The two big obstacles are
(1) Money - will his pension and our savings be enough to retire on (I can't draw from my 401K for another 5 years). We've run the numbers from here to Sunday, and it looks do-able on paper.

(2) We know what we're retiring from (stressful jobs), but don't know what we'll be retiring to.

Has anyone been in this situation, and how have you handled it?

I think you do need some idea of what your new goals in life are going to be, and this is important for the two of you to agree upon. Many people have some vague idea that their retirement lives are going to be footloose and carefree forever. Either they end up bored and looking for something to do, or hopefully find some new interest to become passionate about...or get derailed by a financial/personal emergency they failed to see coming and properly plan for.

You will still have goals: short-, mid-, and long-term goals, to plan for. If you can't envision what you're going to be filling your days with, short-term goals are important. It'll be time to try a lot of different things to see what activities/interests you want to pursue.

Let's face it, there are very few inexpensive hobbies! And I've found time goes by pretty fast in retirement; because one doesn't have to rush to keep to a schedule, you seldom accomplish as much as you planned to. For instance, we try to avoid driving in rush hours, so certain stuff like errands get clustered into midday instead of on weekends as before.

Retirement is best viewed in phases. You are young enough, hopefully healthy enough, and have the $$ and time to travel and enjoy life. Here the difficulty is that your friends may not yet be retired, and so you really don't see them any more often than before because they remain as busy as ever.

Once health difficulties appear, it causes a need to reassess your situation. Can you still stay in your home, or is it time to remodel for universal design, or even consider selling? What if you can't drive any longer, what are the options where you live? What kind of family difficulties might start to show up at this point, and will they affect you in any way?

Thinking about the 'what if's' is a way to be prepared for whatever life is going to throw at you in the coming decades. Good luck and good health to you and your DH!

It was easy for us to retire because we were saving so much money when he was working and quit saving when he retired. We didn't have a big loss in income. He had pension and soc sec and I had 8 more years before I could draw SS.

We will keep the health insurance DH has through the government (good coverage). We also have an umbrella policy.

We are fortunate because we have two houses that are mortgage free, and we have no debt to speak of.

The boredom issue is a biggie as well.

I am facing the same "question." My wonderful boss got fed up with the politics and transferred to a job in a different agency. Now I am stuck with an idiot who is also a micro-manager (maybe because he doesn't understand what we do?)

I can afford to retire, but DH has to work until 2020 (he is younger). So I have to figure out what the heck I would do when I retire. Have lots of hobbies but don't want to stay home all day.

A friend of mine who retired in July is studying to become a Master Gardener. That is her passion and she enjoys it. She also has a niece and nephew who need some of her attention and parents who can't drive any more, so she keeps very busy.

I have no children and my nieces are grown. My situation is quite different. Have scoliosis so the doctor would frown on the little bit of gardening that I do now.

Figure out what you would like to do and then decide if you can afford it. Maybe you can work part time?

Good luck, whatever you do. Enjoy!

The BIG surprise to many -- what to do 24/7?

You lose your work identity, have all the freedom in the world, but what will you do with it?

So many, despite looking forward to retirement, fell into depressions (and many do go through a grieving process when they first retire - not everyone, but many do!)...

My two cents, just think ahead on what the two of you will do daily.. yes, you want time off, at first, but after that first few months -- what will you do all day, every day?

Best Wishes! Wendy

Do not believe the governments estimates. I did and without hubby's retirement I would have been in a deep dark hole.

As a Fed retiree you are eligible for original Medicare when the two of you reach that age. Advantage you are eligible for health insurance until you die at the monthly employee and family rate. Disadvantage is that some of the other medicare suppliment plans offer things like health club memberships, especially YMCA if in area, but by signing up for a plan other than the Fed plans you have no guarantee that you can keep your insurance since once you are out of the government system you can not return.

As far as life after work some sleep for the first several months and do nothing, me, others start traveling and doing things they have always wanted to do. A caution for anyone's retirement is to have several months living expenses on hand when you retire. I retired Oct 1 but did not receive any money until March because of the timing that my agency sent paperwork to OPM. I do not fault OPM because they received paperwork last week of December but their pay schedule set the next payment the third week of March. My payroll office told me it would be two months after OPM received the paperwork and it was. Things happen I can just caution anyone retiring to have extra money on hand just incase.

When I retired I told hubby not to make any plans for me for the first 6 months because I was going to sleep and catch up on my reading. He did try to get me to go to his activities for a short while but finally gave up.

If you find you are bored or miss being with people there are many places to volunteer or either of you could work at something you never thought you would do.

When hubby retired he signed up for me to get 100% of his retirement. Now all that is allowed is 50%. Part of all paperwork allows for changes in the plan as long as there is a notification. That notification was in his yearly retirement report.

After he retires ... you find that it isn't nearly as much yours as you thought that it was.

Some like to follow wifie around, suggesting ways that regular chores could be done in a more efficient, easier, etc. manner.

The response to such suggestions might be, "Would you show me how it could be done that way, dear?".

And then it gets to be his job, from then on??

Folks need to plan ahead as to things that they'd like to do. We need several strings on our violin: just one gets awfully monotonous: boring.

I have three pensions, that don't provide a huge amount of income, but I've lived frugally for years and don't resent it: find it sort of an interesting and rather a fun-filled game! I spend less than my pensions.

One advantage of this is that, though at age 80 I hold about 80% of my assets in equities, when the market went down and the value of my stocks went down something over 25% recently, I was surprised at how little anxiety it caused me. The main reason was that I do not need those assets to live on: they're "play money", you might say.

Learning how money - and taxes - work is an interesting hobby - and it pays well. Did you hear that" "it ... pays ... well!".

Retirement is one of life's major adventures ... and it will be part of one's life for an extended period, one hopes. Such major new experiences and activities in one's life deserve some study and preparation, beginning well before the year in which one expects it to take place.

And in these uncertain times, especially for workers in the downward side of middle age, many have found that it is just such people who get faced with involuntary retirement ... earlier than they'd planned on.

ole joyful

It really helped me keep the market drop in perspective. And I'm sure the subsequent "bounce-up" in the markets has been as helpful to you as it's been to us, softening that drop quite a bit.

Now things have calmed down and I feel like he's becoming depressed because he's not doing much at the moment. He's happy about not answering to anyone; he had a couple of prospects that fell through due to the economy and his not wanting to answer to anyone. He doesn't have any outside interests.

I hope this is just a phase.

Are you happy that you are still working? ;-)

What about volunteer work? Drive for Meals on Wheels?

I bring up volunteer work, but he doesn't want to answer to anyone anymore. That severely limits his options.

It will give us a little more in the bank. I'd have a 3 1/2 year wait until I can collect Social Security.

I think it could work.