When I retired at age 60, I then did 10 long term leave positions in five different school districts…ranging from 3 weeks to 5 months. Some full time and some part time.
When DH retired, he continued to work as a consultant for his company for about 1 1/2 years.
I guess this was “easing” into retirement and I honestly don’t see anything wrong with this.
I still do some very limited private work, but DH is complete.y retired, and loves getting to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it.
Our FP advised us that the hardest thing about retirement is being a spender instead of a saver.
Some people have trouble adjusting to being a spender, and some people are reluctant to stop working beyond typical retirement age and work into their 80’s and even 90’s. One of the fellows with our financial advisor was having ‘trouble’ transitioning - he had so much money as a bachelor and juggling to minimize the tax consequences; he was over 70 and into RMDs - and still working because he liked working. And some people keep working because they have lived their lives as spenders and are having trouble making ends meet if not working - those people are not seeing a financial advisor because the financial advisor doesn’t pick them up as clients. I had a church acquaintance (divorced, no children) who had a healthy enough government pension, she just had trouble for a while with her finances. She sold her house and went into an apartment for a while, and then did go back into home ownership.
As a young couple, some people have to either tone down their spending or adjust to not being so thrifty with money for a long term relationship. Money definitely is a factor, along with how each spends their time.
We find that our investment earnings seem to have us really not drawing down, and we have a healthy enough ‘chunk’ to not be too concerned if we do draw down ‘some’. However what we see at age 67/68 is that we have a lot of money in 401k accounts (be it the actual account, and the annuities purchased with 401k funds) and not so much in Roth IRA. Have to plan out larger expenditures - like if we wanted to purchase a home (either moving primary or gaining secondary) and how to do so w/o selling primary first. But I do think we will need to ‘buckle down’ with decluttering and moving what we want to keep into storage and then purchase something after. That will be a big endeavor - time consuming and also a bit of a stressor all around. One has to really be motivated to move out of one’s long term primary residence - but some do it when they are ‘done’ with work and want to retire to another area with their primary residence. With spending out of 401k, we just have to see the state and federal taxes paid as part of the ‘gains’; doing a bit of baby steps with those withdrawals.
Between my in laws’ declining health, Covid & my GD’s birth, my late 2019 retirement was easy. I was glad not to work during that time, and I got very used to it.
I never felt like I had to ‘ease’ into retirement. Having been a teacher, I was off for the summer in July and August, then, August just led into September, and October, and … It just felt like summer vacation just continued. Didn’t feel any different, except there weren’t any kids wherever I went!
To tie this into the what we thought we needed to retire theme, I’ll share that one reason it was difficult for both of us to declutter adequately before our big move was ignoring the concept of sunk cost as we evaluated each item. It was especially stressful for H, who still has not come to terms with our downsizing or with having more than adequate financial resources for the relatively modest way we live. We’re still working on it.
Honestly, after going through this with my Grandma and Dad, I don’t know how useful a will is for most people anyways. Everything depends upon whether people know you have a will, and if whomever is in charge of administering your estate will do the right thing by your will, anyways. For example, my grandmother’s will stipulated that everything be equally split between me, my sister and mother. But the bank didn’t even want to look at the will. We got a small estate affidavit notarized (the notary didn’t look at the will either), and the bank said they could only give a check to one person, so they gave it to me and I put it into my mom/sisters accounts. A whole lot of trust involved for everyone, and zero checking of the will.
All that really matters is keeping those beneficiaries updated, and making sure the beneficiaries know where your accounts are! I wouldn’t stress about the will.
That guy is such a moron, sitting on his ivory perch, looking down upon the rest of us mere mortals, lecturing us about what we are doing wrong. Ugh. Maybe if he gets a job where he does something other than talk as fast as he can, endlessly complaining about “woke”, he’ll understand why the rest of us actually want a chance to retire before we die.
My father passed in January 2024 and I received an inherited IRA after he was 73, and it is my understanding that the IRS does not require, at this time, continued RMD. They attempted to pass that and there was a lot of push back. It could change in 2024 but they waived all penalties from 2021 forward. So yes to the 10 year fully exhausted, and TBD on RMD for 2024.
I think the IRS may have clarified that RMDs are still required in this circumstance, despite earlier confusion on the matter.
I am by no means an expert on this, but here is my source:
Quote:
“IRS Waives Excise Tax for 10-Year Rules Two and Three
Language from Secure 1.0 led many to believe distributions were optional until the 10th year for all beneficiaries subject to the 10-year rule. However, the proposed RMD regulations explained that annual RMDs were also required under 10-year rule number two and 10-year rule number three.
Generally, a beneficiary who fails to take an RMD for a year owes the IRS an excise tax on any RMD shortfall. Because of confusion about how the 10-year rules work for beneficiaries that fall under 10-year rules number two and three, the IRS provides an automatic waiver of this excise tax for any of these beneficiaries who failed to take their RMDs for 2021 and 2022.”
Our son in law’s brother teaches AP courses at public HS in a low paying state for teachers (LA). So he has other ‘jobs’ over the summer. I have encouraged him to advance into administration and get his PhD (he is smart enough, and he now has to align his goals with his family’s). His wife is also gaining lots of skills working as an executive assistant to a college dean, and I have encouraged her on how to advance professionally.
Two of my high school teachers were house painters in the summer - and one of them had purchased a home which was next door to the lot that my dad (construction company owner) built their home in 1982 (parents were almost empty nesters by then).
My mother in law advanced her teacher pay by getting the graduate courses to be at the top of her system’s pay scale as a first grade teacher. She was very expert in teaching the children to read (that system is not where they have 4K, and kindergarteners reading). MIL died in 2021 at age 92, so she had retired some time around age 65; her last principal was her student in first grade.
He’s a Republican mouthpiece, on the ultraconservative/MAGA side. They are ‘prepping’ the crowd for eventual reduction of retirement benefits and/or increase in retirement age. You’ll see more of this from talking heads as the election season progresses.
I read a really good article focusing on this point. The income inequality that has occurred over recent years is putting a big squeeze on money coming into SS. Raising the cap on SS wages would make a big difference in keeping SS on track, but that doesn’t sit well with the folks who are prepping us for cuts.
We have passed along the quality toys and some of the other kid stuff. I have to go through and find the wooden puzzles - DD wants them for her children. I have seen the box, but now have to ‘organize’ some of the stuff and find that box.
As with you, we remember costs of various things. But I do think it can be like ripping off a band aid quick when it does come to a big house move coming up.
I know military families that know they are moving in X years (often 3), and they have stuff organized to pack up various rooms. Our niece (AF Lt Col) didn’t realize a box of ornaments/Christmas decorations were missing - so they lost some special things, including the ornament party ones that their children had from friends. They were beyond the time to possibly trace what happened to the box, and claim it from their ‘unclaimed/missing boxes’. Have to be careful with sentimental items and try to move those smaller things one self.
Also keeping small things like a special ring out of storage (a friend was suppose to inherit the ring, but her scatterbrain aunt who was behind in bills let the storage unit go w/o having gone through the unit before getting behind on it).
DH is “retiring” from teaching in 2.5 months, but he’s not retiring from the workforce. Unlike you, he has always hated the summers off. He looks forward to them during the school year, but after 1 week he’s bored. He can’t stay home for more than a couple of hours without getting antsy. (This can drive me bonkers!)
He should have a new job lined up in the next few months. I’m hoping he can do 20-30 hours/week, as I’d like for the job to be somewhat flexible. But he is absolutely done/burned out with teaching. I know he will miss the interaction with the kids. The actual teaching is OK. It’s all of the other “stuff” that he can’t stand - the pressures/weird requirements from downtown, anything to do with tech, etc. I remember one year, the teachers had to go drive their personal vehicles through a bad neighborhood in a parade like fashion, honking with music blaring, get out at the rec center and sing… This was apparently to pep the kids up for their standardized testing.
I had to chuckle at “Didn’t feel any different, except there weren’t any kids wherever I went.” Teach 500 kids for 32 years in the same small city. We can’t go ANYWHERE without running into multiple current and former students. I’ll catch grown men eyeing him funny in the store and tell him “I think that’s one of your former kids.” Yup. He’s taught kids of kids hundreds of times over. No grandkids yet that we know of. But all of the kids who run up to him and hug him in the stores… I know he will miss that.
I just remembered that the engineer who works in the cubbie next to me… yup… He was taught by H too! They’re everywhere!
Edit - H is also only 55, so he isn’t technically full retirement age
Please research whether you need to take your father’s RMD for 2024. My research shows that requirement is still there. (DH’s mom passed late 2023, so research is recent).
DH retired as an elementary school teacher, in part because of the downtown pressure and because he felt like he couldn’t teach the way he wanted anymore. He ended up with two part-time jobs – one as a tutor at his old school making good money and one at our local grocery store. He LOVES that job. He gets to see lots of former students and parents there, and we get a discount on groceries!
Quite confusing to me,
“ Designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary.
Distributions to a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary must be completed within 10 years of the death of the owner. See 10-year rule, later.”