Me three @MADad. I hate the heat. I use the “always put on more clothes” line all the time!
We also prefer vacations in cold weather places.
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I have to say that I NEVER thought of moving anywhere after retirement but the politics here aren’t that appealing either.
And although I don’t mind the cold, there are many days that are unfit to do much outside. We have 10 weeks of good weather in the summer where the weather is near perfect and we have so much fun. Playing golf, hiking, biking and anything outside. We do things with our friends.
In the winter, we have 6 weeks tops where the snow is good and we are able to get outside.
But many of our neighbors go south in the winter. And the ones who stay, we don’t get together like we do in the summer. No drinks on the porch, no potlucks.
Also things change. People have illness, people pass away. People we have distanced ourselves from due to our differences politically. Move away.
So retirement isn’t going to be what we thought it might be 6 years ago.
Moving to a more temperate place is sounding more and more appealing. A place where there are people in the same boat so to speak.
Also our children live in urban areas far away. We won’t be moving close to them either.
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It sounds like taking the pension is probably going to be a better deal than taking the lump sum?
Have a pension which has a lump sum option.
That is a tough decision, one which we had to make when H retired. We talked it over with our financial advisor, who specializes in working with engineers in H’s industry. He often suggests the pension + life insurance on the pension owner (because the pension is greatly reduced when the primary dies). In our case, he recommended the lump sum due to the amount of non-pension retirement savings we had, along with our anticipated spending. I don’t think we would have been comfortable making the decision without an expert’s opinion. On the other hand, our good friend took the pension when he retired … but he was a VP, and his pension amount was a lot higher than H’s. They also had a lot of non-pension retirement savings, and they are able to be aggressive with those funds. Different situations, different approaches.
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@rickle1 - I know a teacher who is 60 and will retire next year when she has the numbers in her school system to retire. She is married and her H has good paying job/good benefits.
I think teachers with high standards for their professionalism get weighted down. I know I got weighted down in nursing - more and more is expected - no increase pay and also pressure about OT when you want to get the job done right; I was going to take SS and retire at 63 but then got offered a nursing job with limited scope of responsibilities so I have continued. My teacher sister had an older H already retired and she planned her exit – it was before she was 65 and she didn’t have the full pension, but her QOL is now excellent – she has been able to exercise more and is no longer with osteopenia (a step before osteoporosis).
Ministers with certain churches have pensions, again some better than others and some earn more in their career than others. Sometimes they have a parsonage or get a housing allowance.
For many, being married (and having a long happy marriage) can be very good for work ‘droughts’, keeping health insurance, building up savings, getting into one’s own purchased home.
IMHO having personal/financial goals including plan to work until 65; if retiring before 65 try to not take SS until close to full SS benefit (the penalty is reduced benefit for lifetime unless one can gain higher amount as spousal benefit).
We meet with our financial planner next month. Have ideas on SS and want to run the numbers by him and also get his input on our portfolio. We meet every 6 months. We are in good shape. No health or financial worries.
I will have more time to exercise and focus on my health, including planned weight loss.
With our children, we prepared them along the way to think about professions they like, that they are good at, and can get out of 4 year degree and support themselves. They both came out of school with no debt and good paying jobs (one is a nurse that has promoted quickly into management at a VA Hospital; the other is a civil/architectural engineer). We are in their lives but they direct their lives.
I wish we didn’t feel the need to relocate but while we love the area we live in, neither of our kids are here and extended family is far away. We raised our kids 800 miles from family and would like to be close to at least one of our kids now and hopefully we will have grandchildren. We also want to be close when we get older and need help. Our friends here are retiring and mostly moving away (3 couples are in the process of moving as I type this).
People have different priorities/ideas what retirement should be and I get that. I have have friends who have moved away from their kids because they wanted a certain location to live in. I’m OK with that.
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@fallgirl the best thing/draw is the kids/grands. Twin cities offers a lot and you have a variety of options with where to specifically live too. I have HS classmates and some family there. If my DD/SIL/GKids were there I would be there for some of the year…IDK about DH - it remains to be seen how much he will travel with me after I retire. Right now he is super content being a home body with his projects and free time.
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@deb922 taking the pension typically is the best option - there is risk with taking the lump sum and not being able to have it do well, nor in the early years will the lump sum have time for an investment to generate return w/o drawing down on the principle amount.
Most teachers may not have significant assets outside of perhaps owning their home. Often pension plus SS offers them the cash stream for good retirement financial peace.
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We have never been interested in moving from the area where we live. My parents moved to Florida, and my MIL lives in Georgia. I know for a fact I don’t want to live in either area, because I would never be able to go outside in the heat. At least I can dress properly for a Midwest winter. Having parents so far away as they aged was horrible, and I don’t want to be in that situation when I get old. We are fortunate that our kids are nearby, and we want to stay close to them. I would not rule out a dead-of-winter rental in a bit warmer climate in the future, but I don’t want to live elsewhere full time. I have a lot of friends relocating south, and it works for them … just not my thing.
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Taking the pension was a no brainer for me. Lump sum would lose health benefits while the pension annuity came with health insurance. This allowed me to retire at 55. No way we had enough saved even with the lump sum to collect what I have and will continue to collect with the pension.
As far as location for retirement, if I based it on politics I would be gone in a hot minute. We’ve discussed moving but realize that we have friends and family and a very active lifestyle in spring, summer and fall, only leaving winter to deal with. That makes snow birding a more desirable option at this time although that could change.
Some here have claimed they are distancing themselves from friends and over politics. That is just something I could never do. I have many friends and many family members who vote differently than I do. So what? I know all of these people and I truly believe we are all good people and ultimately we all want many of the same things, politically we just believe there are different ways of achieving these goals. It’s like starting at the same point on a circle and heading to the point half way around the circle. One group chooses to go around the right side and the other group decides to go around the left side, but we are headed for the same point. I am from a very political family, judges, attorneys, and local and state politicians. My father and grandfather served in a time when our politicians still represented their constituents and embraced the art of compromise. Unfortunately, current politicians only care about their own careers and have no intentions of compromising.
I disagree with some people here politically also, but I believe everyone here is a good person. I would enjoy meeting each and every one here regardless of your politics. Hope everyone is having a great summer thus far.
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In listening to an author about his book, he talked about age 65-85 as being a part of time where one can do many productive things. Of course bad health interjects for some during this time.
H has an aunt and uncle (aunt is only 13 years older than us) who have been retired since 2004. They travel between their WI home, have a mobile home in FL in a community of these homes, have another parked elsewhere, and then travel other places in the US - one place is to see DD who has a place in CA when she is not commanding a naval ship. They are doing what they like doing. While their kids were growing up, they maintained a sail boat and also had a ski cabin (they have sold both of these). I know DH does not want to do what they are doing. Right now our grandkids are only 100 miles away so easy to see often. That will change but we don’t know when.
I’m with you, other than I do like warm weather vacations, but a day like today outside is exactly why I will not move to the south!
We clearly are all in the same place. And maybe @FallGirl and I really will be in the same place as ds1 and his wife bought a home in Minneapolis last month. We talked to him about us relocating some day. He wasn’t aghast but did say that he didn’t think we’d like the winters. And he’s probably correct.
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Three years ago, my wife and I had zero connections to Wisconsin. We drove by Madison on a family vacation to Yellowstone about 10 years ago. That was it. Son has worked there for 2 years. Starting towards masters in CS at UW in a week or so. Daughter will be starting vet school there in the fall. You never know where life’s journey will take you. My and I likely will move when I retire. At that point, our parents will be gone (very likely at least). Ties to the area will be much less and we likely will move where at least one of the kids are. Wife won’t like living in Madison but she will manage if that is where they both end up.
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We will mostly be here on the East Coast in the little paradise home we bought but will try to spend the winter someplace warmer (for me – ShawWife as a Canadian prefers the cold).
The only wrinkle is kids/grandkids. ShawSon is now engaged (as of a couple of weeks ago) and is a natural denizen of Silicon Valley/SF. He actually prefers the Valley. As part of the Stanford tech mafia, his contacts both VC and engineering and business are concentrated there. Hard to see him leaving. He lives in SF with ShawD, who moved out with her BF, who is a big tech software engineer. She probably wants to move back to the East (she and BF only moved a couple of years ago) but wanted to try living elsewhere before she settled down. If they don’t move back, ShawWife and I would probably buy/rent a home there – we had rented a houseboat in Sausalito for a few winters, but that might be a tougher place for retirement – if we could afford it. We have seen some friends buy a house in Research Triangle area to be near a daughter with a couple of grandkids (a lot cheaper than the Bay Area) and spend 6 months a year there and really play a role in the grandkids’ lives (especially during COVID when the parents needed time to work). Priceless.
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There are about 17 states where teachers do not pay into Social Security. Those who worked for 40 quarters outside of teaching get their SS payment reduced, often by as much as 2/3. It also affects survivor payments if one’s spouse dies, even if spouse was never a teacher. Laws that apply are the WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision ) and the GPO (Government Pension Offset}. Those who are most affected by this are those who go into teaching as a second career. They don’t teach long enough to get a huge pension, and their SS is reduced even though the worked as non-teachers for many years.
I love how you refer to everyone in your fam as shawson, shawd, shawwife! 
We live in the Chicago burbs and I do worry we will be the only ones left here. I have one son who has a company in SF, 1 daughter in school in Austin, 1 in NY, and my youngest going to U-Mich this fall. When I lived in Iowa City with my ex husband for his residency for 5 years, besides not much to do there, I thought then that I could never stay there knowing no way in heck would my kids stay there. Little did I know that even in a city as large as Chicago they may not stay (or come back) to either! I also can’t show favortism to my kids any buy a place near any one of them without one possibly being upset. All think the one in Austin is the one most likely to live by me so that’s reassuring. We have a condo in Austin for residency purposes but even if she stayed my husband will in no way shape or form ever agree to be a Texas resident, and while I’m not as liberal as him, I don’t think I could live there either right now with what is going on there. We do have a property we bought in Las Vegas a while back when the economy was in the toilet thinking it would be a snowbird place for us, but now it’s rented so not sure when we will get to enjoy that, but maybe soon since we will finally be empty nesters with lots of places to visit kids at their colleges or the one in SF!! Yay! Still have my parents and his mom here though so not quite so fast but still looking forward to not having to worry about what this kid or that kid has.
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This will be me. I will qualify for a nothing little pension but have plenty of social security earnings for a decent payout when I qualify for social security payment (if anything is there) but the WEP will probably kill me. For now I’m not going to worry about it. It may ultimately just be better for me to take out my pension $ and cash out than to try to shoot for this nothing little payment. I guess as I get closer to qualifying I should research that.
Every session of Congress there are bills filed to eliminate GPO and WEP and they always die. I was almost in your position–I taught 9 yrs in private schools paying into SS, then 31 yrs in a public school. Luckily, I was able to increase my contribution by 3 extra percent, and could max out at age 61, as opposed to 64!
I would not have made it to age 64, as I would be retiring right now, after the COVID mess.
I always have wanted to visit Madison as people say it’s a lot like Austin, and I love Austin.
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