<p>Nrdsb4, start to downsize NOW. This has been a traumatic experience for us. We collected incredible amounts of stuff over the 20+ years in this house. My wife is a true packrat, plus she needed to keep lots of career related stuff.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no forum for those of us who are retiring. I thought for sure I would find something equivalent to the CC forums. There are almost no forums or discussion groups and those that exist are very minimal.</p>
<p>Hayden, we already have a budget plans to cover frequent trips to visit the kids and grandkid. We used our Capital One to pay for college tuition and we even used it to buy a new Dodge diesel pickup. We have lots and lots of mileage points.</p>
<p>edad, nice to hear that your musician daughter is on her feet and that she had a valuable time in the conservatory as well.<br>
Don’t be a stranger! We still have one in undergrad school and two sons with graduate school ideas to contemplate. However, you can still be “valuable” to those of us pondering the Moving On years when the kids are completely self sufficient. </p>
<p>that RV must be quite a sight in your driveway…with all the promise it holds for your next adventure after you shuck the strict work schedule you have carried on with for years and years…</p>
<p>Keep us posted please! Tis a Gift to Be Simple in this age…and we also intend to get rid of tons of “things” and to pare down to settle into a new way of living…and to learn to live well on less income</p>
<p>Congrats. Still curious about insurance. Is your wife 64 as well? Also, are you drawing or going to draw SS or wait and collect later at a higher benefit? Not nosy, just picking your brain, since you and I can remain anonymous. Just looking to see how everyone thinks things out for when I have to make that decision. I am a few years away from SS, but husband is about your age…</p>
<p>I totally agree that the Parents Forum needs a subsection under Cafe for parents who are past the college parenting years…</p>
<p>Congratulations Edad! And thanks for the warning about downsizing/ unloading the stuff. </p>
<p>Enjoy your tour of the country, I bet you’ll find some gorgeous country and wonderful communities out there!</p>
<p>Sunnyflorida, My wife is a year and a half younger but she is disabled so she can get Medicare at any time. We have not decided if she will convert to Medicare or stay on my Cobra until I turn 65 next June. I will not draw social security or pull from my retirement accounts for at least 2 years. We will live off of my wife’s disability checks and money from the sale of the house. Doing a budget is really tough. It is very difficult to predict what we can afford and what the costs will be. If necessary we can live really cheap for several months of the year as campground hosts. If we have the money we will travel between the major national and state parks. I anticipate using the 4% rule as a guide to the amount we can spend. We need to spend less on a regular basis and then “save” the remainder. For example, if we can afford to spend $4000/month and we spend $3000, then the remaining $1000 will go to funds. We will allocate 60% ($600) for long term expenses such as a new car, 20% will be set aside for the hope of international travel and 20% for the kids/grandkids - visits and/or gifts. We are going to need to watch our expenses carefully and adjust accordingly.</p>
<p>I am envious. You have thought this out very well. Blog about it HERE on CC Parent’s Cafe!!!</p>
<p>We are thinking of doing a blog, or at least my wife is. I am more interested in photography.</p>
<p>Gosh, edad, I am envious reading about your future travels and adventures. Our DD (our only child) just graduated from college in May and is moving in to a rental home with three other friends at the end of this month. DH and I often talk about how fabulous it would be to travel a lot, but we still have many years of work ahead of us (I’m 48, he’s 46). It sounds like y’all have really planned and budgeted well and I hope we are in a position to do something like that in time. I, too, spend very little time now at CC, but I do enjoy checking in occasionally to see how everyone is doing.</p>
<p>We hike in a local National Park regularly and just got back from a week in Yellowstone. We were suprised by how many retirees work in the National Parks. Some work for just the summer and some change parks, following the crowds going to a place like Key West for the winter. They all seem to love it.</p>
<p>We talk about downsizing our house all the time and get intimidated by how to get rid of the accumulation of stuff–childhood books and artwork, pictures, tropies, etc. My H is the sentimental one, hating to part with anything, even if it’s a wooden tennis racket he last used in high school.</p>
<p>I’ve said this before, but I really do not want you <pardon the=“” expression=“”> old-timers to go away. I agree that the parents who post on CC are a very valuable group of individuals. Just because your kids are out of college doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues we could use help with. Jobs in the real world? Grandchildren? </pardon></p>
<p>I’ve suggested this to the moderators before–we need to expand the forums.</p>
<p>(And to edad–my very favorite former boss and his wife both retired around the same time in 2002. They sold/gave away/stored everything and started traveling. They have yet to buy a permanent home. When they’re not exploring the world, they either stay with her mother or rent a furnished apartment near the grandkids. Talk about a nice retirement.)</p>
<p>I can’t wait to see Yellowstone. My wife and I passed through for 2 days about 35 years ago. Yep the stuff is hard to deal with. We have discarded huge amounts but still have many banker boxes with kids toys and artwork, plus my wife’s art work, plus my hobby stuff, etc, etc. For a long while it seemed hopeless in spite of hard work and good intentions. My wife has neighborhood kids helping again today. We will not have a show place but we should be ready to list the house tonight. We also spent lots of money fixing stuff that we lived with. We now have a new roof, new driveway, new garage doors, new interior doors, and most rooms have been painted. I am really tired of the whole process, plus working. At this point I would just like it all gone but that is part of the compromises of being married.</p>
<p>Please, please consider staying or at least visiting us here at CC!!</p>
<p>I am very envious of your plans; they sound very well considered.
I am about a dozen years behind you but a bit of longing for the easier life is creeping in…</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Edad–your last post resonates with me! I don’t know how we’re going to get rid of so much stuff. We do have some room in the newer house, but I don’t want it to turn into the same junk heap. And the shape the present house is in is horrendous; we’ll be doing the same thing as you–putting money into fixing all the stuff we lived with. Sigh.</p>
<p>At least we decided to skip the garage sales. My wife still wants to find a home for everything. I just want it gone. We have donated about 400-500 books to the local library. We have had dozens and dozens of pickups from charities for furniture, clothing, stuff and more stuff. Some things are just impossible to get rid of. We have thousands of 5x7 photos and my wife has her daily journals. We even had a huge box of photos my father had taken. I found about 10 pictures with my mother or other relatives and threw out the rest. My wife and I have had some ugly fights about things like the 1970’s fondue pot. Again, I would plan on a year to downsize and in the back of my head realize that it will take twice as long.</p>
<p>Edad, I would like to pick your brain about how you went about your retirement financial planning. My H and I have been bickering about how to go about this. He went to a class at the local technical H.S. and the teacher offered an hour of free consulting. In order to do this this guy wants a copy of every current piece of financial paper we have!!! This makes me crazy - I will NOT give copies of our financial statements, with account numbers and so forth, to a guy for a one hour consult! We have detailed the general totals and type of investment, and have run our own numbers using the 4% rule and estimating returns on investments (10 percent seemed realistic 10 years ago but HAH not likely, these days - what did you use?). We have expenses estimated for every year from age 60 onward, varying according to when Medicare kicks in. We have no pensions and have to live off of our savings after college is paid for. We are arguing about how to go about this planning process - my H is wanting to run the numbers with various assumptions about returns on investment and varying the 4% rule, but still feels we need to hire someone to assess our situation. He has never wanted to hire a financial planner before, has always managed our investments himself, and now wants to (in my opinion) give away his identity to someone who will tell him yes you can retire soon or no he can’t. Or to restructure, I guess. </p>
<p>A longwinded way of asking what was your planning process? </p>
<p>Thank you a million for this thread.</p>
<p>Hugcheck- It is worth it to find a financial consultant that you trust and then hand over the information! The right person can be a true blessing as you go through this process. Ours helped us with our decision on rent v. buy when we moved to TN from Dallas 4 years ago and with what extra benefits I should select from my company offerings.
We had sort of planned for me to be retired by now (H is) but one of the kids cost a lot more than expected and I still love my job. It makes sense for me to keep working as long as I can hang in there, especially with what has happened to our investments. We love where we live, but do want to travel and H has plans for a retirement home that is “green”. We had planned to build in Colorado, but have scrapped that plan and have our CO property on the market. Decisions, decisions.
One thing we discovered was that our anticipated plan 10 years ago is NOT what we now want. As health issues arise and climate becomes more of an issue, minds can change.</p>
<p>We have accumulated SO MUCH STUFF…H is more of a collecter than I am. Seems like he buys something on eBay every week. He can’t get rid of ANYTHING and goes through the trash when I get rid of stuff. When I throw stuff away I do it when he isn’t home and I take the bags to the local dumpster. I can’t imagine him ever downsizing. I think we’ll be the kind of couple that dies with a house crammed full of stuff that our kids have to deal with.</p>
<p>Gosh… I still have a 1970’s fondue pot…</p>
<p>Maybe I should use it someday ;)</p>
<p>@edad - good luck to you. My SIL’s parents did this for a couple of years before finally settling back down again. They had a blast, you will too!</p>
<p>
MOWC - I thought you were going to end this with “and I still love my kid”. LOL</p>
<p>@Treetopleaf - how silly! doncha know that fondue is back in style? get that thing out and melt come chocolate or cheese!</p>
<p>I just want to know what to do with all the Beanie Babies…</p>