Is the grass greener? Retirement, what does it really mean?

megadesertdiesel said:
Now that sounds like a great retirement.  Healthy and stays busy at his own pace and schedule.  
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he's fishing in florida right now, back next week i think it is, goes by himself to see his sister and go fishing with her husband 2-3 times a year. until they send him home lol. my mom won't go so he says see ya when i get back lol. he's a mover, she's a hoarder, never leaves the house, he don't wait on her, if she's gonna sit all day, he's not

 
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EastMT said:
I have been contemplating this for a few years. Several changes in life have given me a new perspective. I'd like to transition into self employment with a business that can be full time or part time so I could travel and dune more. No desire to stop working completely, just less some times during the year.A ny ideas that require less than several hundred K initial investment? Feet pictures on only fans is not panning out like I thought it would.
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Realbadlarry said:
PS.... OnlyFans should NOT be your retirement plan......#Fatoldguytoefungus is NOT making me any money......yet.
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You guys just need to wait for the subscriptions to start racking up once the algorithm picks you up.  Don't worry, you'll be trending before you know and getting mad duckets of casholine for motorhomes with giant pictures of your feet on them.  

 
I hear a lot of folks say "Im moving someplace more affordable".  make sure you do your homework........  Yes, that country place might be a bit less expensive to purchase, and fuel might be a bit cheaper, but when you have to drive 4 times further, and upkeep is 10 times more expensive, it becomes a wash (or worse yet, its a worse situation).

pay close attn to property taxes.  some places raise property taxes all of the time to deal with all of the Kalipornians moving in.  its not affordable if everything continues to go up. 

some states tax incomes differently, that can affect your take home. 

Healthcare is another huge one.  if your needs are changing & you have to go 100 miles by taxi (because you cant drive any longer), it becomes problematic.

lastly, to loosely quote Lee Iacocca: "you have to have a plan for retirement, your goal should be to create a legacy & to ensure that it lives on forever". 

 
I turn 38 next week and can retire when I'm 55 so I have a few years left to think about it but I do know I need to do what a lot of people do in public service is get out of the state. My dollar needs to go a lot farther then it does here. I am not fortunate enough like a lot of you on this board to own multiple businesses and work for yourselves. I work for the man and while my retirement is very stable (Calpers), it is not necessarily lucrative. For instance, my retirement is 2% @ 55, meaning if I work 35 years, I retire at 70% of whatever my salary is at the time of retirement. I also receive lifetime medical benefits. I do have other retirement means such as deferred compensation to try and make up for the 30% gap that will exist but it's not necessarily lifetime changing money.

Sad as it sounds, I don't expect to live very long. I already have a few significant medical problems now and my families history is poor at best. I'd like to make the most out of retirement and I don't believe working, even just part time, will be in that plan. What I look forward to the most is doing whatever I want. Fishing on a lake/river, watching my grandkids sporting events and hopefully traveling the country in an RV. No e-mails to respond to, no 3am phone calls. I did my time.

 
Bobalos said:
I hear a lot of folks say "Im moving someplace more affordable".  make sure you do your homework........  Yes, that country place might be a bit less expensive to purchase, and fuel might be a bit cheaper, but when you have to drive 4 times further, and upkeep is 10 times more expensive, it becomes a wash (or worse yet, its a worse situation).

pay close attn to property taxes.  some places raise property taxes all of the time to deal with all of the Kalipornians moving in.  its not affordable if everything continues to go up. 
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This is some sound advice. People get so hung up on basic cost of a house and land that they fail to do their homework. The reality is that all states have to get their revenue somewhere. Some do it via income tax, some sales tax, some property tax and combinations of these and more. There is lots of info out there and you have to approach it from a retirement perspective and where your income is going to come from.

As an example, most people think Texas is a good retirement location because there is no income tax. However, if you look at the ratings of states for retirement taxes Texas actually rates as the absolute worst. The reason in that Texas generates the vast majority of their revenue from property taxes. Even if your income gets reduced significantly in retirement these property taxes don't go away.

Believe it or not, California actually rates about middle of the pack as far as retirement tax goes. I live in Oregon where we have 9.75% income tax. I thought I needed to get out of Oregon for retirement. When I did my research I found it also comes in about middle of the pack because property tax is reasonable and there is no sales tax. Do your homework and base it on your personal situation!

 
BaBaBouy said:
Retirement is wasted on old people, having the freedom to do what you want when you don’t feel like doing anything is an odd goal. 
You’re only 50, 53, 56… once, if you can retire do it.

I retired @ fiddy, could have doubled my retirement income by working 6 more years but chose to bounce with enough income to keep the lights on.

The one thing I can tell you is make sure you have someplace to be and something to do periodically, waking up at 10am and mixing your first adult beverage at 11:30am isn’t a recipe for success.

I have accounts where I move snow in the winter and do backhoe / brush clearing in the summer. I’m at the gym 5 days a week from 7:40 - 9:15am. My goal is to earn my whiskey / ammo / go fishing money leaving my previously earned cash alone.

Sometimes I want to go back to full time employment so I’m not so busy.
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Bouy for the win.

This is so true.  Retire when you can.  At the end of the day, be honest...what you do for a company isn't really that important.  They will squeeze everything they can from you till you're dead if you let them and replace you before you're even in the ground.  

 
Chummin said:
Now my retirement, 

almost 30 years developing software for startups is getting old. 401k is a joke. 
we invested in land and building houses. Managed to collect some rentals and it’s looking bright in the next 5 years. 
We can’t leave CA cause that’s where we build, but a few hours South of here is San Felipe and that’s our goal. 
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I have been trying to sell the idea to my wife of retiring. in Baja, actually went and look at houses and property in Los Barillas, we actually came back saying we would be bored.  The thought was to put toys and Moho in storage in SD, and fly up and do our vacations in the states and live in mex....................wife said no.  If she dumps me, I still might do it  :classic_biggrin:

 
I will retire when I can, until then I will dream about it and actually dread it.

 
Cookie said:
I have been trying to sell the idea to my wife of retiring. in Baja, actually went and look at houses and property in Los Barillas, we actually came back saying we would be bored.  The thought was to put toys and Moho in storage in SD, and fly up and do our vacations in the states and live in mex....................wife said no.  If she dumps me, I still might do it  :classic_biggrin:
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One thing to consider about Mexico: no flushing of TP. Have your BMs gotten better or worse with age? Mine haven’t… :biggrin:

IMG_3194.webp

 
Mac said:
Bouy for the win.

This is so true.  Retire when you can.  At the end of the day, be honest...

what you do for a company isn't really that important.  They will squeeze everything they can from you till you're dead if you let them and replace you before you're even in the ground.  
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ain't no BS here, been with my company for just shy of 30 yrs and am getting ready to tell them to :effu:

 
My parents both retired from BIG companies at the age I am now..

 
I retired 10 years ago and had to find a job to pick up the slack.

Then, I drove a school bus for 26 months...I loved it when the bus was empty.  There are good routes out there.  I also loved being laid-off in the summer and several times are year (unemployment).

I always thought that I always work.  Well, I still work once or twice a month....but that ain't what I mean. 

If you are the type of person that isn't going to wonder how you ever had time to work, when you were working, then stay working as you won't know what to do in retirement.  Personally, I have a neglected house, car/truck/rail/UTV projects and a boat-load of stuff to keep me busy.

I am watching for a job THAT I WANT TO DO, but I haven't found it yet...say working half a day at the ski resort and then skiing after that (for free, as an employee). 

So far this year, since quitting the bus... I've gone on a 5 day rafting trip,  umpired about 100 games, gone Antelope, Elk, and Deer hunting and made my first 2 trips to Buttercup in a long time.  I leave when I want and come back when I have to.

6 Saturdays and a Sunday in every week.

 
Cookie said:
I have been trying to sell the idea to my wife of retiring. in Baja, actually went and look at houses and property in Los Barillas, we actually came back saying we would be bored.  The thought was to put toys and Moho in storage in SD, and fly up and do our vacations in the states and live in mex....................wife said no.  If she dumps me, I still might do it  :classic_biggrin:
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San Felipe is a quick drive to get back home. No flights needed. 

 
My SIL worked for CA EDD...... get a job at Del Mar for the horse races....then get unemployment when they leave.....good gig. 

 
I am 60 and could retire now, my wife and I run a trucking business and have saved enough without Social security to sell it all and quite, the ss payments will just be icing on the cake. since we don't plan on leaving California we invested in California municipal bonds ca tax free income and a few other conservative investment.

I already work when I want and sometimes when I don't, but being your own boss has its advantages. I am more worried about running out of money in my old age than working longer.

My father is 94 and physically in good health and takes no medication he does have dementia his mother died at 102 and was physically in good health until about 95 and my grand parents on my mothers side lived to 90 and 98 both of my grand fathers died of cancer one smoked unfiltered cigarets starting at 16 and then spent 40 years also breathing coal smoke from steam engines the other from skin cancer that spread to the rest of his body and my mother died at 82 from multiple myeloma. For me this means without any advancements in medical science I could easily live another 35 years, My grand parents retired in the 70's but the economy and inflation pretty much wiped out most of their savings and investments and their retirement years were not as easy as they thought they would be, the other thing is they never expected to live as long as they did there parents and grandparents didn't but modern medicine happened and kept them healthy. Lucile who died at 102 had advice for me, and that was to get younger friends as she out lived everyone many by 30 plus years. 

I can not fathom doing nothing but spending money on hobbies for 35 years and not running out at some point, things are not getting cheaper and Funco upgrades are expensive  and what if medical science comes up with something that keeps me alive and healthy for 60 more years so I will continue working but I am committed to taking more time off and enjoy what ever I'm doing for as long as I can do it.

 
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