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<p>Well, eating food, having clothes and a shelter is selfish too.</p>
<p>H and I just made a trip to a potential retirement location, paving the way for a decision 4-5 years in the future. We know we will not stay where we are. I am not willing to retire to his hometown, and neither of us would go to mine. We lived two other places (for extended periods), and friends from there have moved on. We have to go somewhere. At the airport, H said he could not picture us making this move. I reminded him that each of the other decisions about moves were to take better jobs, and we had no choice but to move to accomplish that. D may or may not be settled by that point, and S will just be finishing his professional degree and making a decision (!!!) about where he will be. I do not want to make two moves, one when we first retire, and then another when there are major health issues or when one of us is widowed (is that a gender neutral verb?) But H wants us to look at active adult communities in places we have never lived, nor do we know anyone…this does not appeal to me, but we will look. I wish he would consider making another career move to a place we could retire, give us a chance to build a professional community, give us an identity there. But he is somewhat reluctant to take on another situation. </p>
<p>So, the answer to the OP, is I am clueless…the “where” is too big of an issue.</p>
<p>I’m sitting right where I hope to be in ten years. We bought a lot on the water over ten years ago and finally paid it off year before last. Last year we built a house on the lot. We’re now using it as a weekend/vacation home.
It is on the opposite side of our state from our “real” home but is the part of the state we are originally from and had always thought we’d like to return to. We are currently renovating our “real” home and plan to put it on the market for sale soon. After that, we will rent in our “real home” town and bide our time until DH can find a job in the area of the new house. When that happens, we plan to move here permanently. </p>
<p>We have two kids. One is two years out of college and settled in his job. The other is a college senior this year and we’re just praying he finds work after graduation and doesn’t become the kid on the couch.</p>
<p>razorsharp-
Maybe in YOUR life there is plenty of time to work still have time to play as much as you would like…not in my life there isn’t.</p>
<p>I’ve worked FT since age 22 in a demanding profession, raised two children (one with special needs) and can tell you that I cannot fit all the fun I crave into the few non work, non housecleaning, non sleeping hours each day.
I’d love to work PT after age 60ish and play the rest of the time.</p>
<p>And yes, I have the twenty somethings graduating into my profession wondering WHEN is that old biddy going to retire??? Well, at age 54, still have 12 years on my mortgage and various financial responsibilities. But you betcha, when I can, I will retire.
Have loved my job all along but after 32 years and counting, maybe time for other options.</p>
<p>DS age 25 and job hunting also likes to point out to DH that he needs to pass on some of his music gigs to him…ie get out of the way. DH has no intention to do that. DH thinks he’s still in 6th grade.</p>
<p>Helenback, I enjoyed reading your retirement plans. Did you ever work as a typist/secretary once? How about a job as a journalist for a thriving newspaper?</p>
<p>Thinking about 10 years from now, will any parents be alive? Their ages could be 91-101…it could happen. How would life look without them and the worries and the relationship?</p>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum, 10 years from now perhaps the kids will be married and settled into their new home towns. I think we would, if not move to their town, pick an area central between them, assuming they are all in the same region.</p>
<p>I love my current home & it’s location, but if either of us got infirm, we would have to change things, too many steps required on a daily basis. We’ll hope that doesn’t happen!</p>
<p>Looking at retirement investments, I think we’ll have to hope for a real estate boom and sell our main house and downgrade, then invest the freed up equity to help the cost of living! I help both sets of parents and those guaranteed benefit pensions are a nice thing, but we have no hope of that and who knows what SS will offer. My biggest concern is not my health, but paying for health insurance. 10 years from now how much will it be, both in cost increases and age increases?</p>
<p>Technically I can retire in 10 years. The debate now in my household is whether to retire earlier and how early. I will try the part time method for a while and see. The absolute earliest for me is when my high school sophomore graduates from college which is 2017. My husband probably will retire earlier, he is older. But he will home all by himself. I’m not sure that’s what he want to do.
We will do the travelling now( because we still have the health) and not when we retire.</p>
<p>In ten years, I will be 68, DH will be 67, and if living my mom will be 96 and MIL will be 92. DH will probably be retired, as I don’t think his body will hold up to the physical demands of his job too much longer. He is studying to change careers, so if he is successful I hope he can work until full Social Security and Medicare kicks in. I would want to be working at least part-time because I would feel more financially secure that way. However, I will probably be forced to retire and will be homicidal or suicidal or most likely both from taking care of my mom who refuses to relinquish control over anything yet is no longer capable of taking care of everything on her own. And if she has passed away, I wading through the task of disposing of her estate. The mountains of stuff is mind boggling: She still has the McCall’s pattern and fabric from the apron she was going to sew me for kindergarten.</p>
<p>Hey combining this to the only child thread in 10 years I will either be retired or thinking about it and will be “haunting” my poor kid by making sure I settle wherever she goes. She is not going to be able to get rid of me.
I told her I am going to haunt her just like her grandparents are haunting their 5 kids- so far she is okay with it.</p>
<p>Ah, limabeans, glad you enjoyed my retirement plan. I have worked as a secretary/receptionist many years ago and I was just terrible at it. Is there such a thing as a successful newspaper? I do write for my friend’s paper on occasion, but I don’t know how successful it is. </p>
<p>I tried starting a blog, and I even made in anonymous so I could write freely without worry of offending my mother-in-law, but all that came out was a torrent of profanity. Apparently all those years of not swearing in front of my children just resulted in some seriously pent-up foul language. Maybe I’ve gotten it out of my system and I can give it another go!</p>
<p>We have been whimsically discussing our retirement plan. We’re 51 now, so 61 in 10 years - we really aren’t seriously planning retirement yet, but here are the unusual constraints:
I want to be somewhere warm in January and February.
DH wants to retire on a good walleye lake in Minnesota. (I actually would be quite happy on a good walleye lake in Minnesota from March to December.)
The kids like our house in Ohio and want to keep it available indefinitely.</p>
<p>So, three retirement homes. 
Or, how about this:
- We buy SOMETHING in Florida. (Perhaps DH and I buy a two-entrance house with DSis and DBrotherInLaw who want to live in Florida year round - I can dream, right.) DH and I live there in Jan and Feb. Or I live there myself in January and February (well, with my sister, remember?) and DH stays in Minnesota to ice fish. Either way is fine.
- The rest of the time we live on the walleye lake in Minnesota together.
- Since the kids want access to our house in Ohio, one of them buys it and lives here. They’ll be happy, and an advantage of this is that our family house is likely bigger than the future retirement place-on-a-walleye-lake, so we will all get together in Ohio for holidays - I won’t have to host Thanksgiving, etc. :D</p>
<p>I guess we are sort of working on a plan. We are both likely to work til 65, anyway, so perhaps we can come up with a more realistic plan in the next couple of years…</p>
<p>The value to society of adults is their work, not their play."</p>
<p>I tend to agree, but what does that have to do with “employment”?</p>
<p>MidwestMom, that sounds like my H’s family. Inlaws retired and bought a waterfront cottage in Wisconsin for summer, spent the winter in Florida, and we bought their house where they would stop in each spring and fall on their way north and south. We had nice vacation spots to visit them also.</p>
<p>I have been “retired” for 21 years since my oldest child was born. I do a lot of volunteer work and feel that I contribute to society, and yes I am occasionally lazy! I am happy to let someone else be employed in my place. My H may retire in 6 years when our youngest is out of college, or maybe not, as he has an expensive new hobby. We have no idea at this point if we will move or how our lives will play out.</p>
<p>We are 51 and 52, and we figure we’ll need to work until at least 65 in order to have enough money for retirement. So in 10 years, we’ll still be working. H will still be with the same company he has worked for since he was 17. I just started a new job, so I may be there or elsewhere … who knows. I took a 20 year break from paid work, so I am still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. What we do know is we need to keep working for more than ten years. </p>
<p>Once we hit 65, we would really like to retire. We want to be free to get in the car & go places … see America & stay in cheap motels. We want to be able to visit the kids when we feel like it. By that time, hopefully the housing market will be better so that we can get enough out of our house (which will be paid off next year) to allow us to get a smaller home without needing a mortgage. We aren’t sure if we will stay in this area or relocate. </p>
<p>We have watched our parents and know that life is not always kind to the elderly. We want to be able to have fun before we are unable to do the things we want to do. My parents’ mid-70’s were consumed by illness, doctor’s appointments, and just plain suckiness. Knowing that this can happen, we will try to have some fun while we can (and buy long term care insurance). My in laws have been healthier for a longer period of time, but they didn’t travel or do the things we want to do … and now in their 80’s they couldn’t if they wanted to, because they just are not physically able. While I know that some folks prefer to work until they can no longer work, we prefer to play until we can no longer play.</p>
<p>Slightly off-topic, but I saw a great poster the other day:</p>
<p>“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday… There is no Someday.”</p>
<p>In 10 years I’ll be 51 but more importantly my son will be 29. So what I’d really like to be in ten years or so is the mother of one of the grooms and/or a grandma!</p>
<p>Mostly yes. We’re 47, so we will still be working. I have a hard time imagining us retiring, ever. Not for financial reasons but it’s a really fun career for both of us. It will be different having an empty nest though and I can’t picture that yet.</p>
<p>Starbright, My nest emptied when I was 41 and was impossible to picture. I just had to live through it (with some tears!) It’s great you both have careers that are fun. Mr PMK is working on his doctorate so he can be in that kind of position and never want to retire. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck I want to do when I grow up!</p>
<p>So, that’s on my “ten year” list as well. I hope that in 10 years I’ll be settled in a career I love. I only wish I could picture what that career would be!</p>
<p>I don’t get the logic of calling people that work beyond 65 as selfish. I work with some geniuses that are still contributing <em>hugely</em> to their field and could not be simply replaced. Moreover this logic reminds me of those earlier arguments about selfish women entering the workforce and taking away ‘mens jobs’, or arguing against immigrants taking away jobs. The reality is people working earn more, therefore spend more, which fuels the economy. Last time I checked a strong economy creates jobs.</p>
<p>I know there are people that are working in their 80s and possibly 90s. I don’t know why. I can think of one reason is that they are possibly lonely at home. At least going to work, they do see other people.</p>