Living on a " fixed " income while not going " broke " .

[Boswell]

I retired in April 2021, 20 months ago just a little before turning 64. No regrets. At least so far. That may change if we run out of Money before we die, but I think I will be OK. We have Sufficient $ in 401K, SS and my wife's Pension. No dept whatsoever. I still know that there are catastrophic things that could happen that would erase all that. I am taking SS early and not earning any additional income. If things get tight, I might do something to earn money but I really don't see that happening unless I have no choice. For us the key is that we are very good at living within our means. So as we get older we plan to reduce our expenses slowly over time. Right now they are the same as when I was Full Time Employed.

Only time will tell if we got the finances right but I LOVE that I have time to spend with my wife and son and I am not working the high pressure job that I had and I am still young enough to take advantage of it all.

If I have any useful advise it is that if you are on the fence, lean toward retirement, not away.

 

[JPMacG]

Retired 2 years ago at 64. No regrets. Just started to collect SS in October of this year.

Everyone is different. If you love your job then maybe put off retiring for a bit longer. I worked in aerospace as an electrical engineer and had had enough. I was ready. I have more than enough things to keep me busy. Granschildren, traveling, lots of hobbies.... I have friends who are in their 70s and still working. Working is their life - they have no other interests.

I think putting off SS depends on your individual situation. From a total lifetime standpoint there is no clear advantage to putting it off. Based on statistical life expectancy, your total lifetime SS will be about the same whether you collect less for longer or more for shorter.

 

[savarin]

Retired at 62, 73/74 now, never regretted a single moment of retirement.
In my humble opinion one of the most important parts of retirement is a number of different hobbies.
I cant relate to the U.S. system but we want for nothing, no debts etc.
Could I purchase a new Maserati? nope but we buy most things we want when we want them.
I feel most financial advisers over estimate how much you need and if we're really honest how many of us are going to live into our nineties needing what we need today?
(I don't count the ludicrous cost of the US. medical system in this)

 

[hman]

I retired at 62 & 5 months on 2/28/2022. We are doing great, not from luck (well, maybe some) but through saving for many years before retiring. More bragging than anything, but advisors will give a rough estimate of 10X of your salary in your 401K to be comfortable in retirement. We dipped to about 30x when the market took a dump down to 29K, and are back up to around 35X now. I'm not taking SS at this time. Starting next year I'll be rolling over 401K money into a Roth IRA so I'm paying taxes on just the 401K, not 401K plus SS. I'll wait until 67-70 to start drawing.

We paid off our house and other debt over 10 years ago. I'm also not taking a pension from GM (my former employer) as I had the option of a lump sum or a monthly pension. In my case, the lump sum was 21 years of my annual pension; easy decision. I should have probably retired from GM 3 or 4 years earlier, but didn't hate what I did. My Fidelity modeler 3 or 4 years ago showed that I could sustain what was my current salary at the time until 93. Now the modeler shows me bringing in 15% more than I made when I retired until I hit 93. With no debt, daughter through law school 5 years ago, son with a BS in Computer Engineering 3 years ago, we're are in a good place.

The toughest thing we're running into is switching from "save mode" to "we can spend some money" mode. We've needed new stools at our kitchen island for years. Do we REALLY need them, no, so we sat on the uncomfortable, unpadded, $10 each ones from Oak Express for 20 years. We just splurged on some $175 a pop ones with nice padded seats, lumbar support, swivel seat, etc. Oh no, $750 out of the bank account?!? Yep, and very glad we did.

Bruce

Good on ya!

 

[great white]

Retired at 62, 73/74 now, never regretted a single moment of retirement.
In my humble opinion one of the most important parts of retirement is a number of different hobbies.
I cant relate to the U.S. system but we want for nothing, no debts etc.
Could I purchase a new Maserati? nope but we buy most things we want when we want them.
I feel most financial advisers over estimate how much you need and if we're really honest how many of us are going to live into our nineties needing what we need today?
(I don't count the ludicrous cost of the US. medical system in this)

Big thing i found is my expenses went waaaay down when I no longer had to commute and fill the truck every week, no more pension contributions, no more unemployment insurance premiums, etc, etc.

Heck, a tank of gas in my F150 lasts 2-3 months now! I can even stretch it to 4 sometimes! Used to be I burned at least a tank in each 3/4-1 month period (my truck has oversized the towing tanks- DTE goes to "999" on a fill) just commuting. That's a hefty savings when today's fuel costs means roughly $150 each fill.

That was the biggest surprise for me in how much difference it made in the cash flow department.

Of course, there's also a "mental benefit" of not having to get up at o-dark-30 every morning and deal with all the other "traffic idiots" on the roads trying to shave another 1-2 minutes on their commute by swerving around cars or going waaay too fast

USA Medical system I can't comment on:

 

[RJSakowski]

It is my understanding the social security benefits are based on a break even point at 85 years of age. If you expect to live past that, your lifetime payout will be greater. If you expect to pass on before then, take the benefits earlier. . My wife is 14 years my junior and she hasn't worked in the US long enough for a larger benefit so I expect that she will draw on my survivor benefit when I pass on and I delayed taking benefits. A year ago, our financial advisor worked up total expected lifetime benefits based on our expected life spans and for different scenarios from my wife drawing on her benefits at 62 to waiting until 70 and the totals differed by only a few thousand dollars. We elected to delay her drawing as there are tax implications involved if we added more income now. She also has a pension from the UK that we are presently deferring because of the tax implications. I should say that we are financially relatively well off so we don't need to draw on her social security. Were we in a different financial situation, we would be drawing on both.

The big issue currently is medical insurance. She still has 17 months to go before she is eligible for Medicare. Her high deductible insirance runs $7K a year and we get no benefits until her annual out of pocket hits $7K.

 

[Frankhi]

I was very fortunate to have a great 401K/retirement savings plan from HP while I worked there. The $$ I'm drawing out monthly, plus Social Sec, keeps me very happy. Retired with a "golden handshake" about 12 years ago, started drawing SS at age 62, and doing well. By then, my house in Oregon had been fully paid off. So when my wife and I sold our respective houses, we were able to buy our present abode from the proceeds without going through the mortgage grinder. So no monthly payments! I've actally made some money with my shop (and paid some exorbitant income tax) last year. Not been able to do too much machining since my stroke, but I have hopes for later this year.

PS - we both go to a pretty good financial advisor that Judy's mother has been using for some time now.

Hah I retired from HP (in Corvallis) too. I took an early retirement package in 2012 and went to work for Intel for 19 moths. At that point I was done and officially retired at age 52. I've taken a few contract gigs back at HP, not that I needed too but they were fun assignments.

I have been working this year and have just retired for the 5th time... I'm 61 now so maybe it will stick?

I have just finished installing my new PM 1440GT lathe (single phase) and PM 935 Mill (3ph running a 1ph to 3ph VFD). So lots f things to do that do not involve work..

 

[homebrewed]

I retired in October 2016, 65.5 YO at that time. A lifetime of frugal living plus basically winning the lottery with stock options from my former employer have us set up pretty good. I held off tapping into my SS until 70, wife is taking the same approach. We own three vehicles, the newest of which is a 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4WD. We hate car payments, all of them were paid for in cash. That said, the only one we bought new was the Tacoma. We also hate the instant depreciation once you drive a new car off the lot.

We live in a relatively new house we had built, and we sourced a lot of material for that. The floors -- honed slate and Ipe -- were bought on closeout from a couple of local vendors. We collected about 12 tons of stone for the exterior of the house, using the aforementioned Toyota in trip after trip to the quarry -- but doing it that way we paid $35/ton for the stone vs. $350 if we had bought it palletized. Plus we had less waste -- we asked the masons what they wanted and that's what we gave them. The downside there: we got to handle each piece at least four times along the way (but we got a nice pressure washer as part of the deal ). The 1.4 acres we have were bought back in 1984 for a pittance by today's standards, at least in our metro area. We grow a big vegetable garden. We like beans and left-overs. We hardly eat out because we can cook better than 90% of the restaurants around here, especially with stuff from the garden (talk about locally sourced!). We'd rather go hiking than watch movies. No cable or satellite TV. It all adds up.

Having a lot of interesting stuff to do helps fill the days. It's a cliche' about having LESS time after retirement but it's true! My to-do list is huge....and keeps growing.....

 

[Bone Head]

If you're looking for professionals to invest with, try Fidelity. Look them up on the web...and they have "no fee" funds. Are there better outfits/investors? Probably. But they've never screwed me over and have supplied prospectus and reports for everything I've wanted. Down side is none of their funds are guaranteed that I know of.
I'm happy with them.

 

[SLK001]

Of course, there's also a "mental benefit" of not having to get up at o-dark-30 every morning and deal with all the other "traffic idiots" on the roads trying to shave another 1-2 minutes on their commute by swerving around cars or going waaay too fast

I was forced into retirement at age 55 in 2009. My alarm hasn't been set since! I just wish that I could sleep until the time I used to get up with the alarm! If I'm not up by 5:30 AM, then I've essentially "slept in"! The bright side, is if I get tired during the day, I can take a nap! My house has been paid off since 2003 and I paid cash for my vehicles. I'm closing in a couple of days on some land in Alabama, where I intend on building my dream shop and house. If I got offered my old job back, I'd politely say "no". I get a pension from my former employer plus I am drawing SS, so I have plenty of money, although I do start worrying when my bank balance drops below $400,000.

In short, I'm having the time of my life and I don't intend on stopping the enjoyment anytime soon!