Early retirement experiences?

mtn said:

RX Reven' said:

Not to be macabre but we're waiting for at least one of our ships to come in from inheritance to take us from "probably OK" to "definitely OK".

I read somewhere, and it "feels" accurate to me, that more than any other generations, GenX and Millenials are going to be relying significantly on inheritance for retirement. I'm personally planning on my parents and inlaws leaving us

(Are you a Boomer or a GenXr? Or does it depend on the context?)

Incomplete thought there?

DD#1 is saving for her retirement now, at age 29, and has been for at least 4 years.  I don't know her status but I know she is actively putting it away via 401(k) withholding and possibly other instruments.

DD#2 is not saving for retirement that I know of.  She is 25.  I wish she was, but we started a bit late too and with discipline we overcame that.

We received ~10%-15% of our current net worth via inheritance from my aunt (passed away childless in the early '80s; left me a small portfolio of stocks) and my parents (estate residue divided among 4 siblings, after a long stay in nursing care for my mother; she passed away in 2007).  The rest is investment income from those two sources, plus our own savings and investments.  We did not get anything from DW's father, because reasons that rhyme with "conniving predatory second wife".

Our financial guy is telling us we can live to 90 and leave our two kids with a substantial bump to whatever they've managed to put away in the next 30 years.

mtn said:

RX Reven' said:

Not to be macabre but we're waiting for at least one of our ships to come in from inheritance to take us from "probably OK" to "definitely OK".

I read somewhere, and it "feels" accurate to me, that more than any other generations, GenX and Millenials are going to be relying significantly on inheritance for retirement. I'm personally planning on my parents and inlaws leaving us

(Are you a Boomer or a GenXr? Or does it depend on the context?)

I was born in 1964 which makes me the very last year of the Boomers.

I see myself as a steward of what the previous generation leaves to my generation with the responsibility of managing the money and handing it off to the next generation along with considerable training on how not to be the jerk that pi$$es away the family money.

If need be, I'll follow the 3% rule which means setting up a conservative portfolio that yields about 6% per year and putting 3% back in to keep up with inflation and spending the remaining 3% myself.  However, I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't do better that that...I want to leave more than I inherited after adjusting for inflation.  So, figure 2.5% or 25K annual allowance for every million inherited plus leaving what I've made on my own compounding at the rate of inflation.

As a late-ish GenXer, I am not planning on receiving an inheritance.  It is very possible I will , and it could cause me to retire a little bit earlier than planned, but my assumption is most of our parents' net worth will be eaten up by end of life care.

Duke said:

mtn said:

RX Reven' said:

Not to be macabre but we're waiting for at least one of our ships to come in from inheritance to take us from "probably OK" to "definitely OK".

I read somewhere, and it "feels" accurate to me, that more than any other generations, GenX and Millenials are going to be relying significantly on inheritance for retirement. I'm personally planning on my parents and inlaws leaving us

(Are you a Boomer or a GenXr? Or does it depend on the context?)

Incomplete thought there?

 

 

 

Oops, yes, I did not finish that sentence. Modified the original post, but I'm planning on no inheritance. I'm expecting one, of unknown size due to too many variables, but I'm not planning on it. 

Still in my 30's. The prospect of another 30 years of work is terrifying. Wife and I are doing well financially, I've had an IRA since I was 18, always maxed my 401k etc. But I've never actually sat down and asked myself "how much do I plan to spend in retirement?"  Might be a fruitless moot point, tough to predict cost of living in 2050, but an interesting exercise for sure.

I'm 48 and I can retire October 31st. So that's roughly about 40 days from now. I'm currently off on a month long vacation to burn some excess time I have accumulated at work. I told my wife this morning, when this stretch of vacation time is over I'll need to go to work two more days before I could retire.

I figure life is full of chances. There's a chance I may retire too early and get caught in a lurch and need to go back to work somewhere. There's also a chance I could keep working trying to fatten that retirement number and wake up one day with cancer and never get to retire at all. Life is a roll of the dice. 

In reply to alfadriver :

The whole point was to say that work has NOTHING to do with making money.

we added camping to our travel plans
cruising
going to Europe
volunteer at a local distillery

None of these will normally make you money or need to be done for somebody else but are all things that I would either be work or require the work of planning to pull off a decent trip.

BTW, you can't access a 401k until 59.5 without penalty, which one of us hits next year... (This is also wrong. https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/401k/rule-of-55/)

I inherited ZERO.

My folks both wound up in with slowly failing health and went into an assisted living facility. Which took everything.

I didn't care (much) because it wasn't my money or assets; it was my parents'. One should never plan on an inheritance.

As for needing something to do, it's referred to as 'having a mission'. Filling your days with various 'missions' from making the bed to building a chicken coop is all it takes to remain engaged in life. Some good lessons in this cheap little e-book.

In reply to Johnboyjjb :

You said work, I said active, and now they are the same thing. Ok.  

calteg said:

Still in my 30's. The prospect of another 30 years of work is terrifying. Wife and I are doing well financially, I've had an IRA since I was 18, always maxed my 401k etc. But I've never actually sat down and asked myself "how much do I plan to spend in retirement?"  Might be a fruitless moot point, tough to predict cost of living in 2050, but an interesting exercise for sure.

I'm mid-30s and this feeling is setting in for me too. The thought of even working 20 more years doesn't sound appealing.

Some of the generic 'retirement' calculators say I could retire at 57 based on what I have now and continue to invest the way I have. I think I will look back and regret some of the new car purchases that I took a loan out for. This thread has motivated me to talk to my wife about our retirement plans and goals so we can start thinking about it now.

In reply to karplus2 :

To be fair the years will start going by much quicker, so there's that. 

In reply to karplus2 :

I feel the same way about 9 more years.  I just don't have the discipline to go with the more extreme FIRE stuff, and I really don't consider managing rental properties to be the same as being retired.

calteg said:

Might be a fruitless moot point, tough to predict cost of living in 2050, but an interesting exercise for sure.

Yes and no. We have a lot more control over our individual cost of living (among other things) than a lot of people take credit for. That will be as true 30 years from now, as it is today.

My parents retired at 55, sold the house, and have been living the #vanlife since before there was a #vanlife. Despite spending half their time gallivanting around the country, and living out their dreams, their cost of living is stupid cheap. There are plenty of other ways to do it too.

I see a lot of talk about not being able to access retirement accounts before 59.5 without incurring penalties... Might I point you in the direction of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SEPP), also known as rule 72(t).

Also, you can pull principal contributions out of a Roth IRA early, so if you start one early enough, that's 1-2 years living expenses at least.

I'm on the Grinch plan.

I want to live alone on a mountain with my dog.

In reply to Driven5 :

Also, I think if you involuntarily leave your job at 55, you can start collecting from that employer's 401K without the 10% penalty.

Driven5 said:

I see a lot of talk about not being able to access retirement accounts before 59.5 without incurring penalties... Might I point you in the direction of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SEPP), also known as rule 72(t).

How did I not know about this? Thank you for posting this. 

For those wanting to "change focus" , many community colleges don't charge tuition to seniors. I went to welding school one winter, although you would never know it looking at my Challenge car. I had to pay the materials fee, but it wasn't much. Finishing a degree, or just taking up something new can be done without a lot of cash outlay.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I took a welding class at the local vocational school a ways back, and enjoyed it a lot.  I thought of taking maybe one or two classes a year in stuff that interested me, but then started traveling regularly for work, then other parts of life took more time and effort.  I could see taking the occasional class for fun after I retire and actually have time again.

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm 48 and I can retire October 31st. So that's roughly about 40 days from now. I'm currently off on a month long vacation to burn some excess time I have accumulated at work. I told my wife this morning, when this stretch of vacation time is over I'll need to go to work two more days before I could retire.

I figure life is full of chances. There's a chance I may retire too early and get caught in a lurch and need to go back to work somewhere. There's also a chance I could keep working trying to fatten that retirement number and wake up one day with cancer and never get to retire at all. Life is a roll of the dice. 

Since this thread came out of dormancy, I will quote myself and add an update. 

I retired last spring. It's awesome. I will turn 50 in a few weeks. I don't have as much money as I used to when I was at the very top of the pay scale for my position but that's okay. I work around the house doing stuff that I have neglected for a long time. And I'm traveling around Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas going to swap meets on the weekends. I've shifted somewhat away from cars as my main hobby focus towards antique bicycles and hit-n-miss antique engines. It's cheaper and takes up less space. I still have my Corvette and a nice Chevy truck so I didn't give up the car thing altogether, just changed focus to smaller and different things. 

One of my buddies told me a little story about his grandfather that seems like a parable.

His grandfather worked his whole life building houses. He was gifted at it and made solid money and had a good local reputation. Then he retired and slowed down and just built backyard sheds for people here and there for extra money. As the years went on, he scaled back even further and built dog houses for extra income. The work was less strenuous and he could do it in his garage out of the heat.  Finally as he got quite old he just built little bird houses at the workbench in his garage. He still got to work with his hands doing what he spent a lifetime perfecting, he just went smaller and smaller as he got up there in years to save strain on his failing body. The joy stayed the same, but the tasks got easier. I think that's a pretty good path to take. I'm not very interested in pulling engines and heavy suspension overhauls like I used to do. But I still enjoy working on a small engine or a bicycle or doing simpler automotive tasks on my fleet. 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

So far, so good for me, too.  I turned 55 in July after retiring in late April.  

Travel has been very #1 (but on a really good budget for it) and working on my micro farm is split with refreshing my Miata.  

I'm concerned about the stock market, but in no way are we panicked- it's going to be pretty much another year before we have to tap into our 401ks.  AND my brand new IRA from my pension has gotten in at a pretty decent downturn.

I'm a year and a half closer, and actually more stressed at work.  From a savings standpoint, I really want to make it to at least 55 at the current job, just to make it easier to save more, but I am really feeling the fatigue at this point.

Since people are updating:

DW retired at the end of 2022 and was happy to do it.

In 2 weeks she will start back as a consultant doing one small portion of her previous job for roughly a quarter of her hours at about twice her old pay rate.  That's probably only for 2023 though.

I am planning on bowing out somewhere between Q2-Q4 of 2024.

Duke said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

My first year, I plan to clean the garage.

My second year, the basement, and my third year, the attic.

By that time I'm sure I'll have figured something out for after that.

I'm 56.  DW just turned 58.  We had sort of planned for her to get out at the end of this year, but for a variety of reasons (only tangentially financial), that may be next year.  I'll probably get out the year after that, also at 58.  I can't wait.  I need to get off my ass and do some of the renovations we have planned, in order to make DW comfortable getting out of the rat race.

We'll need to bridge the health insurance gap until 62, but we should have everything covered.  We've got enough socked away to live like we are now until 90 and still leave some to the DDs.

Since this thread was zombified, I'll update again:

DW did indeed stay full time until the end of 2022.  I think she just wasn't ready to quit yet in '21, but another year in her post-merger corporation changed that.   Her retirement lasted about 3 months before one of her old supervisors called her back. DW asked for 10 hours a week at double her previous rate, which she got.  So she's spent '23 and '24 doing the best part of her old job a few hours a day, from home, for a lot more money per hour.

Last December I gave my bosses notice that I would retire this year, either around Labor Day or maybe mid-December of 2024. I don't have any idea how they're planning to replace me - they will definitely need to - and I'm working on a couple projects I would like to see through, so it doesn't look like I'm retiring next month.

We've been taking art classes through the local library system, and plan to do more of that. We also want to make up for all the travel we didn't do over our lives to date. I want to have one big trip a year, and some smaller ones.

We can live just like we are now for about $60-$65,000 per year, net. Using the 4% rule, we have some headroom above that.  We can get insurance through DW's former employer until we turn 62, though it's not inexpensive, of course.  The biggest part of the renovations are done.  We have literally zero debt and relatively new cars.  Barring a sociopolitical or economic meltdown, we're in pretty good shape.

I can't wait.