Yes he did, rather than sit around drooling on himself and crapping his pants he saw the right time to check out on his own terms.

His family was set, he called his wife said goodbye to her then checked out.

I will cross that bridge when I get to it, right now I am good, when I get in my older years? I will decide when I am becoming a burden and check out.


Wife and I did our 2 mile walk this morning with the dog. I take the kid to school on Friday, we grab breakfast out together on our way there.

I made it to the office in time today to meet with my field crew and get them setup for the day.

I am checking work, doing some drafting work, then leaving for the day at 1:30 to go pick up my son from school so he can drive (learners permit) we will probably grab a late lunch.

After that I am heading home to finish putting my pool heat solar panels back up that we took down for Dorian and left down for the remainder of the hurricane season.

Then I am grabbing the E30 out of storage, we are going on a little day trip up the coast tomorrow to explore a little down town area called Cocoa.


Not a bad day for a working man.

Yeah. Knocked myself out falling off a horse a couple years ago. Paramedic asks me "what day is it" and I told him, dude, next question, I'm retired and don't care.

And Hugh, lol. I put the trash out a day late this week out of retirement confusion.

I'm telling you, if it's mundane clock in work, I would just hang myself.

I'm 63, I have enough money to do nothing but I have a little garage with a lift, remote from the crib, where I go daily. I do stuff on cars and handyman work. No advertising, no nuttin'. Just word of mouth among a handful of customers. It's not lucrative but it's beer money and I have a nice place to fix my own cars.

Thing is, I like it. I have liked solo garage time my whole life. I think that is the key to peace for me.

Also, I can be driving to "work" at 8:30am thinking I am going to work on that pedal cluster in my 911 today and two phone calls come in that completely change the complexion of my day............so it ain't so mundane getting a "crisis breakdown" guy back on the road so he can drive to work plus you have a feel good factor.

Consider some sort of service you can provide. Keep it to a very few things, unlike me.

Sounds like what I am slowly building out in my small (40x60) barn. I have a 2 post lift, all my tools, some necesay power tools, and a clean/warm area to work on small projects (mostly garden tractors, and motorcycles). I buy/fix/sell stuff on my own, with ample "alone shop time"....not retired yet, but within 5 years.

I am not allowed to use a welder any more after getting my new pace maker, so looking into oxy/acetylene welding/brazing.

+1
Puttering in the shop - heaven!

Retired with wife still working.
She loves her work team, and I occasionally remind her to kiss the race cars before you go to work.
Last 12 years retired and in the garage have been awesome.
My wife needs a fun hobby that would help her consider retirement too.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1574104914.jpg

When do you know when you have enough money? Being self employed for over 25 years there is no pension, but I do have some money saved and some retirement funds.

That differs for everyone. Generally speaking, when you have enough to live a chosen lifestyle for as long as you think you will live. That chosen lifestyle can be a recluse living on a bare minimum on one end to Trump living in his chosen luxury.

On Bob Brinker's money talk radio show, this is called reaching "critical mass"...not having to work unless you want to.

Most money managers will say it's prudent to withdraw 4% of your investments annually. If you can live on that amount, join us.....

My standard isn't "how much money in the bank is enough."

That's scary to me. A declining fund of money? I'm not good enough at math or prognostication to figure out how much would be enough.

My measure is "how much solid income are you generating in retirement?"

The goal being to actually *increase* your nest egg/net worth/savings in retirement. Die with more than you had on the day you retired.

I know, tho, that's not for most and makes no sense to most.

That’s good stuff, we are without debt so I guess it’s just a matter of figuring out operating costs, then living. What do you factor in for cost of living 3%?

https://www.firecalc.com/ This is a good calculator for retirement planning.

I belong to an early retiremnet forum that can answer all of the questions you have...probably more activity than this site. Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community

I never expected this thread to go on to three pages! Lots of good thoughts have come out in this thread. Ted brought up an interesting point that I’ve been thinking/worried about. My wife is 10 years younger than me and still loves going to work every day. Which is good, because she doesn’t have the same type of hobbies that would take up her time on a daily basis if she retired. When I ask her what she would do on a daily basis if she retired, she doesn’t have an answer for it. I don’t know what she is going to do when she retires.

One thing I really need to work on is not feeling guilty about just doing fun things during the day. I feel like I need to work on something around the house because she goes to work every day. I definitely need to get over that!

I truly feel blessed that I was able to retire when I wanted to. I feel sorry for people that are going to have to work until the day they die because they either didn’t plan for retirement or they don’t make enough money to be able to save up to retire.

A good financial adviser/planner can help you figure that out . A good adviser will have the skill/knowledge and software tools to run ANY scenario you can think of . You discuss with them everything you want or need by retirement age X and they help figure out how to get there . But keep in mind nothing is 100 % or guaranteed , if the market crashes it crashes and there's only so much you can do to protect the portfolio . A good adviser will ask you how long are you going to live ? Sounds silly but you need to tell them a number based on family history or magic 8 ball or whatever you use . Lets say you retire at 65 and family history says you will kick by 75 , in that scenario your financial plan should plan on kicking at 85 to be safe . I am just making up the numbers for the example . You give a good adviser all the data and some fudge factor for safety they can get you damn close . At least that has been my experience with ours .

I had a bit of that after I decided to retire, but when I started clearing my office out, it reminded me of all the work I had done over the years, and the guilt went away.

I also supported my late wife through 11 years of medical and pre-med training, and backstopped her medical practice for 25 years.

So, no regrets; I'm just going to coast now.....

I think feeling a bit guilty is pretty common after decades of productive work. I felt that way in the beginning. The way I worked through it was to accomplish at least some small thing each day and let myself do whatever for the rest of the day. After a while I didn't feel guilty as long as I got my basic responsibilities accomplished.

Guilt? What’s that? :confused:

My whole live I worked my tail off. I keep busy in retirement doing the many things I wanted to do when I was working. My hard decisions are prioritizing tasks, and also which ones I should multi-task. I have house & yard projects and upkeep. I have my Datsun 280Z renovation/modification project, my sailboat (use & maintenance), plus daily exercise, hanging out with family and friends. All are guilt free.

When ones portfolio pays more then when one is working. It’s time to retire.

Way to go Jim!

I look forward to the days when all I have to do is what I want. Mid week sails, weekend sails... :)

The $$ thing is so tough. 4% rule doesnt factor inflation. Its one thing to calculate withdrawals when you are 64, 4% might be ok. But at 45? Not so sure, way too long a draw down period. Its also hard to assume a 7+% ROR. Good to plan but I'm pretty conservative, hope for the best plan for the worst, right? :) With the market on fire lately its pretty cool to check the balance of my trading account and see it up each day more than I make at work. I know that wont continue but it beats other options. Also, I see a lot of talk about paying an advisor for scenarios. Great, if that works for you. But there are so many free calculators available now, anyone can get great information for free. Nothing wrong with talking to an honest and fair advisor but its not a requirement by a long shot. Different strokes.

One thing I've learned over the past few years is to live life, now. Watching mom die shortly after retiring from a life of hard work was tough.

^^^^ If the numbers aren't working out for ya....convert them to hexadecimal and fire any advisor who can't do the math...YMMV ;)