Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Retirement question

As posted above, rules #1,2 and 3 for retiring are no debt, no debt and no debt.
We based our ability to retire on being able to live on interest without touching principal and excluding SS.
Once SS kicks in a few months from now I'll be shopping for a new truck.

I retired four years ago at 61 when my company was making reductions in the workforce. Got 56 weeks of severance pay on top of the pension, 401k and Roth I already had already built. Wife is 8 years younger and still working. I had a detailed budget worked out and have met it so far. Take a half dozen hunting and fishing trips a year, bought a new boat and a new truck for my wife. Life has unexpected events but I budgeted for that too, furnace needed replace in 2016, I had cancer surgery in 2018 and the wife had a hip replacement last year. We still met our budget. I started drawing SS at 64 and got Medicare last year, still pay for my wife's health insurance through my former employer. Even with the health issues and cost (we are both fully recovered) our retirement nest egg is bigger now than when I first retired.
We were debt free for five years before I retired. My budget includes changes when my wife retires and we expect to spend less as we get older and travel less and maybe downsize the house.

Just retired July 2019 at 62. Had been working with a financial adviser for many years. Built a new house in 2016 and still had a hefty mortage, but it was built into our financial plan. Based on what we had and what we spend each month, our adviser calculated we could over spend by $2200 each month every month and would still be good until age 95. Obviously there is no way we are going to over spend like that, but it's nice to know the cushion is there. Once we knew this, deciding to retire was easy.

I retired at 65 with about 66% of my take home when working. Wife and I were worried sick that the gravy would be pretty thin and we wouldn't get to chip away at the bucket list. Didn't turn out that way...we are quite comfortable but live modestly by most folks standards. We never were comfortable borrowing money, so when I retired we were in no debt at all. Years back I squirreled money away in an investment account, and it compounded nicely, no govt rules..no IRA, no 401k...my after tax money, my rules...bought the equities, preferreds, in companies that actually produced things people need, and bonds that I wanted and escaped damage in the 2008 financial slump. Did I leave money on the table by not getting into tech? Absolutely, but for me to sleep, I needed to 'go with what you know'. One thing I didn't see coming...after about three years of very active traveling, fishing, hunting, touristing, we kind of got it out of our system, we enjoy where we live, our hobbies, kids, don't have any great urge to burn up the highway anymore. Who knew?

interesting thoughts gents, thanks. we're just running the numbers now and was curious on how planned spending compared to actual.

another question, does anyone miss working? did you lose any sense of purpose? i have been employed non-stop for 44 years and don't know what its like to not work. i have plenty of hobbies, brewing, woodwork, gun stuff, etc but not sure i wouldn't get restless and bored.

just a tip...... want less.
the less you want the more you have.

when you want nothing you will have everything!

Best of luck in retirement. I am starting to glaze over at work these days. My Scheduler popped up last week to remind me I am 173 weeks overdue on sending in my retirement paperwork.

Mike, your last paragraph about says it all.

We scrimped, saved, and invested all of our 50 years together (so far) and got so used to it that we have a hard time splurging now - but it's getting easier every day!

My full military career and her teaching career gave us both nice pensions, and the military medical benefits are killer. Together, we spend less than half of our monthlies, and there's still the whole investment package sitting there waiting to go to our daughters, probably. We're in a situation where our investment guy says, "You really need to spend more."

We're also at a point where we're paring down "stuff" and not adding to it. It all makes for a worry-free life.

Reading about these pension things as a 28year old is just wild...they flat out "don't" exist today aside from government/government like(railroad/power company)/military.

your modern day FERS is a far cry from the ancient CSRS, too.

That's exactly what I did too.

I retired January 2011 at the age of 54 my wife was 56 when she retired.I could have kept working and added a few more zeros to bank accounts but we both wanted to be able to enjoy life. Today at 64 thanks to the booming economy under Trump my investments pay more per year than what my salary was when I retired. Spend more? No not now but I do average 3 or 4 hunting trip out of state some out of USA every year because I hold to the logic I will be dead a long time and eventually my health will be poor enough so I cannot do what I love. I have stage III cancer got this after retirement date...ask me if I am every sorry I retired to enjoy life when I did. I think you know the answer already.

I also wouldn't trust a modern pension, a lot are not managed well and have got massive liabilities.

I'm straight up not planning to ever see SocialSecurity. If I ever see SS, it'll be used to fund/create a gambling habit.
Though I'm not sure what's more likely, I take up gambling or see SS.

Smartest thing I ever did was finish my Air Force career in the Reserves after 10 years active. I could live on the pension alone if I had to, and the combination of Medicare and my military TriCare means I never pay a dime for medical needs, including prescriptions. And if needed, the VA backs up even that. My only cost is my Medicare premium, and that comes out of my SS check before I even see it, so it's effectively free.

We won't retire for another three years but you have hit on a key driver to a long and fulfilling retirement. My parents have been retired for 22 years and have no idea how they had time to work. Volunteer work for both of them, Dad still flies model airplanes 2-3 times a week and they do several day trips a month with the retirement community they live in. Money turned out to be the least of their issues. They did a lot of traveling when they first retired but Dad noted last time I was down that they have more money now than they did wen they retired. His long term dollar cost averaging worked out fine.


Like you, I have lots of hobbies, and some I don't get to do due to lack of time today. I look forward to that and since we're leaving MD, I look forward to learning new hunting and fishing country and of course there will be another bird dog. You have to have a reason to get up and go explore and meet new people and do new things. Sitting at home makes it a short retirement.

I wonder about this too, never been unemployed for 50 years. I like working, gives me a sense of value if that makes any sense??

That's the secret right there. So were we. We have bought 2 vehicles since then but we paid cash for the pickup and financed only a small part of the car. I drive an old clunker as a runnaround to save miles on the others. When it dies, I'll just sell it for parts.

Miss work? Nope. I think I was born to be retired!

Same here. When I see these posts about "retiring early so I can do what I love", I just cringe. I love work (self employed), and love the challenges, problems to solve and the people I work with. If I don't, I replace them with another one.... . So I do what I love to do, with people I consider as close as family. I'm physically active and mentally challenged. I just can't imagine that I would give that up and be limited to fishing and dog shows for the rest of my life.... I'd go out of my mind in months. I could retire tomorrow, sell the business and never have a financial worry.... but just put me in the nut house, now. What a dreadful prospect.

That's a strong message right there.