I could talk to one of them about the book. When I gave him my blog card he thought I was asking if they were hiring, and it took a few minutes to get all that straightened out. When he finally understood that the book's royalties would go to charity he was dumbfounded. Maybe he was afraid that I was going to ask him to buy 100 copies.
So to him, "wealthy" is no debt and an annuitized income that exceeds his expenses for the rest of his life. Long-term care insurance, of course, and life insurance to pass on to the "kids". Despite his decades of work and his considerable savings, he doesn't feel that he's wealthy or that he's "earned" retirement yet.
He probably sees our financial approach to life as downright dangerous & foolhardy. It'll be interesting to talk with him as he gets caught up on the blog.
I bet he works until declining health forces him off the payroll... and the fairways.
