Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

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TheTimeLord
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by TheTimeLord »

AerialWombat wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:23 am I FIREd last year, in my early 40s. I wish I had given greater consideration to the fact that everybody else my age is still working M-F.
Yep, it can be a long wait before your friends will be available M-F.
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TheTimeLord
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by TheTimeLord »

jaqenhghar wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:44 am
TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
Would you mind explaining this a bit more? How do other people's budgets seem to control more things than yours?
Whether you eating out or taking a trip when it involves others you usually need to be considerate of whoever has the tightest budget. So while there are things I would like to do with friends or family, it may not fit their budget. I guess I always assumed the people around me were on a similar financial path, but that was an erroneous assumption.
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TheTimeLord
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by TheTimeLord »

marcopolo wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:28 pm
TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
I worried that this might be an issue, but I have found that with a reasonably large group of friends/family, we have been able to rotate activities. None of the still working friends can do all of the things we want to do with friends, buy almost always a subset of them are available. So, we still get to do all of the things we want to do with friends, but just not with all of them all at the same time.
I think my bucket list is going to need some adjustments.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Church Lady »

The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Wannaretireearly »

ScooterBob wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:15 am
JPH wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:06 am After I retired and seriously started understanding my finances I discovered that I could have retired a lot earlier!
Exactly the same for me. In all reality, you don't need a zillion dollars to retire comfortably. I wish I would have went about 4-5 years earlier.

Bob
Curious, by roughly how much did you overestimate?
E.g. portfolio size: 40x (actual at retirement) vs 30x (what you could get by, really…)
and/or
age: 55 (actual at retirement) vs 50 (what you could’ve achieved)
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makingmistakes
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by makingmistakes »

Wanderingwheelz wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:47 am This may sound off putting to some, but I wish my folks had told me that my inheritance is likely to be triple my best guess and enough to double my best egg which is already large enough to retire- which I am.

We did our estate planning last year and I suspect that prompted them to better inform me what their snapshot looks like, but I’m not sure.

Regardless, I wish I’d known earlier since it has had an effect on how I view my own asset allocation, and it also has me thinking about my real estate situation.
As a parent, this confirms what I’ve suspected (and experienced): No matter what I do, my kids will find some reason to complain 😂
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by marcopolo »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:01 pm
ScooterBob wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:15 am
JPH wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:06 am After I retired and seriously started understanding my finances I discovered that I could have retired a lot earlier!
Exactly the same for me. In all reality, you don't need a zillion dollars to retire comfortably. I wish I would have went about 4-5 years earlier.

Bob
Curious, by roughly how much did you overestimate?
E.g. portfolio size: 40x (actual at retirement) vs 30x (what you could get by, really…)
and/or
age: 55 (actual at retirement) vs 50 (what you could’ve achieved)
We are kind of in the same boat of now feeling like we could have retired even earlier than we did.

But, I think some of this is a bit of revisionist history. People are likely only feeling this way because of the large run up in their portfolios since they retired. But, that is just a quirk of their timing. There was no way to have known that was going to happen. It could just as well have turned out that we all retired a bit too soon and had to look at plan B.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by JediMisty »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
I've often had this issue my whole life. People either won't join me for activities or expect me to pay for everything. I didn't ever make all that much. Also, my sister and her husband seem to think they will come to live with me! There's isn't a house big enough for us all!
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Apathizer »

jebmke wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:14 am I wish I had done better research on the quality and availability of medical care in the immediate area beforehand. I assumed proximity to urban area would be enough but underestimated the barrier of time/transport for quality care.
Yeah, that's something I need to consider. I'm only 50 and would like to retire by 60. While there are plenty of LCL areas I could afford to live most don't have decent, affordable healthcare available prior to medicare eligibility. The areas that do tend to be HCL.

Hopefully I'll remain relatively healthy in my early 60s, so healthcare won't be a major concern, but when I reach 65 it will definitely be highly determinant of where I live.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by fposte »

I don't think I have an actual "I wish I'd known." There are things that are different than what I expected, but not in any way that advance knowledge would matter with. It's not exactly what I planned but I planned for it to be not exactly what I planned, if you will, and it's still awesome.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by celia »

It took me a couple of years to realize WHY our income taxes and tax bracket went up. It basically was because we couldn’t itemize anymore and our dependents were gone. Our mortgage was paid off, we stopped saving for retirement, and had to take RMDs from an Inherited IRA, all around the same time.

So our “Taxable Income” grew while our expenses went down.
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Chicken lady
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Chicken lady »

I should have retired earlier. Never could figure out the right time to pull the trigger. I finally got fed up and left. I also overestimated how much money was needed in retirement. My expenses are low since everything is paid off and I really don’t buy stuff anymore. I already have a house full of stuff accumulated over the years. Goal now is to get rid of it instead of accumulating more.
Ditto regarding 'stuff' which we call 'our worldly goods.' Rehome stuff?

We worked so hard to accumulate and now are working equally hard to have a more simple life. We give an awful lot of 'stuff' to our local church goodwill type store but that leaves more valuable items that we want to sell. We're thinking of trying an auction house that specializes in antiques and art. We'll see....

We have always been thrifty - by nature. Good thing that we're a good match there. No bills other than utilities. Lucky us!
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by CFOKevin »

I wish I'd known how much fun playing pickleball is and how many fun people of all ages play. If I would have started playing 5 years before I retired, I'd have dropped 60 pounds sooner and would be better at it than I am now.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by LilyFleur »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
I have experienced this very recently.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by SB1234 »

Church Lady wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:57 pm
The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
Only if one considers pre-tax income as most important above all. At least with other taxes one can manage them somehow, but not so with payroll taxes.
In reality only after tax income matters!
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by AlohaBill »

On the financial side, I wish I had known a little more accurately what our final retirement portfolio would begin at and what our social security/pension would be. In other words, instead of FIRE, what was our SIRE? Secure income, retire early. Kids may get a large bonus when my wife calls it a day.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Dun_Werking »

I retired last year at 55. The only thing I second guess now is that my spouse is still working FT. She plans to hang on for a few more years...which I knew before I retired. She likes most aspects of her job. It's not a major issue but it does tie me down a bit as far as leisure & travel activities. I may look for some part-time work in the Fall/Winter.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by GerryL »

I did a lot of planning before I retired. A LOT. Once I had a good handle on my finances, I focused on what I would do with all the free time. Even though I took a separation package a year before I planned to retire, I can't really say that there was anything missing in what I envisioned.

Well, maybe the only thing was knowing about IRMAA.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by thenow »

The hardest part of retirement was psychological that first year. I was a full professor with tenure and considered quite highly with teaching and publishing. I could have worked a lot longer. Yet, the student quality and their other priorities worried me. I had a hard time sleeping at night and always worried about assigning fair grades. I was too sensitive. I therefore retired at 66. Although I ran all kinds of analysis about finances…it turned out to be minor. I did suffer from Obama care increase surcharges with extra Medicare and Prescription D increases. That’s ok since so many people are struggling financially.

Financially, I wished I would have delayed SS until 70 and taken from my IRAs till 70. Instead I’m paying a lot more in taxes due to required minimum distribution. Lastly, I ignored the location of my investments (qualified vs non qualified) which resulted in more taxes. Nevertheless, the thirteen years of retirement have gone by fast. I’ve learned to really appreciate and enjoy those 13 years. Don’t wait too long to enjoy yourself. Too many wait and then are sickly and can’t enjoy the freedom of being retired.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Wanderingwheelz »

makingmistakes wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:06 pm
Wanderingwheelz wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:47 am This may sound off putting to some, but I wish my folks had told me that my inheritance is likely to be triple my best guess and enough to double my best egg which is already large enough to retire- which I am.

We did our estate planning last year and I suspect that prompted them to better inform me what their snapshot looks like, but I’m not sure.

Regardless, I wish I’d known earlier since it has had an effect on how I view my own asset allocation, and it also has me thinking about my real estate situation.
As a parent, this confirms what I’ve suspected (and experienced): No matter what I do, my kids will find some reason to complain 😂
I can only hope that your kids do as much for you as I do mine.
Being wrong compounds forever.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by JoeRetire »

Hugh Prolly-Wright wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:08 am For those of you retired, what is something you wish you had known prior to retirement? Something you found out or discovered only after retiring?
I wish I'd known just how great our life is in retirement.

I wouldn't have done anything differently, but perhaps I would have worried about it less.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by JS-Elcano »

MGBMartin wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:36 am I wish I had known coronavirus was coming and international travel would be off for a couple of years.
I would have traveled more before instead of holding off until full retirement income began .
I am not retired yet, but have managed to travel throughout COVID both within the US and to Europe. Much of my family is in Europe and I did travel there in 2020 and in 2021. Of course N95 masks were essential, and then vaccines, but travel never shut down and I kept going just fine. Never felt that "travel would be off for a couple of years" (unless one is at high risk, then of course it's a different situation).
Wannaretireearly
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Wannaretireearly »

marcopolo wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:08 pm
Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:01 pm
ScooterBob wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:15 am
JPH wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:06 am After I retired and seriously started understanding my finances I discovered that I could have retired a lot earlier!
Exactly the same for me. In all reality, you don't need a zillion dollars to retire comfortably. I wish I would have went about 4-5 years earlier.

Bob
Curious, by roughly how much did you overestimate?
E.g. portfolio size: 40x (actual at retirement) vs 30x (what you could get by, really…)
and/or
age: 55 (actual at retirement) vs 50 (what you could’ve achieved)
We are kind of in the same boat of now feeling like we could have retired even earlier than we did.

But, I think some of this is a bit of revisionist history. People are likely only feeling this way because of the large run up in their portfolios since they retired. But, that is just a quirk of their timing. There was no way to have known that was going to happen. It could just as well have turned out that we all retired a bit too soon and had to look at plan B.
Yep, thanks Marco. I’ll call it at age 48-50 I think. At least take a long sabbatical ;) ….getting from 25X yo 40X is gonna be a grind these next roughly 5 years!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Miguelito »

skeptical wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:49 am Medical is far more expensive than I thought. I figured I would need to cover what my company was paying for premiums. Not only are premiums more than my company was paying (company premiums are negotiated by the company, ACA is decided for you by bureaucrats), but out of pocket, for me, now costs about as much as the premiums, before retirement there was almost no out of pocket. Also, I only have access to HMO. So, more for premiums, a lot more for out of pocket, and HMO instead of PPO. My advice here is run a premium search and then add to that your max out of pocket as your budget, if you are under 65
Sounds like you had an awfully generous health plan. going back nearly a decade now, including some good employers, out of pocket max (cap) for a family ranged between $8-11K/year, and we typically paid about $5k/year.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by MGBMartin »

JS-Elcano wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:14 pm
MGBMartin wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:36 am I wish I had known coronavirus was coming and international travel would be off for a couple of years.
I would have traveled more before instead of holding off until full retirement income began .
I am not retired yet, but have managed to travel throughout COVID both within the US and to Europe. Much of my family is in Europe and I did travel there in 2020 and in 2021. Of course N95 masks were essential, and then vaccines, but travel never shut down and I kept going just fine. Never felt that "travel would be off for a couple of years" (unless one is at high risk, then of course it's a different situation).
We actually went to the UK right when coronavirus was first hit the news, end of feb and early mar 2020.
There were a few cases in the US already and Europe was starting to see rising numbers.
After vaccination we did go to Denver a few times but we held off on international trips.
The mrs has been to the UK twice this year already as she has family there.
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marcopolo
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by marcopolo »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:20 pm
marcopolo wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:08 pm
Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:01 pm
ScooterBob wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:15 am
JPH wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:06 am After I retired and seriously started understanding my finances I discovered that I could have retired a lot earlier!
Exactly the same for me. In all reality, you don't need a zillion dollars to retire comfortably. I wish I would have went about 4-5 years earlier.

Bob
Curious, by roughly how much did you overestimate?
E.g. portfolio size: 40x (actual at retirement) vs 30x (what you could get by, really…)
and/or
age: 55 (actual at retirement) vs 50 (what you could’ve achieved)
We are kind of in the same boat of now feeling like we could have retired even earlier than we did.

But, I think some of this is a bit of revisionist history. People are likely only feeling this way because of the large run up in their portfolios since they retired. But, that is just a quirk of their timing. There was no way to have known that was going to happen. It could just as well have turned out that we all retired a bit too soon and had to look at plan B.
Yep, thanks Marco. I’ll call it at age 48-50 I think. At least take a long sabbatical ;) ….getting from 25X yo 40X is gonna be a grind these next roughly 5 years!
We retired at age 51 with about 33x, a little over 4 years ago in early 2018.

At the start of this year our portfolio had grown to about 50x. It is probably about 45x now.

So, on the surface it looks like maybe we could have retired a little earlier, but we might have been at 25-30x with no way of knowing how markets would perform, many were calling for market crashes due to valuations back in 2015-2018.

We can't make decisions in hindsight. Looking forward, I was not ready financially, or mentally, to retire earlier. The run up in the markets since then really does not change that.

Good luck to you!
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
1moreyr
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by 1moreyr »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
MY mom has a similar problem. her retired friends don't have the money to travel with her as she does extensivelhy and too much pride to let her pay to come along once in a while. she goes on tour group tours and after one or two has developed her list of tour group friends. they email each other back and forth to confirm who is going on what next trip
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TheTimeLord
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by TheTimeLord »

1moreyr wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:43 pm
TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
MY mom has a similar problem. her retired friends don't have the money to travel with her as she does extensivelhy and too much pride to let her pay to come along once in a while. she goes on tour group tours and after one or two has developed her list of tour group friends. they email each other back and forth to confirm who is going on what next trip
I may need to go that route. There are a few buddies trips I had always assumed I would be taking that now I am not so sure will ever happen.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Fat Tails »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
TheTimeLord, you are not alone.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Fat Tails »

Church Lady wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:57 pm
The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
Not to mention that after retirement, you don’t have to save for retirement.
“Doing well with money has little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave.” - Morgan Housel
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by OnTrack2020 »

Hugh Prolly-Wright wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:08 am For those of you retired, what is something you wish you had known prior to retirement? Something you found out or discovered only after retiring?
I"m not thinking of financial matters only,(though that's a big part) but other aspects of the retired life, too.
Honestly, I never thought of this before, but after husband retired, I noticed that we typically only go to 5 stores in our community on a regular basis--three stores for groceries, one store for home items/home maintenance, and one hobby store. We want to move, and this put it more in perspective.

Volunteering is highly overrated. We volunteered a lot while our children were growing up, but have really eased up on volunteering and just have not missed it.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Gnirk »

I wish we had done a lot more travel in our earlier years of retirement (DH at age 68, me at age 62 1/2) because you never know when you will have an unexpected hit to your health. I still want to travel internationally but find our bodies can't tolerate the long flights, even in business class. Even traveling in the US has become difficult because of mobility issues. The mind wants adventure, but the body doesn't cooperate.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by vested1 »

I wish I would have had better knowledge of Medicare plans before I retired 1.5 years before turning 65. My wife and I signed up for plan N and would have to go through underwriting to change to plan G in our state. She would never qualify, and I'm not sure I would either. A new Medicare recipient is allowed to pick plan G with no underwriting. Somehow I missed that. Too many other things to nail down at the time I guess. Working a ton of hours while employed leaves little spare time to explore all the aspects of retirement.

On the flip side, I'm happy I didn't appreciate how much our expenses would go down in retirement. If I would have known I may have saved less.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by sureshoe »

pasadena wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:11 pm
sureshoe wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:54 pm
Youngblood wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:52 am Getting a pet cat would make a decision to travel more difficult.
Not retired, but I specifically did not replace my dead dog for this reason. I love dogs, and I miss having one - but just something as simple as, "I'm going to go away for a weekend" becomes a hassle.
This is why I started fostering (cats). I travel a bit for work (or used to, but it'll come back soon enough), and take longer trips every year (think several weeks of vacation/remote work). I've had cats all my life, but when the last ones passed away, I decided to get my cat fix through fostering instead. Much better flexibility, saving lives, and never-ending kittens.

I do miss having my own cat, but it wouldn't be a smart move right now. I'll probably keep that up in the early years of retirement so I can travel freely.

Dogs may be easier, though, as they can travel with you to a lot of places, although not all.
Good call out on the fostering. We got our last dog through a rescue after fostering it for a bit and just keeping it. We fostered a second and decided "two dogs are too many".

I've always assumed cats were "easier" since you can get away with leaving them alone a day or two (but never owned one). With a dog, you're usually on a timer: "I have to get home by 7pm or else..."
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TheTimeLord
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by TheTimeLord »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
I want to add budgets can be different for 2 reasons. First and most obvious because one group has more or less money than the other group. Second, because one group puts a different value on the activity than the other group. Just because everyone agrees they want to go somewhere and do something doesn't mean they have the same duration or level of accommodations in mind. When I was younger adjusting wasn't a big deal, but when you are talking about a bucket list trip to somewhere you likely won't ever visit again compromising can sting a bit more.
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by AnEngineer »

sureshoe wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:30 am I've always assumed cats were "easier" since you can get away with leaving them alone a day or two (but never owned one).
You can leave outdoor cats for a lot longer than two days.
RMD3819
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by RMD3819 »

Retired at 54 with a pension.
-I am embarrassed to admit I did not know you do not get charged SS or Medicare taxes on a pension.
-I was surprised I lost motivation to do mundane errands that required a trip to the store. There was no work commute but when retired I bundled errands instead of driving to the grocery to get milk and then return home like I would do pre retirement.
-Following our long term plan we sold our house and bought a large RV to travel full time. I was surprised at how large the full time RV community is-and it is not just retirees. Families are more and more common.
pasadena
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by pasadena »

sureshoe wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:30 am I've always assumed cats were "easier" since you can get away with leaving them alone a day or two (but never owned one). With a dog, you're usually on a timer: "I have to get home by 7pm or else..."
True! I routinely left mine alone (I always had two) for up to 2 nights.

But for anything longer than that... neighbors or boarding. You can't just load them up in the car and take them to the beach for a week. I mean, you probably can, but you won't do it twice unless you have a rare adventurous cat :)
MGBMartin
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by MGBMartin »

pasadena wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 8:34 am
sureshoe wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:30 am I've always assumed cats were "easier" since you can get away with leaving them alone a day or two (but never owned one). With a dog, you're usually on a timer: "I have to get home by 7pm or else..."
True! I routinely left mine alone (I always had two) for up to 2 nights.

But for anything longer than that... neighbors or boarding. You can't just load them up in the car and take them to the beach for a week. I mean, you probably can, but you won't do it twice unless you have a rare adventurous cat :)
Last time we did a long distance move we had 2 cats in the car with us for the 2 day drive.
The vet gave us something to give the cats to subdue them a little.
One cat slept the whole way; the other went ballistic climbing on the dashboard trying to catch the wipers and falling of on to my legs with all claws out. The ballistic one only got the meds on the first day after that.
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radiowave
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by radiowave »

"I wish I'd known . . ." that it would have been a lot easier to buy our transition to retirement home before we retired. My thinking at the time was, well, I'd have plenty of time to make the move after I retired. But it's a bit more complex when you don't have any earned income in retirement. Also, missed out on several properties we could have bought pre COVID that were a perfect fit for us and a lot cheaper then vs now.

Something about hindsight . . .
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9-5 Suited
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by 9-5 Suited »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:30 pm
jaqenhghar wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 11:44 am
TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
Would you mind explaining this a bit more? How do other people's budgets seem to control more things than yours?
Whether you eating out or taking a trip when it involves others you usually need to be considerate of whoever has the tightest budget. So while there are things I would like to do with friends or family, it may not fit their budget. I guess I always assumed the people around me were on a similar financial path, but that was an erroneous assumption.
Super interesting actually ... I had assumed you were talking about the inverse, where your budget was negatively impacted by ailing family members, kids who didn't launch, friends in need of assistance, etc. Hadn't thought about the reverse where it was harder to do the things you imagined because your family/friend cohort isn't as financially successful as you.
fposte
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by fposte »

9-5 Suited wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:01 am Super interesting actually ... I had assumed you were talking about the inverse, where your budget was negatively impacted by ailing family members, kids who didn't launch, friends in need of assistance, etc. Hadn't thought about the reverse where it was harder to do the things you imagined because your family/friend cohort isn't as financially successful as you.
Though I'll add a variant point--with my work I wasn't really able to get away even for weekend or sometimes day trips with my working friends. Now that work isn't a thing, I'm finally up to leisure speed with my cohort.
Wannaretireearly
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Wannaretireearly »

marcopolo wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:07 pm
Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:20 pm
marcopolo wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:08 pm
Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:01 pm
ScooterBob wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:15 am

Exactly the same for me. In all reality, you don't need a zillion dollars to retire comfortably. I wish I would have went about 4-5 years earlier.

Bob
Curious, by roughly how much did you overestimate?
E.g. portfolio size: 40x (actual at retirement) vs 30x (what you could get by, really…)
and/or
age: 55 (actual at retirement) vs 50 (what you could’ve achieved)
We are kind of in the same boat of now feeling like we could have retired even earlier than we did.

But, I think some of this is a bit of revisionist history. People are likely only feeling this way because of the large run up in their portfolios since they retired. But, that is just a quirk of their timing. There was no way to have known that was going to happen. It could just as well have turned out that we all retired a bit too soon and had to look at plan B.
Yep, thanks Marco. I’ll call it at age 48-50 I think. At least take a long sabbatical ;) ….getting from 25X yo 40X is gonna be a grind these next roughly 5 years!
We retired at age 51 with about 33x, a little over 4 years ago in early 2018.

At the start of this year our portfolio had grown to about 50x. It is probably about 45x now.

So, on the surface it looks like maybe we could have retired a little earlier, but we might have been at 25-30x with no way of knowing how markets would perform, many were calling for market crashes due to valuations back in 2015-2018.

We can't make decisions in hindsight. Looking forward, I was not ready financially, or mentally, to retire earlier. The run up in the markets since then really does not change that.

Good luck to you!
Thanks! Inspiring stories for sure.
To your point, it’s being financially and mentally ready. I’ve been trying to share/discuss with my wife as it’s both of us that need to be ready! I don’t want a situation where I’m fully ready, and she has concerns :oops:

Most of our recent chats have been about both downshifting to some fun/local/part time job in around 5 years.

The one thing I’d like to follow/find in this great thread, is perhaps guidance/tips/experience on how to ‘take it easy’ in the day job, how you perhaps communicated retirement plans so that more was not piled on your plate, and you have some semblance of fun in the last few years of ‘regular’ job!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
nagaf
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by nagaf »

time goes by faster than when working..
Church Lady
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by Church Lady »

SB1234 wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:17 pm
Church Lady wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:57 pm
The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
Only if one considers pre-tax income as most important above all. At least with other taxes one can manage them somehow, but not so with payroll taxes.
In reality only after tax income matters!
I always thought in terms of 'income replacement'. If your investment income (plus SS) equals your salary, you're set. However, you don't need to pay payroll taxes out of that income once you retire, so in fact you need only replace about 92-93% of your salary.

Example: You earn a salary of 100,000. You reason that if you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on your salary, you should be able to retire on that. But in fact, the government takes 7.65% of that 100,000 off the top. Therefore, you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on (1-.0765)*100,000 = 92,350. You need income of only 92,350 to 'replace' your 100,000 salary.

Of course, income planning is more complex than that. My point today is because you don't pay payroll taxes in retirement, there's no need to aim higher than 92-93% income replacement. I mention it because no one else has.

:beer
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by jebmke »

Church Lady wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:05 pm
SB1234 wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:17 pm
Church Lady wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:57 pm
The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
Only if one considers pre-tax income as most important above all. At least with other taxes one can manage them somehow, but not so with payroll taxes.
In reality only after tax income matters!
I always thought in terms of 'income replacement'. If your investment income (plus SS) equals your salary, you're set. However, you don't need to pay payroll taxes out of that income once you retire, so in fact you need only replace about 92-93% of your salary.

Example: You earn a salary of 100,000. You reason that if you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on your salary, you should be able to retire on that. But in fact, the government takes 7.65% of that 100,000 off the top. Therefore, you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on (1-.0765)*100,000 = 92,350. You need income of only 92,350 to 'replace' your 100,000 salary.

Of course, income planning is more complex than that. My point today is because you don't pay payroll taxes in retirement, there's no need to aim higher than 92-93% income replacement. I mention it because no one else has.

:beer
It isn’t always that simple. For example, when you are no longer working, you are likely footing a larger health care bill.

What I found most useful was to build a ground up retirement spending budget, which included estimates for things like travel and other activities, higher health care costs ….. but also excluded some costs. As it turned out, the average spend so far has been pretty close. However, there is very significant year to year variability and the buckets weren’t very accurate.

I didn’t include income taxes but had a separate estimate for that through another exercise. Income taxes have been lower than that estimate and much lower than what I was spending on income taxes prior to retirement.
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iamblessed
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by iamblessed »

nagaf wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 3:10 pm time goes by faster than when working..
Very true a week feels like a weekend to me. Some weeks I get very little done even though I have the whole week to work on it.
marcopolo
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by marcopolo »

Church Lady wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:05 pm
SB1234 wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:17 pm
Church Lady wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:57 pm
The only expense that really goes away is commuting expense and dress clothes for work (assuming you needed to dress for work).
FYI. Once you are no longer drawing wages, payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare) of 7.65% go away. That's quite a savings!
Only if one considers pre-tax income as most important above all. At least with other taxes one can manage them somehow, but not so with payroll taxes.
In reality only after tax income matters!
I always thought in terms of 'income replacement'. If your investment income (plus SS) equals your salary, you're set. However, you don't need to pay payroll taxes out of that income once you retire, so in fact you need only replace about 92-93% of your salary.

Example: You earn a salary of 100,000. You reason that if you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on your salary, you should be able to retire on that. But in fact, the government takes 7.65% of that 100,000 off the top. Therefore, you're living well, saving, and paying taxes on (1-.0765)*100,000 = 92,350. You need income of only 92,350 to 'replace' your 100,000 salary.

Of course, income planning is more complex than that. My point today is because you don't pay payroll taxes in retirement, there's no need to aim higher than 92-93% income replacement. I mention it because no one else has.

:beer
You don't save anything for retirement from your income?
When you are retired, you don't need to save for retirement anymore.
Everyone's savings rate is different (we saved >50% of our income most of our career).
That is why it is recommended to plan for some scaled version of your expenses, rather than your income.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
mtmingus
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by mtmingus »

jebmke wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:14 am I wish I had done better research on the quality and availability of medical care in the immediate area beforehand. I assumed proximity to urban area would be enough but underestimated the barrier of time/transport for quality care.
Not yet retired. But that’s something concerns me. I heard stories that in our targeted retirement location, a lot of physicians do not take new patients.
helloeveryone
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Re: Re Retirement "I wish I'd known..."

Post by helloeveryone »

TheTimeLord wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:33 am I will repeat the one I have mentioned several times but seems to be unique to me based on feedback here. I never realized how much my plans would be impacted by the finances of friends and family. Other people budgets seem to control more things than my budget. Never saw that coming.
Can you clarify? for example parents medical expenses requiring your help? and kids needing financial help?
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