How do you know when...
DW and I are 56yo. Unfortunately DW was diagnosed at 15yo (yes, fifteen) and has some serious health issues, so we've been hitting our bucket list as fast as time and money allow for forty years. She ...
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My wife lived 107 days past her 65th birthday. Actually, with the adjustments Social Security has been making, her nominal retirement age would have been 66, she didn't make it. Her terminal health issues were not discovered until age 62.
But I "retired" (more like laid off) at 58 1/2, and we worked at living on our nest egg, traveling to the places she wanted to see. I made some good investment choices and that nest egg doubled before we started on social security. She continued working (for the social contacts, she seldom made more than $1500 a year) when not traveling, until we got into "treat the terminal illness to extend life a year or two" mode.
I'm now alone, and have more income than I need, because I don't enjoy traveling alone and it doesn't take a whole lot of money for an old single guy to live in a small town on the Great Plains. I think spending what I could, on the things she wanted to do, while she was still alive, was worth it.
I recently went to my high school 50th reunion. Met a lot of old friends who pushed to 65 before retirement, were not doing what they imagined they would be doing in retirement, because their spouses didn't make it, or they got too sick themselves. There was a lot more optimism at the 40th, which marked the year of my retirement, lots of discussion about "must be nice to retire this early, but I need to work a few more years and make more money" or "I can't imagine retiring, not having anything to do." Those ten years made a lot of difference, so many didn't make it through to their retirement expectations.
So I say, go for it.
Alone, I know I can live on $2500 a month. Families in this part of the country live on a lot less than that. $4000 a month is huge money here. If you are worried about living too long, there are less expensive ways to live, and less expensive places in the U.S. than where you are living now.
But I "retired" (more like laid off) at 58 1/2, and we worked at living on our nest egg, traveling to the places she wanted to see. I made some good investment choices and that nest egg doubled before we started on social security. She continued working (for the social contacts, she seldom made more than $1500 a year) when not traveling, until we got into "treat the terminal illness to extend life a year or two" mode.
I'm now alone, and have more income than I need, because I don't enjoy traveling alone and it doesn't take a whole lot of money for an old single guy to live in a small town on the Great Plains. I think spending what I could, on the things she wanted to do, while she was still alive, was worth it.
I recently went to my high school 50th reunion. Met a lot of old friends who pushed to 65 before retirement, were not doing what they imagined they would be doing in retirement, because their spouses didn't make it, or they got too sick themselves. There was a lot more optimism at the 40th, which marked the year of my retirement, lots of discussion about "must be nice to retire this early, but I need to work a few more years and make more money" or "I can't imagine retiring, not having anything to do." Those ten years made a lot of difference, so many didn't make it through to their retirement expectations.
So I say, go for it.
Alone, I know I can live on $2500 a month. Families in this part of the country live on a lot less than that. $4000 a month is huge money here. If you are worried about living too long, there are less expensive ways to live, and less expensive places in the U.S. than where you are living now.
