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So on March 31st, checked on my retirement status and the financial adviser says I'm all set, my wife gave me the go ahead.

Put together my severance package and proposed it to the City - City Council agree to all of it. I'm done as of June 1st.

My wife and I, along with 2 other couples are leaving on fishing vacation in the morning to Lake of the Woods, MN, to chase Walleye's for a few days, back to work for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, then I'm done.

So this year, no worries about the job while setting in front of the fire drinking a cold one couple days before opener, then total R & R for .......... however long we want :)

Wave at all my relatives as you drive thru Baudette and on the way up the 'Lake Road'

Where are you going to elk hunt?

I retired at the end of July in 2014 and left to go stone sheep hunting the same day. I haven't regretted it for a minute, especially around hunting season......which is Jan, Feb, Mar, April, May, early June, August, Sept, Oct, Nov and December! I could even go to Haida Gwaii in July and hunt Sitka blacktails if I wanted). Hope our legs, lungs and passion keep us going for a long time like Paul at the Fort!

The only downside is sometimes losing track of what day it is, but if some season isn't opening or it's not your anniversary or wife's birthday, doesn't really matter if it's Tuesday or Thursday!

Enjoy.

I retired (if you can call it that-grin) nearly 9 years ago & I love the freedom of time as well as being able to spend endless time in the elkwoods! Congrats to you & good luck with your retirement & elk hunts this year!

ElkNut1

Good Luck this Fall!

Scar.

Sounds like good planning by you and your wife is paying off!

Enjoy LOW and the walleyes!!!

Mark

Best of Luck, Jeff

And not once did I miss meetings, conference calls, reports, spreadsheets... :-)

Congrats, and good luck on your hunts !

Congrats, and good luck on your hunts !

My life at 35...;-(

This December for me

Good luck, Robb

I pulled the plug on my career Dec 30 2016. I'm 53 now and agreed to stay until the last business day of 2016. I realize everyone experiences this transition differently but I'd love to hear from some who've retired early to see how things/impressions/perspectives changed after the first year, second year, fifth year.... I'm 6 months in and expected some normal anxieties that go with this big of a change in ones life, regardless how unfounded they might be.

As others are already pointing out, where's all the time for hunting, camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, shooting, mtn biking, golfing, relaxing....hell, I almost feel like I need a job just to get my down time back.

My worries for the first two years were whether we truly had enough money (no pension) and managing the Obamacare nightmare. I also got sucked into a little more volunteer work than I really wanted.

Now at the end of year 3 I've accepted that our finances are solid, no longer feel like I "have" to do something that day unless there's a deadline (articles for editors, wife needs, volunteer obligations, appointments). The health insurance thing is still a concern but we'll manage. I often forget what day it is. When hunting I get lost in the hunt and don't think about what day it is, only about today and .maybe tomorrow.

I've reached a place where I am truly living "in the moment". I thought I knew what it was before, but only in brief windows, not as a way of life. I'm on three boards, manage two big private fisheries, two fishing derbies, a wounded vet event, and I write 6 or 7 bowhunting and fishing feature articles a year (income restrictions due to Obamacare...) That's enough, not too much. I feel fulfilled and that I'm doing worthy things. That is reward in itself.

Seen friends and family get called away too early and have regrets about not doing some trips now.

By the time you have money, you may not have the time:)

You really have to study the different policies. I believe mine is a really good one, costs $3000 a year. It has a "home health care doubler" that pays for home care for quite awhile without affecting the assisted-nursing home benefit. Its from Genworth and has a very good rating, for whatever that's worth.... But I know what you're saying.

I'm hoping to retire in two years if the math adds up.

Most people I mentor wildly underestimate the real amount needed. Usually by about 30-40%. Then they freak out when reality hits and they realize they need to work another 5-7 years and save as much as they can, when they mentally were ready to drop out NOW. We came up with a number, and I was nervous as hell about it for the first two years. But it turns out we are pretty much right on that number (with annual increases) and did a reverse mortgage LOC for a wonderful safety net, which continues to grow in value every month.

There are some ok "retirement calculators" online, but they are way too generic to trust. You have to do your own tracking to come up with a real number for you, since everyone is different.

Figure it out based upon the retirement budget in dollars that gets you the retirement lifestyle you want to target.

Is this scenario realistic?

Guys we/I need advice on how to have a successful retirement.

Have a great memorial day, Jeff

As far as how much you'll spend, some spend more in retirement, some spend less. Depends on how many trips you take, expensive dinners out, new vehicles, etc.. That's why an extremely detailed spending plan will help take the pressure off off - you'll know. Its a tedious PIA to do but really gives you the big picture.

Also +1 on paying off the house. Retirement planners to both ways on that Also but we wanted to get rid of the monthly payment and then have all that equity "in the bank" to draw on as needed.

I could fill my life full time just with volunteer work - fishing and hunting programs with wounded vets, kids outdoor programs, archery clubs, volunteer trail ranger, all sorts of stuff. I had to cut back to have more time for my own passions. Can't imagine going back to a job now.

A little peace of mind.

+1 on a fee-only planner who specializes in retirement planning. DO NOT go with a sales outfit like Edward Jones. They'll sell you what works best for them, not you. One of my advisors is former EJ and I had some investments with them too. He told me the whole story on the EJ strategy.

Fuel for some will decrease from not going to work every day, but fuel increases for us as I get out of the house now taking trips. I budgeted an additional $300 in fuel use over what we used when I was working every month for road trips we now 'expect' to take. Food is always cheap, for us, because we don't eat out much where some of you who eat out for lunch to get out of the office might find a savings from that expense post retirement if you start eating at home more. Many things nearly remain predictable (property tax has nothing to do with your job unless you move, vehicle maintenance might decrease for you but it's likely minimal, annual mag/club subscriptions (if you buy mags) remain if you want to keep buying them, etc...) You get the gist...so you have to document every expense you have now and expect to keep and how it changes after you don't go to an employer everyday.

X% of gross income or X times your annual salary is spit balling in the loosest sense. Might give you direction when you're 20 years from retirement but not when time gets closer. So I wouldn't "wing it" for something this important based on something not even close (you could get lucky though).

I worked tech geek stuff so I added everything in apples first. Annual property tax I divided by 12, car insurance by 12, annual subscriptions by 12, totaled home natural gas bill for year and divided by 12, same for electric, trash, umbrella Ins, home Ins, etc, and added all those average expenses to all the monthly expenses that don't fluctuate on season. That tells you right there, as close as you'll ever get, how much per month must be provided post-tax. Times 12 is your minimum annual expenses, then figure what Fed and State taxes you'll pay and that's basically your annual income needed.

Finishing this is more complicated than that but it is a LONG ways closer to figuring this out than X% of income or X times annual salary crap. Then you can really get something out of a fee only retirement planner because you now have the clue that helps them help you.

Being aware, I know about inflation and tax increases so I accounted for those the best I could and padded just a touch more just for good measure. Although I don't pay property tax every month, I know my account must increase by that 1/12 amount to cover it at the end of the year. So I predict as well as no one else can tell me how much we spend every year on what we consider our 'no sacrifice felt' lifestyle.

Run through 3 different sources (fee only retirement planner (not just investment planner), and 2 different companies that both have the software to calculate Monte Carlo method) besides my own spreadsheets generated from a couple decades of diligent reading on this topic have all confirmed what I have been estimating all along...we're as set as anyone can predict to being fine through the worst our markets have experienced in the past and living like kings if they do average or better.

My wife and I have it made in the shade retired at 50% our annual income. However, that's because we saved about 50% of our annual, carry no debt whatsoever (not even a mortgage), have spending desires under control (we don't burn what's in our pockets just cause it's in our pockets), prefer eating at home where the food is actually good and good for us (vs restaurants), and still save for the rainy days we all get. Because of living on 50% of annual income for all these years, we're effectively retiring on full income because that's the lifestyle we lived for all those years. So X% of gross income is totally meaningless without first determining what you spend every year.

We didn't make American average but we sure as hell didn't make much more like people around us think! And we have never felt we were sacrificing to live on this income. I hunt, fish, camp, golf, hike, mtn bike, shoot guns, etc...so it's not like I'm cheap and don't do anything that costs money.

Having said all that! Thank Jacuomo! Being advised all is financially set still doesn't change the initial anxieties one gets even when faced with facts. I read often that your first couple year's feelings are common and that we tend to batten down the hatches unnecessarily because of it. I don't want to get too personal but I wonder how those before me broke their 'saving' habit - stopping the stashing some of what comes in monthly in the rainy day savings account is just so uncomfortable for me. We, apparently, don't need to keep saving more.

Andy

This has evolved into a great thread on "retirement" as I have some of the same concerns as what are being shared here.

Does someone have a sample spread sheet that details what is being discussed here, as far as breaking down living expenses?

Thanks, Bob

One thing that frequently gets underestimated is the impact of inflation. Those who are retiring in their 50's stand a good chance of being retired longer than they worked. Just think of that if you had not had a raise since your first year working - so you need to figure out how much money you need to live on in your first year of retirement and how much you need to have that go up with 3% or so a year for inflation.

We have three dogs, and little things like dog food and meds for aging dogs add up over a year. So do subscriptions, memberships, charitable donations, increase in our data plan once I stopped using company bandwidth. All the little items count, and pretty soon what seemed trivial can become thousands when all added together. But we have a house and a full-size mountain cabin ( both paid off) so we had to figure in costs for utilities, taxes, maintenance etc.. for the cabin. We guessed at a lump sum annually for maintenance and do what we can ourselves.

We also eat most meals at home, lots of wild game and fish, but every couple weeks we go out and always use coupons so we get "buy one, half off" deals. My wife is a coupon shopper for groceries. Again, little things add up over a year's time.

We splurged on an HD package on Dish and got a DVR receiver. We don't go to movies so this was our trade-off. But now when we consider a purchase we discuss whether it's something we "need" or just "want", and will we make good use of it. Like a new tent, for instance.. ;-)

Big difference from when I was making enough that we didn't have a budget, just spent what we felt like. But it really hasn't been that much of an adjustment once we both got into the process. Now it's our way of life, and it works.

For the spreadsheet, there are a lot out there that will have major headings like "Home", then breaks a home's expenses down to buckets like: Mortgage/Rent/Condo Fees, Property taxes, Utilities (Elec, Heating, Phone, Etc), Home Owners Ins + Umbrella, Household Maintenance.

And a required column and a discretionary column for stuff you'll 'want' to do after retirement. Although some of us don't intent to jet set the world on fire, retiring with only covering required stuff would be a drag. So find an honest prediction of what you might spend to make your days/weeks/moths/life enjoyable and get it in that spreadsheet. I padded mine a little more just in case because I know I'm a both feet in kinda guy when something strikes my interest.

Everyone is likely pretty different but a decent spreadsheet that has the major headings and breakdown of subitems should be enough to jar your mind to recall other expenses you pay.

I know I found new things for a few months once I started doing it so I just saved my spreadsheet and updated it when I recalled or paid something I previously forgot. After a while you'll have a pretty good account of your expenses. And a great benefit of probably find you're blowing money on crap that's not worth going to a job everyday for too.

Along with municipal pension, I also get health insurance. I sacrificed and worked away from home for 5 years. I spent 4 nights each week in an apartment and traveled 3 hours home each weekend. But, this resulted in over a 100% increase in my pension.

I'm 62 now, will defer SS until 66 likely as I earn too much consulting. Living in NYS, I pay no state tax being retired and no SS any longer. I'm still liable for 25% federal tax though.

A hunt for deer in Ontario is planned this fall and an otc hunt in CO may happen as well with my son and a friend.

I'm getting adjusted to retirement but miss some of the folks at work. I'm also getting to spend time with 6 grandchildren, one girl and 5 boys! 3 of my 4 kids are married and have 2, 2 and 2 grandkids.

While I'm sure that I've checked my spreadsheet and rechecked, I still appreciate reading others strategies.

Best to all that are and keep st it to those that are working towards it!

5 years ago my wife and I decided to get as debt free as possible and paid off everything except our house, which is fairly new.

The one "oil in the ointment" is going to be, by the end of 2018 my wife is going to need a lower mileage vehicle (hers has almost 200,000 right now and she drives 200 miles a day round trip to work and back).

Prior to Law Enforcement I was in construction and already have people lining me up for remodel jobs, which will pay for our "fun stuff" and her car.

I'm pretty much set, but I can see where putting together a spread sheet, to be more focused on everything, should be helpful.

Thanks for all the ideas. Bob

Now when I retire in 18 months, [3 days before I turn 55] at about 75% of my current salary, I will also get a health insurance stipend, an automatic 2% raise each year, no state tax on the first $20k of the pension. I will only take home ~$400 less each month than I do now working.

My plan after retirement is to start a small business to stay sharp on my knowledge.

I will take my SS at 62, since it was reduced for me turning it into my pension, as it will only 'supplement' my pension.

Since I only get paid once a month, I have been using a budget sheet for many years and am accustomed to that.

This last year Tricare paid out about 500,000 for the wife and I for cancer treatments. Things are better now. I drew an AZ elk tag for a bugle season hunt.

Terry.

NYS has a great online calculator on their deferred comp page which lets you input current income of you and your spouse, investments, incomes once retired and it will show you all kinds of projections. A really nice tool.