mountainsoft
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Tomorrow will make two years since we retired. In the 5 years or so leading up to retirement it seemed like it was never going to happen. We were saving, and planning, and hoping that "someday" we would be able to retire. Now two years of retirement has gone by in a blink. It's hard to believe how quickly time has passed.
It seems we are still busier than ever. Between running our own errands, caring for two elderly mothers, random doctor appointments, and the occasional recreation outing we are always doing something. We literally live by our calendar, hoping for the rare "empty" days when we can relax and do our own thing. Of course, "empty" days usually mean working around the house, mowing the yard, etc. We just cut down a dead tree a couple days ago and are now working on splitting and stacking the wood. I still have a second tree to cut down also.
Before retiring, I estimated our expenses around 45K per year, with an extra 5K for vacations and recreation the first ten years (50K total). In practice we have gone a little over that, averaging around 55K per year. Much of that was due to some major home repairs, which should hold us over for at least a few years.
So far we haven't had to touch our retirement accounts. We had about 60K in savings when we retired, and are down to about 32K today. My wife has a pension of around 30K per year, I'm still getting around 8K of residual income from my old business, and the rest comes from savings.
Initially I was planning to start Social Security at 62 (next year), but I've been running new estimates with current finances and may push that back to 63 or 64. I think the key thing is not to "set it and forget it". Life happens and our retirement plan has to change along the way.
I have a CD ladder in my Roth account paying 15K per year for the next seven years, so we basically have guaranteed income until my wife starts social security, at which point the pension and both SS payments will cover all of our expenses. So the recent stock market volatility hasn't really worried me. It's never fun to watch the account balances go down, but it doesn't really affect us at this point.
We're planning a three week road trip to Colorado later this summer. It will be the longest and most expensive vacation we've ever taken. I just hope my body holds up, as I seem to have one pain after another in my body the last few months. Numerous doctor visits, various scans and tests, with basically no resolution. I've just had to wait it out and hope things improve. For the most part they have, but it seems when one gets better a new one pops up somewhere. It's shocking though how quickly I went from feeling really healthy to having numerous aches and pains. Thankfully none of the issues have been serious yet, but the sudden change in health is an eye opener. Enjoy life now while I still can!
I've also been considering buying a newer car lately. I currently drive a 2000 VW Jetta with 257K miles on it. I love the car and maintain it well, but it's getting up in mileage and I'm finding it harder to climb out of that low riding car these days. Not to mention holding down the clutch in stop and go traffic kills my old feet. We have always bought cars that are 10 years old or so, never paying more than $3500 for a car (I only paid $1900 for my Jetta). Unfortunately, similar vehicles now cost $10-15K. I've run the numbers and know our budget can support that, but I'm still struggling to spend that kind of money. I know, you folks who spend $50K+ on a car are probably laughing at that.
Then there's the nervousness of buying a used vehicle with unknown problems. How much will those repairs cost, as well as license and insurance expenses. I tend to have analysis paralysis anyway, so I'm having a hard time taking the leap on another vehicle. Especially in a year we're already spending so much on a vacation. On the other hand, these are the go-go years and it would be more beneficial now than 10 years from now. Tough one...
Overall, retirement has been great. Despite spending almost every day with my wife, we both say we can't get enough time together. I guess that's a good reflection of our relationship. We're off on another Tuesday afternoon movie date today. One of the nice perks of being retired.
It seems we are still busier than ever. Between running our own errands, caring for two elderly mothers, random doctor appointments, and the occasional recreation outing we are always doing something. We literally live by our calendar, hoping for the rare "empty" days when we can relax and do our own thing. Of course, "empty" days usually mean working around the house, mowing the yard, etc. We just cut down a dead tree a couple days ago and are now working on splitting and stacking the wood. I still have a second tree to cut down also.
Before retiring, I estimated our expenses around 45K per year, with an extra 5K for vacations and recreation the first ten years (50K total). In practice we have gone a little over that, averaging around 55K per year. Much of that was due to some major home repairs, which should hold us over for at least a few years.
So far we haven't had to touch our retirement accounts. We had about 60K in savings when we retired, and are down to about 32K today. My wife has a pension of around 30K per year, I'm still getting around 8K of residual income from my old business, and the rest comes from savings.
Initially I was planning to start Social Security at 62 (next year), but I've been running new estimates with current finances and may push that back to 63 or 64. I think the key thing is not to "set it and forget it". Life happens and our retirement plan has to change along the way.
I have a CD ladder in my Roth account paying 15K per year for the next seven years, so we basically have guaranteed income until my wife starts social security, at which point the pension and both SS payments will cover all of our expenses. So the recent stock market volatility hasn't really worried me. It's never fun to watch the account balances go down, but it doesn't really affect us at this point.
We're planning a three week road trip to Colorado later this summer. It will be the longest and most expensive vacation we've ever taken. I just hope my body holds up, as I seem to have one pain after another in my body the last few months. Numerous doctor visits, various scans and tests, with basically no resolution. I've just had to wait it out and hope things improve. For the most part they have, but it seems when one gets better a new one pops up somewhere. It's shocking though how quickly I went from feeling really healthy to having numerous aches and pains. Thankfully none of the issues have been serious yet, but the sudden change in health is an eye opener. Enjoy life now while I still can!
I've also been considering buying a newer car lately. I currently drive a 2000 VW Jetta with 257K miles on it. I love the car and maintain it well, but it's getting up in mileage and I'm finding it harder to climb out of that low riding car these days. Not to mention holding down the clutch in stop and go traffic kills my old feet. We have always bought cars that are 10 years old or so, never paying more than $3500 for a car (I only paid $1900 for my Jetta). Unfortunately, similar vehicles now cost $10-15K. I've run the numbers and know our budget can support that, but I'm still struggling to spend that kind of money. I know, you folks who spend $50K+ on a car are probably laughing at that.
Then there's the nervousness of buying a used vehicle with unknown problems. How much will those repairs cost, as well as license and insurance expenses. I tend to have analysis paralysis anyway, so I'm having a hard time taking the leap on another vehicle. Especially in a year we're already spending so much on a vacation. On the other hand, these are the go-go years and it would be more beneficial now than 10 years from now. Tough one...Overall, retirement has been great. Despite spending almost every day with my wife, we both say we can't get enough time together. I guess that's a good reflection of our relationship. We're off on another Tuesday afternoon movie date today. One of the nice perks of being retired.
