Your Biggest Retirement Regret?

[MrGraybeard]

No regrets here. My career was rewarding, but toward the end it felt less so. I left when the time was right. Money had not been an issue for years.

My key to a happy retirement is to contribute toward causes I can identify with. I volunteer three days a week at activities that I value and put my years of work experience to use. My wife has her own similarly valued pursuits in retirement, and I'm happy to help when I can. I find that we're happiest when we have time to do some things on our own. That may differ with other couples, but it works for us.

We still get a chance to do some adventuring. Endless rounds of golf are not in the picture.

 

[Pablo]

My only regret was not preparing for it MUCH earlier in life. Tough lesson learned.

This is very key.

Plus as stated in other threads and shown here, if you don't have health not much else matters.

 

[Pablo]

And I as typed above I received an email from the BTO* counselor. They have a student for me to mentor. Yay, kind of excited - and being the first time, a little nervous.

Whole new chapter.

BTO = Be The One https://www.betheonetoday.org/

 

[sloinker]

I retired before I was medicare eligible. I could have continued my plan through work but it was close to $3k a month. I went with the ACA and the insurance for me and the spouse is a couple hundred a month. Just remember that anything above 400% of a married couples income above poverty level has to be paid back. The healthcare itself is as good as what I left behind as far as copays and deductibles. The downside is there is no vision or dental. So these are all good subjects to study before you tell your boss to get on his knees.

 

[andrewg]

My only regret was not preparing for it MUCH earlier in life. Tough lesson learned.

Yeah.....I've only got a year to go but I wish I'd planned for it much better than I did.

 

[Dave Hess]

I got 10 years and I am out. That is still a very long time away so I may end up working part time if I like it and it is worth it tax wise. I am not going to work extra to feed ukraine, izzy, and venzi.

My plan is to be in Florida to reduce tax burden. Regardless of whether or not I work a regular job, I would still be managing my small saving that will be providing enough dividend to cover daily expenses. In addition, my pension will be 1% per year and I’ll have about 35 years. Currently, I can live on 35% of my salary even if I have my existing mortgage payment but no car payment and my house will be paid off in about 18 months.

Main family/commuter vehicle is Honda Fit and it was paid off 11 years ago. I just spent $700 on it to replace front brake pads, rear drum shoes, brake fluid, serpentine belt (still look new but had 176k miles), spark plugs (had 175k miles), and new bigger battery yesterday. I also spent $750 last year to put new set of Michelin Defenders on it. So I am looking at another 60k miles before new tires and front brake pads and about 100k miles before spark plugs. As far as I am concern, thst car owe me nothing and everything is extra gravy and onion rings now.

My only major expense once the house is paid off soon is whatever the kid’s college tuition will be for 4 years. Mid-level expenses would be putting $500 and $300 aside for a new car and house repair budget; respectively. Then add another $200 em for car maintenance and improvement

Sounds like a good plan.

Keep your spending in check, keep contributing to retire plans and you will have no problem in the future.

 

[CharBaby]

The wife and I travel extensively. Been to the Baltic States, (Estonia) St. Petersberg Russia, Denmark, etc. on a cruise. A year ago we did a 74 day cruise to South America, and Antarctica. Been to the Caribbean more than once. Just got back from a Mexican Rivera cruise. Did a California coast cruise. And Alaska.
You are correct in the mind set that you cannot eat everything when traveling, especially on cruise ship , and many try to do such. Almost all are 100pounds (or more) over weight. However, if you are careful you don't gain any appreciable weight.

Some us have led a life where all of your concerns are addressed.
I retired at 55years of age and we are so busy we need to keep a google calendar, or we have scheduling conflicts.

Exactly!
You have to have self control when eating but sometimes it just catches up to a person.
My wife & I love travel however we also love home and family including grand children.
And while we’re gone for a month at a time, no one can take care of our home the way we do.

 

[Dave Hess]

retired 6 years ago at 62 that lasted about 2 months till i couldn't take sitting around so much went back to my old job part time. Guess I like the punishment of home remodeling.

Where I work you can retire, receive your pension and come back as a pensioner working 1000 hours max per year at your last hourly wage.

A few people have done this to stay busy helping out without missing a beat….. or boss having to send out people for training to replace the retired employee.

 

[slo town]

I have to confess that retirement is not necessarily what it's cracked up to be.

Although I try and remain at least partially busy, I've felt a sense of boredom since the day I retired. Yes, I have a beautiful home to take care of as well as four nice cars to play with, plus there's my cycling. The issue is that these things become repetitious and start to feel like "work".

I feel confident in saying this - retirement is not my favorite phase of life. For sure it's not "bad", but I don't wake up any more excited about the new day than I did when I was working.

Scott

 

[slo town]

And I as typed above I received an email from the BTO* counselor. They have a student for me to mentor. Yay, kind of excited - and being the first time, a little nervous.

Whole new chapter.

BTO = Be The One https://www.betheonetoday.org/

Good on you, Pablo! Excellent!

Scott

 

[JeffKeryk]

I have to confess that retirement is not necessarily what it's cracked up to be.

Although I try and remain at least partially busy, I've felt a sense of boredom since the day I retired. Yes, I have a beautiful home to take care of as well as four nice cars to play with, plus there's my cycling. The issue is that these things become repetitious and start to feel like "work".

I feel confident in saying this - retirement is not my favorite phase of life. For sure it's not "bad", but I don't wake up any more excited about the new day than I did when I was working.

Scott

I agree to the extent that I miss the technical and interactions. Silicon Valley is a pretty ruthless, fun place. You gotta roll with the blows. I guess I was geared for that. All in, I am so so thankful that I can be the one to help others with money crap rather than to be the one who needs help. It's a pretty fair shake.

 

[Pablo]

I don’t miss the extreme high stress of my last job in the least. Tech was incredibly interesting. Some designs were amazing. But we had to deliver. Satellite and launch companies with huge fines for a whole list of issues including on time.

EDIT: Oh and I certainly don't miss the forced personal interactions with geniuses with no souls or rather seemingly lack of empathy and/or child like boundaries on specific areas of behavior. This can drain a person such as myself each and every day. This was probably the worst thing about work.

 

[CKN]

I have to confess that retirement is not necessarily what it's cracked up to be.

Although I try and remain at least partially busy, I've felt a sense of boredom since the day I retired. Yes, I have a beautiful home to take care of as well as four nice cars to play with, plus there's my cycling. The issue is that these things become repetitious and start to feel like "work".

I feel confident in saying this - retirement is not my favorite phase of life. For sure it's not "bad", but I don't wake up any more excited about the new day than I did when I was working.

Scott

I am sorry you feel this way. With this being stated-IMHO if you have these feelings you are not doing retirement right.

 

[spasm3]

I wish I retired sooner.

Did you retire?

 

[SeaJay]

Was a bit past the retirement age for some. Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't realized I for the first time I was dreading the upcoming several month mad rush season. Told the boss the next day that this would be my last one, stayed to finish the mad rush and then left.

That was a couple of years ago, no regrets whatsoever. I wasn't ready earlier but was happy I left at the exact right time for me. Hopefully all you folks still working can get so lucky.

 

[demarpaint]

Did you retire?

Yes. Having said that I take on projects from time to time. In about two weeks I'll be helping a friend in NYC do a job for a very wealthy client, it was hard to say no.

 

[slo town]

I agree to the extent that I miss the technical and interactions. Silicon Valley is a pretty ruthless, fun place. You gotta roll with the blows. I guess I was geared for that. All in, I am so so thankful that I can be the one to help others with money crap rather than to be the one who needs help. It's a pretty fair shake.

I agree with your comments about Silicon Valley. There is a lot of money to be made there but without question it's the survival of the fittest. Those that don't work in the business or live in the area have no idea.

I had 28 great years with the same company but there were times I was hanging on for dear life, if for no other reason than computers aren't perfect. Sometimes they misbehave, and when the company is an international bank or stock exchange, things get tense fast.

And there were the deadlines, constant deadlines, one after the other deadlines, over and over again.

That said, I kind of miss the rat race and think I always will.

Scott

 

[slo town]

I am sorry you feel this way. With this being stated-IMHO if you have these feelings you are not doing retirement right.

I've always been one that needs to be busy. I'm a task oriented guy. When I first retired I kept myself busy with household, landscaping, and car projects - as well as riding my butt off on my bikes.

I'm 71 now (and retired from full-time employment for 19 years now). What I find unsettling is I've reached the age that I wear out sooner than I like. I can no longer maintain the pace I used to. If I'm not busy doing something I feel lazy and useless.

I'm the kind of guy who gets bored on vacations! Even our trips to Hawaii, I always looked forward to returning home and being busy again. I blame my Mom. She was on full afterburner until the day she died.

Scott

 

[CKN]

I've always been one that needs to be busy. I'm a task oriented guy. When I first retired I kept myself busy with household, landscaping, and car projects - as well as riding my butt off on my bikes.

I'm 71 now (and retired from full-time employment for 19 years now). What I find unsettling is I've reached the age that I wear out sooner than I like. I can no longer maintain the pace I used to. If I'm not busy doing something I feel lazy and useless.

I'm the kind of guy who gets bored on vacations! Even our trips to Hawaii, I always looked forward to returning home and being busy again. I blame my Mom. She was on full afterburner until the day she died.

Scott

Respectfully-you are not taking the right vacations. I just got back from Mexico-did ziplining twenty miles inland. No other tourist-just me and my wife and our driver. Took a (native) long boat on the Amazon-twenty minutes to a tributary-went for a walk in a native village in the middle of a jungle clearing.......I could go on, but you get the idea.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

*sigh*

My wife and I are both on the same page and have wanted to retire early, and then travel, and do the things we want to do in life. We even decided not to have kids partially because of that. We just want to spend time together and see the world. So, we worked towards that and my main goal was to retire the day before my 50th birthday, which is in about seven years.

Unfortunately life seems to have gotten in the way and I was recently diagnosed with MS. So I really have no idea if I'll make it that far with work, or if it will be no problem, and because of that uncertainty I really don't know what retirement will look like. All I can do, is do my best. I hope it works out ok and we can still do the things we want to do.