<p>Silpat, absolutely. I wanted to retire last year, but my H was completely against my retiring. We discussed it a lot. We settled it by going to a financial planner to get an independent, third party assessment of our financial picture. The financial planner agreed with me, and in fact said we should both retire. </p>
<p>But my H was still reluctant. He just kept thinking of the worst possible scenario. I pointed out to him the financial planner’s evaluation already took that into account. </p>
<p>We settled it with a compromise. I agreed to work one more year, and I will not pressure hIm to retire early. We’re both happy, I think. </p>
<p>Yes, we disagree. Dh used to think he’d work until 65, but now he’s changed that to “around 63”. He just signed a new 3 year lease on his office space (he’s self-employed), so I guess he’ll be working for at least 3 more years. That would put him close to 63. I can’t get him to go to a financial planner to see how we’re doing and when he could retire. My guess is that he could retire earlier than 63, but that’s a moot point now.</p>
<p>What about the approach to live very frugally, have no mortgage or debt, and retire once you have 25 times needed annual income socked away? Read today about couple who retired in their 30s! Their approach was to place minimal emphasis on material goods. They both worked in tech, had their mortgage paid off and $600,000 in investments by early 30s, and then retired. Had a child and are both stay-at-home parents. Guess they don’t plan on spending much on child’s college!</p>
<p>Did pensions just disappear or were they replaced by defined contributions? - In my company replaced by 401K-ish program, with less worth and more need to “guess how long you will live”. </p>
<p>For service jobs of course there is push for part time, no retirement OR health benefits. But that’s a social lament for a different thread. </p>
<p>City employees contribute 8%, City kicks in a much higher amount. The multiplier for folks hired after 1/1/12 is only .025, but I was hired before that date so the multiplier is .03. For my group, you can retire with 23 years at any age. I have a friend with a very wellpaid position who just retired in her 50’s with 25 years and will make 75% of her salary for life. The City knows that is not sustainable so have increased their contribution and tightened up the retirement rules and decreased the multiplier for new hires. That, and there is no cost of living adjustment, so you have to realize that the pension will be worth a lot less if inflation is normal or increases!
I do not have a well paid job, so I will need to work a lot longer and be a lot more frugal. House will be paid off in 2 years which will help a lot!</p>
<p>Here’s another big system that uses a multiplier over 2%; Teacher’s retirement system of texas has a multiplier of .023, which means you have to work almost 44 years to get your full salary in retirement. I am very lucky in that my current job only needs 33 years and 4 months to earn the same. For all the highly paid city tech workers, it is a very sweet deal indeed. My salary is low enough that it is a very nice perk, but I will still need SS and other retirement savings to have enough money for comfortable modest living.</p>
<p>That’s a gosh darn big amount of money to sock away. I’ve never heard of this “formula,” and it seems excessive to me. What about Social Security? What about the assumption of investment gains while one is retired? It’s not like you just take 1/25th of your savings out every year.</p>
<p>In this guy’s formula - he is assuming a pretty conservative 4% return per year and that you are retiring young - before Social Security eligibility. He had $600,000+ invested and felt they could live on $24,000/year - given no debt and frugal lifestyle. So, basically living on the dividends and investment income, assuming a 4% rate of return. I don’t know how many could live such a spartan lifestyle, but the premise is intriguing and I intend to read more of his website.</p>
<p>I became a SAHD many years ago. I don’t think of that as retired, but in any case, I have not worked for a paycheck for a dozen years. I would like my wife to retire soon, or at least find a job that is less stressful. We don’t really need more money, although it is reassuring not to be drawing down our assets yet. But, we have the house paid off, kids’ college saved, decent SS and pensions (I’m currently drawing, my wife is younger), more assets than we ever expected to have, etc. But, she gets satisfaction from her work and it is still part of her identity, so I don’t think I’m within my rights to insist. </p>
<p>How have we resolved it? I find beautiful lakefront properties to show her, and try to seduce her with the listings. I show her our “consumption smoothed” annual spend that we could safely do. And then I shut up, because I love her and she will have to be the one to decide when she’s ready. Her father is still working, in large part because he feels vibrant, respected, and needed when he works. I would be happy if my wife followed in his footsteps, with a reduced interest in the amount of compensation. </p>
<p>Mr. Money Moustache has some interesting ideas, but some of his stuff is beyond the pale, served up with heaping amounts of sanctimony.</p>
<p>For example, he claims to have several vehicles but only pays $300/year in car insurance. His homeowners insurance is $300/year. In my dreams!!! He doesn’t carry liability or disability insurance.</p>
<p>His lifestyle requires almost perfect health. It requires the ability to do your own major house renovations. If you work it requires moving every time your job changes so you can walk/bike to work. It requires piling up half a million in savings by your early 30’s, along with enough to pay of your mortgage by then and pay for a rental property… most people don’t make this much in total by that age. </p>
<p>He spent $25K on renovations to his house one year but didn’t count it in his budget because it was an “investment” because he is going to sell his house and downsize… which hasn’t happened yet.</p>
<p>Don’t even get me started on his attitude about cars.</p>
<p>When I decided I was ready to retire, I didn’t ask my husband’s permission. I told him I was retiring. We had already dealt with financial planning, and we both knew that this was OK. But I didn’t need his permission to retire, just like he doesn’t need mine to continue working.</p>
I hear what you are saying, but I think it is a little different when you are getting a substantial pension to replace a large portion of your income.</p>
<p>If I wanted to retire tomorrow with nothing to replace the majority of our family’s income, you can bet my wife would want some input into that decision. ;)</p>
<p>Sounds like MMM is full of crap. Everyone has unexpected expenses, minor or major disasters, life happens. In what universe does $300 buy you any sort of car insurance?</p>
<p>My husband does not have a pension. If he came home tomorrow and said he wanted to retire, I would not say no. You know…if someone makes a decision to leave a job, it’s usually for a good reason. Yes, the money would be tighter, but if his happiness was what was driving his decision…so be it.</p>
<p>We know too many folks who wanted to retire…but kept on working to maximize their retirement incomes. Sadly…some of,them didn’t live long enough to smell the roses.</p>
<p>As for retirement age, my husband wants to retire sooner, I wants to retire in 2017 when the last tuition check is paid. But we’ve decided to compromise and we will retire in 2 years. Mentally we retired last year. :D</p>
<p>“Teacher’s retirement system of texas has a multiplier of .023, which means you have to work almost 44 years to get your full salary in retirement. I am very lucky in that my current job only needs 33 years and 4 months to earn the same.” </p>
<p>It’s great that some folks have pension (or pension + SS) to match full salary. But I think even in the days of more DB pensions… most pensioners lived on reduced retirement income. That’s logical since they no longer need to save for college and retirement. </p>