Retirement - when to take that step (leap?)

[nali]

As with a few others here I "retired" a couple of years ago but also went self employed and work on an ad-hoc basis, mostly for a previous employer. It stops me from stagnating and of course helps pay the bills.

Oddly enough there was an article on BBC News yesterday saying that >20% of UK adults aged 16-64 are neither working nor looking for work https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68534537 Sounds a bit alarmist but I suppose if you count unemployed, maternity/paternity, comfortable pre-retirement and wealthy it could be credible.

[tom66]

Most of the advice here is good, but actually impossible to follow.  For example:  Make sure you have enough money/income.

Over here you can buy/save for a fixed monthly pension from an insurance company. That way the person who dies at 60 pays for the income for the person who lives to be 100.

An annuity.  Typically the rates aren't particularly good, for instance from an annuity I would probably be able to get £10k per year, whereas even maintaining the safe-withdrawal-rate (~4%) would get close to £15k per year.  (Figures based on the projections from the current pot, I intend to increase it aggressively!)

One amusing thing about annuities is they tend to give you more if you're unhealthy, such as if you smoke... which begs the question as to how exactly they definitively prove that you do smoke regularly.

[hneve]

Felt the same about retirement creeping up on me. Got fed up with the corporate grind and decided I didn't want to wait around until I couldn't enjoy life anymore. Started looking into what makes me happy and how I could shift gears without ending up broke. Ended up launching a small venture that's more passion than work.

To get my finances straight, I used a Coast FIRE calculator. It was a real eye-opener, showing me I had enough stashed away to just cover living expenses without needing to add more to the pot. Made the leap way less scary and let me focus on what I actually want to do, not just what pays the bills.

[dobsonr741]

And there is health span. I started listen to this guy, decided to get my measureables in order, to get the best out of retirement, whenever I’ll get there. https://peterattiamd.com/

[pqass]

PSA: Life is meaningless and we're all going to die.

[dietert1]

When getting older, we need more time to recover. At 45 i used to run 10 km each and every day, while at 55 it was every second day. Also there seems to be a tendency to increase weight and become lazy, while the human body needs physical activity to stay healthy (sweat!).
When those requirements no longer combine with your job, it's time to retire. The average forum member should have enough ideas for projects. No need to be afraid. I recently built a 10 m² roof to cover the entrance of our house, including two concrete columns. Took four weeks and saved some money. I can still contribute something useful.

Regards, Dieter

[coppice]

One amusing thing about annuities is they tend to give you more if you're unhealthy, such as if you smoke... which begs the question as to how exactly they definitively prove that you do smoke regularly.

I was amused by those things, too. Can you just claim to engage in dangerous habits and extreme sports, or do they check regularly to ensure you are doing your best to kill yourself?

[bdunham7]

I have now doubts, that those financial advisors really have my best interest in mind. ;-}

It has been said that until proven otherwise you should consider any financial adviser, insurance salesman or real estate agent you meet to be a hardened criminal who is going to try and steal from you and has experience doing so.

[coppice]

Its nice if you can choose when to retire. Huge numbers of people are given little or no choice. Some are happy with that. Some are not. I wonder what the overall figures are for people's feelings about the reality of their retirement? Few people have a really good transition from work to retirement. After 40 years of working 5 days a week its quite a shock to the system if it happens suddenly, however it works out. Some people are able to phase out work gradually, and adapt, but most aren't. Civil servants in many places seem to have good provision for this. Some people look forward to retirement, end work happily while still fit, then fade away in just a couple of years and die. That's really sad to watch.

[coppice]

I have now doubts, that those financial advisors really have my best interest in mind. ;-}

It has been said that until proven otherwise you should consider any financial adviser, insurance salesman or real estate agent you meet to be a hardened criminal who is going to try and steal from you and has experience doing so.

I think it can be worse than that. I've seen financial advisers willing and able to give good advice, but constrained by the regulations they work under to give very poor advice. The whole system sucks in ways that seem unfixable.

[thermistor-guy]

And there is health span. I started listen to this guy, decided to get my measureables in order, to get the best out of retirement, whenever I’ll get there. https://peterattiamd.com/

Peter Attia's YT channel is good value: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterAttiaMD/videos

For physical training topics, I listen most often to Jeff Cavallier: https://www.youtube.com/@athleanx/videos
My physiotherapist has been following Jeff for 10 years.

[watchmaker]

Our take on retirement is that it improved our health and well being.  I am now 71 and lost 40 pounds in the last 3 years.  My wife is firmly entrenched in the community and has forgotten her past life. We still do restorations, but on OUR schedule (only during snow months).  We both are active in trail work.

I am in the USA.

You are just unaware of the effects of all the swirl  (commuting for example, or the general cultural anxiousness) on your state of mind.

We did make the decision in the 1980s that we would ensure our ass end was covered and would forego trips to Cancun paid for from home equity loans.  Our vacations were centered around national parks and such, which also kept us in shape.

I grew up in the lower 5% and talked a lot with a very frugal great aunt (1st generation USA Soct) who in her later years had to give up a very nice upper middle class apartment to live in senior housing.  She told me about outliving your resources.  Lessons all taken to heart.

To me, forty years in any occupation is enough.  At 65/70, if you are in the right position, there is still time left to enjoy new endeavors.   I believe you CAN make this happen even as late as your early 50s.  But the longer you have waited, the more discipline it will take.

Also, the adage that physical change is exponential after 60 is pretty close to truth.  I sat on my ass this winter and I went for a hike last week that was the most unenjoyable thing I ever did (only 4.5 miles and close to 4 hours).    It was solely an exercise of perseverance.  Last summer I outhiked my kid in the White Mtns.  Wake up call!!

My exit plan is to have a drop dead heart attack in the woods.  I have made it clear that when I get hit with a serious physical or cognitive impairment I do not want resources wasted on me.  If a treatment will not return me to function, what is the point?

[cosmicray]

I will attempt to answer this question with an anecdotal (true) story ...

I've lived here for slightly more than a quarter century. I have known my neighbors across the road, since their children were entering secondary school, a very long time ago. Two years ago, on a Saturday, I was over there standing at the front fence chatting with the wife of the couple. She had been a local heath care provider for ~43 years (wearing various hats) and had retired 2 months previously as an APRN. She was in absolutely tip-top medical shape, worked out regularly, had two adult children (both retired from different branches of the US military), and two grandkids (that visited occasionally). The following day she was being wheeled out to an EMS unit with a stroke. No prior warning of any kind. Of any person I know, who cared for their health as much as she did, she was the last person I would have expected that would happen to. Because of the type of stroke, she had no ability to communicate, nor consciousness. She was effectively on life support. Several days later, once the entire family had gathered, and based on her explicit advanced directive, there was full agreement to terminate life support. All organs were donated. Several months later there was a memorial service, with a wake the following day.

At the time that happened, she was 5 months older than I was. That experience made me laser focused on both managing my health, and on making sure that I am doing things I want to do. Not sure what else to say, other than enjoy your life while you have it. Life is precious.

[jmelson]

In June 2021 I woke up one morning and my right hand was partly numb.  I had felt this before, from sleeping on my arm wrong.  It usually came back within minutes.  But, this time it DIDN'T come back.  It took me 10+ minutes to button my shirt.  I needed to get on a Zoom call and had to write down the password, and could NOT write anything but jerky lines.  That's about when I realized I was having a stroke.

Well, after a few weeks the mental fog cleared, I went for some therapy, and they put me on anti coagulants and statins.  This was an occlusive, not hemhoragic stroke, and it did fairly minimal damage - I was LUCKY!  I still have a bit of an issue typing, and if I have to write out a paper check, woe be to the bank employee who has to read it!
Hopefully, the stuff I am taking will prevent another stroke.
Jon

[nctnico]

I don't think there are ways to prevent a stroke but being fit sure helps to get through it better. One of my family members was found after a couple of days because the neighbours had not seen him going out of the door for a while. The fire brigade had to break in the door in order to resque him. As he is (yes, present tense!) a very active and thus fit person, he had no problems going through the physical revalidation process (except being slightly bored by the exercises). OTOH, I've seen other people having big problems doing the exercises due to lack of being fit. Those are likely to not reaching the full potential of recovery.

[ebastler]

I find the turn this thread took a bit depressing. It seems to tell me that once you are done thinking about retirement plans, you start thinking about your impending death.

[BILLPOD]

     I retired 17 years ago, at age 59.  I was in HEAVEN!  I did whatever I felt like doing.   I went golfing, or fishing, or shooting at the range.   I would stop at the pub for a pint whenever I got thirsty.   And I still found the time to prepare dinner for 'Mother', as she was still working, (like Ex-vice President Mike Pence, I have always referred to my wife as Mother).   Then she retired and my 'unsupervised relaxation' came to an end.   Then my days were spent working on the 'Honey Do' list, but I occasionally escaped to enjoy a few hours of freedom.  I am now 76 and health issues pretty much keep me home-bound, but I enjoyed my life for a few years, and even though I never disliked my job, I have NEVER missed it.   

[watchmaker]

I find the turn this thread took a bit depressing. It seems to tell me that once you are done thinking about retirement plans, you start thinking about your impending death.

I actually have measured my life against my death for many years.  It enabled me to focus on the things that matter and to be measured in the way I am with others.  It was only a generation or so ago that death and dying were part of family life.

And FWIW, I am very comfortable with simply becoming recycled atomic matter.  But my son in law had the balls to ask me to not talk about this stuff in front of my daughter. Good man.

[SiliconWizard]

I find the turn this thread took a bit depressing. It seems to tell me that once you are done thinking about retirement plans, you start thinking about your impending death.

Maybe that should be motivation to make retirement plans before you're old.

[dietert1]

Regards, Dieter

[coppice]

I find the turn this thread took a bit depressing. It seems to tell me that once you are done thinking about retirement plans, you start thinking about your impending death.

Maybe that should be motivation to make retirement plans before you're old.

Some things you can plan for, like finances. However, the biggest changes in your life at retirement are things you can't really plan for, as they are outside the experience of most of us. If you have never had an extended period with nothing being demanded of you, how can you have any real idea how you will react when that happens? My father was an engineer with local government. They had a phase out scheme, where he worked on and off over his last year, with increasing amounts of off. That gave him a real taste of what retirement was going to be like. Most of us are unlikely to have such an option.

[RAPo]

Indeed. In the Netherlands there are even courses for the partner: how to handle the situation of a person always around you ;-)

I find the turn this thread took a bit depressing. It seems to tell me that once you are done thinking about retirement plans, you start thinking about your impending death.

Maybe that should be motivation to make retirement plans before you're old.

Some things you can plan for, like finances. However, the biggest changes in your life at retirement are things you can't really plan for, as they are outside the experience of most of us. If you have never had an extended period with nothing being demanded of you, how can you have any real idea how you will react when that happens? My father was an engineer with local government. They had a phase out scheme, where he worked on and off over his last year, with increasing amounts of off. That gave him a real taste of what retirement was going to be like. Most of us are unlikely to have such an option.

[jmelson]

They had a phase out scheme, where he worked on and off over his last year, with increasing amounts of off. That gave him a real taste of what retirement was going to be like. Most of us are unlikely to have such an option.

After covid, I have been working from home a LOT, which seems to work OK for my employer, as I do a lot of design work.  I am LOVING it, and find it harder and harder to drag myself in to work.
Jon

[coppice]

They had a phase out scheme, where he worked on and off over his last year, with increasing amounts of off. That gave him a real taste of what retirement was going to be like. Most of us are unlikely to have such an option.

After covid, I have been working from home a LOT, which seems to work OK for my employer, as I do a lot of design work.  I am LOVING it, and find it harder and harder to drag myself in to work.
Jon

That has very little in common with retirement. You are still expected to show up and get things done, whether that is in an office or at home. I had periods where I worked almost entirely at home 30 years ago. You are typically under greater pressure like that than in the office every day. When people are not able to directly monitor the time you put in, you really need to ensure there is no question you are pulling your weight. Retirement makes all those expectation go away. Some people react to this extremely well, finding it a wonderful relief. For others its only the expectations placed upon them that drove them forwards, and things go badly for them without that. One size most definitely does not fit all.

[BILLPOD]

I REALLY wanted to see the video in Reply #44 by Deiter.  Is there anyplace else I can go to see it