I’m eligible for retirement this coming May, but if I stay until December 2025 my pension will be at the point where my net income will be the same as it is now while working. So, do I retire earlier and enjoy more healthy years in retirement or do I work another five years and make more in retirement and have more to spend on travel etc. The difference is 19% so it’s not an insignificant amount. I change my mind every other week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I was in the unusual position six and a half years ago where my pension was greater than my salary. It no longer made any sense to keep working.
My wife was in a similar position, she retired at 62, after thirty years in the ambulance service. Her pension is two thirds her final salary, but she gets three quarters because she worked on, she was eligible to retire at 60. Our finances were such that we were able to afford a purpose built, bespoke, cabin which is her workshop. A great investment as many of you have seen, given all the clothes that she's made me. Her current project is a wedding dress for a dear friend, and I have just found the friend's photo. But she's also making her own outfit, my trousers and doing something or other to my black fedora. Intrigued? So am I.
I think that is the one retirement question everyone has, Brent. Personally, I think you are in a good spot. The closer you get to 2025, the easier it will be for you to say, as the song says, Take this Job and Shove It!
"It is the bitter irony of retirement......saving for an indefinite future. It is impossible to plan/budget retirement capital trying to figure out how much is enough as it is impossible to plan when the future timeline is so indefinite." And I would not want to be counting long term on any pyramid pension plan like the teachers union, state or public municipality plan that relies on those entering the plan at the bottom to pay the benefits for those retiring from the plan.
I spent 40+ years working in a manufacturing environments. Aside from working 12 years at my last employer, I was never at any company more than 5-6 years. They'd go out of business, move to another state. Most didn't have pensions & one laid me off just before I was fully vested. In my late 20's, my wife and I started investing a little bit at a time in stocks, whatever our companies had for a 401K, I made sure that we put in a much as allowed each year. If we got a 3% pay annual pay raise, we'd increase the 401K amount by 1%. When I retired 3 1/2 years ago, I had had enough of the work politics, the constant threat of layoffs due to business fluctuations, etc. The initial plan was for me to get a part time job to keep me busy. It turned out that I don't need to have a part time job to keep busy. I'm busy with my hobbies & daily exercising. Plus I'm doing tons of things around the house that I never had time for. The house has been paid off for over 10 years now. The house is only 1,300 sq ft, so downsizing isn't needed. [emoji3] My wife retires in about a year. We're already planning out where we want to travel. We're also looking at the possibility of moving a little south to get away from the snow and taxes. [emoji106] Sent from my LM-V350 using Tapatalk
Hi I grew up in Illinois and still have friends there. A friend of mine who still lives there tells me of other friends who are brought into the bosses office and told that they should leave because they'll make more retired than they will working. I'm not 60 yet and many of these people are younger than I am. People are leaving the state on a regular basis because of the taxes. I wonder when the state won't have the money anymore. Many of my retired friends mention that they don't know how they had time to work with all of the honey do's etc. Later
Sounds like an excellent time. Make a plan and work the plan. Glad to hear that retirement is good for you. I'm hoping to follow your lead.
In Canada we have a gov't pension that is very modest and then a gov't administered employee/employer/government plan that is based on contributions over a life time of work. Both plans are relatively well managed and at least for the balance of my life secure.
One of the upsides of being this age is that I no longer have to worry about saving for my old age......I have arrived so to speak!
One of the features of the California pension system is that, generally speaking, the pension service credit when you change public employers remains with the employee. I changed employers several times to advance my career and the service credit stayed with me. By the time I retired I had well over 33 years of service credit.
As long as CALPERS remains solvent. It’s less than 75% funded at the moment. I have over 25 years in the system and I really need it to be stable and healthy; it’s my intention to collect a pension for forty years!
"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." Allan Saunders - Publishers Syndicate, 1957
