Congrats, VA Bluebird!
Congrats. I can retire at 57, but may work until 60, and hopefully no later. I’ve told my husband he can work as long as he wants, but I suspect he will at least go part time when I retire. I still have 3 in college, and how much if any grad school they choose may influence my date. I think a great education is more important than an inheritance, so I will help them as much as I can. But I save a lot for retirement every year. I “pay myself first.” I hope to put my skills to work as a volunteer, as a couple of you have mentioned.
Well I am older than many of you and am thinking of retiring next year. DH has been retired for over 6 years and retired as a federal employee senior executive. I am in educational sales, I do enjoy what I do tremendously, it is both intellectually stimulating as well as rewarding although endless details, and I make more money than I’ve ever made in my life. We sent both daughters to private college with merit aid, no financial aid. We sent one partially through grad school until she had tuition remission as a TA and we still have money in our 529 for younger d who is out of college 5 years if she decides to go to grad school. We already travel a good deal but on short trips. We already go to theatre and symphony and museums a lot. Our house costs us very little to maintain although it is old, built in 1927 and although totally renovated, things do need to be done so if I was home, I know that it would be on my mind that we should deal with house issues. Actually I would prefer to sell this house and move into the city but who anticipated the insane real estate market that has become NYC. DH wants to have a winter place in Florida which has no appeal to me although several of our friends have been snowbirds for a long time. I actually enjoy the winter and when the weather is bad I just work remotely.
No weddings on the horizon at the moment to plan although one d is in a long time relationship and the other d just ended a long time relationship so no grandchildren on the immediate horizon.
Since DH has retired he does quite a lot in the house and many errands which frees up my time so that I can do more relaxing when I am not working. I do have several projects that I would want to tackle in my free time when I do retire, but I am a bit concerned about what I would do all day. Although I do enjoy my large deck, to sit and read, I don’t enjoy my neighborhood at all to want to spend more time here and that is a large concern.
Congrats VABluebird! I completely “get” how it can make you feel uncomfortable when people ask those types of questions. My husband and I often hesitate to confess that we’re retired…it’s easier to say he ‘works from home’.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your retirement immensely!! 
Congrats! Don’t be afraid to veg a little. I did not intentionally retire. My job ended, and I decided that looking for another similar job would be frustrating and futile. It turned out to be a very good thing for me. I have found many activities to keep me occupied, some hobbies, sports, volunteer activities. I have gone from busy to overwhelmed, currently scaled way back waiting to get “bored” (I am almost there) and deciding on my next volunteer commitment.
I retired four years ago. I have done some long term fill in work a few times. Actually I’m working full time from Seot 8 to December 14. But that’s it then for the school year. I loved my work, and I love it even more for shorter temporary stints.
My husband is working, but he is younger than I am.
Being retired gives us the flexibility to do,what we want, when we want…instead of being wedded to school vacations.
Also, getting to go to the grocery store or bank or post office on Tuesday mornings is such a treat. No more weekend rushing around.
I also have time to volunteer my time doing things I enjoy.
Thanks for the update VB. School kids seem ready to head back to school at the end of the summer. I have a feeling that in retirement it’s a whole different thing… just more and more fun on the horizon.
Congratulations!
If we had the money, I’d retire. I’m 58. I know I would stay very busy with volunteer activities but hopefully would have more time to spend on myself than I do now.
But I think I may have to work until I’m 70. DH has been unemployed off and on, and we’ve had a lot of medical expenses. Good thing I love my job!!!
We retired a year ago. I was only working part time anyhow. DH had 33 years in his company and was ready to get out. He is 56. I’m 53. We sold our home in a hustle/bustle suburb. We were ready to get away from the rat race and head back to a rural part of the state, not to far from where I grew up. We built a house on the river and moved in. We haven’t been bored. We find things to do every day. We’ve been here a year now. Don’t regret a thing.
Congratulations I’m so happy you have achieved your planned outcome !
Congratulations!
I am approaching 61. I would love to retire today if we had money.
The longest time I was working for a single company is 20 years only. I have been working for “only” 31 years (including working years in US only. But I had been working for about 5 years before I came to the US.)
There is zero probability that I could manage to work till 70. In fact, I think I would retire much closer to 61 than to 70, intentionally or not. One reason is that my health condition may not allow me to work much longer.
@mcat2 I hope you can regain more of your health so you can achieve a fiscally sound retirement while being healthy enough to enjoy it and be able to do all you want in retirement.
H I believe is happier now that we have a set retirement target date. We are more fiscally sound than a majority of the population (as long as our health stays good and we continue with medical insurance coverage). He got a big accolade at work by big wig on customer team - and plant manager and company area President were there to witness it - that will keep him motivated at work through the drudgery and stresses. Events like that accolade certainly help cement his job stability (which keeps our insurance coverage until we are Medicare age).
I left the corporate world 8 years ago @55 and started part time consulting. Now my income is at least equal to or better than I was getting and I work at home and can still travel. DH is already reitred with a federal pension so the Financial planner said if I keep it up for another couple of years we have a better than 98% chance under all scenarios of not only living well in retirement but leaving an estate, too. Nice to know we could help any future grandkids with their education. I plan to let clients naturally retire me and not replace them. I have worked so long that I haven’t found the replacement activity yet so need to work on that. Enjoy the retirement!
I have been retired for four years. The first thing I did was get my house in order. Closets and drawers were cleaned and purged. Crevices and vents were cleaned. Everything was organized.
After awhile I felt the need to volunteer, but most of the time, I’m free to do whatever I choose, which many days is just relaxing and reading.
I was never a person who needed to work in order to not be bored. I can always find something to occupy my time.
“Thats the beauty of it…I’m going to do WHATEVER I WANT!” - the beauty is only in the eyes of beholder, that is if you have a definite plan of what you actually WANT to do. I am not younger than you, most likely much older as I am past full retirement age. I had to come up with 3 new hobbies for myself to have something to do after work and exercise (2 hours almost every day) when my youngest left for college over 8 years ago. No matter what, my job is my main entertainment and I cannot fill additional time with more hobbies, 3 is plenty. So, what actually you are planning to WANT to do. Laying on a couch for the evening makes my back hurt and then I do not sleep good at night. So, doing nothing is not a good suggestion at all. My hobbies are time consuming, but again, they will not fill additional 8 hours. I am somebody who do not like house shores, shopping, cooking, gardening, TV, reading, traveling, not interested in volunteering as it makes more sense to continue working and doing what I actually like and my grandkids are very far away and are in HS. Please, share if you do not mind, what you are planning to WANT to do when you retire.
Well none of this may be especially helpful to you MiamiDAP, as I posted earlier I am concerned about what I will do myself all day long but I know that I will thoroughly clean my house from top to bottom, every drawer and closet in hopes of getting rid of useless things, I will walk and exercise more, I will be preparing my extensive book collection containing many significant first editions for evaluation/resale/disposal/keeping for daughters and future grandchildren so that whenever we do downsize, hopefully to a 2 bedroom apartment in Manhattan or Brooklyn or Queens, that packing will be easier and I should also pick up a good amount of money also as a side benefit. I will plan travelling as I am someone who really enjoys the planning part and the research travel part and of course the travelling part itself.
Will this be my War & Peace moment to catch up on all those literature classics that I have either never read or never gotten through or want to reread? I hope so. I would be interested in taking an adult education course or auditing a college course in classical music. I will take advantage of the programs/lectures/films at museums that I currently belong to although I do sometimes use vacation days now to attend daytime programs that I am interested in anyway. I doubt that I would engage in much recreational shopping., gardening or learning to play cards/mah jongg but I would reach out to old friends and meet more for lunch/dinner. I do attend a good deal of theatre already but it would give me the opportunity to do more. There is always be a tourist where I live… there are plenty of places in NYC to explore that are off the beaten path.
Retiring pharmacist with Target/CVS?
bookmama, you are so right, it does not help me at all, we are total complete opposites in all aspects of our lives…
I am throwing things on a regular basis, bags after bags go to Salvation army where they know my H’s face very well and dismayed when he :“only” brings 2 big bags. This also includes boxes after boxes of books taken to the Public Library. This is our constant activity currently, nothing new. I definitely should not exercise for more than my current 2 hours (docs actually told me so, and nurse is always exclaims that my BP is too low. I have to explain that my swimming does it to me, lowers it by about 20 points). Nobody in a family wants our books or any other pieces of art or whatever, they do not have space, except for baby grand, that has been discussed. Talking about space, my S. actually lives in Brooklyn, I hate it so much, I would never move anywhere close to NYC. Good for you that you can afford buying there though. Great accomplishment, as I know how much apartments are selling in my S’s co-op building, wow!!
My “travel” will consist (as we plan) of one trip to our second residency in much warmer climate and going back (I do not know where yet) in about 6 - 9 months. There we will be on a beach. There is nothing to do though. I would work from the beach if they let me, but it is very highly unlikely. I am planning to through it in to my director when I am done working (hopefully on my own and hopefully no earlier than 3 years)…but who knows what may happen at our old age, there is no guarantee in anything, plan or not…
Oh, found something common, I love to play Black Jack with my kids and grandkids, unfortunately we will never live close enough to play it often. I do not know any other games, but I probably would enjoy them… Not possible on a beach, way too windy there…Thanks for suggestions, sounds like you have a good plan, I am still in struggle, my H. will not let me work forever…
Congrats, I hope my work shoes will last until I retire. I don’t want to buy new ones, I’m retiring them.
Will be retiring in August 2017. Being an educator I CANNOT WAIT to vacation in May, September, or October. Having to vacation during the heat and crowds of July and August = not my favorite thing.