Dear Snow birds

[Greene728]

Sitting here reading all these posts of you snow birds heading south for the winter is so depressing. I'm only 41 with quite a few years of work still ahead and the wife has a few more than me at 36 yrs of age. We get to camp quite a bit during the spring, summer, and fall months and absolutely love every day of every trip. I hope the Good Lord sees fit for us to someday be able to do this and travel around at least on a semi full time basis. I'd love to someday just be able to load and hook up with no timetable or specific destination in mind and just return when we are good and dang ready. We live in West Central GA though and we probably wouldn't have to snow bird though as our winters are generally mild. But it would be great to just head down to the gulf somewhere and spend the winter just cause we can! Lol.
Anyways, all of you fortune enough to do this, have some fun for us! Hopefully someday we will see some of you out there and stay with you till were good and ready to go whenever and wherever we want! In the mean time, we're just gonna have to settle with living vicariously through you all!

Safe travels to you all!

[oh_boy]

I'll only add that the most important asset you can put in the bank for your future retirement is Good Health and a sound body.All the money and plans are useless if you don't have good health.

[John_Joey]

Pipeman wrote:
I've been retired for going on 13 years now. I was one of the lucky ones who loved my job from the start to the finish, so I miss the people I worked with and the adrenalin rush of doing what I loved.I was able to retire at 56. That said, I will say don't push the retirement thing unless you are ready in your head and hopefully financially. Then there is the reality of looking forward to the golden years which aren't always golden. You'll be older and have aches and pains that you don't have now. Time will pass by really fast. Take what you have and live because you could look and feel like some of us do. What darsben said.......

I was thinking exactly this, and even the part of "What darsben said..."'

Been (early) retired for about six years and snowbird each one of them. When I look around all I see are old people in the snowbird parks. 😉 Enjoy what you have now and "don't push the retirement thing."

My advice is this, retirement comes in three parts. First part is you have health and money (this is all the positive comments that have been posted so far.) Second part is money is fixed, but prices are going up, and your health becomes a topic. Third part is "will the money last" and health is a major topic.

That first part of retirement only lasts for a very short time, so don't waste all your youth planning for retirement. Enjoy your youth now while you still have it. Jump on a plane and go see Europe if you haven't already.

Also living where you do is simply perfect. In the heat of the summer see the north, in the cold of the winter head further south. Enjoy the spring and fall with family and friends. Retired friends from Kentucky do just this and I view them as being very lucky to have this option.

[Water-Bug]

In an ideal world, your work is something that you love to do. In today's world, eating and having a roof over your head come first. How many recent college grads have large student loans and no job because they persued an unmarketable dream?

EDIT: I persued positions in manufacturing management for over 20 years, only to have position after position move off shore. I finally realized that I had skills that were marketable in the service industry. Was it my dream job, no but it paid the bills and provided a good retirement.

[justme]

Why would anyone wish their life away? If one is unhappy with working, find something that makes one happy so it isn't considered work. It is like a hobby that is something you like to do. I don't mean to preach.

[gitane59]

Wow! This hits home. My DW and I have been planning for long term RV'ing in retirement for almost 10 years. Along the way we have enjoyed our yearly almost 6 weeks vacation by taking 2 extended RV trips each year plus many summer weekends as there is no guarantee that a person will make it to retirement (my father passed away suddenly of a rare medical condition at 52 3 years from retirement).
I can't believe how truly fast the last 10 year have gone. I am now 53 and can retire if I want in one year in January 2016 while my wife can retire in 2 1/2 years in June of 2017.
Lord willing, health willing and finances willing we'll retire in the summer of 2017 and become newbie Snowbirds the winter of 2017 for the first time.
Make a plan and stay on it as much as possible but don't live like a hermit along the way waiting for the retirement day as nothing in life is guaranteed.

Happy New year

[AUwing2]

Great post and a solid reminder to keep your eyes on the prize. We started with a silly idea of becoming full time RVrs about 8 years ago and a couple years ago, formally called it a 5 year plan. We get more anxious as time passes especially the holidays and every snow event!

[Toolguy5]

In 2 days we will have completed 1 full year of retirement. It did not start out the way we planned. Last winter was brutal. We had heating issues. It took until the middle of March before we could trust our system to leave. But on March 19th we headed south. Went down the gulf coast of Florida all the way to the keys then came back up on the Alantic side.
Had to cut trip short had 5er trouble and had to get back to dealer before warranty ran out on May 3rd. Dropped it off at dealer on May 1st.

I can tell you though the time we had was awesome. We would figure out each leg and where to stay when we arrived at previous destination.
I'm looking forward to many more why we can enjoy.

I retired at 57 and just turned 58.

[homefor2]

There's some good advice here. I am an example of some things not to do so here is what I suggest. Avoid spending on stupid stuff like BMW's Corvette's and big ticket items to impress others. Save and invest in solid places. Live below your income level and avoid as much debt as you can. Many people live in way more house then they need.

Consider a mini retirement. It involves getting into a financial position that would allow you to take a year or so off. Too many work all their lives with just a few weeks holiday per year. That's not a life, it's a prison sentence. I did manage to take a several 2 month holidays during the winter and head somewhere warm. We were able to go to Mexico for 3 months and live modestly for $5000.00 total cost. We did not treat it like a "vacation" but rather living in another country for 3 months. No fancy resort, drinks delivered to the pool and no dining out every night. It was a modest trip but still way better than working.

The other thing available to many people now a days is finding a way to work remotely via the internet and live anywhere you want. Perfect balance in my opinion.

[Greene728]

Great advice all and I thank you so much. Its interesting too see and hear from so many who have retired around the age I hope too (54-56). I have 2 different retirement plans, savings, and a couple small investment's. My sticking point is the DW. She works in the dental field and basically has nothing other than a paycheck, though fortunately its a good one. So I'm kinda planning and saving for us both. Plus with 2 young daughters, I know I'll have some weddings, first homes, college,etc to help out with and pay for. I'm just gonna keep chugging on and hope and pray for the best. Hopefully someday with some vision, luck, desire, and blessings,it will become reality.
Thanks again to all of you for the kind words, advice, and mostly the encouragement!

God bless,
Scott

[C_Schomer]

We're already south for the winter but I want to retire so I can go north for the summer! I could do it anytime now but the wifey is 8 years younger and she's been a sugar-mama to me for a few years. I kinda owe it to her to work 2 more years so I can have provide retiree medical for her so she can retire at 59.5. Craig

[miner1]

I'll be repeating everything the others have said.....BUT, boy we sure are enjoying ourselves in retirement! I was in the same boat as you, knowing I wanted to retire ASAP, and now the years have gone by and we are in the middle of it. We were able to retire at 54 & 55 and it took a lot of planning during the working years. We are also lucky enough to both have pensions + our 401K, 403B, retiree medical, etc....A couple of things that have caught us off guard: Medical expenses beyond your insurance coverage. We have been very healthy, but a knee replacement here, a gallbladder removal there, and bingo, you end up using your 'stash' for deductible etc.... Home and auto up-keep surprises..again, a dishwasher here, tires there, etc...We knew this going in, but reality hits you and messes with your budget. Retiring before 59.5 years of age prevents you from getting to your investments easily, so prepare for that also. Enjoy the present years, SAVE, and enjoy the days when the time comes!!

[Dog_Folks]

You are way ahead of most folks your age. You are aware of your long term goals. Now is the time to prepare financially for the retirement life. Spend you energy there and follow some very good advice given here. You are in a great position.

For years we watched snowbirds enjoy our town when the weather was perfect and then flee each summer when it got hot. I envied them also, and could not wait to become a snowbirds.

Through the grace of God I snowbird today. Sure, I missed my work colleges, but as my wife says: "This is better," and she is right.

The time will fly by, I guarantee it.

[n7bsn]

Early retirement can be more about what you don't spend, vrs how much you make.

We didn't make a "lot", but spent even less. This allowed us to retire in our 50s.

I have a friend that took every high-pay job he could, but also spent as little as he could, he and his wife retired at 37/35. They maintained the spend as little as they could and found that their "net value" increased as the years past.

I have a third friend that spent every dollar he got, set his budget based on the Over-Time and bonus pay he figured he would get. The net result is, they will not retire until maybe he is 70.

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

Whatever you do, always live for today, but plan for the tomorrows. Make it happen now as much as realistically possible in the form of shorter trips and compromises. Always be creating many treasured memories now.

There's a lot of rich folks in the cemetery that were always planning for just the tomorrows. Jandsa and Pipeman, hit the nail on the head. I sure wish we still had the same energy and body flexibility to do what we could a quarter century ago - it's all about quality not quantity in our book.

Kudos to you for such a rewarding and appreciated by many profession.