I retired at age 55 and enjoyed a year of 'retirement' but decided to venture out to do several other things after that period. That year provided my wife and I some time to get reacquainted and enjoy some distant time together. Following that first year I felt that I needed to spend time in projects that I enjoyed. It wasn't long after that that I found myself back to work full-time in a couple other endeavors. Now that I am 63 years of age I retired again and this time working on projects that I truly love involving social activities. Retirement is an evolving process. Even though your husband may route retire at 55 it is very likely that you will find other things to do that will be more fulfilling than the job that he's doing now. This is a good time of life for both of you so take advantage of what it has to offer. Best of luck in whatever you choose to do. Here is a link that might be useful: Active Empty Nesters

Hi cheery one, I'm pleased that you're happy with the "pro"s of your retirement. And somewhat sad that you're feeling that you're not keeping up to the mark of what you'd hoped/planned to do. If you feel the need to beat yourself over the back about that - make sure it's with a wet noodle ... and only five strokes, O.K? As for the "average" retiree, I don't feel that I have too much of a handle on that ... and wonder what level of expertise you may claim in that department? I think that it's important to do things that we can be pleased with ourselves for having done, at the end of the day ... week ... month ... year. Something that I note to have been scarcely mentioned in this thread so far is the need that all of us retirees have to concern ourselves about (as well as people in the workforce) is the erosion of the value of our income (and, for us retirees, our assets) due to inflation, every year for about the last 80. There hasn't been much increase in incomes in recent years, except for the wealthy few ... but the prices keep going up ... and for most of us, those prices of much of the goods and services that we buy have been and are going up faster than the official rate of inflation. When we put money in the bank, or buy bonds, etc. which pay us the same number of dollars after several years that we gave them in the first place, apart from the "rent" on the money, it isn't only taxes and living expenses that much come out of the earnings ("rent on the money"), but an allowance for inflation, as well, in order to keep the purchasing power of those assets equal in ten years to what it is now. Good wishes to you for dealing well with the days ahead: may they be as many as please you, with good health, friends, enough bucks to meet your needs, things to do and a few challenges, here and there. ole joyfuelled

No, duluth, you're not the odd one out, but you're one of the sensible ones, LOL! DH and I were sloppy about a lot of things and didn't catch on until our mid to late 40s. We're fortunate things worked out but like you, there was a pension for DH that we could rely upon. Sadly, fewer and fewer have that option any longer. Anyway, it occurred to me I hadn't actually answered some of the OP's questions, so my bad. Here's my answers: 1) At what age do you hope to retire? I retired in 2006 at age 55. DH retired at the end of 2009 at age 56. I retired because I couldn't find a job within reasonable commute distance that was worth being away from home 10 hrs/daily, 5 days/wk. Salaries had dropped precipitiously (and remain low even now). I had job offers, but they would have involved a killer commute - using my car in SF Bay Area traffic for a 3-hr roundtrip would have essentially negated any extra salary above what was being offered around my home town. Had the money been really needed, I could have continued working for another 10 yrs, just with lower $$ expectations. I enjoyed what I did and met a lot of great people, many of whom I'm still in regular contact with. A large factor in my retiring was when my MIL moved in with us. We discovered our weekly visits had not shown us the real issue - a very gradual dementia. She is functional day to day, but there's no way she should live alone any longer. Because she shares household expenses with us, it makes up for what I would have netted from a full-time job. 2) Will you stay in your current home or move? We are staying put for now. We like where we live; we love our neighbors and they love us; it's convenient in location to our friends, family, and a wide range of attractions/activities. However, this is not a home for the disabled or elderly. It cannot be retrofitted at a reasonable cost. The area is all rolling hills and our property has a double slope, making gardening a real work-out! We have no sentimental attachment to a structure of wood, stucco and glass. It is a roof over our heads, it has served us well, it is extremely comfortable having been extensively remodeled. When the time comes that it's too much trouble to take care of, which I foresee coming in the next 5-10 yrs, we will gladly pack up and leave. We would like to live in a specific CCRC we've visited, but time will tell if it will work out financially. If not, we have sufficient assets to have other options for the next phases of our lives, whether together or singly. 3) What kind of investments or income sources will you have? DH has a defined benefit pension with 2% annual COLA and full medical at low cost (no vision or dental, though). His mid-range six-figure retirement account is our backup, we don't need to take distributions. We live a very comfortable lifestyle in an extremely expensive area, entirely on his pension. The last two years DH worked were a 'trial run' for budget purposes. He was contributing extra to his retirement account so we were living on the equivalent of what his estimated pension would be. So when he did retire, there were no surprises or shortfalls. I have three small pension/annuities from former employers that will start at age 65. I'm eligible for full SocSec at 66. These income sources will mitigate any inflationary pressures in future years. Because I have almost no retirement savings, I carry term life in the amount of $750K to ensure DH would have additional financial assets through my age 70, at which point the policy expires and we won't worry about how much more $$$ he needs should I predecease him. BTW, this is what I mean about properly assessing your own morbidity and mortality risks. DH suffered a stroke at age 50 and if he lives past 75 it will be a wonderful gift. But genetics are totally against him, so his odds are at best 50-50 to reach age 85 or order. My odds are about the same or slightly better. Both of us have family histories of diabetes and heart trouble. These are no longer the killers they were, but they are disablers. We have no children and relatively few family, even locally. Therefore, we each carry very good unlimited benefit LTC policies to cover facility care and home healthcare as we age. We have had these policies since our late 40's, and buying them was the smartest thing we ever did. Once DH had his stroke, he would never have qualified for anything affordable, even if I'd been able to find a carrier, for the next five years afterward. The total premiums we've paid for both policies over ten years, don't even equal six months in a good facility for only one of us. 4) Do you plan to work part time, or what kind of activities will you do? Retirement has been great. We sleep when we want, we eat when we're hungry, we don't have to dance to anyone else's tune, and we get to do errands mid-week/mid-day, when the check-out lines are shorter and sales clerks more relaxed. I garden and like to read (Amazon knows me SO WELL). I spend a lot of time on the PC as it's my lifeline: I shop, read, research, and communicate almost totally by computer. Every day I read three newspapers on-line: the local, the NY Times, and the WSJournal. Recently we went on a 5-week driving trip through the Pacific NW and I spent hundreds of hours on the PC researching every travel segment, hotel, restaurants, and attractions. Exhausting, but the trip was a huge success and it was worth the work. I set up a restaurant review blogsite last year. We dine out regularly and my reviews are fairly long, so this helps me keep them organized. This year I've set up a travel blogsite after our five 2010 trips. I'm not in love with blogging, but did this after being asked by friends to set up something on the web so they could access everything more easily. For 2011 I plan to revamp our garden website and that will be a huge undertaking. I have thousands of photos to winnow down and organize. DH is a media junkie. It isn't uncommon for him to have two TVs on and his three computers running simultaneously. All this while he does his hobby stuff (wargaming). Talk about multi-tasking, LOL! He's a sweetie, he'll do anything I want to do. A good partnership: I like to organize and he'll accompany me anywhere. We also like to walk, but he can walk further than I can so he sometimes takes himself off to hike alone in state parks. I'm an urban walker, I like to know there's people around if I need help. We both do yoga, but different types. His former boss occasionally gives him contract work, which is easy money but doesn't happen often.

I'm not retired yet, but I'm getting close. I anticipate retiring at age 55. We've planned carefully, and we expect things to work out like this: Early retirement years: With our house and cars paid for, my pension will cover the bare-bones of our month-to-month needs. I will have my basic medical paid, and I will be able to cover him (at cost). We will be eleven years too young for Social Security. We intend to work either part-time or seasonally rather than dip into our savings too early. For example, if I substitute teach 8 days a month, I'll have as much money as I make now. We're also interested in "fun work" such as working at the seasonal Renaissance Faire. We have plans for travel and other such things in these years. We are not against using our savings at this point, but we want to do it sparingly /want to see that money continue to grow for later years, when we may need it more for medical issues, and we may see inflation eat into our spending power. Middle retirement years: 67 is full retirement age for both of us, and we're operating on the assumption that we'll begin collecting Social Security at 67. With two Social Security checks, we stop any part-time work in which we've been involved, and we will have more money than we are spending now ... and we won't have withdrawn much from our retirement savings. Later retirement years: Looking at our ages and health, this probably means just me. I'm assuming his Social Security will be gone, and we are assuming that inflation will hurt the value of my pension ... so it may not be enough to cover my basic needs at this point, especially because I may be paying for house cleaning, etc. -- things that I won't need to pay for in early retirement. However, at this point it'll be fine for me to dip into our savings. We have calculated the above general thoughts using real numbers, and we feel confident about financial security in our retirement years. Our biggest concern, of course, is medical needs. Regardless of what was taught, any teacher should use correct spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. I do agree that anyone who teaches should be able to write well; however -- in my experience -- it's the elementary teachers who come across worst in terms of the written word. All retirement programs that cover governmental employees (at any level of government) are funded by taxpayers. Did you mean something else? False, but not entirely false. I'm a state employee. When I retire, I will have contributed 8-10% of my salary to the state pension fund for 30 years. That money has been invested and has grown. The taxpayers won't be funding my retirement; rather, the state will be returning my own investment to me. HOWEVER, a pension is a defined benefit program, which means I cannot outlive my investment. If I retire at 55 and live only 5 years, the state wins ... they get to keep a bunch of my money. and I'd die unhappy knowing that I couldn't leave that money to my kids. On the other hand, if I live to be 105, my money will run out, and -- yes -- the taxpayers will kick in for my later years. Actuaries work on these numbers, and they predict how long the average employee will live -- and that's how they decide how much to withdraw from our paychecks. On average, people will live just about long enough to "make back" their own contributions plus interest earned. I'm fine on retirement funds and withdrawing 3.8% per year. I'll take SS at age 62 since there's no reason not to and will leave me more disposable income. Well, there is one reason not to take SS at age 62: For every year you take your benefits early (early meaning prior to your full retirement age, which is probably 67), you sacrifice 6% of your benefit. To say it differently, if you could collect $1500 at full retirement age ... and instead you take it five years early (at age 62), your monthly benefit would only be $1050 ... that's a great deal of income to give up for the rest of your life. Obviously, I made several assumptions in that equation, but consider exactly how much that 6% per year would be for you personally.