How long until you retire?

[Tortuga94]

I envy those of you lucky enough to have pensions. They have done countless studies on which people live happiest in retirement and it's always retirees with guaranteed lifetime incomes(pensions and SS).

[Sir Lawrence]

Sir

That is a sad story about your friend. Balance is needed in life and you do need to enjoy everyday. Prayers out to your friend and his wife.

Thank you. 

[Lighthouse 84]

Hopefully, no more than 3 more years full time, then at 63, practice part time, only taking things on that I can do from home.  Then maybe split time between a warm weather place and the Hell weather that comes with the Midwest.

[NCMUFan]

Too many variables.  Health, business climate, enjoying work, etc.  Already qualify for SS.  Just taking one day at a time.   

[WarriorFan]

Actually the thing that scares the sh1t out of me about retiring is health care.  Health care and insurance in the US is so incredibly expensive I don't know how to retire at 56 and pay for it until medicare starts at age 65.  (not sure Medicare is very good, either!)
  This leads to multiple options:
a) retire not in the US
b) take a job in Canada (or Australia, or any other place that you can work for citizenship. for 3 more years and get citizzenship in a country where there is decent and affordable health care
c) Buy a golden visa in a country where health care is affordable.  In Dubai for example you can do this through a property purchase.  Some of the golden visa's allow the holder to work.

Don't want to start a political discussion... it's all about affordability.

[MUINGB]

20 years ago

[dgies9156]

This is the big debate I'm having now. My wife and I will close on a new house in Florida next Tuesday and intend to sell the house in Chicago late this summer. If this looks like we are preparing for retirement, we are. The house here is really nice and built to accommodate our visitors well, giving them and us privacy.

The debate is over 2023 vs. 2024 vs. 2025. I was 65 in 2021 and I still love what I do. But, I want time to enjoy our lives while we still have the strength and health to do so. We have great times together when we travel and we truly enjoy each other's company (after 42 years of marriage and 46 years of knowing each other) The money in my job is good but we don't need it.

I suppose sometime in 2023, it will happen, but I have to figure out what I'm going to do!

Ideas?

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Ideas?

My brother in law retired a couple years ago from a desk job and now works at Home Depot four or five mornings a week from 5-9 helping with inventory.  He loves it.  It gets him out of the house, back home to spend most of the day with his wife, and the early hours keep him "on schedule." His boss doesn't care when he takes a day, or even a few days off.

[ChuckyChip]

Just recently retired at age 56.  Loving it so far...not missing work at all.  Now my time is truly my own.  Maybe that will change a few years down the road, but it's nice being (relatively) young\healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of working\saving\investing for all those years.

[Tortuga94]

Actually the thing that scares the sh1t out of me about retiring is health care.  Health care and insurance in the US is so incredibly expensive I don't know how to retire at 56 and pay for it until medicare starts at age 65.  (not sure Medicare is very good, either!)
  This leads to multiple options:
a) retire not in the US
b) take a job in Canada (or Australia, or any other place that you can work for citizenship. for 3 more years and get citizzenship in a country where there is decent and affordable health care
c) Buy a golden visa in a country where health care is affordable.  In Dubai for example you can do this through a property purchase.  Some of the golden visa's allow the holder to work.

Don't want to start a political discussion... it's all about affordability.

Unless something changes in the future, Medicare is actually really good. If you can swing the cost of a supplement go that route as opposed to Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare A, B & D, with a supplement and you should have pretty good coverage.

[Jockey]

Actually the thing that scares the sh1t out of me about retiring is health care.  Health care and insurance in the US is so incredibly expensive I don't know how to retire at 56 and pay for it until medicare starts at age 65.  (not sure Medicare is very good, either!)
  This leads to multiple options:
a) retire not in the US
b) take a job in Canada (or Australia, or any other place that you can work for citizenship. for 3 more years and get citizzenship in a country where there is decent and affordable health care
c) Buy a golden visa in a country where health care is affordable.  In Dubai for example you can do this through a property purchase.  Some of the golden visa's allow the holder to work.

Don't want to start a political discussion... it's all about affordability.

Depends on income and whether you are married and your wife still works.

At 56 and retired - your medical insurance is basically free if you can keep your adjusted income under $75,000 a year. I was able to do it - some cannot.

[WarriorFan]

Unless something changes in the future, Medicare is actually really good. If you can swing the cost of a supplement go that route as opposed to Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare A, B & D, with a supplement and you should have pretty good coverage.

Medicare A+B+D+supplement cost for one person is MORE than I currently pay (living outside the US) for a BUPA global policy for a family of 5.  The BUPA policy has first dollar to $2m/year coverage, no deductibles and very broad coverage.  It has only one condition:  No medical treatment in USA.  I can fly to Singapore to see my favorite doctors there, but nothing in USA because USA is just too expensive. 

[PointWarrior]

I did not realize how "near retirement" age the demographics of scoop are skewed.  I guess I should have realized it with continual comparisons to how things were in the 70's...

[pbiflyer]

Last kid should graduate college in just over 6 years, so 7 years for me. Hoping to do the digital nomad thing for a few years after that.

[rocky_warrior]

Went part time - 25hrs/week 5 years ago (@ 41), never going back to full time.  Still more productive than many of my coworkers, make more money than I spend (and way more than average), get FT benefits, get 6 day weekends whenever I want, and mentally I feel about 200% better.

At the time I was thinking about retiring, but PT has been a bit of a revelation.  Plenty of cash and time to do what I want (which is not moderating here! lol) - I'll may stick with it until "they" don't want me anymore. 

Honestly, the tech field needs to promote this more - as good employees are often overworked and switch jobs out of exhaustion. 

[JWags85]

Went part time - 25hrs/week 5 years ago (@ 41), never going back to full time.  Still more productive than many of my coworkers, make more money than I spend (and way more than average), get FT benefits, get 6 day weekends whenever I want, and mentally I feel about 200% better.

At the time I was thinking about retiring, but PT has been a bit of a revelation.  Plenty of cash and time to do what I want (which is not moderating here! lol) - I'll may stick with it until "they" don't want me anymore. 

Honestly, the tech field needs to promote this more - as good employees are often overworked and switch jobs out of exhaustion.

Its interesting.  I think it wouldn't be a bad exercise to figure out how to better structure jobs and employees.

I have a work colleague/family friend who works for a large company in London that everyone knows.  He's a bit of a legend in his industry, did myriad jobs in executive and management capacity and retired in his early-mid 60s.  They tried to get him to stick around but he'd spent much of his 20s-40s in roles abroad and he wanted to take it easy and had plenty of money.

About 5-6 months into retirement, his former boss was like "listen, we really could use you with some of the initiatives you were working on, could you come back as a part time consultant?"  He ended up coming back 2-3 days a week, for basically the same money he was making full time...and realized they never back filled him, he was essentially just doing his old job, with the administrative and managing work stripped away.

Now the point of this is not "execs do nothing and this proves it"...but more so, in many bigger companies, many positions and roles get slotted to do something or some tasks...and then never get re-evaluated.  When I was at Pepsi, I had 3 roles.  My first was a pretty solid 35-40 hours of work a week.  Then I got promoted, and honestly, I could have done my job well and fully in 3 days a week, with another half day for assorted weekly meetings.  Then I got promoted the last time, though the actual role was a lateral move...and the same sort of position on a different brand was 45-50 hours of work.  It made no sense.  But thats a different topic.

Back to the main topic, I'm always also interested in how retirement timelines and horizons and aspirations differ by job types as well as company types.

My job has tons of headaches, it can be immensely stressful and infuriating, but Ive spoken about how I sort of work from 730AM when I wake up...till 1130-midnight when I go to bed.  And I don't mean that in an overworked capacity, just that there is a ton of ebb and flow to my job due to the international aspect of it, and I have plenty of pockets of time in the normal 9-5 workday that are lulls.  Its never an issue to step out for errands or appointments.  Similarly, my father is a workaholic but has eaten lunch at home 99% of days since he began the business for similar reasons.  Additionally, I don't have set vacation days.  Aside from something like my honeymoon last month, I'm pretty reachable or plugged in so I can take a week vacation without worry and not be out of touch.  There is a lot of freedom in scheduling and location (without the absolute remote work/WFH aspect). 

So looking like that, I could work for a long time pretty comfortably.  Conversely, when I was at a F100 company, logging every vacation hour, rarely traveling for work outside of the office, schedule locked...I could see how the timeline suddenly becomes FARRR more pressing or plan dependent.

[Jockey]

I retired early (tech job) because there was a lot I wanted to do and not enough time. I offered to work part time but the company didn’t do that. 30 months later, they called asking if I would want to come back and work 3 days a week with minimal travel - only occasional trips to NYC.

I turned it down as I had too much going on between traveling with my wife and doing some coin and card dealing.

If they would have offered at the time I retired, I’d probably still be there.

[DegenerateDish]

This is a very good thread. Thanks to Tower for starting it and everyone else who has posted their thoughts.

[MUeng]

36 now, plan to retire at 60. 24 years, sheesh! Hard to think about; one day at a time. Newborn coming in 2 weeks so not exactly hoping times flies. Enjoy everyday

[Goose]

Dish

I agree, this is a great thread. I really enjoy hearing everyone’s comments on here. We all have different journeys in life and that makes life great. I hope more contribute to this thread.

[tower912]

It has been fun.  All because I didn't want to pollute the Jay Wright thread.   Good insights, no fights.   The common thread seems to be what happens after.   I get that.   I ponder that often.   I know initially, I will be finally able to go to all of the concerts and all of the baseball games.   That will be refreshing.      Maybe I will even go to more MU games.
   But the long run.... I don't know.   I do know that it will be something that sounds like fun, not because I have to do something.     Which is really cool.   

I always enjoy when Tortuga stops by with financial thoughts.   I completely agree with his assessment in this thread.

[Pakuni]

I'd put it at 10-12 years, give or take, depending on the kids' college costs, the performance of my company (and its stock) and, honestly, how burned out I am by then. I imagine I won't retire completely then, but go freelancing.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

At this point I'm busy trying to figure out how to buy my first house.  Retirement is a long way away, honestly not sure if we'll ever be able to afford it. The housing market right now is busted

[rocky_warrior]

At this point I'm busy trying to figure out how to buy my first house.  Retirement is a long way away, honestly not sure if we'll ever be able to afford it. The housing market right now is busted

I know it's not an easy thought right now, but once you've got one, don't stop there. I got lucky and bought my first rental for cheap at the bottom of the market in 2012.  Small single family homes can always be rented to young professionals who generally take care of them.

Not for everyone, but extremely financially rewarding if you've got the stomach for it. I've never met a "poor" landlord, even during COVID.

[🏀]

36. Based on current investing, saving and spending could retire in around 20 years. Tuition, large home improvements and vacation residence can vary this.

Realistically, probably work til about 63. Retire for 20 years and die properly at 83.