yes, i cant wait to retire, my wife and i have planned and put away for years, so money shouldnt be a prob, i hope. we have both been working out and eating right the last few yrs, to stay healthy and fit. the biggest reason is i want to get to a warm climate, this weather up here in mich. is the pits,340 days of lousy gray weather and 25 nice sunny ones if lucky.its just too good a job to leave yet, and so is my wifes.

I know how that feels! DH and I both retired before we had planned due to company being sold and we were offered early retirement. We have taken a real "beating" in the stock market and interest rates on savings have plummeted, but with careful planning we will be okay. Our mortgate was paid off several years ago and we don't have any credit card debt or car payments. It is not exactly as we had planned, but we enjoy the "simple things" in life and are not big spenders. So many friends have died just before or shortly after turning sixty-five and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to enjoy being retired. We just consider our forced retirement a blessing in disguise. Judith, I hope you will get to enjoy your retirement for a long, long time. That eighteen months will pass before you know it!!

I took early retirement at 60 last December. My husband has been on long term disability for 3 years. We will have the same spendable cash as we had before I retired for the next 10 years, fortunately in 3 more years DH will have full pension and medical and dental coverage so that's our income increase. We live quite simply, no bills, no mortgage and no trips or RV's. We love our home and gardens and that's how we're spending our time together. We had really hoped to travel but it is just not in the books so we'll enjoy what millions don't have--a beautiful home.

Judith, hang in there and do it right. I was tiring also and decided at age 56 to quit, take out some of my retirement and go back to graduate school. Two years later I had severe health problems and no insurance. Bummer. I have had brain surgery, am now undergoing radiation treatments, and I have no idea what will happen when my Medicaid runs out. I am going to try to get a job, but would you hire someone in this situation? I can't do much, I am half blind!

So my message is: stay in a situation that provides health insurance. Keep it current. -- Marie

Thank you all for your replies. Health insurance has been one of my biggest concerns. I am on medication for high blood pressure and take eye drops for glaucoma, although the eye doctor isn't sure I actually have glaucoma. I have higher than normal eye pressure and he put me in the eye drops just in case. My mother had glaucoma and totally lost the sight in one eye. Time is going by fast but there is so much I would like to do now and I hate to always be under pressure and rushed like I am at work. Judith

That time will pass quickly. One nice thing about it is that you will get your full Soc Sec since you are waiting until 65 to collect it. I took early and get about half of what I'd have gotten if I had waited.
Try and forget about what happened to your father or it might turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Think of all the good that is going on right now and live every minute to its fullness. Think of Work as being a wonderful place to show off your skills and how lucky everyone is to be working with you. Keep smiling and you'll get through it.

I know how you feel but I look at it as how much MORE you'll enjoy saying goodbye to the working world. The benefits outweigh the relatively short time you have left. I'm doing my traveling now as I plan to just be a major putterer when I do retire & plan on major simplifications in my life.

(I'm so sorry for the problems the above posters are having.)

I live in Columbia mo. And work at the universty of mo. and they have been doning alot of the budget cuts and laying off alot of places and they did the ealy retirement and there was three ways that you can retire with full benifits.
1: 10 years service at least age 55.
2: 5 years service at least age 60.
3:how long you have been with the universty and your age and if it adds up to 85 you can retire with full benifits. I have been with the universty for 33 years and i am only 52 and that adds to 86 so im going to retire i have got it already stared. I talked to the people at the retirment thing. And then i went and talk to my boss and told him in a month i told them so i am working the rest of this week and until next wed. and i have to take all of my personal days and vacation days and then july 1st i come back and that is my last day of work.
My husband and i have talked about latter getting a camper and do some traveling.
Everone that i talked to said that i was lucky to ger to retite at 52.

Ilene

Yes, Ilene, you are very lucky to have the option to retire at 52 with full benefits. I will be 64 in August and have worked at this university for over 35 years but they don't offer anything like your univeristy. When I retire, they will only pay me for my accumulated vacation days and only 30 sick leave days. I have something over 13 months worth of sick leave built up. Also, the retirement benefits depend on how long I have been contributing to the TIAA retirement which has only been 11 years. I didn't join when I first became eligible and the university didn't require participation in the retirement. It does now require all employees to join the retirement after they have been here for a certain length of time and requires a 3% contribution. I wish it had been a requirement years ago and I would be better off now than I am. Judith

Judith - you are wise to pay off your credit cards - we paid our card off last year - what relief! My husband will retire in 4 years - he is a police officer in Los Angeles and worked nights and weekends and holidays for many years while the kids were being raised - it was a hard life sometimes. He worked the L.A. riots on a police motorcycle accompanying the fire trucks that were getting shot at, undercover narcotics, and other dangerous, worrrisome jobs. He has paid his dues so to speak (as well as our family). We get lifetime medical insurance - free until we reach 65 (he will retire at 60) and then the city pays for supplemental insurance to Medicare once we are eligible (I'm 5 years younger). I realize we are lucky to have this kind of coverage (we also have dental coverage after retirement). I guess there are some rewards for risking your life every day.

My husband is exactly the same way.We both just turned 63 and he is soooooo ready to quit......I keep urging him to do so because we have our finances in order but he says it is important to wait because of the amount of his salary but also for the Medicare coverage...We both have had major health scares and saw the amounts that our insurance company had to pay so we know that it would take but one serious illness to wipe out our savings.

Two years is about all we have left...We actually have to stay until he is beyond 65 (the end of the year) because of stock options that we will take advantage of..I think it's about 28 months but in the meantime.we are stashing away our coins looking forward to retiring...I guess planning is part of the pleasure..

My husband retired at 62, I am 10 years younger so was very glad when his company decided to give health insurance to dependants after he retired. I figured I would have to work those 10 years just for the insurance. He signed me up for full benfits if he should die, I won't miss a check. My sis and her husband opted for a lump sum retirement and they can't spend their savings, because the interest from the lump sum is their income. A pension is so much better if you have a choice.

Judith - Sounds like you're counting the minutes and that's not healthy. It's hard to retire if you need the money and especially the health insurance but I agree with Minnie. You need to try to enjoy what you have now and look at things positively. Sometimes retirement is not all you expect. IS IT possible to cut back on hours and retain needed benefits. Can you get partial benefits now and find a more enjoyable source of income, parttime maybe. Money is less important unless you have a lot of debt or mandatory obligations. Do you have skills or hobby you can market and be in charge of your time. Only problem is health insurance is costly on an individual basis. I retired at 52 and started a small business, finally dissolved it because of y2K. I didn't want to use up my money to invest in costly equipment but now I miss the people. I keep busy but there is a lot to be said about someone depending on you showing up at work. Keeps your mind off your problems. Traveling can also be like work, it sure feels good to be home again.

Anyway, what I think I'm saying, try to find work or make your work as enjoyable as you can. You never know how long we have here. Make a list of all the things you cana be thankful for, your health, your job, family, intelligence, friends, co-workers, .... another day, look at it often and SMILE.

Healthy or not, I'm counting the days. I can retire in
2-1/2 yrs. I won't be able to draw SS then and my retirement will be very small but DH is 14 years older than I am so I want to retire hopefully while he can still enjoy traveling, etc. We will have to cut back but I think it will be worth it. He refuses to retire without me because he can't stand staying at home by himself. My main goal is to pay off a credit card before that time.

Now it's down to 345 days and counting. The time has gone by fast and I have lots to do before retiring. My goal, also, was to pay down my credit cards before I could retire. I have paid one off and the other is down to about $700. But, I bought a small truck (used) in August, so I now have that to pay off. but I think I can still handle the payment after I retire. I don't have any family other than a sister, a brother and a niece that live in states far away, so, I am thinking about relocating. Judith

Judith, hasn't the last 7 months gone by so quickly? See, you are already almost at the half way mark! It truly will go fast. Try not think of it as a day by day thing. Once I decided to retire, I was counting days too and it makes it much longer. Just try to enjoy the good things about working (if you can find any, LOL). I have been very fortunate because my DH has planned very well for us financially and I have been blessed with not "having" to work so that helped a lot in the years before I decided to retire. As the years went by and I got closer to retirement, I felt I would be crazy not to go ahead and finish out the years in order to get a retirement income, so I finished the time out. I never have been materialistic so I am doing just fine with the "things" that DH and I have accumulated through the years and now I am am enjoying just doing what I want, when I want INCLUDING not having to watch that DARN clock. Enjoy!! Don't wish your life away. These few months will fly by. Keep in touch.
www.angelfire.com/la2/OurAngel/ChristinCosby.html
Lulie Cosby

Judith:

You and I are in the same timeframe for retiring and believe you me, I -am- counting the days also. Doesn't do any good to tell us not to, does it? :-) I started having health problems about a year ago and am looking very forward to staying at home, without all the pressures and having to stick to a tight schedule all the time. I do payroll where I work, nearly half a million every two wks, and no backup if I have to be off work. The first order of the day when I leave there will be to throw out the alarm clock.

Shirley, counting right along with you.

I have friends who retired to a lovely Seniors only Mobile Home community in NW Arkansas. They have so many friends and have a large community center with lots of things going on for those interested. Each lot is beautifuly landscaped and people take care of their homes and property just as if they were houses on streets.
If you are alone this is a nice way to retire and make lots of new friends.

I've been lurking here, but I've been counting days, too. For me it's finally here. I am retiring Friday! Good luck to you.

Congratulations, Silverdove!

Thanks for all of the replies. I am now down to 9 months to my scheduled retirement date. I hope I can retire at that time, but now my retirement fund and taken a nose dive because 70 percent of it was invested in the stock market. I now have a total of just over $60,000 in my retirement fund. I will have that small amount and what I get from social security (if it is still solvent). I don't want to have to keep on working and I just don't know what to do right now. Judith

That $60M is a nice sum. The stocks will rise again I'm sure. I have funds in Fidelity and it has been very steady. I get a small interest check for around $130 each month and that plus 2 small retirement checks and SoSec makes it comfortable for me. I have an annuity (from the 401K rollover) which I've taken money out of to put 20% down payment on my house but even though it is now very small I think when I turn 70 they have to start sending me some of it each month. I took early retirement at 59 and had to wait to take SS at 62 so I get 1/2 of what I'd have had if I'd waited. It was a question of my losing my sanity at work HAHA.
Don't get scared.

Silverdove
Congratulations on your retirement in 2 days!!!
I hope they give you a nice party and lots of funny retirement gifts. Let us know how it goes . . .

Silverdove:

Congratulations on finally reaching THE day. I'll be joining the ranks of the retired at Thanksgiving if things go as planned.

Shirley

Thanks for the good wishes. I am feeling very happy tonight with the thought that I do not have to go to work tomorrow. I always hated Sunday evening before. Now it's just another night!

Shirley Thanksgiving will be here before you know it.

Silverdove - It will be Fridy before you know it too. One of these days you'll wake up and think; I wonder what day it is. . .....ah the joy of it all.

What happened to my post?

Jusith did you post something and now can't find it?
I had a bad habit of previewing my posts and then forgetting to hit the submit key.

Judith,

You have 13 months of sickness credits built up - but only get paid for 30 days?

What kind of hurdles do you have to jump over to be "sick" - for a day or two? Or for a longer period?

Often for a longer period you must have a doctor's message.

Do you have a co-operative doctor? After all - you have some medical issues, don't you?

If you have sick days' credit, that means that you get full pay for a day that you take off sick, doesn't it?

By the way - try to get those credit card bills paid off FAST.

Store cards usually charge 25 - 28%, and major cards 15 - 18%.

If I loaned you $100.00 and required you to pay me $28. per year rent on the money, before one cent of the outstanding balance was retired, you'd call me a real stinker, wouldn't you?

And - since most of the stuff we buy on card isn't deductible - you'd have to earn over $40.00 pre-tax in order to have the $28.00 after-tax to pay me the rent on the money.

NOT A GOOD DEAL!!!

Good wishes for the remaining time - don't get your shirt-tail tied into a knot over it.

Shrug your shoulders - give yourself a big smile when you look yourself in the mirror in the morning, wink, stick out your fist, thumb up, and tell yourself that this is to be a lovely day.

Good wishes for the next few days.

joyful guy/Ed (financial planner - more or less retired, at 74)