Retired 4 Year Ago Today, Life's Great!

[38Chevy454]

Occurred to me that 4 years ago today (Aug 2, 2017) was the last day of my engineering work career. It has been a great 4 years time. Mostly all positive and no regrets for anything. Some various thoughts and rambling observations, in no particular order.

Do not miss the work social environment or old coworkers. I only keep in contact with a couple of them, and seems more when they contact me than me contacting them.

Stock market has been outstanding for us in past 4 years time. Way more money than we started out retirement with, in spite of taking big chunks out to pay for new house and other items.

We had sold our house in NM and planned to move to OH as our retirement location. Left NM on the same day as my last workday and drove in motorhome approx 280 miles east over the TX/NM border that day. Do not miss NM at all. I was only there for work and only for about 8 years total, so never put down any serious roots.

We built a new house with big detached garage here in OH. That went generally well, and it was supposed to be finished by Nov or Dec. Turns out it was Feb 2018 when we moved in, so lived in our motorhome for 6 months. Good thing it was pretty big 45 ft length. 3 dogs and 2 cats in motorhome with us. Mostly stayed in local area except when it got really cold in Jan and we headed south for about 1 month. Being close was nice to check on house construction. House on 2.5 acres on edge of suburbia. New packed in housing is close by, but my neighborhood is all 2-3+ acre lots. I like being out in country, although I do drive 10-15 minutes to get to anything.

Paid a lot of storage for those 6 months. about $700/mo for everything: household, garage stuff, and several cars. Nice to have that behind us.

First year was mostly lot of yard work. DW likes lots of flowers and plants. So I dug a lot of holes, moved a lot of dirt, and became friends with the garden center employees. Worked out nice as we started buying damaged/clearance plants and torn/broken bags of dirt or mulch for cheap. Saved a lot of money, which has continued to now and still get the good deals on replacement plants or mulch.

I finished out the inside of my detached garage that first year as well. Built mezzanine for storage, added lots of electrical and air lines all over the shop. Built workbenches and lot of shelving. Lot of shelves for inside house basement and house garage as well. Good thing lumber was a lot less then compared to now. I bought lot of 3/4 plywood.

Put in an in-ground fiberglass pool at house summer of 2018, with a big patio, so that was a big expense on top of the basic house expense. But DW is very happy with the pool and we have several family get parties throughout the year and it is fun. Pool required a fence, I put in 740 ft of four-board horse fence style fencing around backyard.

Snowbirded to the southern US in winter of 2020, getting home just in time for the Covid shutdowns that spring. Glad we did go, and we plan to do more snowbirding now that house is all established well.

I basically do what I want, when I want, how I want. Only time I set any alarm clock is for when something real early morning. Otherwise sleep in until I want to get up. funny how when working I was always up at 5:30 to start working at 7:00, but in retirement I find I am much more of a night person than I would have predicted.

Enjoy being retired, the initial adjustment was not too bad as I had been looking forward to it for several years. I always defined my life by going out the gate from work, not in the gate.

I appreciate that I have the freedom and ability to be retired. Have no regrets about leaving the working world. I have enough in savings, pension and income that I can basically have everything DW or I want.

Health has been good for DW and I. Just basic preventative stuff for the most part. That makes retirement better as we can do fun things. We go out to eat or shopping or other public events a lot, not being overly concerned or paranoid about Covid or whatever.

Well enough rambling, I enjoy being a part of the E-R.org forum here and have learned a lot over the years. Hopefully I have also helped others out as well. The forum is a great tool sharing our knowledge and helping others.

[GTP2022]

Congrats. Sounds like you've done exactly what you want to do. That's what retirement is for. 10 months and I'm there as well.

[ponyboy]

The good ol bull run years. Report back after a massive correction takes place.

[38Chevy454]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy The good ol bull run years. Report back after a massive correction takes place.

Well Mr Pessimistic, I will still be here and retired doing just fine. Nowhere in my post did I say that my retirement was dependent on the bull run. I said it is nice having the big returns in spite of some big withdrawals. Those withdrawals were planned and in the beginning of retirement, nothing that the bull run affected.

[street]

Congratulations on your Anniversary!!

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 38Chevy454 Well Mr Pessimistic, I will still be here and retired doing just fine. Nowhere in my post did I say that my retirement was dependent on the bull run. I said it is nice having the big returns in spite of some big withdrawals. Those withdrawals were planned and in the beginning of retirement, nothing that the bull run affected.

+1. A well-planned ER takes into account an expectation and way to handle a downturn. It is a bonus to retire with a bull helping out the first few years!

[RobbieB]

Good to hear that you're having fun!

[Dtail]

Congrats. Retired 1 day before you, although was not working for a longer time.
It is great and still scoring 100% on the retirement calculators.

[MuirWannabe]

Congrats on your great ‘start’ to retirement. I retired 2 months before you, so close enough. It’s been so nice, and I am also grateful for the kind market these past few years. Glad you are enjoying life and doing the things you and DW want to do!

[MichaelB]

Happy anniversary, 38chevy454, and thanks for the update. Looks like you’ve eased quite nicely into retirement.

[rodi]

Happy anniversary. Life as a retiree is a good life. I hurt 7 years retired this month and, like you, no regrets.

[Out-to-Lunch]

Congrats and thanks for sharing your experiences so far.

[dingo]

That's the way to do it. Good job.

[haloFIRE]

38Chevy454, Awesome post! Congratulations! I hope the years ahead are as good/fun as your first four years!

[CaliKid]

Sounds awesome! I am looking forward to my time! Keep enjoying!

[momoftwo]

Congrats!
Great reading your tale.
Love the way you weathered the few wrinkles in your plan so well.

I just passed two years in July.
Enjoying every minute.

[SAinMinn]

Nicely done. The retirement and the post.

[FlaGator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy The good ol bull run years. Report back after a massive correction takes place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 38Chevy454 Well Mr Pessimistic, I will still be here and retired doing just fine. Nowhere in my post did I say that my retirement was dependent on the bull run. I said it is nice having the big returns in spite of some big withdrawals. Those withdrawals were planned and in the beginning of retirement, nothing that the bull run affected.

Good response, glad you're enjoying it!

Anyone invested in stocks went through a "massive correction" in the Spring of 2020. I rode that one out without freaking and selling, just as I had Oct. 1987, 2000-01, and 2008-09.

If one builds their plan knowing a "massive correction" will eventually happen (maybe right after retiring, maybe later), things will be just fine.

[boilerman]

I’m about 2 months behind you, celebrating 4 years this October. I actually mark my calendar every year on my anniversary date and we have a dinner out to celebrate. DW and I reflect on our good fortune. We call it our Freedom Day!

[ImThinkin2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boilerman I’m about 2 months behind you, celebrating 4 years this October. I actually mark my calendar every year on my anniversary date and we have a dinner out to celebrate. DW and I reflect on our good fortune. We call it our Freedom Day!

boilerman, thank you for this idea. I will suggest this to my wife.

38Chevy454 Thank you so much for your post and starting this thread. We have similar interests in "projects". Now that I am part time, on a glide path, I get a lot more done. Much harder to do when I was full time with a lot of Asia travel......