Early Retirement

[vnatale]

Can I ask what presently keeps you too busy to consider a paying job in retirement?  By the way, when I mentioned that I might take on a career that pays less, I'm thinking the pay in my new career might actually be very close to zero. 

Edited to add:  What sort of health insurance did you use at age 56?

Desert,

When I first retired, my first priority was to learn how to do "nothing" and be OK with that.  I retired from a job I loved and traveled over half the time and when I was home I was frequently doing some kind of "work".  I was concerned that I would have trouble going from full throttle to idle.  My wife was concerned that she would have to entertain me 24/7 since we both had really valued my down time when I was working.  In retrospect, and much to my amazement, that did not happen - my wife learned she could still maintain her freedom and I valued my space as well as the time we spend together.  I trust my abiity to keep myself from becoming bored.  When I first retired, I took several classes at a local "over 50" place with several hundred other retirees.  It was affiliated with our local university.  I decided to take all those classes that I did not have the opportunity to while obtaining my engineering degree.  I did that for two or three days a week for several hours each day over a period of 5 or 6 years.  I finally tired of that.  I do/did volunteer work, traveled a bit outside the US, traveled a lot to visit my kids, got involved in a lot of church work, and for the past few years attend 2 to 4 different Bible studies a week.  I read a lot and spend way too much time playing on the computer.  My wife and I enjoy trying different places to eat so we usually are going out several times a week either together or with friends who have similar interests.  In the summer, yard work and general home maintenance takes some time and in winter (this winter especially) I REALLY have enjoyed using my snow thrower a lot (heavy sarcasm).  When I first retired, I spent quite a bit of time monitoring and playing around with my investment portfolio - I have since greatly simplified it and don't look at it much any more.  I developed a rather extensive "what to do if I die" plan, mainly for my wife and children's benefit, that my wife and I review annually.  Also, I spent a lot of time off and on since retirement investigating family history (genealogy programs on the computer and a lot of physical and online research).  I improved my marksmanship skills; that is another item I do off and on over the years.  When I get as good as I think I can be, I lose interest for a couple of years and then start the cycle over again.  I was on an exercise binge for a while until I realized that everyone who exercises a lot dies   So, to answer your question in a very broad sense, I have tried to focus on my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual development in ways that are interesting and beneficial to myself and others.

In retirement I kept the same health insurance that I had while I was working.  My company subsidizes retirees medical and dental insurance but when I retired, I picked up a larger share of the premiums.  That lasted from the time I retired until Medicare kicked in at which time my company insurance became the secondary or supplemental.  Then, for 2013 my company decided to get out of the health insurance game and just give the retirees a fixed sum of money that the retiree could use to buy their own supplemental  plan.  My company also made an arrangement with an insurance broker to help us find the right plan for our personal needs and desires (i.e. basic plan or Cadillac plan or something in between) and handle the reimbursements from the company subsidy.

Kriegsspiel,

I finished up my working career in northern Delaware and thus far, have chosen to remain here.  It is a relatively retiree friendly state.  The medical and dental care in the area is excellent, which is increasingly important; also we really like our doctors/dentist and I have heard a few horror stories from my friends about their doctors refusing to take Medicare aged patients - so far that has not happened in our area, perhaps since there are a large number of retirees here????  Our friends are mostly here.  We really like our church.  Our son and family live within a couple hour's drive.  Most anything we want to do is reasonably close and if we want to travel (daughter and family live on west coast), there are major airports near by that have competitive airlines pricewise.  The climate is relatively moderate and we enjoy the four seasons (usually) but I must say the older I get the less appealing temperature extremes and snow become.

WiseOne,

Thanks for the tip on expensive cat food.  I will have to check out dry dog food or perhaps just rummage through the neighborhood trash cans if desparation sets in. 


... Mountaineer

So, Mountaineer....


You gave us all the 13 year update (above). What is the update nearly six years since?

What have you stopped doing? Continued doing? Starting doing (subsequent to the above)?

One question I have for you is related to something that has kept me working many years and many hours past the time when I needed the income. I have done it for both the challenge and the sense of accomplishment I get from the work I do. From just reading the above, I have to assume that in your work career you had tons of challenges which you met and which regularly was giving you that sense of accomplishment.

Therefore I was surprised to read (above or elsewhere) that you completely stopped working (and at the age of 56). Do you still get challenged and have a similar sense of accomplishment in all the things you have done since?

Vinny

Vinny

[Mountaineer]

Can I ask what presently keeps you too busy to consider a paying job in retirement?  By the way, when I mentioned that I might take on a career that pays less, I'm thinking the pay in my new career might actually be very close to zero. 

Edited to add:  What sort of health insurance did you use at age 56?

Desert,

When I first retired, my first priority was to learn how to do "nothing" and be OK with that.  I retired from a job I loved and traveled over half the time and when I was home I was frequently doing some kind of "work".  I was concerned that I would have trouble going from full throttle to idle.  My wife was concerned that she would have to entertain me 24/7 since we both had really valued my down time when I was working.  In retrospect, and much to my amazement, that did not happen - my wife learned she could still maintain her freedom and I valued my space as well as the time we spend together.  I trust my abiity to keep myself from becoming bored.  When I first retired, I took several classes at a local "over 50" place with several hundred other retirees.  It was affiliated with our local university.  I decided to take all those classes that I did not have the opportunity to while obtaining my engineering degree.  I did that for two or three days a week for several hours each day over a period of 5 or 6 years.  I finally tired of that.  I do/did volunteer work, traveled a bit outside the US, traveled a lot to visit my kids, got involved in a lot of church work, and for the past few years attend 2 to 4 different Bible studies a week.  I read a lot and spend way too much time playing on the computer.  My wife and I enjoy trying different places to eat so we usually are going out several times a week either together or with friends who have similar interests.  In the summer, yard work and general home maintenance takes some time and in winter (this winter especially) I REALLY have enjoyed using my snow thrower a lot (heavy sarcasm).  When I first retired, I spent quite a bit of time monitoring and playing around with my investment portfolio - I have since greatly simplified it and don't look at it much any more.  I developed a rather extensive "what to do if I die" plan, mainly for my wife and children's benefit, that my wife and I review annually.  Also, I spent a lot of time off and on since retirement investigating family history (genealogy programs on the computer and a lot of physical and online research).  I improved my marksmanship skills; that is another item I do off and on over the years.  When I get as good as I think I can be, I lose interest for a couple of years and then start the cycle over again.  I was on an exercise binge for a while until I realized that everyone who exercises a lot dies   So, to answer your question in a very broad sense, I have tried to focus on my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual development in ways that are interesting and beneficial to myself and others.

In retirement I kept the same health insurance that I had while I was working.  My company subsidizes retirees medical and dental insurance but when I retired, I picked up a larger share of the premiums.  That lasted from the time I retired until Medicare kicked in at which time my company insurance became the secondary or supplemental.  Then, for 2013 my company decided to get out of the health insurance game and just give the retirees a fixed sum of money that the retiree could use to buy their own supplemental  plan.  My company also made an arrangement with an insurance broker to help us find the right plan for our personal needs and desires (i.e. basic plan or Cadillac plan or something in between) and handle the reimbursements from the company subsidy.

Kriegsspiel,

I finished up my working career in northern Delaware and thus far, have chosen to remain here.  It is a relatively retiree friendly state.  The medical and dental care in the area is excellent, which is increasingly important; also we really like our doctors/dentist and I have heard a few horror stories from my friends about their doctors refusing to take Medicare aged patients - so far that has not happened in our area, perhaps since there are a large number of retirees here????  Our friends are mostly here.  We really like our church.  Our son and family live within a couple hour's drive.  Most anything we want to do is reasonably close and if we want to travel (daughter and family live on west coast), there are major airports near by that have competitive airlines pricewise.  The climate is relatively moderate and we enjoy the four seasons (usually) but I must say the older I get the less appealing temperature extremes and snow become.

WiseOne,

Thanks for the tip on expensive cat food.  I will have to check out dry dog food or perhaps just rummage through the neighborhood trash cans if desparation sets in. 


... Mountaineer

So, Mountaineer....


You gave us all the 13 year update (above). What is the update nearly six years since?

What have you stopped doing? Continued doing? Starting doing (subsequent to the above)?

One question I have for you is related to something that has kept me working many years and many hours past the time when I needed the income. I have done it for both the challenge and the sense of accomplishment I get from the work I do. From just reading the above, I have to assume that in your work career you had tons of challenges which you met and which regularly was giving you that sense of accomplishment.

Therefore I was surprised to read (above or elsewhere) that you completely stopped working (and at the age of 56). Do you still get challenged and have a similar sense of accomplishment in all the things you have done since?

Vinny

Vinny

Situation still about the same; thanks be to God that my health and that of my wife remain good. I trust myself to not get bored. I still get challenged and still have a similar sense of accomplishment. I'm still involved in church work and exploring theology, still go out a lot with friends to restaurants, still visit family, still maintain the house - although the bigger jobs I don't do as much as I used to, still have a very simple portfolio, still not eating expensive cat food (hat tip to WiseOne!), still preparing my self to die and spend eternity with Jesus , and I'm still "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect". What have I stopped doing? Mainly not watching the news much, what passes for "news" just encourages anxiety - see Matthew 6:25-34. A simple visual for how I view this life and the life to come is the Cross - the horizontal deals with relationships with others, the vertical deals with relationship with God, the center intersecting point that holds it all together is Jesus. Life now is good; life to come is awesome!

Thanks for asking.

Mountaineer