Big day for me today!

[canada94]

Today is the day I become eligible to retire!

My long range plan was to retire at the end of this month, but I have not submitted my paperwork, yet. I have been told the paperwork lead time is about 2 months in order to get a retirement check in a timely manner, so by in-action I guess you could say I am waffling. (There are a lot of what have-yous and what nots in the decision to retire. )

Whatever you do, just enjoy the things you love to do, im sure you will 'retire' when you feel ready.

good Luck


Kevin

[khosta]

Congrats to you!!!! That's a huge life accomplishment!!! Be proud of yourself!!!

[Like2Plan]

Congratulations! I am sure retirement is an exciting time, although it is a ways away for me...I guess saving money does certainly pay off when you reach the point of retirement! All those years saving...

Frugal,
Thanks. Retirement sneaks up on you in no time. I'll tell you one thing that is really hard to get used to--and that is after saving for my retirement for so many years--I find it difficult to think about spending the money saved for retirement.

[Like2Plan]

Congratulations on getting ready to retire. I'm sure you'll be fine, you needn't overthink the process if you have holiday pay and an emergency fund. Do you have a lot of bills to pay? If so, you might feel more secure by paying down debt..

Snafu,
Thanks. I like using this board as a sounding board for my plans. We don't have a lot of bills to pay. As part of the plan for retirement, we paid off our mortgage a few years ago. We already set aside money for our son's college (he's almost finished ). We don't carryover any CC debt. The only debt we have is a car loan that is scheduled to be paid off in a year.

What is your post retirement plan? Wat will you do to fill all those hours? Will you have friends who are available for visits, golf, bike rides etc? Will you travel? Will you work on your home to update/upgrade for future re-sale?Will you take classes and learn how to fix your car yourself or do woodworking or landscaping? All these factors would likely be part of the retirement date planning I suspect.

DH and I love to travel. Last year I had the weekends off and combined with a pretty sweet alternate work schedule (which gives me an extra day off each week), we were able to stretch out weekend travel. This year, I still have AWS but I have to work Saturday-- so it has put a real crimp into our travel plans--Holidays are the only thing that has saved me so far. Since January, we've gone to Orlando FL, Panama City FL, Birmingham/Huntville AL and New York City and a couple of other shorter trips. In the future if our flight is oversold and they are looking for volunteers with flexible plans--I want to be that volunteer!

I also want to put together photo albums (photos are all in shoe boxes--never had time to put them together).

I also want to get back into designing quilt tops. I have a couple of unfinished projects.

DH and I walk an hour a day--almost without exception. In addition to that, I would love to do that and just walk up to the local Starbucks (that is a mile away) for a coffee. Sit down and people watch while I drink it. It seems that I never have time to do that now.

[Like2Plan]

Whatever you do, just enjoy the things you love to do, im sure you will 'retire' when you feel ready.

good Luck


Kevin

Kevin,
Thanks.

[Like2Plan]

Congrats to you!!!! That's a huge life accomplishment!!! Be proud of yourself!!!

Thanks khosta.

[disneysteve]

Retirement sneaks up on you in no time.

I hope it sneaks up on me soon.