Retiring to vs. Retiring from
cheerful1_gw
14 years ago
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jakkom
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Any retired teachers out there??? Any from California???
Comments (8)Hi, qshopper and gadgets, Guess I forgot to say that I DO fund my Roth IRA faithfully, for the full amount, annually. Thankfully, someone wiser than I set me up with a TSA person years ago. Of course, after a while, that person's quote of "they don't put teachers in jail" made me wonder just what kinds of monkey business he was doing with my money, so I got a new TSA person. I'm always telling new teachers to pay themselves first by getting a TSA. I'm still trying to get my sister to set one up, but oh, she is soooo busy! Well, now she's 48 and maybe she thinks she's gonna win the lottery, but really, that's not likely! I was wondering about dollar cost averaging and investing in no-load funds--stuff I can do myself, and wondered if anyone else had some advice about things like that...I just learning and one of my cyberpals is talking me thru it...just wondered what everyone else may know... Thanks!...See MoreIN Retirement calculator
Comments (1)bump......See MoreLessons learned re: retirement and beyond?
Comments (41)In a few weeks my husband and I turn, respectively, 63 and 59 and retirement is a topic of frequent discussion between us. Financially either or both of us could retire tomorrow; the real decision point is when we will leave. Husband is doing IT work that is boring and repetitive, which he despises. I've been passionately dedicated to my job for 20+ years, yet I find myself increasingly tired of the stresses and the work load. And yet.....we both make very good salaries, have great benefits and are in positions that allow us reasonable flexibility and autonomy in our schedules. He has a volunteer commitment in which he has served for decades with great distinction. It provides him with a lot of gratification and the sense of providing value not only due to what he does but because he works extensively with young adults--both of us enjoy mentoring this age cohort and I do it through my job. He takes one day a week to do that, and when he retires he has a standing offer to work as much or as little as he wishes. I struggle with what retirement will mean for me. To 3katz' point, I do know very clearly that at 60 and beyond I will NOT want to continue to work forever. In hopes of finding a future role for myself post-retirement, I accepted a role in a mentoring program this past year that gives underrepresented high school girls guidance about life and education skills. However, it turned out that the work was almost entirely organizing monthly presentations, with no individual interaction. Frankly, the part of my job I hate most is event planning and all the volunteer role brought me was 10 more events to plan, which I had to do around my normal day job! So, no more of that. I responded to another request for volunteers which seems meant as more of a one-to-one commitment....and although I called and emailed several times and spoke to an enthusiastic coordinator nobody has let me know about actually getting involved. At this age/stage what I'm trying to do is disengage enough at work to let go of doing a lot of the things that stress me (event planning!) and consciously enjoy the part of my work I do love which is advising students while I try to figure out what the great unknown of Retirement will be. I do anecdotally seem to see that people who I know who have retired are enjoying life, and I do have a sense that I can correct my course if what I first do doesn't turn out to be enough to keep me busy and engaged in life. We both feel we are in holding patterns, as we each have an elderly parent living locally, our son just got married and we foresee in the next few years responsibilities ramping up. As husband says, we'll probably keep working until 'something happens'. Could be a good something like a grandchild. Could be a not so good something like a health crisis with a parent, or a work situation that gets more stressful. We'll see. I don't foresee me staying more than 2-3 years, husband....who knows? And finally I strongly agree temperament and attitude are incredibly important in aging happily and healthfully. Those elderly parents--my MIL is now in assisted living at 92 YO and basically has always been unhappy, solitary and stubborn to the point of hurting herself. She never had friends or a social circle, counted on 'my boys' to be her entire social world and sank into dementia as once my FIL died 18 years ago she quite literally lived a life of sitting alone in her house every. single. day. Seeing no one, talking to no one except her sons and DILs, and gradually losing complete touch with life. Very sad. My father, OTOH, is 82 and this February lost his wife-who was #3-very suddenly in an accident. His first wife (my mother) died of cancer, wife 2 left him after 20 years and now he is a widower again. And yet, he greets each day with a big smile, he faces the world with enthusiasm and grace and he is the most resilient person I've ever seen. So striking to see the two of them age in their own ways and I sure hope I take my father's path and not my mother in law's!...See MoreIdeas - Designing retirement home - What would you include?
Comments (35)Agree on maintenance. As for the toilet thing - enough room around the toilet - but not TOO MUCH room so that you can install a grab bar if necessary. Toilets that are ADA height at GREAT. And I also prefer ones with smooth sides that are also called 'hidden trap' - they are all smooth and don't have exposed bolts / covers and don't collet dust / crud around the base. Also - way easier to sit down / get up. My new build has 2 bedrooms that connect to the master bath. That could be separate beds if a spouse was a loud sleeper - or also could be used by a caregiver. I am going to have hard surface flooring (mostly a dog decision) but the hardness can be mitigated by having some decent "indoor shoes" (that can also help with things being slippery, etc). I have no steps from garage to house, nor from house to outside. I have 36" wide doors everywhere. We recently installed the metal door frames and it's weird now that that feels SMALL! We will also have the ability to put grab rails anywhere by using 3/4" heavy duty, marine grade plywood behind all our showers. Sheet tiles / large format porcelain / sintered material, etc. and a zero threshold shower. Handheld sprays. A tub with a ledge so you can sit and swing your legs over - but the shower is the key - it will actually hold a bathing chair AND a caregiver. My inlaws had care 24/7 for a few years. They also had a 1620's historic home. While it was their dream ho me, it was sad to see how the usable portion continued to shrink as they could no longer handle the stairs. My parent, OTOH, have a single floor condo, with a garage and a stair lift that is now allowing my Dad to be super mobile while he waits on his knee replacement surgery. It was a Godsend after Mom's hip replacement. (It also works fairly well to send up the groceries...). While their straight stairs are a design no-no, it worked well for the stair lift. I hope the best set of decisions we've made center around very low maintenance materials - metal roofing, concrete exterior, windows that are large, but not super tall, a plinth around the house to facilitate cleaning / spiderweb removal, accessible systems for HVAC, water heating, home automation, etc. Home automation that will work more and more with Alexa, Google home, Siri, etc may come in handy, too. For the kitchen - induction, as well as ovens that the doors open TO THE SIDE with ballbearing slides for the racks to make removing items easier and safer....See Moremaime
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