Question about your retirement

[Questor]

I posted a question about early retirements, and a lot of guys said they retired in their 50s. How did you do it? I've still got 2 kids to put through college and it seems like I'll be working for a long time. Is there a ray of hope there for me?

[GRIMJIM]

No, you're doomed.

The only ray of hope is there are a lot of people in that boat, including me. I'm 44 and my youngest is 8. I'll be working for a while yet too.

[Graybeard]

I thought everyone went to college on student loans these days. I was at the bank one day when every lane thru the drive thru (five of them) were backed up to the street and every parking spot in the parking lot was full and folks were waiting for someone to leave to get in one. I asked what the heck was going on and was told it was student loan day at the university. It was the day all the checks come to the students with loans and the gal said it would be like that all day long. It's how I funded my first two years of college straight out of high school as all my parents did was let me continue to live at home and gave me $5 a week for gas. They made it clear they felt it was charity to me to even allow me to stay at home after high school.

I had a job that paid me a decent retirement pension. I had 30 years service and they had an early out to reduce the work force and actually paid me $25,000 to take it and go. I make about a $1000 a month less pension for taking it over what I'd be drawing had I stayed until 55. That extra would really be nice but then it's been mighty nice being retired these last 14 years as well.

[slim rem 7]

 i just recently  took a similar buyout back in 2000..
 mine wasn t but 2000, but i get a pension for life,,that started at 55 i think....  i had another buisiness i was doing  at the time,, so it was alright.. recently i retired at 62...if the dollar would hold its value ,,id be a little better off.
 now what i wish,, is the body had held up an i was still putting in 8 a day....you got a wish place to go to sometime??jus don t live there. ...  now retirement got its pluses..
 you just gotta keep you mind straitened out..at least ,,thats the way it is for me.. slim
 ps just think if i was still working ,,id still have to learn how to be old.... that can hurt. slim

[Swampman]

I married money.

[Redtail1949]

Smart man that Swampman!

[CannonKrazy]

I married money.

She got any single sisters?

[45-70.gov]

30 years  ago  i just bought  my neighbors  homes  as they moved  out

i  am up tp  13  now  and rent  them  out

i own dalescarpentry  old homestead

my  kids  have grants, scholarships and student loans

some times they ask for money

i  am  54

my retiremant  turned  out to be  just a job change

worked  till  7;30  tonight.....kids  had supper  waiting on  me

[Gun Runner]

My first retirement was at 37 1/2 from the military. (20 yrs and a few mos.) When I turned 62 I  started drawing my S/S.  Just turned 69 couple mos. ago and enjoy doing what I want when I want. Quit my last job when I was 68 (part time job). Can fish when I want (wx permitting) shoot when I want, get up or go to bed when I want, and teach the grandkids things that drive my daughter and son in law nuts (Revenge is great).

Gun Runner

[The Hermit]

Questor, I worked all my life, got SS and 2 pensions, own a holding company, and invest. I paid cash for everything including cabins, vehicles, college for my children and fund an endowment for St Jude Hospital.  That doesn't happen much anymore. I grew up in a different time and traveled the world for my company.
Now i'm a semi recluse. You don't have enough money to ever get me on a plane again. My only advice is to take advantage of every opportunity that comes along. Apply for all the grants you can. Live to a budget and keep debt low. Own rather than rent. If your company has a matching contribution pension plan, use it to the hilt.
Then you've done your part. Trust the Lord and St Jude and all will be fine.

   The Hermit

[Cabin4]

I am not retired but will be by the time I'm 51 or 52 and no later than 55. I'm 47 now. Both the wife and I have a pension from a prior employer that we can tap into at 55. I have done well in my career and done well in a couple of small real estate deals along the way including the sale of my share in a small business a few years back. The 3 homes I've owned over the past 25 years have allowed me to build up a good chunk of equity. I will tap into that equity when I retire by selling my primary residence here in California. That sale will yield a chunk of change that will allow me to buy a smaller place for cash in the country. I'm targeting Idaho. So, the Silicon Valley to Idaho….After this, I'll have enough equity left over to live on for the rest of our lives and then into our 401ks at and other retirement accounts at 59. Once we can tap into those pensions at 55, it will give a good boost to cash flow. Non- retirement savings will be used to yield interest income only and I'll only touch principal if absolutely required. Then, we'll both collect SS at the earliest age.

It can be done and I've been savings for this since I was 18. My dad convinced me of the virtues of saving. He convinced me to open a IRA account back in the 1981 with the money I was making at my first full time job. Save early and save often. It will pay off.  I won't fully retire anyway. I'll need to do something to keep busy and make a few bucks doing it hopefully.

[Questor]

Thanks, Cabin4, that's encouraging. Our road block is that I am committed to providing as much stability as possible so long as our kids are at home or in college, and so long as my mother in law is alive (she needs a lot of help at age 92.) After those commitments are met, then we will retire. My wife has a partial teacher pension coming. We'll be working until we're about 60 if all goes well. After that, it'll be some kind of flexible part time work just to stay ahead of economic quirks.

[Savage .250]

Retirement is good for your health and I`m feeling fine.   

[slim rem 7]

 cabin 4 sounds like you got a good plan.. watch for the bumps in the road an good luck... slim

[jhm]

It is the BEST JOB I have ever had!!!   Jim

[magooch]

I was able to retire at the age of 59 for several reasons.  My job provided a nice retirement, my wife got a retirement from her job, my 401K did very well, I inherited a nice nestegg and of course there is Social Security. 

The primary reason that I retired when I did, was that my investments (401K, IRAs, and others had done very well and even though I lost some of it after 2002, it came back and I got out of the market and into stuff that wasn't subject to the whims of the market.  We haven't had to tap into the mother load, but my investment advisor told me a while back that I need to start spending money.

[Cabin4]

Thanks, Cabin4, that's encouraging. Our road block is that I am committed to providing as much stability as possible so long as our kids are at home or in college, and so long as my mother in law is alive (she needs a lot of help at age 92.) After those commitments are met, then we will retire. My wife has a partial teacher pension coming. We'll be working until we're about 60 if all goes well. After that, it'll be some kind of flexible part time work just to stay ahead of economic quirks.

One other point I will add about college savings. The day we announced my wife was pregnant with our son (1988), my mom & dad stopped over to congratulate us. My dad said lets go for a ride.......he drove me over to a Fidelity Investments office and we walked in and sat with an account advisor. Make a long story short, he funded a start up of my sons college fund and he did it because I promised him that I would put an amount on automatic deposit every month that went straight from my pay check into what’s called a UTMA account. UTMA is an IRS designation specifically for college savings accounts. It has special tax advantages. Well, 21 years later (or about) that fund has paid for 2.5 full years of my sons college and he on the road to secure his degree in Economics. His plan is to get his PHD and with his Deans list honor role grades, he is well on the road to doing this. That UTMA account still has enough money in it to pay for the entire balance of his education to come all the way through to securing his PHD. And even at that, next year he will be doing a semester off-shore (much higher cost) in either Australia or Amsterdam  to broaden his understanding of global economics. And even after that, he will have enough left over to buy a new car when he's done with PHD in hand.

My point here, save early and save as much as you can in a separate college funds for your kids. College costs are very high and it can really hit you hard if it’s not contemplated very early.

[Questor]

Cabin4:

It's interesting that your son has had the foresight to decide he wants a PhD. My son is going to college next year and he's not thinking about advanced degrees (yet.)

What motivated him to want to have a PhD?

[Cabin4]

Cabin4:

It's interesting that your son has had the foresight to decide he wants a PhD. My son is going to college next year and he's not thinking about advanced degrees (yet.)

What motivated him to want to have a PhD?

Good question: Originally he only wanted his bachelor’s degree and then wanted to get out into the work force. I wanted him to stay in college and go all the way through to his Masters. We debated the pros & cons of this for some time his freshman year.  I asked him to meet with his counselor and talk to him about what he thought was a good approach and what avenues/options he could take towards and advanced degree. So this is how the PHD came about. My son goes to San Jose State U and they have a program that if he continues straight on uninterrupted and take some advanced courses now all the way through his senior year, he qualifies for a unique program they offer. That program allows his to secure moth a Masters and a PHD in one additional year of school if he gets on the right track early. So he did this and has really buckled down. He is taking all sorts of extra classes including summer school and even some weekend courses. He will have enough credits to get his Bachelors 6 months early and he will still have extra college credits that are applied to his advanced education (Masters & PHD).

This is from a kid who struggled through high school to get mediocre grades but he always scored very high on the SATs (bla bla bla) and all those other tests. He has made the dean’s list a every single semester and runs a 3.8ish grade average (yes I am bragging as a proud father). He reads constantly all sorts of books on history and key figures in the world and studies endlessly. He has even taken the speed reading classes and if you watched him read, you would think he’s crazy flipping through the pages. He knows more about this world and details about our countries history than most  can ever imagine to know. He can debate foreign policy exceptionally well so his scope is beyond economics and I think this is part of his drive to get a PHD. He is now even talking about getting a degree in aeronautical engineering on top of the other…..We are talking about this now and how he could possibly achieve that. My father (his grandfather had a duel degree in architecture and mechanical engineering and this has him interested because of this.

[Questor]

Cabin4:

Thanks. I really appreciate the thoughtful answer.

My son is a lot like your son in terms of interests. He's been a good student, but really didn't have an idea of what he wanted to study, so I suggested that you can't go wrong with degrees in business, economics, or engineering. So he picked engineering. Then I asked him what he might want to work on, little things or big things. He picked big things, so I suggested civil or mechanical engineering. Personally, I would have preferred that he had a personal vision but he just didn't have a clue and needed some help forming a vision.

The college visits helped a lot, as did a trip to a good reference library that allowed him to get some stats about various occupations, look at trade journals, etc.

[Cabin4]

Yes, they do need guidance & help forming a vision. I certainly won't say that my son knew exactly what he wanted to do his freshman year. In fact he vacillated about for a while and even strongly considered journalism (huggg!!). Whee, now with journalism out of the way (thank God)  we can focus on other real stuff. Seems like your son is on a good track and like my son has a good head on his shoulders. The areas he’s is focusing on are all good and he won’t go wrong with any of them. I personally tried to push my son to civil engineering. I told him he could live just about any place in the country he wanted and still make a good living in that field.

[Questor]

Cabin4:

We have many of the same concerns. My conversations about the future with my kids has focused on the lifestyle they want. My son wants to live in a place that's cooler year round than Minnesota, which means either the mountains or the Pacific northwest. He wants to live someplace where he can go hunting with good quality lands. I told him that civil engineering is one of those things that will allow him to work most anywhere he chooses.

We'll see how it goes. It's a very tense time for me as a parent because they are getting ready to "leave the nest" and I want things to be prepared for them.

My son has been clear about the lifestyle he wants. My daughter has not given it serious thought. She's a couple of years younger than my son. Hopefully ideas start to form for her pretty soon.

[Cabin4]

Cabin4:

We have many of the same concerns. My conversations about the future with my kids has focused on the lifestyle they want. My son wants to live in a place that's cooler year round than Minnesota, which means either the mountains or the Pacific northwest. He wants to live someplace where he can go hunting with good quality lands. I told him that civil engineering is one of those things that will allow him to work most anywhere he chooses.

We'll see how it goes. It's a very tense time for me as a parent because they are getting ready to "leave the nest" and I want things to be prepared for them.

My son has been clear about the lifestyle he wants. My daughter has not given it serious thought. She's a couple of years younger than my son. Hopefully ideas start to form for her pretty soon.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, western Washington/Oregon all good land that your son would likely appreciate very much. I’m sure they need civil engineers there as well. Lewiston Idaho area is an interesting place. It’s in what they call the banana belt weather flow. With a mild pacific air flow that comes all the way across Oregon that time of year, mild winters in the low country and its at the base of the high country for great access to great hunting.

[Questor]

Cabin4:

One of my major initiatives as a parent have been to take the kids from coast to coast and border to border via some very interesting places. They've been to Montana, and when I ask them where they'd like to take a vacation, they want to go back there. My son has no interest in the ocean, and doesn't like warm places. Neither kid wants to live inside a big metropolitan area. It's been a very worthwhile thing to expose them to this. It's amazing what a trip will do to influence their minds.

(Maybe I've done OK as a parent because if my son does live in the mountains, he can take me elk hunting.)

[Sourdough]

As I said before I retired at the age of 55.  But it was not really by choice.

I spent 20 years in the Air Force, retired and draw a retirement check.  While on active duty I was a Plumber/Pipefitter and was exposed to asbestos.  I also lost a portion of my left lung from a grenade in Beirut.  When I retired it was annotated in my retirement I had a medical problem with my breathing.  I then went to work for the Air Force as a Civilian Employee, doing the same job I had done while on active duty.  The reason I went to work for the Air Force was that I was following my active duty wife around for seven more years.  With spouse preference I was able to have a job when she moved the family to new locations.  When she retired we returned to North Pole, and I got a job on Ft Wainwright, a large army post in Fairbanks.

In May of 2001 I had a heart by-pass and was put on light duty.  Following the surgery when I went back to work the big boss said I had to go back to work in my shop doing housing maintenance.  Physically I was not able to do anything but the most minor jobs.  After a few months management decided to contract my shop, and to meet the requirements to fast track the contract they needed to reduce the numbers in the shop by five people.  They decided to relocate the five of us to the power plant.  I refused to work in the Power Plant due to the breathing hazard in the plant, and my already existing breathing problem.  Management said "Go home on leave without pay"!  I replied "Put it in writing"!  They did.  The letter said "Due to your service connected disability we no longer have a position for you on Ft Wainwright".  I took that letter to the VA and gave it to them.  The lady at the VA said they are saying you are unemployable.  She put me in for "Unemployability" and the VA came back with a ruling of 70% Disabled, 100% Unemployable.  I draw my VA disability, and my Air Force retirement.  I worked for more than 10 years for the government as a civilian, and am eligiable for retirement from them when I reach 62.  I'm now 60.  I will also be eligible for Social Security when I reach 65.

As for Sky's college, the wife and I saved all his Permanent Fund Dividend checks from the State of Alaska, for his college fund.  We also added any money he was given as a child.  My Father-In-Law gave a sizable amount of money to all his grandkids just before he died.  We put that money in Sky's college fund as well.  Since I am a 100% vet, the VA is paying for Sky's classes and books.  He is saving his college fund for his Masters Degree.

[Questor]

Sourdough:

I'm sorry you were so seriously wounded defending our country. It's guys like you who have been protecting me almost all my life. I sincerely appreciate that you fought for us. We can never repay you.

[Cabin4]

Sourdough:

I'm sorry you were so seriously wounded defending our country. It's guys like you who have been protecting me almost all my life. I sincerely appreciate that you fought for us. We can never repay you.

Ditto on that.

[rockbilly]

SD.  Yours sounds a lot like my story.  I retired from the AF after 23 years, eight months and 13 days.  I worked in the civilian community for several years eventually becoming general manager of an automotive dealership, the money there was EXCELLENT!  The problem with this line of work is there is there is little time off to enjoy the money you earn. I purchased a new Sketter bass boat shortly before retiring from the AF, it left the driveway two times over a four year period while in the car business. I got inside information about the AF plan to buy the B1 bomber and applied for a civil service job in a support area, I was hired and spent 26 years there.  I retired totally two years ago.  I too, took a hit while in the military, a piece of metal passed through my left lung and lodged in the lower portion of my heart, doctors said I was very lucky to be alive, I am still fighting VA on this issue.

The wife spent many years as a teacher at a small community collage, retired and then spent 25 years in the insurance business, she retire for good two years before me.  We scrimped and saved over the years, made some wise investments and purchased several pieces of real estate so we now have a  healthy retirement package and are able to enjoy life fairly well.  

[teamnelson]

SD, I may be asking your advice at some point when I drop papers. Survived an IED in 2006 and made sure to copy all the paperwork. Thanks for your service!

I don't plan to "retire" actually, just switch gears. Part of it is personal conviction, part of it is watching everyone in my family who took early retirement thinking they had their $ all lined up working harder now than they were before retirement. When I retire from service, I hope to teach at the college/university level; get involved in some charitable work, stay active in a church. And if I get too old for that, hand out smiley's at Wal-Mart.

[Sourdough]

The only advise I have is to make sure you have copies of all your pertanate information from your medical records well before you retire.  All the asbestos exposure records disappeared shortly before I retired.  The doctor that did the biopsy and found the asbestos in my lungs gave me the originals at the time of the surgery, and sent copies to the AF.  He told me the AF had a habit of losing Asbestos records on patients before retirement.  Those records did come up missing.  Luckily I had those reports to give to the VA.

Also I understand the VA has tightened up the requirements for disabilities recently.  My neighbor went in for reevaluation due to his agent orange exposure during Viet Nam.  When he got his response back he had went from 40% to 20%.