Arnie
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Messages
- 230
I keep meaning to introduce myself so hopefully late is better than never.
I married my college sweetheart back in 1977, the same year I started with megacorp as a programmer trainee. Back then we called it data processing, wore leisure suits, used punched cards, and had only 0's and no 1's to program with. I'm still in IT but have morphed into project management over the last few years as we no longer see development and programming as a core competency (or as cost-effective as using off-shore resources).
For most of my career I could not imagine ever wanting to retire, I enjoyed what I was doing so much. That has changed over the years, mainly as my job has changed. Now I am really looking forward to early-retirement at 55.
Monday I will announce to my boss that I will be retiring this summer. Exact date is TBD but should be mid-July to late August depending on how we handle vacation. 34 candles on the retirement cake by then.
There is, of course, that jumping out of an airplane feeling of apprehension that I'm sure I do not have to explain to most of you here. But I'm hoping to get over that by the time the void I leave back at Megacorp is filled.
Our retirement income will consist of drawing down on my 401k at a higher rate now and lower rate after we take SS which will be as late as possible. I do have a small cash balance pension for which I plan to do a cashout (rollover to 401k). I can only take half of it in cash because of funding levels, and will take the rest as 100% survivor to DW. Later if funding improves I'll have the chance to rollover the remainder.
We've tracked our expenses for a long time and have a pretty good idea of how we expect them to change in retirement. FIRECALC and other tools (I also like ESPlanner) show we should be fine based on expected drawdown and other parameters.
Megacorp currently offers subsidized retiree healthcare; hopefully that continues for another 10 years.
As with many here, I have a pretty simple portfolio utilizing low cost index funds, regular rebalancing, diversification, etc. It has worked out pretty well for us over the years.
DW has decided not to retire quite yet, though she is only part-time at her office and we are not depending on her income. She'll retire when the urge strikes or when they object to our vacation schedule.
I'll leave the "what will you do all day" for another thread since you all know that anyway!
This is a great group to be a part of. Thanks to everyone from the mods and admins to the full-time posters to the newbies for making this a fun and informative place to be. And yes Midpack, I posted to the Class of 2011 thread too.
Arnie
I married my college sweetheart back in 1977, the same year I started with megacorp as a programmer trainee. Back then we called it data processing, wore leisure suits, used punched cards, and had only 0's and no 1's to program with. I'm still in IT but have morphed into project management over the last few years as we no longer see development and programming as a core competency (or as cost-effective as using off-shore resources).
For most of my career I could not imagine ever wanting to retire, I enjoyed what I was doing so much. That has changed over the years, mainly as my job has changed. Now I am really looking forward to early-retirement at 55.
Monday I will announce to my boss that I will be retiring this summer. Exact date is TBD but should be mid-July to late August depending on how we handle vacation. 34 candles on the retirement cake by then.
There is, of course, that jumping out of an airplane feeling of apprehension that I'm sure I do not have to explain to most of you here. But I'm hoping to get over that by the time the void I leave back at Megacorp is filled.
Our retirement income will consist of drawing down on my 401k at a higher rate now and lower rate after we take SS which will be as late as possible. I do have a small cash balance pension for which I plan to do a cashout (rollover to 401k). I can only take half of it in cash because of funding levels, and will take the rest as 100% survivor to DW. Later if funding improves I'll have the chance to rollover the remainder.
We've tracked our expenses for a long time and have a pretty good idea of how we expect them to change in retirement. FIRECALC and other tools (I also like ESPlanner) show we should be fine based on expected drawdown and other parameters.
Megacorp currently offers subsidized retiree healthcare; hopefully that continues for another 10 years.
As with many here, I have a pretty simple portfolio utilizing low cost index funds, regular rebalancing, diversification, etc. It has worked out pretty well for us over the years.
DW has decided not to retire quite yet, though she is only part-time at her office and we are not depending on her income. She'll retire when the urge strikes or when they object to our vacation schedule.
I'll leave the "what will you do all day" for another thread since you all know that anyway!
This is a great group to be a part of. Thanks to everyone from the mods and admins to the full-time posters to the newbies for making this a fun and informative place to be. And yes Midpack, I posted to the Class of 2011 thread too.
Arnie
