[sygazelle]

Estaban commented on a post of mine that we both had earned having free time now that we are in our retirement years.

That got me thinking about other retire forum members.

How has retirement been for you? Do you miss work? Do you regret retiring? Are you thrilled with retirement? What advice do you have for those still working about planning for retirement years?

Please jump in and let us know how retirement is working for you and be sure to provide some sound advice for those up and coming future retirees.

[Murf the Surf]

Coming up on 6 years now. Thought I'd be bored but time flies, and life is good. I miss the people I worked with and I miss police work, front row seat to the greatest show on earth but it's a young persons job. Shift work, shitty food, long days and then the injuries. I wouldn't trade it for anything, and occasionally I wish I'd stayed a few more years but in reality I went at the right time. My wife and I are still young(ish) and retirement is pretty damn good.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by Murf the Surf

Coming up on 6 years now. Thought I'd be bored but time flies, and life is good.

So, invest in rum - got it!

[KevinC]

Been good so far for me. Retired in 2016 at 59. My SO still works and I had some money put away. Sold our homes and built new on 4 acres in the sticks in 2017. She still works and is at the height of her career (she's only 52, I'm now 65). Took my SS at 62 so that's my pocket money.

Accidental solid retirement plan: Hook up with someone younger with solid career and financial smarts. That sketchy stripper with a toddler may have seemed like a good idea for a few hours a long time ago, but not a very solid plan for the future!

[OtoPA]

Retired at 65, triple dipper (pension, mil. retirement, SS) and wife's SS. Left resort city, sold house 1/3 acre lot and with funds, bought 55ac in flyover, conservative state in the county. Land, pond and enough toys to keep me occupied. Miss the ppl and the sterile OR work, but not the EMRs or the hassles accompanying. Kids are grown and I'm awaiting a '23 M4, what's not to like. advice? save, invest, don't f*ck anyone crazier than yourself...and, it's cheaper to keep her.

[KevinC]

Originally Posted by OtoPA

Advice? save, invest, don't f*ck anyone crazier than yourself...and, it's cheaper to keep her.

[SW111]

I haven’t found any downsides to retirement. No need to schedule appointments around work. I can go to the gym in the middle of the day when it is less crowded. Had my grand nephew over to teach him to bake croissants on a weekday during spring break, couldn’t do that when I was working. I can (and am) going to Europe for 3 weeks and won’t come home to 3000 emails on my first day back at work. Want to schedule lunch with friends who are still working? I can work around their schedule. I love the flexibility. Life is good.

[Tyga11]

Originally Posted by Murf the Surf

Coming up on 6 years now. Thought I'd be bored but time flies, and life is good. I miss the people I worked with and I miss police work, front row seat to the greatest show on earth but it's a young persons job. Shift work, shitty food, long days and then the injuries. I wouldn't trade it for anything, and occasionally I wish I'd stayed a few more years but in reality I went at the right time. My wife and I are still young(ish) and retirement is pretty damn good.

Thank you for your service.

[M_Six]

Coming up on 2 years for me. I don't miss work one bit. In fact, as shitty as things there turned after I left, I'm glad I got out when I did.

I'm also a triple dipper. Pension, retirement funds, and SS. Plus my pension has 100% health care coverage with only small co-pays, so no expense there either. Wifey is 10 years younger and has no urge to retire, so her very comfy income continues. We could easily live off her income, and my take home income now is a good bit higher than it was when I was working. Therein lies my advice for the younger crowd. Start saving now. Don't cripple yourself financially, but save as much as you can and don't waste income on stuff you don't really need.

I rarely have slack time unless I want it. I have some home improvement projects and I'm slowly building out my home network to have everything in a network cabinet instead of my home office. Plus I ride and hit the rowing machine as much as possible to keep from turning to stone. That usually burns up a few hours of my day. I do much of the cooking and housekeeping, so there's more time gone.

If there's one thing I'd change it'd be for Wifey to be retired so we could travel more. I always had this vision of retirement being taken up by travel to Europe for weeks at a time, staying for a month or so in some other country. COVID screwed that up to a certain extent, but really it's Wifey still working that keeps that dream from coming true.

[Esteban]

Been retired for several years now. Wife retired almost 2 years ago. This is why you work hard all your life. Now it's the freedom to do whatever I want, even if that is 'not much.' Never was rich and had a lot of money, just average folks, but started saving when we first got married at 20 and have enough to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. House and cars are paid for, no big bills.

I'm happy, always have been. I'm healthy and physically in good shape and hope to stay that way, exercise regularly and vigorously walk 3 miles almost daily, but you never know what life has in store for you. I'm ready for whatever comes my way. Stay up late, sleep late, kick back and relax. Travel a little, never enjoyed it all that much. I'm a homebody. Can't think of any place I'd rather be or anyone I'd rather be with.

[M_Six]

I hate the actual traveling part. Airports and planes and so on. I love being somewhere else, I just hate getting there and then the trip home again.

[M-technik-3]

Retired from service 7 years ago or 6 not sure doesn't matter. It pays all important bill but was I went right back to work 3 months later. Bored plus new career makes life comfortable.

[2000cs]

Retired Jan ‘21.
Immediately contracted, part time, with former employer. WFH (we moved out of state), very good pay, not much responsibility. 9 months of that.
2022 contracted by another company in the same industry to mentor/coach their CFO (was my prior role). Fun engagement, part time, good pay.
2023 my successor retired end of 2022 so former employer retained me as interim CFO and to mentor new CFO.

I volunteer as a SCORE mentor to help new businesses get started. That is pretty fun work when the client is serious. Not much time committed but easy to schedule around my needs.

So out of the last 2+ years I’ve been retired about 8 months. The contracting has allowed me to save more and ride out the market gyrations. I’m being paid more than my annual expense budget, for part time work, so that’s a win.

Once I don’t have any more consulting (2024), I plan to start draining my 401(k)/IRA at a level that keeps me in my desired tax bracket. That way the RMDs won’t be too large and over-taxed when I start SS at age 70 (max benefit for me, still a few years off). And that allows my non-IRA investments to continue to grow. That strategy should allow plenty of funds for my life and my wife’s; even with inflation.

Advice: financially set a budget for retirement and live with it for at least one year prior to retiring. Adjust as necessary to be sure you have your expenses right - that will drive how much you need to have saved and in SS.
Stay in touch with key work friends, etc. They won’t want to bother you, so take the initiative. Makes the transition easier and might lead to opportunities.
Don’t burn bridges.
Have fun while your health allows - which is the best reason to retire when you can.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Been retired for several years now. Wife retired almost 2 years ago. This is why you work hard all your life. Now it's the freedom to do whatever I want, even if that is 'not much.' Never was rich and had a lot of money, just average folks, but started saving when we first got married at 20 and have enough to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. House and cars are paid for, no big bills.

I'm happy, always have been. I'm healthy and physically in good shape and hope to stay that way, exercise regularly and vigorously walk 3 miles almost daily, but you never know what life has in store for you. I'm ready for whatever comes my way. Stay up late, sleep late, kick back and relax. Travel a little, never enjoyed it all that much. I'm a homebody. Can't think of any place I'd rather be or anyone I'd rather be with.

Perfect.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

Perfect.

Thank you, sir.

[Housekeeping]

Retired early after selling business in 2016. I’m now 49. Miss work but I volunteer regularly at two non-profits and soon at a hospital. My wife is a VP at a Fortune 500 company so income and health benefits are there. Time to give back is how I look at it. Helping many people in the community is much more rewarding than another six figure job.

[ezaircon4jc]

Got fired/retired at 56, just over 10 years ago. I thought I would apply for/get an extension, then my instructor when I first got to LAX had a heart attack. I decided then and there I wasn't giving my life to the FAA.

I miss most of the people and definitely the the work (I was still having fun!), but I don't miss the office politics or shift work or bidding RDO's (I was senior enough to get what I wanted the last 10 years) & annual leave 4+ months in advance.

I still miss the the work, but getting up when I feel like it, going to bed when I feel like it and not based on when I have to get up, taking spur-of-the-moment trips and being able to avoid traffic mostly makes up for it. I still watch aviation YouTubes, especially the possible controller screw-up videos.

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by M_Six

If there's one thing I'd change it'd be for Wifey to be retired so we could travel more. I always had this vision of retirement being taken up by travel to Europe for weeks at a time, staying for a month or so in some other country. COVID screwed that up to a certain extent, but really it's Wifey still working that keeps that dream from coming true.

This is me. Aftering RVing I have no desire to travel any other way. Downside is your kinda stuck to the US, Mexico and Canada. Mexico is too sketch for me and who want's to go to Canada.

Although I've seen people who fly to other countries and RV there, but that kinda defeats the purpose I think.

[OtoPA]

Originally Posted by KevinC

Having helped build those in the past, Once you know how the rabbit is pulled from the hat, the magic is gone. All that is left is 'style points'. Oh, yah, those look totally natural and no one would suspect that they're a paid-for plastic pair...

Wife and I would award style points as we noticed displays. we'd have to throw out the East German '10', but occasionally we'd award an honest 8.5 or 9.0 for a well done set...

[Esteban]

Life is never perfect. Have some health concerns but who doesn't at 68? Have (controlled with meds) hypertension, and it causes some concern when I drink. I keep that under control drinking once a week, plus a special med. Should stop drinking altogether but I enjoy it so much and only drink (mostly) on Friday nights with a few glasses of wine. Sometimes I splurge, but honestly it's rare.

Just a few glasses.

[Llarry]

I retired from the Navy and started getting a pension in 1995 -- at age 48! I was in a prime position (with a top secret Special Intelligence security clearance) to join the revolving door military-industrial complex as a contractor and make decent money in the Washington D.C. area for years, but did not want to do that. Maybe it was inherited: my Dad retired as a senior naval officer/pilot at age 45 and could've made big bucks in the same way, but chose to move to Oregon and become a cattle rancher and make practically nothing. But that military pension gives one options.

I am perfectly happy with the retirement life I chose.

Edit: The other thing is that my life in the Navy for the first 12 years (as an enlisted sailor, then a Chief) and the final 13 years (as an officer) were much different. Having gold on my sleeve was nice and all and the money was better, but I missed the direct connection to the work that I had as a sailor.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Should stop drinking altogether

I tell myself I should quit, but I don't listen to drunks