Today Morgan Housel posted below about retirement. I know there are few folks who have retired for awhile, some recently, some contemplating…
So… let us discuss how to spend time in retirement 
PS: I realized retired people are richer than other cohorts and are influencing retail, hospitality, healthcare industries.
I’ve been early retired for 30+ years. I never found much joy sitting in a classroom or an office, but was able to tolerate it long enough to accumulate enough capital to retire on the “4% rule” at age 38.
I’d have a hard time filling out a time sheet to account for the past three decades, other than to say that it’s been completely awesome.
I can honestly say that I’ve never been bored, and that I always have 5 or 6 things I’d like to do – even if two of those are “to get more sleep, and watch more TV”.
The ultimate luxury in retirement isn’t the wealth. It’s the fact that there’s nothing I have to do, and nobody I have to report to. I’m spending 100% of my time doing whatever interests me at the moment.
No doubt albaby1 will point out that the average American doesn’t feel that way. {{LOL }}
intercst
This.
I liked my job. It was -in essence- solving puzzles and learning new things. But I had to report every day. I only had 4 weeks (with seniority!) vacation per year. Now that I’m retired, I have no limitations on what I can do. Or I can do absolutely nothing, if I choose.
If someone loves what they do, more power to them. It’s even enviable. They probably shouldn’t retire. I liked what I did, but I LOVE being retired more. But that’s just me. Everyone is different.
"All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal.
He was correct but only for the average person
Indeed, I’d never heard of WeCo when I hired, in '63, but it turned into a really the best of worlds, early days learning, applying my tech knowledge, and adding to it as new stuff came along in carrier, microwave systems, and as solid state came along even deeper into switching systems, as well as data and cellular, turned down management a few times to stay and play in the equipment, as well as running small crews, teaching as they were able, along with the many, many months in classrooms myself.. Worked with and for many great people, within the company, as well as our various customers… Vacations added up, couldn’t carry it forward, so some years I was off from Thanksgiving until the new year.. Made the mistake one year of letting them buy back my vacation, all it ment was more taxes, and lost time to kick back, never did that again! So rating in '02 rounded out to 40 years of 99% good times, travel, new situations, as well s making stuff work that had never existed before! Today, all, or nearly all has been swapped out, retired, scrapped, no doubt, but for th times, it was great… Many moments, tools n such few would know how to use, or how valuable they were in their time… We traveled a lot from the mid '70s onward a bit more after retiring, hard to beat where we went, what we saw, who we met along the way, more memories… While company investments didn’t work out so well, Lucent went down the drain, but way earlier, my personal interest in things Apple, led me to investing in it early more than made up for the losses…
One can’t know where that road might lead… No complaints… Retiring in my 30s, no way. We had kids to raise, point them, help them, later, grandkids as well, to help out down their roads… Family means a lot, and it changes as well… We’ll hit our 64th anniversary later this year, what a ride…
weco
I retired early. The last, and I mean the very last, of my problems is being bored. Now that I can do whatever I want, the list of things I want to do has exceeded all ability of my things to do them.
If you like what you do and get paid for it, more power to ya brother. But if you need external direction to stave off boredom, you are doing life wrong.
Not sure if this is slightly OT…but maybe ya’ll have thoughts. Once upon a time I thought I could follow all the MF retirement planning rules and be ready to go by my 55 at the latest. I am now past 55 and still pushing for some magic number to walk away from the rat race.
I have plenty of plans, but now also my health has decided to follow the family genetics (sigh, double bi-pass a bit over a year ago). So I am now stuck at the nail biting and constant portfolio review stage.
The goal is to work part time, I really want to take a shot at working in the craft beer world and there are some good ones around me. I have plenty of building on the house to do, and that includes things like milling my own timbers. Then the GF really wants to get us into more travel and I would LOVE to plan a yearly fishing charter to fill the freezer…things like that.
Right now I am actually at ~twice the saved money number I calculated with the MF some 20yrs ago, but it still doesn’t feel like enough. Also, 99% of that is in retirement accounts so that kinda locks up the money?
Any thoughts on how to feel more confident in taking that step? Or, thoughts on specific numbers I need to consider that might help me make that decision?
We are both at about same level of retirement savings, but also too ‘young’ to commit to things like Social Security or Medicaid.
Try boredom
Yes, please?!?
I am famous in my family for seeking boredom while on vacation - that is when I finally know I have left the stress of the rest of the world behind.
Boredom is SEVERELY under-rated - and our kids suffer for their lack of boredom.
Albert Einstein: “Creativity is the residue of time wasted.”
Boredom is the mother of invention.
DB2
I have always thought laziness is the mother of invention. I have always wanted to find ways of doing something with less effort, and I’m pretty sure that’s been the motivator for lots of folks.
Retirement, of course, lets you be as lazy and/or bored as you like.
Many of the older posters here, including me, retired early but realize in hindsight that we could have retired earlier. That is true in large part because fear is an emotion that shuts down the thinking brain and overrides it. Fear is an essential component of survival but long term fear can be bad for your mental and physical health.
Fear cannot be cured by reason alone. But if you realize that fear alone is holding you back, and you get enough ‘testimonials’ from people like us who also were afraid to retire but were glad we did in hindsight, you will too. Sort of like bungy jumping only after others go first.
You can access your IRA/401k at any age without penalty using the “72(t) exception, substantially equal periodic payments”
I did this myself at age 40, not because I didn’t have enough money outside my IRA to live off, but because even back then I saw a need to whittle down the size of my IRA to prevent the RMD distributions at age 70-73 from taxing me to death.
If you calculated what you need 20 years ago from the information on the Motley Fool, you’re likely are familiar with the 4% rule. Back then you had people saying that the 4% rule would bankrupt you and 3% or 2% was better. Now financial advisors are saying that the 4% rule is leaving too many people wealthy, and you should be taking 5% or 6%. It’s all nonsense. IT’S 4 PERCENT!
intercst
Assuming you’ve updated your spreadsheets with current “expenses, needs, n wants” and
IF that “2x number” still exceeds your current “expenses, needs n wants”…
Don’t be afraid. Go for it.
You say you want to “work in craft brewing”. If you are gonna have income gains or ( tax loss harvests), they’ll offset some $ needs?
As @iampops5 says: don’t let fear hold you back.
ralph been retired 9 years.
I’m gonna ponder @Hawkwin advice to strive for some boredom.
That concept has merit, IMO.
The biggest thing keeping me employed at 59 is health insurance for the family and myself. Especially given the desire for the administration to dismantle safety nets, including the ACA, which I would need if I did retire. So I don’t.
One thing that was beneficial for my wife (I retired first) was a more detailed plan. She used a service called Boldin.com which is pretty slick. There is a free version and a paid version. You input all your info (and you can have it update your accounts automatically if you like) including assumptions about retirement ages, when you plan on starting SS, irregular expenses, etc. and spits out a plan.
You can set up all all that on your own, but it is so much easier have it all set up. You can run different scenarios which tax bracket to fill up with Roth conversion, paying off the mortgage early, receiving a windful, poor markets in the early years. etc.
I felt it was helpful to really do a deep dive and run all the different scenarios. But bottom line is that no matter what assumptions I made, our money lasted comfortably.
Fidelity has a similar free retirement calculator but it isn’t as sophisticated.
OH WOW!!! I have never heard of this and my first review it does NOT look scary. Interesting. Thank you so much, I will need to process this data.
This is definitely a real thing, and I am using the doc a bit recently. I would want to get to where I feel stable/normal for a bit before fully bailing out. This is also where working a fun, but lower paying, job could fill in.
Good to know, my work plan and my previous thrift plan are all at Fidelity now so I’ll start playing with their calculators. That boldin.com will be on my list to research.
This is amazing info. Thank you all.
It’s not particularly scary. However, due to tax law changes, it’s important to take additional things into account. Back then, before the Roth existed, and before Roth conversions were a thing, taking SEPPs (72(t) withdrawals) while you had sufficient money outside retirement accounts was the prudent thing to do to avoid excessive RMDs at age 70 (now 75) that “kill you” tax-wise. Today in many cases it is better to make Roth conversions instead so that the money can grow tax free for a longer period of time. Of course, this is all assuming that you have enough money in taxable accounts to live on without taking distributions from your tax-deferred accounts (IRA, 401k, etc).
If you are bored it might be because you are boring. That is what the 12-steppers say.
It’s the adrenaline junkies who skew the reporting on this.
DB2
The best is to hire a financial consultant. You don’t have to discover 72(t) or various other options available to you. A good financial consultant can show you different options, and can have much more personal details, like health, hobbies, etc. You need to consider will, estate planning etc. Just make sure you get a good one.
