Walking away from the money

[VanWinkle]

That's what I do these days - grow vegetables. I only have about 1500 sqft. of garden, but it produces way more than the young wife and I can eat. I often come back home sweaty, dirty and tired, but I enjoy every minute of it.

+1

 

[street]

YES, and if you save a few bucks (or even make a few bucks) doing that, it's STILL not really w*rk! When my dad retired (more or less against his will) he put out a quarter acre plot of vegetables. No way could he consume that much himself and he couldn't sell much of it (as everybody and their dog was growing veggies during the season.) So he gave most of it away to the little old ladies (you know, the ones a couple of years older than he was) He would come home each day from his garden, hot, dirty, tired - and refreshed. That's not w*rk! YMMV

Exactly!!

 

[boilerman]

I started my FIRE spreadsheets in my mid 30s and targeted retirement to be between 55 and 60. In my late 40s, I calculated how much money I’d be leaving behind and started thinking my retirement window should be between 60 and 65.

In my early 50s, I realized the obvious, that every year I work will provide us more money with one less year of retirement to fund. (Wow, look how much we’d have if I worked until 70!.) it’s the OMY syndrome. I deleted my “how much I’m leaving on the table” calculations and never thought about it again.

Even though I enjoyed my work and was well paid and highly respected, we retired when we had enough income with some buffer, which was right after my 57th birthday.

Been 4+ years with no regrets.

 

[GATime]

I'm the OP so I guess it's time for an update to this thread. Today is actually day 1 of my part time schedule. Arranged so that from this point forward I'll work a Tues-Thurs 3 day a week schedule and will re-evaluate at years end. Given the current market, very happy with decision to ease into retirement in steps.

 

[clifp]

Congratulations, I think the cautious approach is probably appropriate here.

Part-time, is a different way of taking a trial retirement, which I highly recommend, a sabbatical/leave of absence is the other way.

Worse case you get laid off, which means an additional severance package so that's not the worse thing.

Do try and avoid getting sucked into working more than 3 days you signed up for.

 

[Koolau]

I'm the OP so I guess it's time for an update to this thread. Today is actually day 1 of my part time schedule. Arranged so that from this point forward I'll work a Tues-Thurs 3 day a week schedule and will re-evaluate at years end. Given the current market, very happy with decision to ease into retirement in steps.

We will hope it works out for you. Check back often!

 

[PandaBear]

I'm the OP so I guess it's time for an update to this thread. Today is actually day 1 of my part time schedule. Arranged so that from this point forward I'll work a Tues-Thurs 3 day a week schedule and will re-evaluate at years end. Given the current market, very happy with decision to ease into retirement in steps.

That’s what I did in September 2021. Thought if I worked a 50% contract, I could easily work another couple of years. What I discovered was that I really enjoyed my time off and doing different things. So now I am retiring June 1. Either way, it might giveclarity for you.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Reset your values. The finer things in life are often not associated with money

 

[Markola]

Congrats, GATime! I’m 56 and semi-FIREd, too. I work a few hours per week in my 30 year profession, which is just the right balance of stimulation and income. DW does the same. We were able to make this transition several years before we would have been able to fully FIRE.

Time for my second walk on a beautiful spring Monday morning.