Anyone not want to retire?

2gypsies WROTE....

.....Wow! I think you'd do just fine on retirement. You can easily cut down your cost of living. For utilities or taxes, consider a much smaller home - townhome, condo, park model in a 55+ community. As you get older you're not going to want or you won't be able to keep up a big house and yard. You can also cut back on entertainment and restaurants, etc. It is very possible. Many have no problems and with all of your retirement packages, must don't have that much. I think you'd be surprised if you studied your position. You also mentioned 20,000 to bury you? Not sure what you mean on that one.....

The $20K Insurance is what it is going to cost within the next 15-20 years to stick someone in the ground. Most of the folks I know that are dying now it is costing the spouses in the $8-15K range for the funerals/casket/ground/etc... So that is about ($2350 yearly)for 2 people. I cannot cut back much more the house is only 1000 square foot and is paid for but the property taxes, insurance, and a little for maintenance runs in the $3000 a year. Because the house is small utilities water/electric/sewer runs $3600 a year if the weather is not too hot or cold (Florida). Food for 2 folks fixed at home runs $4000 a year for us. Got to have some entertainment in your life so that is about $3000 a year for golf/movies/Wi-Fi/
fishing/hiking/visiting family with no eating out. Then you have the Xmas/birthday gifts for $1000 a year (18 people). Then with 1 car and a motorhome for insurance you have another $2600, then camping fees for about $1500 a year including fuel while gone. Then Medicare of $2520 + out of pocket for miscellaneous medical/Dental... Then there is not much left out of $28-30K a year if something comes up. Oh did I mention TAXES.... of $3000+ a year.

500 yrs back, when many of us were young, "jobbe of worke" meant a forceful 'jab' at some piece of work (contrasted with continuous labor).

various societies have evolved systems of norms or enen moral codes to facilitate how and which individuals will be expected to do the necessary busy-ness to sustain a given culture.

the main function of the cultue is to provide its members with a sense of worthiness, even of heroism. so our ideas about work and career are entwined both with individual personality type as well as what others expect of us.

modernity has given some freedom to each 'worker bee' and we are able to opt out of society's business. only you know if your social compensation (pay and appreciation) is balanced with your individual self-worth. if yes, you may retire later on. if no, you have to determne your personal answer to "How much stuff is enoug?" if your answer is '"more", you too may be retiring later, but not as happily as the guy before.

if you are expecting to need to be doing this, that, and the other to be a happy retiree, i would point out that in many less frantic cultures - counter to our own - one is urged to "don't just do something, sit there.'

We retired when I was 49, both of us sold companies and went cruising for six years. Our newest adventures involve our Lance 1685 travel trailer, our old 2006 Toyota 4 Runner, 10,000 miles, 19 states, 4 1/2 months, 14 National Parks, countless state parks, visits to 4 grandkids, beaches, canyons, rainforests, mountains and more. I cannot even begin to think that I ever had time to work (and at the time I loved my company and my job). Go for it, but have a plan - starting the first day you're retired, have something you've always wanted to do, but never could because work got in the way on the agenda! Good luck & have FUN!

This thread has drifted from where it started but sometimes that's OK because threads take a life of their own after the OP's question has been answered.

How much money one needs to retire and how much one needs to travel in retirement are two questions. I'm prepping for the latter but feel I could be content with the former if life threw me a curve because of influences I had in my life when I was young. I had a great aunt who was like my grandmother who lived on a 1,000 school teacher's pension. She lived in a long paid for old house that was designed to not get too hot even in south Louisiana. She grew her own vegetables, got her books from the library, and used over the air TV, not that there was any other TV option until late in her life. She saved enough money monthly to pay cash for a simple car every 10-15 years.

Now, I know that the kicker is the increase in healthcare costs since her retirement days but when you cut internet, cable, live in an area with minimal property taxes, etc. you drastically reduce your monthly costs. And she enjoyed the heck out of her retirement until she outlived her friends and got lonely.

Again, I aspire to a more active retirement but I think I could be content with simple, country living if I had to. Sure lived with less on a couple deployments.

JAXFL wrote:

dcmac214 wrote:
I see guys & gals retiring left & right all around me but I don't see myself retiring until I'm forced into it. I could retire today but my entire retirement check from employer's plan would be eaten up paying medical insurance (it's with great (and admirable) personal restraint I haven't posted a rant on our un-affordable care act). With what social security would pay me & DW there's not enough to do much of anything but keep up with the bills.

Retiring is going to be hard. Not because of liking what I do but because of the every day costs. At this point I don't worry about the cost of medical care, as being retired military and 66yo, that is pretty well taken care of. It is just the general living cost that scare me. You know, lights, water, gas, food, insurances, property taxes because your home is mortgage free. You don't need an expensive home to see your yearly personal and property taxes in the thousands of dollars a year, or your utilities in the hundreds a month, and life insurance for someone in their 60+'s is an easy $200 a month for that $20K to bury you when you die. If the wife stayed at home for a few years to raise the kids then her SocSec is going to be very little, and yours is not that great either. I really don't know how a lot of folks are managing. I will have Military retirement, Company retirement, IRA retirement and SocSec Retirement and it is still scary to think of all the things that can happen over the next 15-20 years.

Wow! I think you'd do just fine on retirement. You can easily cut down your cost of living. For utilities or taxes, consider a much smaller home - townhome, condo, park model in a 55+ community. As you get older you're not going to want or you won't be able to keep up a big house and yard. You can also cut back on entertainment and restaurants, etc. It is very possible. Many have no problems and with all of your retirement packages, must don't have that much. I think you'd be surprised if you studied your position. You also mentioned 20,000 to bury you? Not sure what you mean on that one.

Having been retired for many years I cannot agree with someone stating that you need a lot of savings because perhaps what income you needed before is the same you'll need during retiremnet. Only if you do not act smartly! Many factors determine the income needs during retirement and so many less dollars are needed when reasonable after retirement if commonsense is truely used.

No need for daily commuting to and return from a place of employment means less fuel used and less miles on the odometer which means less repairs and replacements (tires/brakes/oil changes/vehicle replacing/etc). No need now for new or expensive clothes as required for most average type jobs. No need for work related dues/union dues etc by most. Vehicle insurance premiums usually are cut drastically as your annual mileage driven is much lower. Ours went down 45% on the same vehicles after we retired. Food costs drop since you will eat less as you age or at least most humans do. Taking far more advantage of senior/retirees discounts and camping etc senior rates on about eveything you do. Just a few of the many lower costs after retiring.

Then the biggies: Depending on where you live and the local cost of living index, it can mean just moving will cut living costs by even 50%+. Some very fine for retirement or even pre-retirement areas have a cost of living index at only 80% of the national average while other areas may have 150% or more of the national average. That's a 50% difference right there and it's major. Now think about total taxes levied where you live or could live (income, real estate, vehicle registrations, insurance rates, sales taxes, personal property taxes, HOA fees, on and on) in different areas and they can be double+ in some areas VS others. Ticket prices for activities and most venues vary greatly from area to area. So many more factors also. The choices are yours to take advantage of or just watch your dollars flex their wings and they sure can fly fast!

We are not and were not money pinched at all but certainly have noticed nearly a 50% reduction in our annual dollar out go after we retired and didn't change our way of personal living hardly at all other than a lot more RV'ing which really isn't expensive at all if you do it sensibly and wisely. Also make a lot more of our own meals as we are so sick of high restaurant use and I'm not including entertaining for my business as that's in a totally different column and has nothing to do with our personal living costs. Making your own meals lets you control what's really in the dishes and that's very important as you age. Very moderate alcohol comsumption and not smoking are very important also as no only money savers but for your heath quality and longivity also and the needs for meds and care.

Done sensibly and wisely, retirement cost of living should be at 40% to 60% of pre-retirement levels. Just have to use the gray noodle inside your noggin!

Now heathcare is an unknown as it depends on the individual and their condition or issues going into retirement which also has a profound affect on premium costs and copays etc. Even these costs vary so greatly from region/area/locality and must be considered.

Retirement can and will usually will be or not be by the decisions that you make along the way. Yes, some unforseen issues usually rear their ugly heads but it's up to you the make as much lemonade as you can from the lemons that come your way. Sit by and just let them rot and guaranteed, they will! Take control! It's the only life you have and enjoy it because death is forever and is a certain to occur at the end!

dcmac214 wrote:
I see guys & gals retiring left & right all around me but I don't see myself retiring until I'm forced into it. I could retire today but my entire retirement check from employer's plan would be eaten up paying medical insurance (it's with great (and admirable) personal restraint I haven't posted a rant on our un-affordable care act). With what social security would pay me & DW there's not enough to do much of anything but keep up with the bills.

Retiring is going to be hard. Not because of liking what I do but because of the every day costs. At this point I don't worry about the cost of medical care, as being retired military and 66yo, that is pretty well taken care of. It is just the general living cost that scare me. You know, lights, water, gas, food, insurances, property taxes because your home is mortgage free. You don't need an expensive home to see your yearly personal and property taxes in the thousands of dollars a year, or your utilities in the hundreds a month, and life insurance for someone in their 60+'s is an easy $200 a month for that $20K to bury you when you die. If the wife stayed at home for a few years to raise the kids then her SocSec is going to be very little, and yours is not that great either. I really don't know how a lot of folks are managing. I will have Military retirement, Company retirement, IRA retirement and SocSec Retirement and it is still scary to think of all the things that can happen over the next 15-20 years.

pnichols wrote:
If you were born independently wealthy - would you just for the fun of it work at a job keeping the hours, fighting the traffic, missing the precious moments of your kids growing up, etc. ... for decades just to have something to do?

Having the career I did and looking back? - yeah, no question about it, I would. :B In fact, I'd give anything to be Marty McFly and be able to go back in time 40 yrs just so I could do it all over again. That's unrealistic of course but it does sometimes scare me now to think that had things gone differently I might have ended up in some sort of pedestrian occupation, have missed all those wonderful experiences entirely, and I'd be just like almost everyone else here in this discussion expressing such reverence for the idea of retirement, the sooner the better. Whether being independently wealthy has anything to do with it I'm not sure because wealthy or poor those determined to find something they really enjoy usually seem to find their way and in my experience it's a path which rarely includes any thoughts of early retirement.

there are alot of early retirement websites to visit and forums to learn how to manage your money to make it work for you and retire early. I visit a few good ones. they are a great tool.

debt free is key. learn to live on less or be sure to have enough funds to cover how you want to live.

pnichols wrote:
I've seen discussion threads like this before and they always seem to amaze me.

For the sake of getting at the core of the issue in a hurry, consider this scenario relative to yourself: If you were born independently wealthy - would you just for the fun of it work at a job keeping the hours, fighting the traffic, missing the precious moments of your kids growing up, etc. ... for decades just to have something to do?

Not me ... not in a million years.

If not needing to for financial reasons I would never have worked "at a job", but I would have kept very busy in a hundred other ways. I worked for decades in a high stress job exactly in the field I was educated in and interested in only because it's salary allowed me to provide for our family while at the same time providing for the ultimate situation - not having to work. IAW, my job was a necessary evil and merely a means to an ends.

If one really wants to get into it, they can spend a lifetime in very busy activities helping others anyplace in the world, or pursuing hobbies anyplace in the world, or exploring the arts anyplace in the world, or doing a myriad of other things - besides keeping someone else's schedule or meeting someone else's expectations like a "job" requires.

this is as i see it...today when i am 60. but it was different in my younger time.

i have always been fascinated by work and business (busy-ness) from a philosophy perspective. in my mid thirties, i asked a lot of similar aged friends this somewhat pointed question:


if you would be supplied with a comfortable pension starting now with the stipulation that you could not provide any form of service to another, could you live with this deal? no voluntary action for church, hospice, animal shelter, car or house repair, meals for homebound, offering of expert advice, counseling - nothing that is commonly done by employed individuals or businesses. you could only do such supportive activities for yourself.


at the time, none of us said we could do this (except one elementary school teacher).