What thought processes did you go through when deciding to retire?

I just retired in December. The hospital I worked for was going through major changes, most of which I didn’t really like. In my case, I was almost 66, so insurance was not an issue. If I had been below 65, I wouldn’t have even thought about it because I couldn’t afford insurance on my own.
I haven’t been depressed or moody about it. However, I set goals for myself in which walking everyday is one. If I don’t meet a certain goal, oh well, the closet will get cleaned next week.
I did go back to work 2 days a week only because it seemed interesting to me. I help get homes of elderly ready to sale or to have estate sells. It’s fun, not taxing at all and I get to look at cool antiques.

I retired last April at the age of 63. I looked at a number of things. First, I was fed up at my job and was ready to walk out. I had gotten a job with this company when I was 58. At that time I realized how alive and well age discrimination was. It took me almost 6 months to find a job at that time. Some things don’t improve with age.

The next thing I looked at was how much money I was bringing home every month. That established what I would need to bring home just to keep the status quo.

The next item was to actually reach out and look at what I had as retirement funding I could tap into. I had an honest-to-God retirement from one company, a good sized IRA from another company, a Roth IRA with that same company, a cash retirement from that company, an IRA from the job I was ready to quit and the wife had Social Security started.

I also realized I had to look at medical at least for me. I had my wife and I on the insurance from my work, but that would be stopping. She had also just started Medicare so that was a relief. She would still need some sort of supplemental insurance, but the big stuff was covered. I reached out to VA and found out I could get medical through them. So medical was covered.

I reached out to a retirement/finance specialist. We worked through a good plan, rolling over one of the IRAs and the Roth into annuities so I would get a guaranteed amount every month. It could go up but wouldn’t go down. Adding every thing up I found I would be bringing home at least what I had brought home with the work. And I haven’t tapped into Social Security yet.

All this made me feel good about not worrying about money. So when I got fed up at work, I walked. I told the wife that morning that a lot of garbage had been flying on emails and texts starting in the middle of the night. I told her if I came home it meant I quit my job. I went to work at 8 a.m., left before 10 a.m.

As for the mental and emotional stuff, it was a bit more difficult to describe. I had worked most of my adult life, working long hours and weird hours. When I no longer needed to do that, I spent a while feeling out of sorts, like I should be doing something but didn’t know what that would be. It made me edgy and irritable. Then I went through a period of embracing the lazy to get away from the edginess. But that was just as bad going the other way. Now I’ve sort of settled somewhere in the middle. I get things around the house done that I didn’t have time or energy for before. I started trying my hand at various hobbies. Some have stuck, others have not. The wife and I already knew we could get along together as we had done so when I was laid off and before I got the job at age 58. NOTE: during that period I felt the same sort of edginess as I did when I finally retired. At that time I spent some time every day looking for and applying for jobs. I also was fed up with all the pine trees around my back yard so I started being an amateur lumberjack. I took down about 25 trees, cutting them up and stacking them. This was not an option when I retired as we had put up a fence as had all my neighbors and the pine trees were between the fences. sigh

Covid decided it for us.

Warning: in Kansas if you need assisted living it’s $5,000 to $7,000 a MONTH. The only way Medicare will pay for it is if you have 0 assets and virtually no money in the bank. And they have a 5 year look back. In other words I worked hard all my life, paid my dues, own my house and vehicles free and clear….and now the government wants to take it ALL if I want to live.
Now’s the time for planning.

@dutchess do you mean “Medicaid?”

No. Medicare. Medicare is for people who are of working age but they can’t work because of disability.
Medicare is for people 65 and older.

I am pondering it. I however love my job and organization. I work remote and have no reason to stop.
I have amped up my 401K and IRA’s. Bought a retirement house on an island in Maine. I have added many hobbies to know I can shift my time from work to hobbies.
I am making sure I keep up my health and visit and Dr. or Dentist to ensure I do all I can prior to retirement. I am in no hurry, but will embrace it when I find that time to pull the work plug.

medicade is for disabled people of working age.

@Forever_Free…please check what happens to all that if you have to go to assisted living. In Kansas, they’d take every penny of it.

I retired as of last Friday, my last day of work.

For me, the biggest worry was whether O could afford to stop working. But I worked past the Social Security “retirement age” for my birth year of 66 and two months, so I have something coming in each month for everyday expenses, and enough saved to travel and enjoy life.

My health benefits from work don’t expire until the end of the month, so tomorrow morning will be spent at the Soc Sec. office setting up Medicare.

I am already involved in some service work, so I don’t think it will be a big transition. I have a pretty full travel schedule for the next six months.

Emotionally, one of the biggest concerns I see with retirees is how much they identified their work with their self identity. A business I was involved with my whole career was sold off in the early Oughts, and watching a lot of men not survive more than six months was a lesson on breaking free of “I am the guy who….” .

You are separate from your job, you are more than just your job, and your contributions to family and community are more than you can imagine and have nothing to do with where you worked.

I retired 10 years ago.
Before retiring, I tried to forecast the cost of my power and gas, food, health care, and gasoline. I was pretty close on that, though food has jumped. I can easily drop $50 on lunch for my wife and I.
That said, my retirement guy is taking care of us. Even though we are pulling out money every month, our account is increasing. Thanks Brandon!

I worked in local government, so I knew I had a pension coming after 25 years, at age 55. I worked almost 30 years and my most recent job was for someone who was elected to her position. If she lost her re-election, I would go back to my regular job, same salary, same everything – same employer, just different Department. She lost her re-election. On the plus side, I had the pension coming and I had a lot saved in deferred comp, and my health insurance is free until the day I die. On the reasons to leave side, I had an hour commute on a good day, meaning in perfect traffic. It is often worse when there’s construction or an accident on the road, or bad weather.

When the time comes for me to get Medicare, Medicare will be my primary and my insurance will be my secondary, so I won’t need any special add on plans.

I have to pay a little more than 300 dollars a month for my teen daughter’s health insurance. She will get that until she’s 26 or 27.

I spend a lot less on gas now, and way less on car maintenance, tires, etc.

@jca2 I used to buy gas once a week because I drove 50 miles a day round trip to work. So far, I’ve only filled my tank once a month. Big savings there.

@chyna Yeah I drive other places now but definitely not the mileage that I used to put on when I was working. I fill it about once a week now.

I should add that I love, love, love not working. I love not dealing with work shit, politics, being stuck at work all day and not having time to do the fun things in life, like I do now. I also don’t sleep well at night, so it’s not unusual for me to be awake early in the morning and then back to sleep after the sun comes up, for another hour or two. I love not having to jump out of bed in the dark and the cold and start the morning routine. Now my mornings are leisurely and pleasurable. I try not to schedule things like doctor appointments, hair or car appointments for before about 11 in the morning, if I can help it. Preferably after noon.

I volunteer 3 hours a week, and they offered me a job that paid pretty well (not as well as my full time job, but not bad) but it was 21 hours a week, which is 3 days, and I turned it down, even though it would not have been a bad job at all (close to home, easy work) because I really don’t want to work 3 days a week. If it was 2 days a week, I probably would have gone for it, but not 3.

I was ready to retire at 50 from a large corporation. I had a plan to open a law practice after retiring to work with elder issues. Luckily when I was 51 the company went through a downsizing program and there was one affected employee who could laterally move into my position allowing me to take the retirement offer which was very generous. Things did not work out like I planned, but I was glad to be available to take care of my family during some horrible times. Living in Faith.

WOW! Such good, thoughtful answers. Thank you, everyone!

My biggest concern right now is health insurance. I am covered on my husband’s plan, but could switch to my work’s insurance if he were to leave his job. While that’s not in the cards now, I don’t like the idea of him feeling obligated to stay in his job until I’m 65 just so we have insurance.

There are a few reasons I’m contemplating this. One of the main ones is that I think my life expectancy is about 75-ish years old. My mom, who I am very like physically, passed at 75. One of my sisters – again with a strong physical and health resemblance – passed at 72. My mom’s sisters all died in this same age range, with one exception. While this doesn’t mean it will happen to me, I do have to consider my mortality. Do I want to spend 5 years working in the 15 or so I may have left?

@tedibear I think the pandemic make a lot of people go through the same thought process that you’re going through now – “life is short, enjoy life while you can, don’t spend the few years we have on this earth toiling at some bullshit job if you don’t have to.” It’s for that reason that many have retired and left the work force early, including doctors, nurses and other professionals, where many hospitals are short staffed now.