Semi retirement guilt You opinion

winnietrey wrote:
For those of you who are older and wiser, and have been there done that. What say you, have we made the right choice?

Here is the deal, I am 58 dw 60, like you we have worked hard our whole life. We have been in business 35 years. And though we both like the people, we are starting to burn out on the business part

So what we are doing, is cutting down to 3 and a half days a week, and taking about 7 weeks off plus all the holidays.

Becuase I,(we), want to go see and do now. Vacation , ride bikes, do hobbies, while we still can.

Retirement money, will be fine I believe. If we never save another dime at 66, we will be in the 60k plus range, with paid for house, cars, etc and no debt. (plenty for our life style)

Although if we worked harder, from now till we retire, we would of course have more money.

So The guilty part, is it just feels weird, to have so much time off.

For you older and wiser folks, if you could roll back the clock, would you do what we are doing? or push it hard right till retirement?

mentally I was ready to go at 50 but couldn't make the numbers work so I went at 55 and have never looked back. I enjoyed what I did but in the last few years it became less and less enjoyable. like you we walked into retirement (wife went at 55 as well) 100% debt free and with an income that easily supports our live-beneath-our-means lifestyle.

as another poster wrote I, too, am busier now than when I was employed...i'm just doing what I want to do now. I still "work" (employed would be more accurate), an irregular part-time schedule that leaves us plenty of time to RV.

don't feel guilty but do have a plan on what you want to do with your time. my father-in-law didn't have a plan other than eating and watching TV all day. he barely made a year in retirement before a heart attack took him.

good luck!