Semi retirement guilt You opinion

[winnietrey]

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?

[Gsport]

Never feel guilty, you've earned what ever YOU decide. I retired at 54, and my wife is retiring in 7 weeks at 58. You just never what tomorrow will bring..

[MPI_Mallard]

Frau Blücher retired and I called it quits at 50 and we never looked back!! They give awful short rides on this life we get!!!

[winnietrey]

Snowman9000 wrote:
OP,
Heck, you are paying for a lot of other people's pensions who are retired at your age. If you can afford to at least semi-retire, good for you.

I fully retired early by selling my business. I had a lot of guilt over being a bum. You can laugh but for some of us it is a real thing. DW kept trying to convince me that no one else cared. She was right. If you want to do it, go ahead, and own it with no guilt.

Snowman, you nailed it, that is exactly how I feel. My DW, like yours thinks I am crazy, And is very much enjoying, this semi retirement. She works with me same hours.
And has zero guilt. I think I will get there, but is going to take a little more time for me.

And if drives the businees in the ground. (although I don't think it will) Then that wound will be self inflicted. I will own that as well.
It was a choice I (we made) and must live with the result. Good or bad.

[Reader1]

I retired in June of 2011 at age 58, DH is still working. Many people have posted that retirement is wonderful. For me, it is a process. I loved my job - elementary school principal, and for the first 6 months felt so disconnected and "moped" a lot. I began volunteering at a Children's Hospital, got involved with an educational foundation and things got better. DH and I travel a lot, spend time with our family and my adjustment is better. DH will retire in a couple years and we will travel more. For some people going from working 60-70 hours a week to 0 takes some getting use to.

[Snowman9000]

OP,
Heck, you are paying for a lot of other people's pensions who are retired at your age. If you can afford to at least semi-retire, good for you.

I fully retired early by selling my business. I had a lot of guilt over being a bum. You can laugh but for some of us it is a real thing. DW kept trying to convince me that no one else cared. She was right. If you want to do it, go ahead, and own it with no guilt.

[winnietrey]

S Sullivan wrote:

S Sullivan wrote:

M GO BLUE wrote:

Water-Bug wrote:
You're right, you should feel guilty for only semi-retiring, when you probably have enough money to retire completely. 🙂

x2

...so you are semi-retiring and only have $60,000 total in retirement funds to live on the rest of your life?

I interpreted his $60K to be annual income. ???? I'll go back and re-read.

After re-reading .... maybe you are right. I would be a bit nervous with only 60K in savings, if retiring young. We retired at 58 and 55 with more quite a bit more that 60K and sometimes we find ourselves worrying about future needs. DH has a great pension retirement for all our day to day needs and entertainment. We don't regret retiring early!

OP here, 60k a year, not total. More like 10x that total.

I know a lot of us started working at 15 or 16, went to school, started a business.

Always put the client first, came in on saturdays, stayed late and on and on.

It's just taking some getting used to saying, sorry we can not do that, anymore
We will lose some people becuase of that. And I understand from their point of view, why and do not blame them.
So we will lose business, how much I do not know.

Just difficult to pull back on the throttles. When you have always gone pretty much full out.

Very much appreciated every ones thoughts. They are helping.


Have not been at this to long. probably will take some adjustment.

On the bright side, after breakfast, walked the dog for a hour. Then went on a 4 hr bike (pedal) ride. Stopped for lunch on the ride.

Got home and am enjoying a cold one or two. Normally would not be home from work for another couple of hours.

Am thinking I may get to enjoy this new schedule, I really don't want to retire yet. Just want to slow it down. Still enjoy work, Just want to spend less time at it

[FunnyCamper]

I am working on early retirement. AS SOON as me and hubby are in the zone where it will work, boy am I jumping on it with absolutely no quilt 🙂

Like another said, you earned it!!!!

[MTPockets1]

Retired at 57, started traveling and have loved it now for nearly 10 years. I don't believe one can be in "part time" retirement . Until you let go 100 percent, you're not retired. That job stuff will always be on your mind - Let it go! You'll never understand 'til you do.

[John___Angela]

Retired at 41. Now we work 6 months on and take 6 months off. Sometimes a little more. Taking a few extra months to tour around Europe this summer. Been livin this way for about 10 years. We keep a tight budget, still save for the future and enjoy the full time lifestyle. I figure we will do this for another 9 years and them retire for good.

Happy trails.

[tragusa3]

I can't wait to retire early! Got a ways to go, but plan to do it much earlier than most. Not because we will have money to live high on the hog, but because we will be content to not live high on the hog.

If you're saying you'll have $60k annually, then there is no decision to make...live and love while you can.

[Jim_Shoe]

I retired at 52, but then I started delivering newspapers at 12 and worked all the way thru high school and college, so I put in my 40. Nobody laying on a death bed ever said "I wish I'd spent more time at the office".

[S_Sullivan]

S Sullivan wrote:

M GO BLUE wrote:

Water-Bug wrote:
You're right, you should feel guilty for only semi-retiring, when you probably have enough money to retire completely. 🙂

x2

...so you are semi-retiring and only have $60,000 total in retirement funds to live on the rest of your life?

I interpreted his $60K to be annual income. ???? I'll go back and re-read.

After re-reading .... maybe you are right. I would be a bit nervous with only 60K in savings, if retiring young. We retired at 58 and 55 with more quite a bit more that 60K and sometimes we find ourselves worrying about future needs. DH has a great pension retirement for all our day to day needs and entertainment. We don't regret retiring early!

[S_Sullivan]

M GO BLUE wrote:

Water-Bug wrote:
You're right, you should feel guilty for only semi-retiring, when you probably have enough money to retire completely. 🙂

x2

...so you are semi-retiring and only have $60,000 total in retirement funds to live on the rest of your life?

I interpreted his $60K to be annual income. ???? I'll go back and re-read.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

My father "retired" at 58 as an assembly foreman of a machine manufacturer. He started working full-time 6 months out of the year at his "hobby", trim carpentry. He also contracted and sold two houses a year as he did while working his old job. He had 4 by-passes at 60, started walking 5 miles a day and following all doctor's orders. He would winter in Florida with my mom and take it easy. He was out for his morning walk at his Florida condo when he suffered fatal sudden cardiac arrest on Valentine's Day 17 years ago next month, 1 month after his 66th birthday. He was still "working" 6 months out of the year when he passed away. He at least had 8 "half years" of "retirement", if he'd retired at 65, 1 year would have been it.

I had 3 heart "events" in one week two years after my father passed away at the age of 48. After 6 months of rehab, back to work I went. I had on-going problems, my cardiologists "retired" me at 50 saying "you won't last 6 months much less a year more, working". My wife took full retirement 5 years later at 55, the 1st date she could as a teacher. We went full-time that summer 8 years ago. We spend October to April South of I-10 and I function well with my weakened heart and my 3rd ICD, but weather under 40° isn't good for me at all. Warmer weather means we can get out, ride bikes and walk, which is good for us both.

Guilt, No.....but I still wake up one or two days per month at 3 AM thinking I have a customer appointment that day 300 miles away after 13 years.

As for Scottiemom, the DW...she still gets excited when we pass a school in session...Since she's not there! No Guilt there either.

[M_GO_BLUE1]

Water-Bug wrote:
You're right, you should feel guilty for only semi-retiring, when you probably have enough money to retire completely. 🙂

x2

...so you are semi-retiring and only have $60,000 total in retirement funds to live on the rest of your life?