I didn't find this site until after I had retired at age 62. My wife is retiring at age 56 as of July of this year. We will be buying our travel trailer soon after that, (we already bought the truck with the hauling capability we will need.) We pretty much have our dream home in an excellent neighborhood, an acre to garden, a pool with a waterfall, and plenty of room for the dogs to roam. We will both have generous Cola'd pensions, with 63% survivor benefits and health and dental benefits. We also have a small nest egg in our 401k's. On paper, we will both be fine till death. I am drawing reduced Social Security benefits now and we will see whether we need to take her benefits 6 years from now or wait 3 or more. I don't think we will need them.
Our biggest problem will be what to do with the dogs when we run off on our trailer trips, or find cheap deals for fly away vacations. So far the Sister-in-law's husband has provided the dog sitting service. He's big enough to handle the bouncy 120 lb pitbull/pony and our old 90 lb Ahkbash mix. But I don't know if he'll want to give up as much of his time as we plan to spend on the road or off to far away places. My wife wants to take them with us on the road, but I would rather not. I think it would tie us down too much.
Oh, woe is us!