I'm sorry to hear this (^), Sooner. I've often heard that divorce is one of the greatest destroyers of wealth. I've been lucky (so far) - 31 years and counting.
Retirement
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BoonetheAiredale
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57 here. 60 would be a nice retirement from my current job. I've been a local government employee for 30 years. Should have a life sustaining pension, plus health insurance covered once I retire. No debt (NONE), money in investments. Wife is 11 years younger and works for SAS. Have a junior in HS that we have to get through college (hopefully public-in state). Wife and her sister were gifted with a ICW house in Wilmington. That thing is expensive to keep in good condition. Would like to retire there and live until things start going underwater or stronger hurricanes make a permanent decision for us. Part-time work of my choice after that. Very much want to continue traveling, definitely do not want to take good health for granted. Wait to start SS until at least 65. Work out every day. Learn how to fish off of my sweet, sweet ride.
Very cool, Boone.57 here. 60 would be a nice retirement from my current job. I've been a local government employee for 30 years. Should have a life sustaining pension, plus health insurance covered once I retire. No debt (NONE), money in investments. Wife is 11 years younger and works for SAS. Have a junior in HS that we have to get through college (hopefully public-in state). Wife and her sister were gifted with a ICW house in Wilmington. That thing is expensive to keep in good condition. Would like to retire there and live until things start going underwater or stronger hurricanes make a permanent decision for us. Part-time work of my choice after that. Very much want to continue traveling, definitely do not want to take good health for granted. Wait to start SS until at least 65. Work out every day. Learn how to fish off of my sweet, sweet ride.
Centerpiece
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Dec. 1 2017. Retired early at 57. Last Mortgage payment was also Dec. 1, 2017. No car payments. No CC debt. Even did Social Security “leveling” as they say in State Employee lingo. Turned 65 this year, Medicare kicked in... Humana supplement. Retirement is awfully nice. I highly recommend it and take it as early as possible. Life is short.
I'm 52 and my plan is to retire at 60. I could probably do it before then, but I enjoy my job enough and I still have an 11th and 7th grader that I need to put through college. 60 gets my oldest through college and my youngest through the first couple of years. I'd probably be able to retire even earlier, but we decided to buy a lake house a few years ago and that thing bleeds money. Great times with the kids though, so I'm happy with the decision. When my wife and I were younger we invested in some rental properties and those have been great for cash flow and will make a nice supplement to the retirement years.
BoonetheAiredale
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Tried the rental property game once, trying to help my mom invest, but it was too stressful for me.
sunnyheel
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This is a timely topic for me. I appreciate the conversation and wanted to add my piece.
I'm 63, married 30 years come November with 2 sons - 27 (engaged) and 19 (sophomore in college). After many years as general counsel and then owner of a small business law practice, I am now a solo practitioner, working part-time only and mostly remotely on work I enjoy. My wife has a long career in finance and decided to take a sabbatical last December. We used the opportunity to travel while she relaxed and searched for a remote-only job, and she returned to WFH just this week.
During the 9 month sabbatical we sought to explore places and lifestyles that might appeal to us once we retire. We learned a lot but have much more research and exploration to do before settling on our plans. Honestly, the most critical factor to us that remains unresolved is the future of life in the US. In the first place, we really do not want to live in Donald Trump's America - the rancor and division, the way seemingly normal people operate on a hair-trigger ready to exclaim the most hateful and outrageous remarks and general partisan animosity. Secondly, the Florida we love is disappearing. Rapid population growth has resulted in congestion and crowding and, combined with the effects of climate change, seriously degraded our natural environment. I'm a reef junkie; the corals here are nearly entirely destroyed, and algae blooms and effluents pose other obstacles to enjoying our oceans and waterways.
Yet, the idea of living in any other state is unappealing (we're island people). So we're focusing on more exotic destinations.
I'm 63, married 30 years come November with 2 sons - 27 (engaged) and 19 (sophomore in college). After many years as general counsel and then owner of a small business law practice, I am now a solo practitioner, working part-time only and mostly remotely on work I enjoy. My wife has a long career in finance and decided to take a sabbatical last December. We used the opportunity to travel while she relaxed and searched for a remote-only job, and she returned to WFH just this week.
During the 9 month sabbatical we sought to explore places and lifestyles that might appeal to us once we retire. We learned a lot but have much more research and exploration to do before settling on our plans. Honestly, the most critical factor to us that remains unresolved is the future of life in the US. In the first place, we really do not want to live in Donald Trump's America - the rancor and division, the way seemingly normal people operate on a hair-trigger ready to exclaim the most hateful and outrageous remarks and general partisan animosity. Secondly, the Florida we love is disappearing. Rapid population growth has resulted in congestion and crowding and, combined with the effects of climate change, seriously degraded our natural environment. I'm a reef junkie; the corals here are nearly entirely destroyed, and algae blooms and effluents pose other obstacles to enjoying our oceans and waterways.
Yet, the idea of living in any other state is unappealing (we're island people). So we're focusing on more exotic destinations.
maxcrowder
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Damn!
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Check out my signature line.
I was forced into retirement a couple months before I turned 63. I was told there would be layoffs and told them to lay me off as I was at end of my career. Pandemic got me. Financially it was iffy. I was bored out of my mind so instead of taking 950 in unemployment I went to work at a golf course making about 350. I have continued to free lance and I have annuity income and SS so my IRA and 401k have not been touched and have thrived. My best advice is to make sure you have something to keep you busy. I went from living life ion deadline to waking up with nothing to do and all day to do it.
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TarHeelGrad
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Interesting topic.
I turn 58 next month. I make a good salary at a tech firm as a senior analyst, and I love the fact that I can work from home. I have been with my current employer for almost 25 years, so I know the systems inside and out.
I get 6 weeks of vacation each year and can carry over up to 3 weeks. My wife works part-time, so she can take off anytime she wishes. We are pretty frugal with our day to day spending, so we can typically afford two nice vacations per year. Given that we still have a mortgage, my guess is that I will continue to work until that is basically paid off (which would still be another 7 years or so).
I turn 58 next month. I make a good salary at a tech firm as a senior analyst, and I love the fact that I can work from home. I have been with my current employer for almost 25 years, so I know the systems inside and out.
I get 6 weeks of vacation each year and can carry over up to 3 weeks. My wife works part-time, so she can take off anytime she wishes. We are pretty frugal with our day to day spending, so we can typically afford two nice vacations per year. Given that we still have a mortgage, my guess is that I will continue to work until that is basically paid off (which would still be another 7 years or so).
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My wife and I looked up our SS last night.
It sort of sucks that all of the politicians talk about the importance of children, which I do agree with, but my wife seems to be penalized for taking 15 years out of work to raise our kids.
We did notice the spousal benefit; I'm going to have to figure that out.
CRHeel94
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I'm 52 and kind of in a weird spot. Not retired, not fully employed either.
Three years ago I was let go by the bank where I worked for more than 15 years. I had a pretty high executive position and loved my job. The pandemic really did a number on my company's profits; the sluggish economy and some new laws basically slashed profits in half. I've never met a billionaire owner who's happy making less money...so I knew that the bank would have to make important cost reductions. Even though I saved them more than $5MM in the last year, I knew that the top executives were in a vulnerable spots (we were a tempting layer of middle management to take out). One day, pretty much out of the blue my boss calls me in and says they were terminating my employment. I had never had a negative performance report in my life. Later on I found out that the top level were given a cost target ultimatum; basically my boss or I would have to go, or a handful of the next level to hit the target (my boss was better positioned politically...always found it odd how she advised me to work from home even though she was regularly going into the office). Several other executives at my same level were let go in the next three weeks. The timing really sucked...my first kid was headed to college in the fall.
Luckily my wife and I had high paying jobs that we did for more than 20 years (she had a high executive position at a large multinational). We sacrificed a lot during that time, but we always designed our spending to subsist on just one salary. We saved and invested wisely (for the most part) over the years and were able to build a very robust and sound portfolio (even for US standards); we payed down our house more than ten years ago and we're good about not spending on things that don't make us happy (resist the keeping up with the Jones attitude). Ironically, she had taken a restructuring retirement package from her job four months prior (she's five years older than I am and was more burned out with the corporate rat race). One of the assumptions was that we would still have my income. We crunched some numbers and pretty much calculated that we could use our interest income to cover our regular living. We had earmarked some company stocks to cover our kids education, so we felt okay about having that base covered (and man did they get into some expensive colleges).
In those three years I've done some consulting. I have one big client that pays well and have filled in with smaller gigs. I have to travel on site one week a month. I estimate I'm using up about 50% of my time. I find myself conjuring ways to fill up that spare time. My basketball coaching gig has really helped (have killed it with my club team and with the national team). A couple of months ago I started playing more golf: kind of weird to be the "young" guy playing golf on a Thursday. I've been able to travel a bit...last year I spent a week up in Chicago with my eldest. I do get bored at times and feel I could do more.
I wouldn't rule out returning to a full-time job. Think I have a good ten years in me. But now that I have been flexible, I have been very choosy about going back to the right opportunity. I have three crucial requirements:
1) believe in the purpose/mission of what I'm doing (I'm done with the life goal of making a billionaire his next billion)
2) I want to be part of a talented team
3) I'm done working for bad bosses (had pretty good luck most of my career). Red flags are workaholics and micromanagers. Also, no assholes.
I've turned down three full time job offers. In two cases I ran into number 3 when doing some due diligence. In the third one I didn't feel like the money justified giving tip my flexibility (would have made 10% than what I'm making as a part timer...nope). I am being patient, and I do miss some things (the office camaraderie, playing the chessboard, keeping score, etc). Early on, I also realized that some of it was ego...I was the big swinging dick at a big company...it was tough understanding that my identity was separate from my role.
Three years ago I was let go by the bank where I worked for more than 15 years. I had a pretty high executive position and loved my job. The pandemic really did a number on my company's profits; the sluggish economy and some new laws basically slashed profits in half. I've never met a billionaire owner who's happy making less money...so I knew that the bank would have to make important cost reductions. Even though I saved them more than $5MM in the last year, I knew that the top executives were in a vulnerable spots (we were a tempting layer of middle management to take out). One day, pretty much out of the blue my boss calls me in and says they were terminating my employment. I had never had a negative performance report in my life. Later on I found out that the top level were given a cost target ultimatum; basically my boss or I would have to go, or a handful of the next level to hit the target (my boss was better positioned politically...always found it odd how she advised me to work from home even though she was regularly going into the office). Several other executives at my same level were let go in the next three weeks. The timing really sucked...my first kid was headed to college in the fall.
Luckily my wife and I had high paying jobs that we did for more than 20 years (she had a high executive position at a large multinational). We sacrificed a lot during that time, but we always designed our spending to subsist on just one salary. We saved and invested wisely (for the most part) over the years and were able to build a very robust and sound portfolio (even for US standards); we payed down our house more than ten years ago and we're good about not spending on things that don't make us happy (resist the keeping up with the Jones attitude). Ironically, she had taken a restructuring retirement package from her job four months prior (she's five years older than I am and was more burned out with the corporate rat race). One of the assumptions was that we would still have my income. We crunched some numbers and pretty much calculated that we could use our interest income to cover our regular living. We had earmarked some company stocks to cover our kids education, so we felt okay about having that base covered (and man did they get into some expensive colleges).
In those three years I've done some consulting. I have one big client that pays well and have filled in with smaller gigs. I have to travel on site one week a month. I estimate I'm using up about 50% of my time. I find myself conjuring ways to fill up that spare time. My basketball coaching gig has really helped (have killed it with my club team and with the national team). A couple of months ago I started playing more golf: kind of weird to be the "young" guy playing golf on a Thursday. I've been able to travel a bit...last year I spent a week up in Chicago with my eldest. I do get bored at times and feel I could do more.
I wouldn't rule out returning to a full-time job. Think I have a good ten years in me. But now that I have been flexible, I have been very choosy about going back to the right opportunity. I have three crucial requirements:
1) believe in the purpose/mission of what I'm doing (I'm done with the life goal of making a billionaire his next billion)
2) I want to be part of a talented team
3) I'm done working for bad bosses (had pretty good luck most of my career). Red flags are workaholics and micromanagers. Also, no assholes.
I've turned down three full time job offers. In two cases I ran into number 3 when doing some due diligence. In the third one I didn't feel like the money justified giving tip my flexibility (would have made 10% than what I'm making as a part timer...nope). I am being patient, and I do miss some things (the office camaraderie, playing the chessboard, keeping score, etc). Early on, I also realized that some of it was ego...I was the big swinging dick at a big company...it was tough understanding that my identity was separate from my role.
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Man dude, maybe you and NYCBB can co-host that thread on marriage advise.
Seriously, sorry for all of that. Hope you are doing well now and if you have a new partner that they treat you right.
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Same here, I've been very lucky, 27+ years. We had our struggles, almost ended in 2003, but we got through it. Another instance where someone from the ZZL boards helped me out. BBFan became my pen pal and counselor, she really helped me by giving me someone to talk to.I'm sorry to hear this (^), Sooner. I've often heard that divorce is one of the greatest destroyers of wealth. I've been lucky (so far) - 31 years and counting.
EhringhausSouth
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I have four kids, I am a teacher. I want to put in 35 years and get to 58. Then retire. That will also be the year my youngest finishes high school.
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I was 61. I had been through a sudden divorce. Anyway as a State Employee I was offered about 8 months salary to retire. Gov Mccroy et all actually thought I was a Democratic operative- I was not. I had well over the State 30 years of service to reach a decent pension.
Today with pension , Soc Sec , some investments , I make more than I ever have in the past. And not to be nasty but post divorce my spending dropped about 50%
So financially I am way better off than 9 years ago. Mostly I have time to spend time with grandkids
Today with pension , Soc Sec , some investments , I make more than I ever have in the past. And not to be nasty but post divorce my spending dropped about 50%
So financially I am way better off than 9 years ago. Mostly I have time to spend time with grandkids
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So, I'm 56. I hope to retire at 60. My only real worry is health care.
If my retirement account can average 10% a year, that will completely replace my current income.
My wife is only 50, she really likes her current job and plans to work there until 60-62.
I have a few concerns, health care cost, a mortgage that will not be paid off until I'm 66, and my youngest daughter who may live with us forever (I want to ensure that she and all of my kids are ok when I die).
My biggest current struggle is that I currently do not like my job, but I make pretty good money, so I keep trying to figure out how to make it work. We have had layoffs each of the last 3 years, but my company really gives a good package when they lay you off and I have 32 years with the company. So, honestly, once I hit 58, I'll take the package if they offer. I have so many things that I want to do I would have no problem filling my time. Possibly even getting a job in a field doing things I really love to do, without having to worry about a paycheck.
If my retirement account can average 10% a year, that will completely replace my current income.
My wife is only 50, she really likes her current job and plans to work there until 60-62.
I have a few concerns, health care cost, a mortgage that will not be paid off until I'm 66, and my youngest daughter who may live with us forever (I want to ensure that she and all of my kids are ok when I die).
My biggest current struggle is that I currently do not like my job, but I make pretty good money, so I keep trying to figure out how to make it work. We have had layoffs each of the last 3 years, but my company really gives a good package when they lay you off and I have 32 years with the company. So, honestly, once I hit 58, I'll take the package if they offer. I have so many things that I want to do I would have no problem filling my time. Possibly even getting a job in a field doing things I really love to do, without having to worry about a paycheck.
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Glad things worked out for you.
In the last two layoffs at my company, they let several people go who had already planned to retire in the next 6 months. I spoke with one of the guys about a month after the layoff. He was ecstatic. He told me that he was planning on retiring in 2 months and would have had no pay, they let him go 2 months before retirement and paid him for a year. I hope that when I'm ready to go they offer me a year's pay to leave.
