What are your retirement plans?

A few of us at work talk about this from time to time.  Many of my soon to retire coworkers really don't have a plan. GF and I are at a point where we look at what we want to do when we retire.  We really like the option of being volunteers at National and /State parks and traveling around the country.  We love the travel and think there is enough in this country where you don't have to go over sea's.  I can't imagine anything better than  fishing hiking and working in those places.

I retired on 4/13/12, was not ready to retire but my employer was talking about going bankrupt so a number of my co-workers and I retired and took what we could get before we ended up with nothing  (long story).  We had already taken about 30% cuts in wages and benefits and there were talks of more cuts for the next fiscal year, so it made no sense to stay when I could make about the same in retirement.  I really had no plans other than to take the summer off and then either do volunteer work or take a part time job.  I may go back to my job and work part time with no benefits. 

Retire? Hell i am still tired, have not rested enough to get retired.

I retired five years ago at 56.  I spent a year as a Contra Costa County Civil Grand Juror.  I highly recommend this to anyone willing to put in the time.  The pay is almost nothing but the friendships and what you can learn about local government is priceless.  After that I joined the Board of Directors of the Greater East Bay Goodwill Industries.  Serving on the board of a good non-profit organization is a great way to give something back to the community without making a huge time commitment.  Boards are looking for experience and skills to aid their management.  I attend about 1 meeting a month for a couple of hours.  There is a little work time at home but nothing like a "real job".  I like having control of my time so I can fish during the week whenever the conditions are right.  Between reading, fishing, and beer brewing, most of my time seems to get consumed.  I'm not sure how I ever found the time to work.

I found myself suddenly retired...

was put out to pasture due to injuries from being a Fire Fighter Paramedic...  I kinda knew it was coming, but when it did happen...  what a shock...

 Really miss the job.... but Life moves on...

and now, I'm busier than when I was working and wondering how I ever went to work... family and HOW keep me pretty busy...


I'm looking into going back to school and getting my psych degree to work with First Responders / Military with the ever growing, annoying problem of PTSD/Addiction...

But I often think of just being on some Latin America Beach with close Blue Water.....   

I just heard the saying "artists don't retire until they die". So I hope to work a loooong time

but I would retire from my office job tomorrow if I could afford it.

I'm only 36, so I have awhile to think about this.

I just hope that I CAN retire at some point. My 401k has almost 200k in it now, so hopefully it doesn't all get wiped out in the next few years.

Those of us in our 30 don't even know if we can Retire! hopefully that will be an option when we get there. I would throw my stuff in a van, travel, sleep and fish!

First, sign up with this web site and read all you can.
http://www.early-retirement.org/

I'm retiring this year, about Christmas time, after 30+ years of working for SMUD.  I have a TLB and plan to hire my self out for that.  I've got lots of plans;
1. Get my rotory wing license.
2. Play guitar well enough to get back into it professionally.
3. Get my fishing guide license.
4. Get back into ski patrolling at the local resort.
5. More volunteer work such as HOW.
6. Gold panning

Those are enough for starters anyways.  I've been reading about early retirement since I was in my mid 20's.  Financially, I have been able to retire since I was 45, which was 11 years ago.  Once I could claim to be financially independandt, work became much more enjoyable.  I didn't need to worry about getting fired!!  Ha!

Figure out what amount of income you need to live, then work on an investment plan to make that happen.  Once you do, you are FI (financially independant)  and on your way to RE (retire early)
FIRE

I'm close, I have reached the point financially that I could go in 6 months or 2 more yrs would be better, in between is fine too.

7 yrs ago my company threw me out because they wanted to make more money by doing the same work with less people, 9 months after that I got a job with the same company doing the same thing I did when I started in 1974.  So now I'm back in all the benefit programs at max because they do all that stuff on total time.

I make about 30% less, but have zero stress (no pager or offtime duty anymore) and believe it or not almost absolute job security because of my time and position and contract.

So now it's become mostly a psychological decision, that's the big one.  I have some nebulous thoughts of fishing, travel, and volunteer work.  But I'm not there yet,

Work has become this huge inconvience, I like the people I work with and my job is easy but is getting really boring.

The great thing at this point is there's no real pressure to go or stay, so I get to make that decision at my leisure.  It's been a long haul, almost 38 years (minus strike and layoff) in the same place.  In this day and age I definetly consider myself lucky to have made it to this point.

Time to go, sooner rather than later I think.

2 of the best things I did for my planning, was to go the distance and get my 20 years of military service.  I did 10 years regular Army, and now 19 years in The Guard.  about 15 years ago the DoD came out with the Thrift Savings program for the military, I have been putting the max that I can of of drill checks since it started.  Granted drill checks are not a lot, so the amount is not huge, but when the day comes it will convert to my RV fund.  At age 60 (12 years from now), I can draw my military retirement.  It will never have huge amounts in it, but it will be a solid check every month, to go with what ever else comes my way.

Sleeping (currrently). 

I retired two years ago and I totally understand what Dangling is talking about!  I too wonder how I got anything done with work interfering all the time, and I stay just as busy now.  Only difference is that I can pick what I want to keep me busy.  Save as much as you possibly can in tax shelters and other funds, because even if you have a pension it is not going to be enough to retire and have money to do the things you would like--writing this from the Garden Island of Kauai at the moment.

I plan on working daily till I die.......  ahhh, the American dream!

I retired two years ago and I totally understand what Dangling is talking about!  I too wonder how I got anything done with work interfering all the time, and I stay just as busy now.  Only difference is that I can pick what I want to keep me busy.  Save as much as you possibly can in tax shelters and other funds, because even if you have a pension it is not going to be enough to retire and have money to do the things you would like--writing this from the Garden Island of Kauai at the moment.

Let me guess you are sitting there with a drink in one hand a line tied to your big toe ready for the big one, all the while you are laying back in the hammock!  What a life!