The concept of retiring

Since abqdan is very retirement oriented, and is very often updating his spreadsheets for the day/month/year he can actually toss the bonds away of working FOR someone to fully retire, it keeps it in my mind "what am I doing toward this."

He's 54, I'm 51...although I'd love to have been involved in the early dot.com thing and have been able to retire in my 30s, retirement for real looks to be in my 60s, realistically.

The conundrum is that Danny will retire or semi-retire in 4 years, and I'll be slogging along indefinitely. I don't think I'd HAVE to be fully employeed; after all, I got by for over a dozen years with a very low income as self-employed.

UNM has a retirement plan, and I'll be 5-year vested in it in just 3 months. I have a minor carryover of SEPP and 403(b) funds that would carry me through maybe about 4 months...ew. I have a rental property that's paid off that has cash coming in now. The Richmond house should have significant equity again that would be usable for us both if we were to sell it. I have social security opportunities in another dozen years. I have some income from square dance calling and c/w lessons, but I'm not sure that's something I would be doing in my 60s. The University does have employment opportunities working less hours than 1.0 FTE, and I know several people that are .5 and .75 and get along just fine.

But the bigger question isn't financial to me...it's what would I DO if I retired early, in decent health, with many years to look forward to. I would probably still stay involved in dance somehow. I'd seque back into small business accounting consulting. Traveling more without having to deal with vacation time restraints might be a biggie. Downsizing from a 3500 square foot house on 1/3 acre would definitely be a priority. Becoming heavily involved in volunteerism is a strong likelihood, having been around 100s of seniors that work with non-profits after retiring.

I don't have a spreadsheet like Danny does to figure my potential annual retirement income...there are too many variables this early on for me to make educated guesses.

Retirement has become blurry, since we have so many other opportunities to explore nowadays than our parents or grand parents did.

But it does give room for thought...

The concept of retiring

Since abqdan is very retirement oriented, and is very often updating his spreadsheets for the day/month/year he can actually toss the bonds away of working FOR someone to fully retire, it keeps it in my mind "what am I doing toward this."

He's 54, I'm 51...although I'd love to have been involved in the early dot.com thing and have been able to retire in my 30s, retirement for real looks to be in my 60s, realistically.

The conundrum is that Danny will retire or semi-retire in 4 years, and I'll be slogging along indefinitely. I don't think I'd HAVE to be fully employeed; after all, I got by for over a dozen years with a very low income as self-employed.

UNM has a retirement plan, and I'll be 5-year vested in it in just 3 months. I have a minor carryover of SEPP and 403(b) funds that would carry me through maybe about 4 months...ew. I have a rental property that's paid off that has cash coming in now. The Richmond house should have significant equity again that would be usable for us both if we were to sell it. I have social security opportunities in another dozen years. I have some income from square dance calling and c/w lessons, but I'm not sure that's something I would be doing in my 60s. The University does have employment opportunities working less hours than 1.0 FTE, and I know several people that are .5 and .75 and get along just fine.

But the bigger question isn't financial to me...it's what would I DO if I retired early, in decent health, with many years to look forward to. I would probably still stay involved in dance somehow. I'd seque back into small business accounting consulting. Traveling more without having to deal with vacation time restraints might be a biggie. Downsizing from a 3500 square foot house on 1/3 acre would definitely be a priority. Becoming heavily involved in volunteerism is a strong likelihood, having been around 100s of seniors that work with non-profits after retiring.

I don't have a spreadsheet like Danny does to figure my potential annual retirement income...there are too many variables this early on for me to make educated guesses.

Retirement has become blurry, since we have so many other opportunities to explore nowadays than our parents or grand parents did.

But it does give room for thought...