Hello from a mid 50's dreamer.

[MinnUser]

It is time the wife and I start thinking about retirement. I am 56, she is 58. She owns a small business, so I carry the health insurance. Currently we have about 1.8m in assets, including the house and the wife's business. The plan is to sell her business, and she will probably work part time there and stay on to assist in the transfer to the new owner. She is a veterinarian and would like to keep her clients for the new vet and not sell out to a large conglomerate. She technically can call herself semi-retired, as she only works 40 hours a week yet still makes very good money.

I may end up hanging on until 65 unless something miraculous happens with health care in my lifetime. I max out my Roth, 401K, and HSA right now trying to accelerate the process.

Our biggest issue is where we want to live. We like to travel, and we have several big trips we want to take while we are working yet. We are going to Antarctica this year, and have the Galapagos and several other trips in mind. We are in Wisconsin, and like 4 seasons, just not shoveling snow. She has family in Prescott, AZ which I am ambivalent about. I wouldn't mind somewhere in Europe, but that is far from any family.

Anyway, just introducing myself, because I have a lot of questions about retirement and finances upcoming lol.

Take care!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Koolau]

I can't recall if I've asked you if you've run FIRECalc yet. That's the quickest way to get an idea how close you are to Financial Independence and readiness for retirement.

Check back often because you are welcome here.

 

[SloHan]

Welcome! You’ll find lots of folks here who also enjoy travel.

 

[Lucie]

Welcome! You’ll find lots of good advice available on this forum.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Welcome.

I owned a small business too. I would suggest starting the the selling process sooner than later. I ran a two person service business, I hired my successor 3 years before I walked out the door and he paid me on an installment sale over the next 10 years. This is year 10 and he paid me off early.

Give yourself time to find the right person and then to train them. I admire that you want to keep up the service to your existing clients. I am sure that they appreciate your loyalty to them, my clients thanked me for keeping the doors open in our small town and not selling to a large business that would close down the location.

Health care is a large expense no doubt, but explore ACA options based on projected income. Medicare and Medicare supplements aren't free either.

Good luck to you both. There is a lot of good information and people on this forum that can help you.

 

[pacergal]

Welcome to the forum!
There are lots of knowledgable and friendly folks here to answer your questions.
A good place to start is firecalc as mentioned earlier, and review/answer the questions under the ER FAQ forum : some important questions to answer before asking--Can I retire?

 

[pjigar]

Welcome. Have you read this?

Some Important Questions to Answer Before Asking - Can I Retire?

1. What are your expenses? No, your real expenses that you have tracked carefully over a period of at least two years, not some rough estimate that you just pulled out of thin air. If you don't know where your spending flow goes now, you've got no business turning off the income flow. 2. Are...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[MinnUser]

Welcome.

I owned a small business too. I would suggest starting the the selling process sooner than later. I ran a two person service business, I hired my successor 3 years before I walked out the door and he paid me on an installment sale over the next 10 years. This is year 10 and he paid me off early.

Give yourself time to find the right person and then to train them. I admire that you want to keep up the service to your existing clients. I am sure that they appreciate your loyalty to them, my clients thanked me for keeping the doors open in our small town and not selling to a large business that would close down the location.

Health care is a large expense no doubt, but explore ACA options based on projected income. Medicare and Medicare supplements aren't free either.

Good luck to you both. There is a lot of good information and people on this forum that can help you.

Thank you for the reply. This spring we are having the business evaluated for its value, then the process of finding a person to eventually take over. My wife has a prior employee that is finishing up veterinary school, and has an earnest interest into returning to the clinic, so we are on a loose timetable as of now.

Just thinking and starting to plan for retirement makes me feel better overall lol.

 

[HarveyS]

Welcome! As Stormy points out, healthcare is available outside of MegaCorp. You might want to investigate having the DW's small business buy healthcare for you and DW.
Nice that you want to hang on until 65. It's not only up to you.....my MegaCorp showed me the door well before 65.
I'd recommend a Plan B in case that happens.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Find your business successor sooner than later. It's not always easy and the first one or two may not work out.

If selling on an installment, give yourself enough time to go back and run the place if your buyer walks away.

 

[Koolau]

DW and I had to shed the family business as part of our retirement plan (we were 2nd gen).

We found that it's a lot easier to get into business than it is to get out of it. When we first attempted to sell, we would get "I can start my own business a lot cheaper than I can buy yours."

While they were technically correct, having a customer base and on-going sales is a real advantage. In fact two people we offered the business to did start their own business - and failed within 5 years.

As you know, starting/running a business is not easy. Selling a business may be even harder. Best of luck.

 

[Midpack]

Welcome aboard. This group has been most helpful to me, on a wide range of topics but especially retirement related.

 

[Cujet]

Good Morning, I'm recently retired, a pilot and aircraft owner (old Cessna 177RG) living in Jupiter, FL (South Florida) The question about where to retire and 'from where to travel' might be a little different for me if I keep the plane. However, it has become quite clear that living in one of the corners of the USA is not conducive driving or flying my slow old "mighty thunder cardinal" to much of the USA. In fact, I end up just not going anywhere because it takes so long to escape the state of Florida. And quite simply, I am tired of visiting Savannah, GA.

I have a brother in Burlington, VT, and another in San Diego, CA and for decades my mom was in Seattle. The only destination that was possible was VT. Even then, that was about the limit of my driving or flying patience and would fit in any reasonable schedule.

I have health issues that may put a damper on my plans, but Eastern TN in the hills is about as financially responsible a place as is possible right now, along with being located centrally enough to easily trek to VT or coastal locations, the great lakes or even a drive to Pikes Peak Colorado. Put another way, being in TN knocks 1.5-2 days (each way with how we drive) off of a trip to Pikes Peak, or at least 12 hours driving each way.

This much I know, I have adequate savings, but it is stunning how fast my bank account is emptied by the insurance companies. They were at $50K+ per year for health/home/car/airplane. I have Allstate and they actually ripped me off by continuing to charge me for a vehicle I no longer own, and automatically taking it from my checking acct, despite repeated attempts at stopping it. I'm dropping them on principal, will probably have a lawsuit to recover funds.

 

[MBAustin]

Our vet took over the practice when the former owner retired. I think he starting reducing his hours when she came on board until after several years she took over completely. Perhaps you both can start reducing your hours in a few years and start traveling sooner rather than later?

 

[Koolau]

Good Morning, I'm recently retired, a pilot and aircraft owner (old Cessna 177RG) living in Jupiter, FL (South Florida) The question about where to retire and 'from where to travel' might be a little different for me if I keep the plane. However, it has become quite clear that living in one of the corners of the USA is not conducive driving or flying my slow old "mighty thunder cardinal" to much of the USA. In fact, I end up just not going anywhere because it takes so long to escape the state of Florida. And quite simply, I am tired of visiting Savannah, GA.

I have a brother in Burlington, VT, and another in San Diego, CA and for decades my mom was in Seattle. The only destination that was possible was VT. Even then, that was about the limit of my driving or flying patience and would fit in any reasonable schedule.

I have health issues that may put a damper on my plans, but Eastern TN in the hills is about as financially responsible a place as is possible right now, along with being located centrally enough to easily trek to VT or coastal locations, the great lakes or even a drive to Pikes Peak Colorado. Put another way, being in TN knocks 1.5-2 days (each way with how we drive) off of a trip to Pikes Peak, or at least 12 hours driving each way.

This much I know, I have adequate savings, but it is stunning how fast my bank account is emptied by the insurance companies. They were at $50K+ per year for health/home/car/airplane. I have Allstate and they actually ripped me off by continuing to charge me for a vehicle I no longer own, and automatically taking it from my checking acct, despite repeated attempts at stopping it. I'm dropping them on principal, will probably have a lawsuit to recover funds.View attachment 54557

Nice looking aircraft. Sad to think that it's considered "slow" when it could run rings around my old C-150. But, I know what you mean. It would take hours just to get out of Florida. I'll bet the RG feature adds a bunch to your insurance bill!

I hope where ever you land (pun intended) you don't have to give up the Cardinal.