Just signed up for retirement, now what?

Dr. Hess wrote: 25 large. Woa. Don't spend it all in the same place. Congrats, through, if that's what you wanted.

It's not enough to retire on by itself - but he said we has planning to go in September anyway. So basically, he got a $25 large un-signing bonus. I'd say it's a good deal.

My father retired before 60 when he got a pretty sweet deal. He did have a side business to fill some days, but he also got very re-involved in his main hobby, which he had not had time for in a while. That, and he commenced re-creating the machine shop that he lost access to when he retired.

Congratulations! I'm almost 50 and I would retire tomorrow if I could keep approximately the same lifestyle I have now.

mtn wrote: Congrats! Payday today, and about half of my post tax went into retirement funds. So maybe I'll get there in 35 years or so.

If half your after tax is going in you'll be retiring in a whole lot less than 35/years AND getting a pay raise to do it.

Congrats! If you are planning on traveling, I hope that you keep an eye out for bandidos! (No, seriously, if you head south of the border, take a long flight south and then drive.)

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

mtn wrote: Congrats! Payday today, and about half of my post tax went into retirement funds. So maybe I'll get there in 35 years or so.

If half your after tax is going in you'll be retiring in a whole lot less than 35/years AND getting a pay raise to do it.

I am currently on my parents insurance. Next year I will not be. I am currently only engaged; next year I will be married and 2-5 years from now will probably be a parent. Which means that 20-23 years from now I'll likely have a college payment coming up.

I'll be lucky if in 2-5 years I'm able to save at half the rate I am now.

Congratulations, Dan! I think I'd do the travel thing with the Mrs or you'll never live it down.

Yeah, congrats. Hopefully this means we'll see you at the $2014 Challenge.

Always working, eh David?

The Challenge is the only reason I would ever go to God's Waiting Room.

Congrats! No matter what you do, enjoy every day.

I would have said I'd do it for $50k. Our rules may be different here, but it would cost them more to lay off the other people than $25k, and once they've made you the offer, they can't rescind it.

Nonetheless, I've been planning this for a while now. I work 12hr shifts, so Wed/Th on my short week,and M/T, Fr/Sa/Su on my long week. In 2 1/2 years I'll be 55, and I'm going to propose to them that I either discontinue working weekends (they don't even need me there on weekends), or that I work only weekends, and give up the weekday shifts. That will give me either 24, or 36 hours per week, and i can do that for the next 5 years until I retire 100%. In the almost 5 years since I've been there, we've constantly been shorthanded in my department. I only see that getting worse in the future, and being one of their top mechanics, I think that puts me in the drivers seat.

Congrats Dan! I agree about the travel thing if that's what the Mrs wants.

If I'm lucky, I'l lbe able to retire at 60 (16 years from now), but more likely it'll be closer to 70... although the thought of doing this job for another 26 years (meaning I'm not even halfway there yet) is not comforting.

All my retired friends tell me that the first three months just feel like you are on vacation. After that they say you need to decide how to spend your time.

So, check back after the three months.

^^^^^^ This. Find yourself something to occupy your time.

Congratulations! As others have said, find something to keep yourself occupied.

I retired the first time at 50. That lasted 6 months till I ran out of house projects to do and got bored. So I went back to work in a different field for 5 years till the company got bought and moved out of state.

This time it took 18 months till I got bored and went back to work in yet another career. That one lasted until I hit 62 and decided it was time to retire for good.

Since the wife had retired by this time we have made it stick for 8 years now.

See the above ALF and Fly Baby inputs ....

My loving retired neighbours have impressed upon me, the importance of having SOMETHING to do when you retire. In a previous conversation I asked one of them if they ~had~ any hobbies.

So, next spring I plan to break the ground on a 1000 square foot shop in the back yard so I have a place to put all the machinery I've acquired over the past ten years, and do my hobbies for as long as the health holds up.

I think it is wise to ~transition~ into retirement, not drop work cold turkey.

And get involved with a motorsport/hunting/golfing/bowling/knitting/drinking/macrame/drama/foot-fetish club of your choice so you have some social action outside of driving your spouse crazy.

In reply to SkinnyG:

That is an oddly specific club you are a member of. I don't even know how to do all of that at once!

In reply to SkinnyG:

When my father retired, my mother told him, "Tony, I've packed your lunch every morning for the last 30 years. I'm going to keep doing that. Just don't come bugging me at noon every day saying you're hungry."

Ojala wrote: That is an oddly specific club you are a member of. I don't even know how to do all of that at once!

We're accepting new members, if you'd like to learn.

In reply to SkinnyG:

No can do! The only thing I hate in this world is the godless perversion that is macramé.

I could see how drinking/macrame/drama/foot-fetish would kinda go together. Motorsport/hunting can go together, and golfing/bowling/knitting are all the same thing, from what I understand, so that's like 3 sub-clubs, right?