I retired July 1 after 45 years in industry, at 66 years 4 months - full Social Security retirement age for me. Our financial advisor told us 18 months ago I was good to retire any time I wanted to. My manager told me I could work as long as I wanted to. So I had an option that many do not - I chose my retirement date instead of having it chosen for me. I wanted to do some fine tuning of the balance sheet, collect a historically large incentive compensation bonus, and get to full SS retirement age. I enjoyed my role, but it was time to do something else. I knew I was going July 1 about this time last year, but my wife and I did not tell anyone until early March.
I had a full time offer, as well as a part time offer from my old employer, but I said I needed some time off and I have no urge to go back.
One of the driving factors in my decision was my dad and some really good friends. My dad was a steelworker for 42 years. He debated about the money and took early retirement at 62. Two years later he had stroke that left his right side paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Five years alter retirement he was dead. Two good friends of mine both died at 64, never getting to enjoy any kind of retirement. (Incidentally, I'm told the Beatles tune "When I'm 64" has that age because that was the life expectancy in the UK at the time.) Of the 492 grads in our high school class of '73, 54 are gone. That sense of nothing being guaranteed colored my thinking.
In addition, our financial advisors talk about "active" and :"passive" retirement. For most the former runs through about age 78, at which point they have probably done all they wanted to, like travel. More importantly, they are less capable of doing things like traveling. Life after that becomes much more sedentary. They tell clients they hear two comments consistently:
- I wish I had retired sooner.
- I wish I had spent more money earlier in retirement. Now I'm 84 with all this money and I'm not able to spend it on anything enjoyable.
My wife retired a few years ago, and we've enjoyed the first few months. There are so many freakin' things to catch up on around here that in some ways I'm working harder now. I take time to play 18 weekly. I expect that to change (go up) next year once some of the projects are out of the way. I'm sure part of it is the season, but I had more time to be active on THP when I was working.
My transition plan? We wanted to take the first few months easy, catching up on things and taking short breaks to have some fun. Making no major commitments. When the job list goes away, there's a stack of books awaiting me, some writing to do, exercise programs, and volunteer work. It wasn't a big transition at all and I wonder how I had the time to do anything else when I was working.
Hope this helped.
ONE MORE THING: I went July 1 instead of June 30 because that gave me employer's insurance coverage through July 31. I could have picked July 5 and gotten an extra paid holiday, but I didn't.
I had a full time offer, as well as a part time offer from my old employer, but I said I needed some time off and I have no urge to go back.
One of the driving factors in my decision was my dad and some really good friends. My dad was a steelworker for 42 years. He debated about the money and took early retirement at 62. Two years later he had stroke that left his right side paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Five years alter retirement he was dead. Two good friends of mine both died at 64, never getting to enjoy any kind of retirement. (Incidentally, I'm told the Beatles tune "When I'm 64" has that age because that was the life expectancy in the UK at the time.) Of the 492 grads in our high school class of '73, 54 are gone. That sense of nothing being guaranteed colored my thinking.
In addition, our financial advisors talk about "active" and :"passive" retirement. For most the former runs through about age 78, at which point they have probably done all they wanted to, like travel. More importantly, they are less capable of doing things like traveling. Life after that becomes much more sedentary. They tell clients they hear two comments consistently:
- I wish I had retired sooner.
- I wish I had spent more money earlier in retirement. Now I'm 84 with all this money and I'm not able to spend it on anything enjoyable.
My wife retired a few years ago, and we've enjoyed the first few months. There are so many freakin' things to catch up on around here that in some ways I'm working harder now. I take time to play 18 weekly. I expect that to change (go up) next year once some of the projects are out of the way. I'm sure part of it is the season, but I had more time to be active on THP when I was working.
My transition plan? We wanted to take the first few months easy, catching up on things and taking short breaks to have some fun. Making no major commitments. When the job list goes away, there's a stack of books awaiting me, some writing to do, exercise programs, and volunteer work. It wasn't a big transition at all and I wonder how I had the time to do anything else when I was working.
Hope this helped.
ONE MORE THING: I went July 1 instead of June 30 because that gave me employer's insurance coverage through July 31. I could have picked July 5 and gotten an extra paid holiday, but I didn't.