Retirement Date Set!

[Like2Plan]

I'm currently watching the process in someone very close to me. My cousin, who is like a brother, retired May 2010 at age 55. He spent the first year cleaning and fixing up his house to sell it. He also spent time packing up his belongings to move. He did sell his house and bought a brand new house in Florida (moved from Philadelphia)...

Disneysteve,
That is another thing on my list of priorites--even though I am not planning to move I want to get rid of all the junk that we have acquired over the years!

[photo]

Godwynn,
Then, there are the photo albums and scrapbooks that have gone by the way side and some video editing that I wanted to do.

A great gift to your children or other younger family members is to write down names of people in older pictures and perhaps a quick line about who the person is -- e.g. neighbor John Doe, whose dog was the mother of our beloved Spot -- or something like that. All of my grandparents are now deceased, and on one side were photos with people no one recognized, which was sad. On the other side, my grandma did a superb job of writing down names, dates, and details.

[Like2Plan]

Congrats! Do you have any plans for your retirement? My Mom will be retiring at the end of September, and she already has a full schedule of things that she wants to do.

bjl584,
Congrats to your Mom, too!

[Like2Plan]

Congratulations! I am 6 years away from retirement (again). I am trying out differen things now to see if I wsnt to continue it into retirement.

Congrats! I'm about 6-8 yrs away and am looking forward to it but, as others stated, am also looking at what will occupy my time. I've worked so many holidays over the years that eliminating that will be worth retiring for.

It looks like there will be loads more retirements in 6 years, too!

[disneysteve]

It looks like there will be loads more retirements in 6 years, too!

Sadly, I'm 15 or so years away myself.

[Like2Plan]

OP: Congratulations on your retirement. I understand your frustrations with missing so many holidays, I too have sacrificed many a holidays though the years to the point that most mean nothing to me.

I have decided to retire Active Duty Army with 20 years 5 months service on 30 SEP 12. Starting tomorrow 1 SEP 11 (12 months out from retirement), my wife and I will start living on my retirement pay and her income (Basically what we will live on when I do actually retire). This will give us plenty of time to ensure we can live on the lowered income. I have a few ideas as to what I will be doing in retirement but I have basically decided to take a year off before I find another job (That is if I feel I need another job).

My wife and I will both be 40 in OCT 2012.


Ray

Ray,
As always, thank you for your service. You have done a lot of really good preparation for retirement over the years. I think living on what you will receive in retirement is a really good step to prepare for retirement. DH and I have been doing this for a while now, so I am hoping retirement will not be a big shock.

[alphadore]

Congratulations! Hope you enjoy your retirement years.

[maat55]

I mailed my retirement package in to my employer with an effective date of Nov 3, 2011.
I suppose I will be second guessing myself for a while. I was eligible to retire since Feb, but I delayed my decision. I have been considering pros and cons for several months now. The overall deciding factor was that my place of work moved further from my home and my commute time has increased substantially. Why continue to make the drive when I don't have to? That, coupled with the thought of driving in the wintertime when there is snow and ice on the roads really freaks me out--so I set my date before there was any possibilty of snow (and ice).
I am so tickled that I won't have to work on any of the upcoming holidays!

Work getting in the way of playing golf would have been enough for me.