People around me often say they feel bored when they have nothing to do; I’ve even seen individuals on TV who have achieved financial freedom say that a life without specific tasks is boring—even though they are free to exercise, play, and enjoy themselves every day. I’d like to ask: would you find it boring not to have a job?
First-time poster here. I’m 52 and my husband is 57, and we’re planning to retire in 2028 when he turns 59½.
I’m planning to leave my job in December 2027 so I can take a break for my daughter’s wedding, which will be in India. I may decide to work for another 6–8 months sometime later in 2028 if the right opportunity comes along, but otherwise, I’ll consider myself retired.
Financially, I feel confident about our retirement savings and our ability to support the lifestyle we want in retirement. We’ve done the planning, and I’m comfortable with the numbers.
What I find surprisingly difficult, though, is **the reaction from friends and family when we talk about retiring early.**
The conversation almost always gets shut down with comments like:
“How can you possibly think about retiring so early?”
“What will you do all day?”
“How are you going to pay for healthcare?”
“You’re too young to retire!”
Or just general disbelief that this is even a reasonable thing to consider.
There’s generally very little support or curiosity about it. It almost feels like people think we’re being irresponsible simply because our timeline is different from theirs.
I honestly don’t care that much about what other people *think* about our decision. What I do care about is **how to respond intelligently without getting defensive or turning every conversation into a debate about our finances.**
For those of you who retired early (or are planning to), did you experience similar reactions from friends and family?
**How have you handled these conversations?** Did you explain the numbers, give a simple response and change the subject, or just stop discussing retirement altogether?
I’d especially love to hear the responses that worked well for you.
I wish there was a magic ball. I want to retire in 2.5 years at 62 and my husband will be 66 at that time and will retire then or before.
I’ve run calculation after calculation. I’ve asked chat gpt and google ai and my financial advisor. They all say we’re good. It’s just so hard to believe.
61M here. Thinking of retiring in the next 2 to 4 years. Just wondering if there were any mistakes/regrets that you wish you had taken into account in hindsight about retirement. Honestly, I’m not interested about the financial aspects- as I am very well prepared for that, but all the other issues that are involved in a well planned retirement. I am trying to add hobbies and interests in preparation, but I can’t help feeling like I may be missing something.
All things being equal, I’d guess I’d rather have pure post tax cash for my retirement but that’s not an option. So that being said, what do you aim for as far as Roth vs IRA/401 account mix? Hypothetically if I had 1M in total portfolio, what percentage should I aim to have in Roth versus pre tax accounts? Appreciate any advice!
Hello! My husband (m47) and I (f37) have been starting to work toward retirement planning in the past few years. We are up to around $500k in savings and investments, and putting in around $4k per month trying to catch up since we got started very late. I just found out that my mother in law (81, widowed, with moderate dementia and other health problems which means her life expectancy is anywhere between 1-10 years, but likely on the shorter side) has around $13 million in investments that she will be passing along to my husband. This was a very big surprise.
In general, I'm of the mind that an inheritance isn't yours until it's yours and we shouldn't be considering it as part of any of our financial planning. I also want my mother in law to use her money to make her life as fantastic as it possibly can be, there will likely be very high medical costs for her care at the end of her life, and who knows what the stock market will do in the next few years. However, even with these things taken into consideration, it still seems highly likely that we will receive at least a few million within the next 1-5 years.
I don't intend to slow down on any of our savings, but would this situation change anything about how you would approach retirement planning? When I look at our current retirement savings rate we are still falling short of where I'd like to be, but I also don't want to hustle more than I have to and miss out of life experiences.
Yesterday was my last day of work after a 43 year sales career in the Foodservice Distribution industry. I loved my job, but I wanted to be able to enjoy the years I have left to do what my wife and I want to do while we still can. I plan on basically taking it easy for the rest of the summer, but plan on traveling after that. Any words of wisdom or advice?
My husband and I currently live in suburban Albany, NY, but we're starting to think very long-term about whether this is the best place for our family.
My parents are 67 and 70 and currently live in Shanghai. They're healthy, active retirees and are considering immigrating to the U.S. to be closer to us as they get older.
The challenge is that they are lifelong city people and neither drives. They are used to being able to walk out the door, shop, eat, see doctors, meet people, and generally live very independently.
My husband, on the other hand, strongly prefers quieter suburban or lower-density living and absolutely does not want to live somewhere as dense and intense as Manhattan.
So I'm curious whether there is a good middle ground somewhere in the U.S.
Our ideal area would have:
We don't necessarily all need to live in the exact same neighborhood. One arrangement I can imagine is my husband and I living in a quieter residential area while my parents live 10–20 minutes away in a more walkable area with other Chinese residents, shops, doctors, and activities.
The biggest thing I'm trying to avoid is moving my parents from a highly independent life in Shanghai to an American suburb where suddenly their daughter and son-in-law become their transportation, social life, and connection to everything outside the house.
So if you could choose almost anywhere in the U.S., where would you look?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who:
Specific suburbs/neighborhoods are very welcome, not just metro areas.
And if you've actually helped older parents relocate, I'd also love to know: what factor turned out to matter much more than you expected when choosing where to live?
Hi- trying to get an idea of how much would I need to retire at 58- 57 currently. Single , no kids, live in Bay Area. Condo paid off- don’t need to worry about any of the costs associated with my condo. No debt. Goal is to travel internationally 2 times a year in retirement. Would love to hear about how much I can SAFELY withdraw each year net of taxes and what should I invest my 401k funds in given my age? I have $2M in 401k and $500k in brokerage- thx!
I’m 60 S male 1.4 m. In Accts. Pension of 45k/yr begins next month. Medical through state insurance bcbs. 490 / mnth. Withdraw 3 % gives me 75k/ year til ss of 25k at 62. Can’t believe it’s here. I’ve learned that to seek your counsel from trusted sources and to have a great financial advisor is a necessity. To all those struggling with the decision it’s been a mind game for sure. But I think I’m ready Will get a partime job later. But enjoy the fruits of the labor as it’s brighter at the end of the tunnel. It can be done with careful planning . Hopefully this will provide some encouragement to someone. That’s my hope as we all been in that same boat.
UPDATE: working beyond our retirement dates is not an option for either one of us. I have leukemia and days are precious. Retiring debt free would be ideal, but it's not going to happen. I'm looking for advice on which debt to focus on before retiring. We will still have the same monthly income in retirement as we have take-home currently, so we can continue to debt service and then our situation will only improve as things pay off 3 to 5 years after retiring. I realize it isn't ideal and we had planned to work longer until I was diagnosed with leukemia.
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Date range because I will retire 1/29 and my teacher wife will retire 7/29.
We have some debt and not likely to knock it all out before we retire.
Current income $184k
30K going into 401k annually.
Debt
Mortgage 95k @ 2.9% (1700/mo)
Parent student loan 60k @ 6.5% (858/mo)
Heloc 50k variable apr (home renovations)
No CC debt and cards are paid off.
Home value is 650k
Wife will have pension (5k/mo)
We will have 500k in 401ks
I'll be 63 at retirement and won't take SS until 67
Wife will take spousal SS about same time (1/2 benefit-30%)
Target retirement income 8500/mo. (I will backfill $3500/mo from 401k until SS starts in 2033.) Then we expect 10k/mo retirement income with only $1500 draw from 401K.
I feel like we should pay off the mortgage because it retires the largest large monthly obligation. Wife wants to pay off student loans because they are higher interest. If we pay off Student loans, the mortgage will have about 3 years left. If we pay off mortgage, the student loans will have about 5 years left.
Our big plans are to travel twice a year up until retirement and once retired take a couple of month long trips annually. (Such as spending a month in Spain, or in Caribbean.?
What say you, redditors?
Comments please.
I am 66 and like to work till 69-70 and then work as a consultant in my field to earn about $5k-$7,500 monthly to supplement wife and my 401 which will have about $750k combined. My idea is to start SS draw in a year when I am 67 and invest it in bonds ladder strategy . It will be about $5k monthly until I retire at 69-70. Good idea?
(No shade against CFPs, BTW). I (60F) have been running retirement planning scenarios my whole life. Started with Fidelity’s way back when, then in my 50s moved to Quicken, last year added Boldin and even ran several scenarios by good ole ChatGPT.
As a result, spouse (56M) and I thought we knew the best paths regarding retirement timing, spending budget, sequence of withdrawals, Roth conversions, when to sell some rentals, IRMAA surcharges, portfolio mix, when to take SS, spending guardrails, etc. BUT STILL we paid $8K for 3 sessions with a fee-based retirement planning firm.
Nice guy and knowledgeable, but he really just plopped our data into Income Lab and it spit out what we already knew. He did settle a few minor disagreements between my husband and me (which I was right about, for the record… 😂).
We were expecting to be wow-ed with some new info, insights, or ideas. Nope. It was nearly exactly what I, Quicken, Boldin, and ChatGPT figured out — we can retire now with a lesser travel and leisure budget, next year with a higher travel and leisure budget, and 2028 with an amazing travel and leisure budget.
Would we do it again? 100% YES. Would we try to find someone less than $8K? ALSO 100% YES.
What’s been your experience?
Oddly, I have lived here most of my life. Unfortunately, that most of my life has been in PG County and I don’t want to live here now, let alone retire here. I’m embarrassed to say that I have not traveled much outside of PG County. I am not opposed to staying in Maryland. It’s really all I’ve ever known. I lived in Florida, NC, SC, and 3 yrs in Missouri. Maryland is definitely home. So are there nice places in Maryland to retire? Can you help me navigate my way outside of PG before it’s too late?
Here, the economic situation is not good, and the pressure to find employment is high. Even if you find a job, the pressure is immense every day, and the company often dominates the workplace. Therefore, many young people feel exhausted and want to save enough money to retire. So, would you support young people retiring early?
We all want to retire, but we all don’t have pensions. We all need to pay for healthcare and we all wanna retire early. I live in the United States of America and I’m 53 years old my wife is 57, we have a total of 2.75 million in 401(k)’s traditional. We owe 150,000 on our mortgage. Our kids college has partially been paid and they can pay the rest in loans. We do not have any pensions and and for those that have one if you can refrain from commenting how that benefited you it’s appreciated. We want to live off approximately $95,000 annually with the hypothetical 30 year longevity. We’re in good health. How much has health health insurance cost you annually? We do not have any real health issues other than a few medication’s that are somewhat expensive. Our cars are primarily paid off. no big bills, other than electric, water, food, misc entertainment and dogs/cat food nothing crazy. I plan on going to a fiduciary to review our finances and have them give us a plan on how to approach spending our retirement funds. We have a $150k brokerage account, 2.5 mil in traditional 401(k), and $150,000 Roth IRA and I believe the first way we want to start spending that money down is by getting rid of the brokerage account then Roth, but I don’t know for sure so any input on that is also appreciated. I know there are budgeting tricks one needs to do in order to be under a certain dollar amount to qualify for the best monthly ACA insurance fee. What is that and if you will provide any input it’s appreciated, minus how you were able to retire because you had a pension or health insurance was paid by your company. Thanks.
Im 63F with a great job, making good money with a great work retirement savings plan. Spouse is already retired for 6 years. We have enough money between the 2 of us to be fine if I retire now. The issue that keeps me working is that if he were to not be here, I need to make enough to cover all the bills, I'm close but not there. I also want travel money. If I work the next year, all my debt will be paid off. My house is already paid off. It makes sense logically to stay working one more year to enhance my quality of life but I can hardly function because all I think about is retiring. I haven't had a good night sleep in years and that's the main reason I want to retire, to focus on health and advance my spiritual passions. Im certified reiki and I'm doing tarot and astrology reading on the side and it's my absolute passion to start a spiritua side business. People think I'm crazy to consider leavng corporate now because it's good.
What would you do?
Brother: “Hey, I got $35 tickets to go to a 3-day audiophile convention in Chicago. Wanna go?” “What’s there?” “Million-dollar audio systems.” “I’m in.”
So for a $300 airplane ticket and a room at an Embassy Suites, we met in the city of our birth. Besides listening to sublime music from ridiculously extravagant equipment (we bought nothing), we got a tour and talked with physicists at a national lab I worked at years ago, and we visited Shedd Aquarium. Oh, and we ate Chicago-style dogs at Portillo’s, burgers at Culver’s, and a stupid-expensive meal at Alinea.
It doesn’t take much of an excuse to take off for five or six days to do silly things and enjoy a random adventure.