How Much Do You think You Need to Retire? What Age Will You/Spouse Retire? Investment and General Retirement Issues (Part 3)

Parent Cafe
3082

Here is an article and response that is something to consider. In a way, unusual circumstances with so many moves by this gal and her husband. Article never says any detail on where close family/close friends could be and related to this widow’s limited financial circumstances.

I knew a gal that was divorced/no children, and she moved from a house to an apartment while she was getting her finances in order - had pension and SS, health insurance benefits with the government, but lacked cash flow discipline. She later was able to purchase a small house in our same city with a proper budget.

Asking Eric: After years of moving, widow doesn’t know where to go in retirement - al.com

3083

Exactly where I see my situation going and it changes how comfortable I am with amount of savings we have

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3084

@SOSConcern, wow. Five kids is unusual in this era. We are hoping for one or two from each kid. Sounds like both of your kids are managing finances soundly, but their situations are complicated for very different reasons.

Sports management is a bit like fashion. There is an endless supply of folks whose dream is to be in sports or fashion. So, employers mostly exploit them. I suspect that there are either a set of skills (quantitative or marketing) or luck or connections that get people on to a good career track. I dealt with a team at at one of the major sneaker companies who worked on partnerships with athletes. I think these folk had gone to local colleges and/or run track and got hired. Nice folks but did not strike me as unusually capable (they were competent or better). I think they fell into a good ecosystem. Over time, they developed industry knowledge and contacts. Many of them left over time to join companies in the same or related industries.

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3085

I also agree 100% about trying to pass funds down earlier. I am 53. I lost my parents respectively 2 & 6 years ago. We lost my MIL 4 years ago. FIL still kicking.

We really could have used some help or basically a cushion when we were 35-42. My wife had stepped out of the employment world when the kids were young. Times back then were tight.

When we settled my mom’s estate we went ahead and passed down what equated to 4% to my two children. Not huge amount by any means, but for DD1 who had just bought a house on her own at 23 I am sure it came in handy.

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3086

One way I have seen grandparents give a bit of “early” financial bump is gifting a car (if in decent shape) when they upgrade. Probably would not work for us, but I thought it was a lovely idea.

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3087

With relocating and purchasing home/condo, be very careful about how water rights are in your area, and the water supply. People in places like CA, CO, and others are aware, but other places too. Not just water/sewer costs, but consumption limitations. Communities need strong infrastructure and ‘fairness’ with how water/sewer/utilities are handled. When there is a fire, that water pressure will be there to fight fires.

Also if purchasing lake property - really study the pros and cons. Lake Lanier’s water levels certainly has affected properties along it. A huge lake in AL, Smith Lake - a friend purchased one property, and later sold it and purchased another – the serenity of their spot and not having a lot of motorboat action causing turbulence, noise, and less enjoyment on weekends and peak use times.

Since we have lived in N AL since 1983, we were aware of water supply issues in GA. Some years ago, GA tried to get water redirected via Corps of Engineers (directing away from AL) - and this has been ongoing. Google AI “Georgia and Alabama have been in a decades-long legal battle, known as the “Tri-State Water Wars,” over water rights in shared river systems like the Chattahoochee, with Alabama challenging Georgia’s large draw for Metro Atlanta’s growing population, leading to multiple lawsuits, but recent federal court rulings, particularly in 2021 and 2025, have largely favored Georgia, affirming its access to water, though ongoing agreements aim to manage resources sustainably.

Recent Developments: 2021 Ruling: A federal judge supported the Corps’ plan to meet Atlanta’s water needs, rejecting Alabama’s claims. 2023 Agreement: Georgia and Alabama reached an agreement to end a specific lawsuit over the Chattahoochee Basin, with Alabama dropping its case. 2025 Rulings: Federal courts again ruled in Georgia’s favor regarding water use from Lake Allatoona, securing supply for nearly a million residents and affirming the Corps’ actions.

GA (with lots of growth in Atlanta area) have considered limitations on water sources. Google AI “Atlanta’s water comes mainly from the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier, but faces major issues like aging infrastructure causing leaks, growing demand from population/industry, pollution (PFAS, bacteria), and challenges meeting federal mandates, leading to costly upgrades for aging pipes and sewer systems.”

Also, the big data centers that are popping up require a lot of water for cooling I believe. Per Google AI “The primary data center causing water issues in the region is Meta’s facility in Newton County, Georgia, near Social Circle****, where residents like the Morrises have experienced wells running dry or becoming contaminated with sediment due to the immense water consumption of the data center, raising widespread concerns about water scarcity and infrastructure strain in Georgia, and similar issues are being noted with other hyperscale centers across the Southeast.” Some homes that are ‘neighbors’ to the META/GA facility which had well water have no running water now (or junk water - sediment/yellow/yuck) - due to the consumption by the data center. Heartbreaking!

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3088

An interesting counterpoint to my argument that Florida real estate was likely going to have a correction.

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3089

From past experience, I think this article will be behind a paywall

I do have Apple News plus. The gist of the article to me is that real estate is going great in the higher income brackets but not so much for lower middle income households who can’t afford to insure their homes or afford the increase in lot rentals for manufactured housing.

I know a lot of people who snowbird. I would say that many of them bought 20+ years ago and so it’s affordable. The people I know who have bought recently the majority don’t insure their homes. Self insure. It sounds crazy to me, I’ve met too many that do that it must be better than the alternative.

It will be interesting for Florida when the older baby boomers and the silent generation pass away.

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3090

Reminder of the forum rules:

”Avoid paywalled link if you can by posting gift links wherever possible, if no gift link or free option is available, then provide a summary, synopsis, abstract, or other information that at least allows readers to understand the point and/or research further if they see fit.”

TIA!

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3091

Yes, behind a paywall, but from the first few sentences I could read, this sounds like the K-shaped economy in action.

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3092

Agree with your assessment.

Years ago, a retired MD we know from small town WI snow birded to South TX - he found even many years ago that FL was not affordable (more to the point cost-effective). I think he also liked the culture in TX and the year-round community.

Some people have a mind set on how much they spend on travel, and how much they spend on living expenses.

A lot of snowbirds in FL do not have a traditional house there - either a manufactured home in a RV type park or a condo community.

Agree about purchased property 20+ years ago. A friend talked about FL college professors that rented all summer in one community over many years with their children growing up and later retired and purchased a home in another community. Their current community often has a place purchased and a multi-million-dollar home built. Transformation.

3093

Not sure if I should post this here or something else. I think this is a gift link so should be unlocked. It is about the sense of mattering after one retires from one’s job.

https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/the-retirement-crisis-no-one-warns-you-about-mattering-380873b2?st=EQmVAR&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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3094

Interesting article. I think about this topic a lot as I contemplate leaving my job where it fees like I make a difference….

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3095

On the Have You Made It? thread, we talked about doing the pre-work of separating your identity from your job as a necessary but often overlooked step in planning for retirement. This article calls it a sense of “mattering,” but it’s the same thing.

Those who define themselves by their work often have a hard time envisioning a life without the title/trappings even though they have “enough” and desperately want to cut the corporate tether. I saw this with my dad, my brother, and several of my colleagues who defined themselves by their job and had a tougher retirement transition due to identity loss (sense of mattering). My dad was a big fish in a big pond for many years, and when he no longer had that office/title/respect, he was depressed by what he felt he had lost. It took him a while to embrace what he had gained and begin to re-identify himself. Similarly, for my brother, it took three tries before he could permanently cut the cord. The job was just too much a part of him though it was killing him in some ways. But, I’ll never forget him saying to me, “Sis, I don’t know how much time I have left, but I do know that these years are better than those years” (pointing ahead), and when that sunk in for him, he was able to move on and is now enjoying these years immensely.

For us, work was always just a means to an end. It didn’t matter what the content was, how much we were paid, or what our titles and responsibilities were. We viewed our jobs solely as a way to pay the bills and fund retirement. When our nut was met, we had no trouble turning off the spigot and embracing the end goal. DH and I retired about the same time in 2017. I haven’t looked back, but he continues to consult sporadically to fund things outside our retirement budget. The work is, again, just a means to an end, not something he does because of some inner need or financial necessity.

For those who love what they do, though, perhaps they should keep at it and continue to reap both the emotional satisfaction and financial reward. Why quit? I know some who love what they do and plan to die doing it. For them, retirement is not a goal, and I envy them. But for those who do intend to retire, in addition to working a financial plan, it’s critical to start early to separate identity from the job to avoid any sense of no longer mattering when the trappings of the job are no longer a part of life.

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When did you decide to finally retire
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I think that this is a very important point that is at least a major part of retiring. For some of us this might be more of an issue compared to the financial part of retirement.

After I retired, I continued to consult to my former employer. To me this was a big deal, but not for financial reasons. This meant that I kept in touch with my former colleagues (which included a lot of friends and people that I highly respect). This also meant that I had something useful to do.

However, there has to be an end to everything, even part time consulting. Then what? You wake up in the morning. The kids are adults and are working their own jobs. In the summer you garden, or bike, or kayak. In the winter?

Occasionally we see discussions of universal basic income, along with a prediction that AI will displace workers. However, the same issue comes up. A job is not just to earn money. It provides structure to life. It gives a sense of purpose.

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3097

We have a very good friend who had a very “big” job. His company wouldn’t have let him keep working forever (they did a huge purge of boomers a couple years after he retired) … but his wife made him stop. Not literally, but the fact that she moved back to the states from the foreign country where they had been for too many years (tired of having to make new friends as everyone else came & went) prompted him to retire & move back. He made sure every day was scheduled once he retired, all day, even if that meant working in the yard for eight hours. His wife encouraged him to find something work related, and he ended up on the board of an international corporation. He’s now on two boards. People find fulfillment in different ways … his wife is a very type A person, but she finds her fulfillment being ultra competitive in retirement-type activities (tennis, pickleball, cards). Me? I can read, work out, walk, run errands … and I’m happy.

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3098

A job does provide money by definition. A job does not provide structure to life or give a sense of purpose. A person feels, or does not feel, a sense of structured life (and has a view about whether or not that’s a good thing) or gets a sense of purpose from their job. Some people can still feel these things without a job. Some cannot. Some people can enjoy not having a job. Some cannot. I think some people who don’t want to retire even if they could financially because they feel this way want to make others feel that they are missing these things by not working and that their life is less without them. The many people I know who are happily retired would disagree.

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3099

For some. Not for me. Because I started planning/dreaming about retirement from the first day of my first job, I was never concerned about how I would fill my time when I jettisoned the very thing that was keeping me from the life I desired. I never wanted to work and hated every minute of it. For me, leaving the workforce was like stepping out of jail after decades of confinement and forced labor.

On a previous thread, we talked about concerns for establishing routines and feeling productive in retirement. I think “productive” and “routine” are work/job words. I left these behind, too. For me, retirement was not about replacing one routine with another or feeling any pressure to be “productive,” whatever that means. I think these concepts put unnecessary stress on what should be your glorious freedom. And that means freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want, even if that is absolutely nothing–or what looks like nothing to someone else. The people I know who are truly embracing retirement for all its worth can’t tell you what they do with their days but are astonished by how time flies. They joke, “I’m not sure how I ever found time for my job.” They are fully engaged with family, friends, and community, and they do some wonderful things, but retirement looks very different for each of them.

There is no “right” way to enjoy this new phase of your life, so don’t burden yourself trying to justify what you do with your time. It’s yours at last. In the early months especially, I would advise that you simply enjoy that extra sleep, linger over those cups of coffee, turn off the clocks, reconnect with old friends, pick up a book…feel that freedom. And don’t worry, retired life has a gentle way of drawing you toward where you need to be and what you should be doing, but you have to slow down and let it.

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3100

I agree with you.

We all have the same amount of hours and days (24/7) to fill or not fill. Some of us really enjoy “filling. That doesn’t mean we don’t also enjoy free time or dawdle time. But maybe we don’t want that loose timeframe 24/7 or 18/8 or whatever.

All can be ok.

I am a year out from retiring from FT work. I work 3 days a week. I truly love it. I work from home with some minor traveling. My job is related to the job I left - the best parts of it I still do, the worst parts I was able to leave behind. I feel there will come a time when I’ll feel inside that it’s time to move aside. That makes me sad. I think I have another year …who know maybe I’ll just work 2 DAYS then…. :wink:

Working at 66 fulfills my need for some structure, being productive for a cause, good $ and for me, still plenty of freedom. When people ask me if I’m still working or why I’m still working or if I like what I’m doing I can’t wait to say “YES, I LOVE IT!”

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3101

I’ve just finished my first week of retirement and enjoyed it. I worked in human services for the past 32+ years. I was a small fish in a medium pond. I liked what I did, helping individuals who were/are under valued and under privileged. I called my job a low pay, high reward job. I served those individuals the best I could with the limited resources available to us.

Once I was ready to retire, I was ready. My boss asked if I would be interested in going back to help her by working part-time. She would be happy to have me back as I have institutional knowledge. I thanked her and said no. I am ready to move on to the next phase of my life.

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