<p>^Good for your dad, he is lucky! I am sure that I will be kicked out in 70’s or earlier, it scares me.</p>
<p>Congrats, anxiousmom! We, too, have only one more tuition payment! After that, DH plans to work 1-3 more years before retirement. Our retirement income will come from a company pension, 401(k), IRAs, and interest/dividends on savings. We’re not factoring social security into the equation. Both DH and I have hobbies, mile-long bucket lists, and volunteer opportunities that take up a lot of our time, so we’re counting the days until retirement.</p>
<p>Here are a few links that were helpful to us in determining whether we have enough to retire:</p>
<p>10 signs you’re not ready to retire</p>
<p>[What</a> you must know before you retire - Liz Pulliam Weston - MSN Money](<a href=“http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/PlayingCatchUp/weston-10-signs-you-are-not-ready-to-retire.aspx?page=1]What”>http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/PlayingCatchUp/weston-10-signs-you-are-not-ready-to-retire.aspx?page=1)</p>
<p>RetirAbility Check</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nationwide.com/retirability-check.jsp[/url]”>http://www.nationwide.com/retirability-check.jsp</a></p>
<p>Your Financial Comparison: How do you measure up when compared with your peers?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ingcompareme.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.ingcompareme.com</a></p>
<p>And way to go, fendergirl!</p>
<p>remember too that not all fixed benefits plans in the private sector always meet what they promise. Such promises of benefits can be changed, after years of an employees service. There are legal ways that even after a person retires that they can be reduced.
My Dad fell into that mess.
I won’t muddy this post with details. Just sayin’ a promise of such a retirement may be made with the best of intentions, but may not hold true 10, 20 or 30 yrs later.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about this for a day or two. I honestly believe that if you wait until you have “enough money” to retire, you never will. It’s like waiting to have enough money to have children. When you are ready to retire, you will know it, and you will make the necessary adjustments to live within your means regardless of what they are. I always said I would KNOW when I was ready to retire, and as I anticipate doing so, I believe I was right in that. My retirement date is NOT being planned around a “number” but rather on my knowledge that it is TIME for me to retire from my current career.</p>
<p>Like others, I will work part time, volunteer, do things I enjoy. Every person I know who has retired is busier now than when they were working. All have said they don’t know how they would be able to work AND do all of the things they are enjoying in their retirement (and I should add…most of these folks are NOT constantly travelling).</p>
<p>Good reminder, younghoss. </p>
<p>DH and I are fortunate that we have enough income from other sources that we could make do even if his pension disappears. We’re pretty frugal, which is allowing us to retire before age 60 even though we had fairly modest incomes for most of our careers. We saved and invested aggressively when we were younger, but we’ve become much more conservative in recent years to preserve our assets.</p>
<p>Agree, thumper1, as long as you have enough income to cover the basics. It’s time for DH and me. Several close friends of ours passed away recently and it caused us to seriously rethink our priorities.</p>
<p>Thumper, my 55 yr old agrees. H feels The Time has come…and if he isn’t “retired” by his company first, he’ll retire by April 1. The job is no fun anymore and the stress and travel is taking it’s toll on him. I’ll support his decision, but I must admit my concern about “the number”. We’ve lived below our means, have no debt other than our house which is nearly paid for, and our D & S have their inheritance (debt free education!). But since my crystal ball is a little foggy, I’m nervous about future unknowns: health care costs, inflation, pension changing negatively, life span (massive longevity on both sides–my Grandpa still living!), taxes and the value of our home in our hopelessly broke state.<br>
Hoping the investments, pension, savings will keep us from eating cornflakes…</p>
<p>But, after traveling to see D on her semester abroad, we decided we want to travel (for fun!) while we still have our health–and not wait like some relatives, who when they had the $ to travel, were too infirm to do it! We also have a close friend battling cancer and as Mapesy stated, it has caused us to rethink our priorities, too. We want to enjoy each other while we can…</p>
<p>All else fails, a) we can go back to work; b) hope our kids will support us to the manner which they have been accustomed; or c) punt.</p>
<p>Yeah, Gosmom! And d) if all else fails, you can go to a used book store and find copies of “The Tightwadder’s Gazette”, which is full of the ultimate “how to live cheap” advice. I’m gunning for partial retirement at 57. :)</p>
<p>Thumper, my 55 yr old agrees. H feels The Time has come…and if he isn’t “retired” by his company first, he’ll retire by April 1. The job is no fun anymore and the stress and travel is taking it’s toll on him. I’ll support his decision, but I must admit my concern about “the number”. We’ve lived below our means, have no debt other than our house which is nearly paid for, and our D & S have their inheritance (debt free education!). But since my crystal ball is a little foggy, I’m nervous about future unknowns: health care costs, inflation, pension changing negatively, life span (massive longevity on both sides–my Grandpa still living!), taxes and the value of our home in our hopelessly broke state.<br>
Hoping the investments, pension, savings will keep us from eating cornflakes…</p>
<p>But, after traveling to see D on her semester abroad, we decided we want to travel (for fun!) while we still have our health–and not wait like some relatives, who when they had the $ to travel, were too infirm to do it! We also have a close friend battling cancer and as Mapesy stated, it has caused us to rethink our priorities, too. We want to enjoy each other while we can…</p>
<p>All else fails, a) we can go back to work; b) hope our kids will support us to the manner which they have been accustomed; or c) punt.</p>
<p>I have been always living keeping my priorities in mind. My priority number one at this very late point of my life is to be entertained. There is nothing out there that is better entertainment for me than my job. Everything else is plain boring. Yes, I can go on very fancy vacation for couple of weeks, but it get boring after that and number of pounds that I have to loose increase on a daily basis. So, after 2 weeks it is time to go home and start living my normal life. Not working has always meant to me being disconnected from real life, being imprisoned in my daily routine, boring, very depressing. I have been there about 9 times, between jobs. It is really really low psychological point, I felt that I was sick. So, I will wait until they kick me out, which might happen in few years, very sad. I do not care too much about financial, I will have whatever, it will all depend if we have a market crush (very likely) or not. We do not have any debt, no mortgage, no car loans. Taxes that we pay for our house are lower than apartment rent would be. 401K and SS is there just like for everybody else. We can loose it all if everybody else will loose them, not much we can do about it, except votingduring elections, which we do. Health care will not be there for us at the level that we have now, we are aware about that.</p>
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<p>I couldn’t agree more! DH and I have already decided on our first post-retirement trip: England’s Coast to Coast walk. We figure it’s now or never.</p>
<p>That sounds like fun!</p>
<p>My dad just bought a CD for 0.5 percent interest. Put that in your divisor and see what number comes up!</p>