Were you forced into retirement?

[C50]

I heard that folks tend to find out that they needed much less $$$ in retirement than they thought. Is that true?

That has been true for me so far, and I was surprised by that. I also went into retirement debt free so that was very beneficial.

Another thing that surprised me was Medicare. I spent the last twenty five years of my working life on a high deductible health plan where out of pocket cost were substantial. Switching to Medicare was such a blessing, I had Hernia surgery this past summer and my total out of pocket was $305.00.

Like many I was just plumb wore out and stressed from working, even though I still work hard in retirement its a different kind of life and I like it very much.

 

[IrishEyes]

You could say we were forced. Living in Illinois when our real estate taxes in 4 years jumped up to over half our mortgage payment, we had to choose to sell or lose it. It was just going to get worse.

 

[Deya]

Forced. I had to relinquish my commercial driving license due to night blindness.

No more putting parcels down, donned in brown, all around town, being a clown, entertaining the folks with my jokes. I was planning to work, ten more years, but my worst fears, my license taken with a jerk, no more paid work, home to be a housewife, not what I had planned in life.

It wasn't all it was advertised to be, so you can see, My husband worked until 71, when it wasn't fun, that he fell down a concrete stairs run, so he came home with broken knees bone, and then I had added work, to cut the grass, while he sat in pain on his a s s. So a few years did pass, I am still full of sass, although a cancer tumor almost took my humor, I carry on, sometimes with a moan and sorry about my crime of making this rhyme. Be careful Y'all, don't fall.

 

[StarSong]

I heard that folks tend to find out that they needed much less $$$ in retirement than they thought. Is that true?

The big difference in our financial needs came when DH & I paid off the mortgage some 10 years ago. We've never lived large, so the rest of our cost of living has been fairly constant.

That said, our combined SS isn't enough to comfortably support us. We took SS at 65 (me on my own earnings record) and 70 (my husband on his). We receive healthy checks each month, but would be dipping into into savings if we stopped working a bit for our small business (working from home as consultants to two clients).

Try mapping out all your expenses over the next few months to see what will drop when you retire. Commuting costs, business wardrobe, lunches out, that kind of thing. It may turn out to be more or fewer $$ than you imagine.

Spousal SS is 1/2 of yours at your full retirement age, but that's assuming your wife delays claiming until her full retirement age. If she files earlier, she'll receive less each month for the rest of her life.

This is from the SS website:




I wish you the best.