Greetings from Ohio

[Ohio Tealady]

Hello all --

I'm new but have been lurking for some time. I have enjoyed the posts and have gained some good information and food for thought.

I am 54 and working four days per week as a mental health therapist. I am the insurance provider for the family. My DH is 62 and a sales rep in agribusiness. 21 year old daughter will be graduating from college next December with a teaching degree.

Our investments (403b, sep IRA, IRAs and personal investment) is at the 1.2 mil mark. We have no mortgage on our home with six acres and a warehouse. We built are home 10 years ago with a universal design - one story, open floor plan and wide doors. We hope to age in place but can sell the property to pursue different living arrangements based on our needs. We max out our retirement accounts each year. The 529 account which I have invested in since daughter was a toddler will cover the remainder of the college expenses. We have no debt. We both will receive SS - delaying for higher benefit, and I will receive a small pension. There is no insurance coverage after retirement

Our tentative retirement goals are in stages.

Stage 1 - I reduce to 20 hrs wk with health benefits when DH gets Medicare in 3 years.
Stage 2 - DH retires at age 68/69.
Stage 3 - I retire approximately one year later at age 60/61. I will use ACA for insurance needs. I feel DH needs a year to practice retirement solo. I will be sending him to his brother's in FL during parts of the winter to play golf. Actually that will start this fall.
Stage 4 - Initial retirement: We travel different areas of the US, Europe and possibly Caribbean, renting for a month or more in different locations for part of the year. Eventually we plan to buy a modest home/condo in FL.
Stage 4 - We will be snow birds initially. Depending on our circumstances, we may eventually choose to sell both properties and live closer to our daughter. She plans to live in the Carolina's - that would be a nice place to be in my opinion. Stage 4 is really too far out to be very specific. Too many variables I can not even imagen at this stage of my life.

So Hi

 

[Sue J]

Welcome from another Ohioan, I'm just outside of Akron.

 

[gauss]

Stage 2 - DH retires at age 68/69.
Stage 3 - I retire approximately one year later at age 60/61. I will use ACA for insurance needs. I feel DH needs a year to practice retirement solo. I will be sending him to his brother's in FL during parts of the winter to play golf. Actually that will start this fall.

Greetings from a neighbor to the North (state border, not international).

I especially like your idea of letting DH retire one year in time different than yourself. My DW has allowed this and it was good for many reasons including:
- My ability to do more house chores while she continues to work
- Retirement can be stressful and doubling it at once could be even more so
- Give the fist person some time to figure out what they want to do in retirement without the crutch of a spouse present. Kind of like discovering who you are.

I personally have gotten involved with various recurring volunteer activities when the offers presented themselves. This keeps me quite busy for 6 months of the year. The other months I can catch up on everything put of during the first 6 months. I have also taken to going out with others at night for lectures, drinks/dinner at the bar, or perhaps both combined (my favorite). DW is always invited if she doesn't have other plans.

DW will benefit somewhat in that she sees how I have been able to transition to a productive happy retirement and may be able to take some direct cues from me or at least view the process close up.

Welcome
-gauss

 

[Katiek]

Welcome, sounds like a well thought out plan!