Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:
Posted:
Nov 25, 2024 - 2:28am
I found the only way I could afford to retire on SS withiut living in a deoressing dying town or in a bad area was to look elsewhere. I found the Azores and here I can literally live at around 1/3'd what I was spending in the US. And live with great people and have a houe with a million $ ocean view. Many other plises here over the the US also.
If I can hold out for 2 1/2+ years for full SS which would cover I figure at least my house taxes. I didnât put into SS for all those years taking care of mom and 8+ years taking care of dad. So Iâm on the very low rung on the amount I would get. So many problems I wish I didnât have to deal with at this point of my life.
I often fantasise (yeah, I'm a dreamer) about buying 4 hectares on an island off the coast of Auckland and building a whole lot of self-sufficient huts on the property and inviting every RPeep who is strapped for cash to come and live in one. We'd have our own garden, make our own wine and the Gulf still has some fish in it, or we could grow mussels in the bay. We could put Patty and Kurtster in a hut down the bottom of the hill if we had to (just messing with yer Kurt), but it would be allcomers on a needs-based principle.
Not going to happen, but it was a nice idea while it lasted.
Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at Gender:
Posted:
Nov 24, 2024 - 7:42pm
JrzyTmata wrote:
you can collect SS and still work as long as you wait until your full retirement age, there is no penalty or limit on how much you earn within the year. You could probably work part-time and have enough to live with some free time.
If I can hold out for 2 1/2+ years for full SS which would cover I figure at least my house taxes. I didnât put into SS for all those years taking care of mom and 8+ years taking care of dad. So Iâm on the very low rung on the amount I would get. So many problems I wish I didnât have to deal with at this point of my life.
I guess it depends on your life experience. My Dad grew up in a poor family in the Great Depression. Without much of an education he served our country for 21 years then continued on to have a nice career as an electrician. He saved his money religiously his entire life & now I am a benificiary & I enjoy the income generated by his life savings. I now consider myself caretaker of this equity & look forward to, if not obligated to passing it on to my 2 daughters.
I told my boy that my goal with my 401K is for The Better Half⢠and I to be lying side by side in hospital beds and someone walks in and says "I'm sorry, but your bank account reads zero" and then you suddenly hear two of those flat line sounds from the machines.
I raised him right and the money I earned is ours, not his. I'm gonna spend as much of it as I can (after figuring through long term care, etc). But my goal is not to leave him some sort of inheritance, although I suppose he'll get the house. Unless we decide to offload that as well.
I guess it depends on your life experience. My Dad grew up in a poor family in the Great Depression. Without much of an education he served our country for 21 years then continued on to have a nice career as an electrician. He saved his money religiously his entire life & now I am a benificiary, enjoying the income generated by his life savings. I now consider myself caretaker of this equity & look forward to, if not obligated to passing it on to my 2 daughters.
Location: Really deep in the heart of South California Gender:
Posted:
Nov 24, 2024 - 5:56pm
I like to retire... but my boss is a real jerk.
Oh wait...
Actually, I still like the physical workout I get.
Debbie tells me "It's time to scale back"!
I going to start picking and choosing my jobs.
No more tall ceilings where I have to crank my stilts all the way up.
There is my scaffold, of course. Ehh?
Iâve been out of real work since 2003. Used up all my savings while staying home taking care of mom until 2015. Since I was in graphics/software development with no work to show since then, and even going for a micro masters degree in Design Thinking @ RIT with a 4.0 GPA not even a sniff. Itâs all about the portfolio for a jobs now a days.
So in essence Iâm soooooo Fâd with all that annd anxiety to go along with thinking about it and turning 66 in a month. If I get any kind of work Iâll be dead at a desk somewhere in my 90âs if Iâm lucky. Mom and my aunt died 3 months just shy of their 96 birthdays. My dad, a smoker died 2 weeks shy of his 75th after 9 years dealing with cancer, stroke and congestive heat failure.
So while all my friends are planning retirement Iâll be working with no time of slowing down and enjoying the sunset of my life with nothing to show for it. Come on lottery ticket!
you can collect SS and still work as long as you wait until your full retirement age, there is no penalty or limit on how much you earn within the year. You could probably work part-time and have enough to live with some free time.
Retirement planning would be much easier if you knew how long you were going to live.
I feel a little guilt but the pandemic paid off for me. Gov job. They were going to lay me off in Dec 2019 but screwed up the process and the union got involved so it was put on hold. I was ready to retire so no big deal. Then the pandemic hit. The last thing the gov was going to do was cut staff since there was so much economic uncertainty. We had some of the most strict lockdowns in the world, which were very successful until delta variant got out, and if I was going to have to sit around at home, I was happy to be getting paid for it. But I didn't have any real projects since the managers considered me out the door. Completely redesigned our database and was tasked to help on some biosecurity for a bit and helped the Justice Dept. on some covid response. It was somewhat interesting learning about intel, but otherwise didn't feed my interests. Eventually they offered me an early retirement package and I jumped for it.
No one in either of our families is particularly long-lived and we both have chronic health problems - and we have no heirs - so we're setting up our IRA to be "fun forward".
If you can swing it, DO IT! I hear you only live once so might as well not add "not retiring early enough" to one's list of lifetime regrets.
Retirement planning would be much easier if you knew how long you were going to live.
I feel a little guilt but the pandemic paid off for me. Gov job. They were going to lay me off in Dec 2019 but screwed up the process and the union got involved so it was put on hold. I was ready to retire so no big deal. Then the pandemic hit. The last thing the gov was going to do was cut staff since there was so much economic uncertainty. We had some of the most strict lockdowns in the world, which were very successful until delta variant got out, and if I was going to have to sit around at home, I was happy to be getting paid for it. But I didn't have any real projects since the managers considered me out the door. Completely redesigned our database and was tasked to help on some biosecurity for a bit and helped the Justice Dept. on some covid response. It was somewhat interesting learning about intel, but otherwise didn't feed my interests. Eventually they offered me an early retirement package and I jumped for it.
Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at Gender:
Posted:
Nov 24, 2024 - 10:08am
Iâve been out of real work since 2003. Used up all my savings while staying home taking care of mom until 2015. Since I was in graphics/software development with no work to show since then, and even going for a micro masters degree in Design Thinking @ RIT with a 4.0 GPA not even a sniff. Itâs all about the portfolio for a jobs now a days.
So in essence Iâm soooooo Fâd with all that annd anxiety to go along with thinking about it and turning 66 in a month. If I get any kind of work Iâll be dead at a desk somewhere in my 90âs if Iâm lucky. Mom and my aunt died 3 months just shy of their 96 birthdays. My dad, a smoker died 2 weeks shy of his 75th after 9 years dealing with cancer, stroke and congestive heat failure.
So while all my friends are planning retirement Iâll be working with no time of slowing down and enjoying the sunset of my life with nothing to show for it. Come on lottery ticket!
My birth mom was ripping out dry wall at 82 the day before her debilitating stroke. She was eating breakfast near the hospital, felt it come on, and finished her food, telling her companion "when I go they won't give me anything to eat."
My birth dad is likely still alive but who the hell knows?
I expect that I'll live so long I'll feel like a vampire - you keep going while you watch everyone you know and love crumble around you.
reminds me of my grandmother (died at 104).. at 102 she said "can't go just yet dear, I haven't worn out the carpet"
We have our dates set at 88 for both of us, which we both consider wildly optimistic.
My birth mom was ripping out dry wall at 82 the day before her debilitating stroke. She was eating breakfast near the hospital, felt it come on, and finished her food, telling her companion "when I go they won't give me anything to eat."
My birth dad is likely still alive but who the hell knows?
I expect that I'll live so long I'll feel like a vampire - you keep going while you watch everyone you know and love crumble around you.
We have our dates set at 88 for both of us, which we both consider wildly optimistic.
My dad drank himself to death at 73 after being given 6 months to live at 63 (made zero changes in his lifestyle). My mom crazied herself to death at 76, the last several years were touch & go. My dad was a career Army Officer so we moved around a lot, I donât know much about aunts & uncleâs & grandparents.
So Iâll see how it plays out. Iâm pretty healthy for my age & Iâm careful not to step in front of oncoming buses or stumble onto subway tracks.
I have a weird set of genetics. In my family people die at 60, or 90+. No one (well rarely) dies in their 70s or 80s, and we have a few centenarians. So it makes planning a little odd.
We have our dates set at 88 for both of us, which we both consider wildly optimistic.
Exactly. Since we really have no one to leave anything to, we're setting up our IRA to allow us to enjoy the years we have left.
I have a weird set of genetics. In my family people die at 60, or 90+. No one (well rarely) dies in their 70s or 80s, and we have a few centenarians. So it makes planning a little odd.
