I’m in my late 50’s and have worked my whole life starting with summer jobs when I was in high school. Raised kids in a town where most of the other moms were SAHM when their kids were young, while I worked continuously although I was extremely fortunate to have a job where I was able to work from home for most of the time starting when my kids were pretty young.
I am so ready to retire, but can’t decide if it is the smart thing to do. I’m pretty sure we would be fine from a financial perspective (and our financial advisor agrees). Younger kid is a junior in college so just one more year of tuition and older kid is launched and self-supporting.
The problem is that I retired from my corporate job about 4 years ago because I was burned out, but found another job pretty quickly that was close to home and is a pretty ideal ‘bridge to retirement’ job. I had intended to take a longer break before looking for another job (because I didn’t think I was ready to stop working back then) but couldn’t turn this opportunity down, so I ended up with only a month’s break before starting at the new place.
So the pros: It’s a very short commute, reasonable hours, and I like the people I work with. I’m just tired from the years of working and don’t want to work 40 hours a week anymore. If I could reduce my hours, I would be happy to stay, but that isn’t an option for my job. I really also want to do more traveling which is hard to do if I am still working full-time.
Advice I’ve received from my friends: 1) Absolutely stop working if it’s financially feasible. YOLO! 2) Why stop working when you have such a cushy, ideal, pre-retirement job? 3) Why stop working if there isn’t anything else you want to do with your time? If your only answer is to travel, you can’t travel non-stop, so there should be other things you are interested in pursuing. Unfortunately, I really can’t come up with anything when asked this question. 4) DH says I can do what I want, but he isn’t ready to retire, and thinks my brain will atrophy if I’m not working. OK, kind of kidding on that, but I might be the kind of person who would end up sleeping in late all the time if I didn’t have a reason to get up.
HELP! Does anyone have any advice for me? I mostly feel that we all don’t know how much time we have left and I don’t want to waste it.
My husband is retired, but I have a very flexible work from home part time job. It keeps me busy, uses my brain, and I don’t see giving it up any time soon (I am 62 hubby is 63).
I say either turn your current job into PT or get a PT job, to me a perfect middle ground.
A job should give you some pleasing combination of money, community, and purpose. When it doesn’t, it’s time for a new job. When you can’t bear the thought of spending what’s left of life working – period — it’s time for an exit plan.
I turn 60 today, and left paid employment last week. Too weird to say retired, lol… We paid off our house and cars, our children are all grown and far away, and there are many things I would like todo in the next 10 years or so (before one or both of us fall apart). This was all made easier by the simple fact that I was paid next to nothing and had a purposeless job (but an unpaid charity side-position that I can devote myself to, now)
Think about what you want, talk to your financial advisor, decide on a timeframe. You aren’t required to work until you drop. What gives you meaning? What makes you feel secure? Ask yourself questions, give yourself time to be sure of the answers.
In your shoes, I would not retire. IME, many financial advisors are overly optimistic if your situation isn’t absolutely dire. A lot of them are desperate not to lose clients right now. You are still very young and far from retirement age. How will your DH feel if you are retired and he isn’t? Will you be relying on him for healthcare coverage and other benefits? How does he feel about that? Will you be able to keep saving for retirement or other goals if you lose your income? Just some things to think about.
Are you sure you can’t make your current job part-time? Push them on it. Good people are so hard to replace. If not, look around for PT work.
After watching my parents and their sphere of family and friends I’m a big believer in easing into retirement if you can. Once you get into the sleeping til noon funk it’s hard to break.
I would disagree with this statement. Most advisors tend to be more cautious than aggressive for 3 reasons.
They have a financial interest to keep their clients working. If they retire, they’ll start drawing down assets to live which means the advisor will manage less assets and get paid less fees. Generally, they have no pecuniary interest to have affluent clients retire early. There is a scenario where it does benefit the advisor if the client retires early and that is if the majority of the client’s money is in a 401k that the advisor does not manage. In that situation, they could see the potential rollover opportunity into an IRA which would obviously beneficial for the advisor. However, most clients who retire early have a lot of assets outside of their qualified plan.
If they are wrong and you start losing money or the market tanks, they will get blamed. And if clients believe an advisor gave bad advice when they were on the fence about working or retiring, they are much more likely to leave. If an advisor does financial planning, they will want to keep their clients at an 80% or higher success of not running out of money. They have statistical probability software and have a general understanding of how much assets their clients need.
Some retiree clients are a pain in the butt because they have time on their hands and look at their portfolio much more than they used to and will call the advisor more frequently. Advisors want low maintenance clients and working clients typically have too much going on - which is why they work with advisors in the first place.
I don’t agree…and I’m speaking from experience. I retired from my full time job…which I loved and could easily have continued…at 60. My husband continued to work for 10 years after I retired (so the first five before Medicare, I just went on his health insurance plan). I had worked in my profession for 38 years…and I knew I was ready to retire from full time work. I will add, I retired one year after we made the last college tuition payment.
I was fortunate to do 11 long term leave positions in various schools (my field is a shortage area in education) for 1-5 months each time. This was a nice bridge…just like your newer job is. I also picked up a few volunteer things that I really enjoy. So…really, I’m pretty busy. Plus I had to learn to say NO because when folks learned I was retired, I got asked to do way more than I really wanted to do.
I have enjoyed every second of my retirement. Like you, finances were not an issue. We looked at our finances ourselves (no debt, no mortgage, no car payment, no more college costs) and knew we were good to go on one income. We didn’t even discuss this with out financial planner…until after the decision had been made.
Is there any chance you could do a flexible part time job of some sort…something fun? Maybe start looking around if you feel you still want to work, but not full time.
I think people should feel good about retiring when they know they want to, and can afford to do so.
I 100% agree with this. My last employer went from saying there was no way to reduce hours to allowing for a 50/50 job share. Even that wasn’t flexible enough for me and now I temp for the office. It’s perfect!
If you have a good amount of vacation time, I would take a 2 week vacation at home. Do a mental dry run of retirement. Plan this dry run by consciously not making special plans, doctor appts, etc.
This is a college forum so I’ll put it in terms of a college visit. Visiting a campus as an admitted student can be very different from a more casual campus visit.
Consider your personal future obligations when it comes to your parents and/or in-laws. I know people who made plans based off their own desired timetable only to be blindsided by eldercare responsibilities because they never considered it. Just peruse the “parents caring for the parent support” thread to get an idea of some of the challenges others are experiencing.
If you choose retirement you’ll likely have to deal with the expectations of others…think spouse, children, parents. (Suggestion: set boundaries and learn to say no thank you.)
I wasn’t employed as my parents began needing more assistance due to aging. As the only sibling financially and physically able to “step up”, the responsibility fell to me. I don’t resent it. I’m actually grateful to be in the fortunate position that I’m in. However, it doesn’t mean it’s been easy.
Factor in your own heath. You know you best.
I would look at myself and consider your current physical, social and mental well-being. Is your current job benefiting you in those areas compared to how you think you would be as a retired person? This is a very individual matter. Some might miss the structure of one’s day, while others thrive with the freedom of prioritizing their wants and needs.
I agree with the others who say push your current job to ask for PT - make sure it’s absolutely not an option.
Another option since you’re relatively young (50’s still) is to retire, start enjoying that lifestyle…and if in a year you find yourself hankering for a job, start anew! Not sure if you’re in a certain field or if you could be happy doing a lesser position but someone would still hire you at late 50’s -60.
It is HARD to make the decision to make a change like this when you have worked in some capacity since you became of age to work. I admit to having a stigma about being retired. My guess though is when I am finally able to do it (probably 18 more months) I’ll enjoy the extra time and even the opportunity to do something else very part time.
If you can’t go part time, can you take some additional vacation time unpaid for more travel?
It really helps to have a plan for retirement. Besides travel, what would you want to do on a day-to-day basis? Is there certain volunteer positions, clubs (garden club for example), games (bridge, mahjong) or sports (golf, pickleball) you would like to do? Those are the things my friends are doing in retirement.
I am already over 65 but still working full time. People keep asking when I am going to stop and finances will be fine, but I am just not sure. Part of it is just not wanting to be a “retired person” and feeling like I am really old!! My DH is retired working a part-time job doing something completely different than his career job.
For me, it is tough to make this decision. Some days I am more than ready to go and others I still enjoy the work. I am thinking of taking more time off this year, even if it is unpaid.
I’ve been retired for over 10 years…and I do not feel like an old person. And I know I look younger than when I was working full time (or so people say).
You are as old as you feel. Plenty of things to do in retirement that aren’t for “old people” only.
I went from a high-powered corporate position where I was busting hump 65-80 a week, took 18 months off, and fell into a sweet, interesting, 24 hour a week decent paid “job” where I’ve been for almost 16 years (2 separate jobs) - I don’t qualify for health insurance, but I get everything else (3 weeks pto, quarterly bonus at 20%, profit sharing, etc.) - It gives me “purpose” and something to get up for - Frankly I wouldn’t be able to travel as much without this job. My bonuses are my travel funds. Meanwhile I’m banking 70% of my earnings since I have no outstanding debt. I’m nearing 65.
I’d say look hard for a good p/t job to fund those amazing trips you’d like to take. Semi-retirement is not a bad gig. Leaves lots of time for personal exploration and growth too.
I have worked with one at a major national firm, and that was my impression of them. As I said, this is in my experience. I hope most of them aren’t like this, but some are. I don’t make spending decisions based on what they tell me. JMO, since it was asked.
We need to respect anyone’s hesitation to retire for whatever reason - finances, family dynamics, feeling like retirement is for old people! The emotions and decisions can be all over the board - and while one person can’t wait to retire it really can be a very tough decision to make. These feelings shouldn’t be diminished - we are all different from another.
And as someone who is in the “it’s a really tough decision” camp, it does not help me to hear that someone else has managed just fine with retirement - you are not me!!!
I had approached my current administrator about a year ago about reducing to maybe 30-32 hours. He could not approve it because that would indicate to our HR that my position does not require a FT person and thus it would be hard to them to get the position FT after I retired. I have a lot of vacation built up so I said “well, you just might see me working mostly a 4 day work week using one vacation day a week!” He couldn’t really argue with that!
So maybe another option is to keep working but use up vacation time OR ask if you wanted to travel if you could have some unpaid time during the year.
I guess I’m offering this perspective as one who is there. I know I’m not you…but I find it reassuring that there is life after full time employment and it can be very enjoyable.
An old fallacy is that job security is the job you have… NO, job security is being a person who does a good job. This thought change has helped several people we know transition into consulting work. I’d suggest taking a long time off and then if you are ready, find a consulting job or a volunteer position. I transitioned from full time, to part time consulting, to retired but volunteering, to really really retired . I know I am not you, but the work for a job only is not the only way.
PS I love being retired retired. I enjoyed the volunteer stuff while DH was still working, but once both of us were ready and free, it is great.
I’m 63 and still working full time. I was downsized from a big corporate job 8 years ago and immediately found a job with a small company where everyone is like family. My H turns 66 this year and is still working, but big changes are happening with his division of a large international corporation and he may be downsized this year. He is already looking at consulting positions.
I have 4 weeks of PTO and H has 6 weeks. When I started my job 8 years ago I asked if I could take leave without pay during non busy times and they happily agreed. For the past 4 years H and I have used the majority of our PTO to travel in the winter and ski all over the west on IKON passes. We decided to do theses trips now as we are both in good physical shape and don’t want to wait until we are retired.
Our house is paid for and we have no other debt. We have been redoing our house and still have a big kitchen remodel we want to do in 2024 along with D1’s wedding. Financial advisor says we can retire whenever and we should be fine. We both would like to keep working for now to pay for the kitchen remodel and the wedding and continue to bank more just to make us feel comfortable.
I am pretty certain I could go to part time work in the future if I want to. Currently I go to the off 2 days a week, but I could only go in 1 day if I wanted to. If D1 and her fiance stay in our area long term I would love to help out with grandkids. H and I love to travel, but we have always traveled throughout our 39 years together so it’s not like we feel we need to retire to travel.
Like you I am still trying to figure out how retirement will look for me so for now I will keep working. I love to hear how all of you are living in retirement as I know there is a lot for me to look forward to.
