Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Retirement question

I’m not retired yet but I’m not far from it, I can retire as early as next year. The one thing that so many say about retirement is to save save save and figure out how to make it last as long as possible. Be debt free, yada ya da ya da. Well in our families we’ve seen health be a much greater catalyst in quality of life than money. My father inlaw saved and saved all his life trying to be smart and frugal with their finances. They had all kinds of plans when they retired with investments and pensions + SS and sadly they didn’t have long after retiring before serious health issues came up. They couldn’t do any of the things they had planned on because they couldn’t ever get too far from their doctors. Long story short, mother in law passed away at 65. Hes since overcome some cancer stuff for now and we have had many a heart to hearts about life since her passing. His views and perspectives have sure changed since losing his life partner and all the money in the world can’t fix that. His health is so so and there’s lots of things he’d like to do that he simply can’t. All the money in his Edward Jones Acct means very little to him. It’s interesting to see his perspective on life change so much in such a short period of time. I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want to retire or are retired don’t forget to to live as much as you can while you can because being debt free, having millions in investments or fat pensions mean very little when you can’t do anything with it! The only guarantee each us has is that we won’t make it out of this life alive!

About to retire in August at age 62. The scripture says, “the Lord will accomplish what concerns me.” So, my only consideration will be what I want to fill my day with since every day will be a Saturday.

I am a Proverbs 3:5-6 guy, myself. I kinda thought we were about the same age. Enjoy yourself , Reloader.
You should have a lot more time to, say, reload!

when I was young in my early 30s I thought if I could get a million dollars in the bank I would be set for life, well let me tell you a million isn't what it was back in the day! Lucky for me we invested well most of our lives and had 2 good incomes also. About the time I retired Obama Care went into affect my medical insurance went from $600/month for just myself to over $2700 a month when she retired a few years later. Today she is on Medicare and I still pay $1400 monthly until September when I go on it as well. That is an example of what type of unexpected costs you may run into.
My advice invest 1/3 your money in low risk funds the other 2/3 in higher risk. I seriously doubt you can do that on your own it is more than a full time job at best and make a mistake your screwed. Hire an investment firm whom makes a % of what you make do not use a banks investment team you need a serious firm. My investor makes what I used to consider a darn nice yearly income off my profits but then again his percentage is small compared to mine.

Rem141r: I have been retired for 23 years now and I spend money like it is going out of style!
The VarmintWife allots me $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars!) per month from our several sources of income. That $1,000.00 is to help support my gun buying addiction.
Our home has long been paid for and our six cars are all paid for and we have no debt so we only have household utilities, gas and groceries to pay for.
And we are, travelling more of recent, which is expensive.
I say this with all the sincerity I can muster, to all who are still working - get retired as soon as you possibly can!
It (being retired!) is even more wonderful, relaxing, rewarding and self pleasing than I ever imagined.
No budget restricts me - I spend every cent I can get my hands on!
You (Rem141r) must at some point ask yourself and answer - "how many times do I live"!
The answer to that somber and profound question is a resounding, sobering and mentality altering - ONCE!
Once your family is taken care of and your bills are paid (or minimal) spend it like there is NO tomorrow - for one day you will be correct!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I retired about 4-1/2 years ago due to health reasons. I was an electrical lineman for 35 years and ran a sideline electric business for about 30 years. If health issues had not caused me to retire then, I would have retired about the end of last year or the first of this year.

My Wife and I don't budget and never have. We have always lived well within our means and still do. We always carried a minimum amount of debt. My income varied widely due to overtime and we planned our lives to live on my basic salary. A pension and SS provide about the same income as I made working and we have investments to fall back on whenever inflation starts creeping up on us.

We actually spend a little less than when we were working, mostly due to me not eating lunch out and having to buy less clothing. We travel more, taking a big trip about twice a year and several 3 day 2 night trips during the year.

I enjoyed my job but I don't really miss it. As far as self worth goes, I make up for not working by spending more time with the Wife, Sons and Grandkids. I hunt, fish, shoot, reload and cast and I'm pretty big into Craft Beer. I help a Farmer buddy during planting and harvest season and help another buddy plant food plots and maintain 2 different Duck Clubs. Sometimes I'm a little busier than I want to be but I would rather be occupied than bored.

I guess the big unknown for the retired or the elderly will be medical cost.

About a year for myself. Just today signed up for Medicare.. Thinking things well be more than OK, two pensions, Military retirement, Tricare for life and a good TSP (401K) along with two SS for the wife and I. Will be moving and buying a house and land. Having a hard time deciding on how much to spend. Don't mind a mortgage, but want it to be no more than my Military retirement. We will have a good chunk to put down when we sell the current house. ($150K+) Almost debt free, and will be in a year. Health is always the big concern. Both of us are good right now, but I am looking at at least one knee replacement if not both. To quote an old song, "The futures uncertain and the end is always near"

I had a great 30 year career with challenging work to the very end. I have a great pension, 401k and health care covered. I could not have hoped for a better career and company.

One of my former students ask me how I like retirement.. I retired at 51, while I am not into spending every cent I can, I do pretty much as I want.. Time to do all the things is the major problem.. I need two Septembers and Two Octobers, and maybe two Novembers... One thing you must consider, the man who ask me about retirement, I was told go as soon as you can.. You can always make more money, but you only get so much time... We got into this discussion because one of his classmates is like him.. Approaching 60 years of age.. That man went from very little to a huge house, a cabin in the mountains, and a millionaire before he was 40... Awesome.. He worked hard and deserves it all, but 3 weeks ago, he had a severe stroke.. He will live, but who knows how much he will recover..My pal said that made him think, and he is getting out as soon as possible.. Do the same if you can!!

Doesn't really address the OP's question, but the biggest challenge for many that want to retire before 65 is the cost of health insurance. If you decide you want to retire before 65 (Medicare age), how will you cover medical expenses? When I was selling Medicare Supplement insurance, I found one couple that was paying $2000/month for private insurance. This was before Obama Care, so not sure what it costs now. They were so happy to get on Medicare and buy a Supplement plan.

👊🏻

I've seen a lot of retirement threads on various forums and they all read about the same:

Try to be debt free when you retire, seems like a no brainer.

The people who generally respond to these topics are those who are in a good financial position, you rarely hear from those who aren't.

The responses are generally much more rosy when the market is at 29,000 rather than 19,000.

Anyone who thinks this "economy is booming" should take a look at debt levels across the board, for instance:

USA has it's first ever trillion dollar deficit.

This year SS will pay out more than it takes in for the first time ever and at the current rate the "reserve" will be exhausted in 10 years or so.

Wages are flat over 20 years but housing is up 290%, college education 310%, healthcare 90% which of course means that consumers now have record levels of debt across the board - mortgages, student loans, car loans, credit cards.

Consumer debt, not counting mortgages, has climbed to $4 trillion—higher than it has ever been even after adjusting for inflation.

Consumer credit card debt passed a trillion dollars for the first time last year.

Personal-loan balances totaled a record $138 billion at the end of last year, vs. $46 billion at the end of 2011.

Just look at cars as an example, the average car is now $39k and the average length of car loans is 70 months. All so people can keep up with the Jones's.

None of this is sustainable and at some point reality will kick in and it won't be pretty.

This has been going on since the 1960s. How old are you? There is nothing new under the sun. Most American's live beyond their means, and always have since the 1960s. Our bloated government has spent more money than they take in on taxes for decades. No gold standard, just print the paper. But to say the economy is not any better than what the halfrican settled for, and said would never be any better . . . well the official government numbers say otherwise.

I believe in having a good time after seeing other people do nothing saving for retirement, no vacations, sat at home watching TV. They thought they would be able to doo all kinds of crap when they retired. Well, sadly their health didn’t allow them to do much. I have SS and will have a real good pension when I hang it up. I say, live it up while you are young!!!

I retired 5 years ago at 51... ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. Still work on our properties (fix-up and flip properties as a stream of tax free income). When my son graduates HS in 12,214 days, 15 hours, 12 minutes and 22 seconds we will sell the last of the fix and flip houses and move into our final home.

The one thing I will say about retirement is to have a plan... and/or projects stacked up to your eyeballs. That laying around on the sofa stuff will kill you stone dead.

12,214 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 53 seconds now.

Designing our WV house now... https://photos.app.goo.gl/BUqiTG7drn9Er6Dq6

Building from lumber we are milling ourselves...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cQyassR6qxpQzArj7

Like I said "...projects stacked up to our eyeballs".

12,214 days, 15 hours, 5 minutes and 23 seconds now... NOVA SUCKS!!!

Cash, If I read your post right, your son graduates high school in 33 years? If I miss understood, I apologize.

Oops... 1,214, 14, 42, 42 seconds.

Coffee and Copenhagen hadn't kicked in yet

Yeah there were lots of seven year car loans in the sixties, billions in unsecured personal loans too I'm sure. I'm old enough to be able to comprehend facts and figures and ignore political kool aid.

I retired at age 51 from policing in the Province of Ontario for a little over 30 years. I got 60.5% of my last 5 years averaged out, or a little over 30 K a year. 8 days later I took a job as a prosecutor in Traffic and Liquor court part time which was about the same money as the pension. I worked at that job for 14 years and other than buying a few too many guns, was able to squirrel away a few bucks. I pastored a smallish church for 13 years as well for which I received no money or allowances, but was very fulfilling. We also get about 2.5 K a month from Old Age Security and Canada Pension. We're blessed for sure.

In the fall of 2019, we sold our house of 33 years and moved 300 miles west to be with our youngest daughter and husband. We had a house built and now have a manageable mortgage. My policing pension is indexed on the cost of living.

We do not live a lavish lifestyle, but we are not poor either. We are comfortable and enjoying our new home and living close to our family in Canada. I have a couple medical concerns and at almost 70, it made sense to be closer to family.

Retirement for us has been good.

Have as much fun as one can afford because you are gonna be dead rich or poor. Insurance premiums are a big part of the retirement cost until Medicare. Ed k