Do you have clear retirement plans? (Where, when, etc.)

[Chris in VA]

I was talking with a df today, and both of us know we will not retire here; I certainly won't, because I live in a rectory and they will eventually kick us out. 

 

Dh has casually mentioned moving to Israel or Palestine, but who knows. (Although my df did get a word in prayer today about that, which was interesting since I didn't mention any possible plans yet...)

 

Anyway, do YOU know where you want to live or when you plan on retiring? 

 

I, of course, realize you are not all in your 50's like me, and for you young things, it's a rather odd question.  :lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

I am only 41, but dh will have his first chance to retire in about 18 months. We *plan* to retire in OK or TX to be close to our families. We may not retire @ his first chance though, it depends on all that other military stuff.

[Annie G]

We're in our 50's and we'd like to retire in 5 years, when dh turns 60.  As far as where to live, we currently plan to move near oldest dd since she's the only one with kids and would welcome the help raising and homeschooling them.  They live near Atlanta, which is where we were raised, so it'll be a welcome change from the past 20 years we've spent in cold Northern Illinois winters. 

 

 

[Liz CA]

I will retire close to the coast, preferably where I can hear the waves wash ashore. I can dream at least...

[elegantlion]

Haha, I thought I did. Now,I am in this area for my parents and to finish school. In years to come, I will probably move from this area, someplace where it is not so cold in the winter.

[Mom in High Heels]

Not a clue.  James Bond can retire from the army in 2 years and 4 months (not that I'm counting), but if he gets promoted one more time, he'll have to stay in a few more years.  I'm torn on this, as some part of me would really like him to retire, BUT another part of me would really like him to get the promotion, because it means he'll get more money at retirement.  Of course if he doesn't get promoted, the point is moot, so that's a wait and see on that.  After he retires from the military, he'll get another job (he'll be 43 if he retires in 2.5 years), and then after that, we may stay put if we like the area, or retire somewhere else.  I  can't even think about it!  It's all too much!

 

ETA:  I wouldn't mind retiring in England or France, but those are probably out of reach.  If I had to pick somewhere in the US, it would be near Chicago, near Seattle, or somewhere in New England.

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Should I survive another, say, 13 years, we will take DW's pension, assuming it's still funded, and, well....I don't know. Northampton might be a funky place to work in a little bookshop full of like-minded people. Maybe build playhouses and swingsets.

 

In reality, I suspect we'll try to be reasonably close to DD - not in a stalker kinda way, but in the take-the-kids-at-3am kinda way.

[Chris in VA]

Tom, you mean DD in your last sentence?

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Tom, you mean DD in your last sentence?

LOL. Thanks. I can not be trusted to make perfect sense when posting via Droid.

[Heather in Neverland]

I really don't know when or where. It's hard for me to imagine retiring. I love working...I love my job...and my youngest is only 3 anyways so it will be another 20 years probably until we retire. We have retirement savings/pensions, but when and where is a total unknown.

[Amira]

I think dh will have to retire at 65 unless the rules for his job change. We've talked about living in SW Wyoming or SE Idaho, but I don't know if I'd be ready to settle down in one spot. And I think I might still have so many places I want to see by that point.

 

There are a bazllion American retirees in the state we live in right now. Even though I'd be very interested in living in another country, I am quite sure I don't want to live in an area where there are thousands of Americans arguing about American politics and playing bridge.

[DawnM]

No.  We have retirement plans monetary wise, but not location.  DH is talking about Florida, but I personally think it will depend on where the kids and grandkids are!

[happypamama]

No, but we have at least 20 years to go. I like to think that we'll stay in the area where we are now, because we love it. I could see selling/giving the house to one of the kids (good way to ensure that my boys and my DILs and grandchildren are nearby!), in return for DH and me being able to stay on the property. The people next door built a second small house so that the grown son could be near enough to care for his parents; I could see that working for us. The land is pretty nice, almost three acres, and it would be a lot of house and land for a young family to afford (we couldn't have done it if we hadn't worked our way up from two other houses), but it will be too much for older people to maintain. So I could see it remaining as the family homestead, but with one of the kids taking over the main role.

[4everHis]

Have no plans to retire. Self-employed, young children and yes we're 50. Thankfully we don't require much but don't see ever being able to just not work.

I'm surprised there aren't more in our boat. :(

[Joker]

We have about another 15 years, but we're not clear. We want to see where our dds end up first. We would like to be near them if at all possible.

[Dandelion]

No.  We've got our financial retirement plan figured out, but that's about it.  DH could retire in the next few years (he's 46), but we really don't see a reason to.  I'm actually looking forward to a second career when I'm done homeschooling (I'm 42). I miss working.

 

Ideally, we'd each have some kind of rewarding part-time gig from age 55 on.  Consulting or something else we can each do from home (we would need separate home offices of course, so we don't get on each other's nerves  ;) ).  I'd love to live by the ocean, so that would mean moving (we live in Colorado).  However, I love our community here and would hate to leave friends, so maybe we could do the snowbird thing and spend summers in Colorado and winters in Florida.  It also depends on what our kids ultimately decide to do, as I'd like to live semi-near them as well.

[Joshin]

We will have the house paid off and enough in savings to retire in 7 years, when I'm 44 and DH is 40. We're self-employed in creative fields, so we probably will choose to continue working in some capacity. We'll likely stay here in Eastern WA until the kids move out and my parents no longer need us nearby. We're not sure where we'll end up then. We've talked about moving to the coast, where the weather, vibe and politics more matches our style, but who knows. We're reaching early retirement via the frugal method, not the making huge amounts of money method, mainly so we have the freedom to follow the wind where it may while we're young enough to still enjoy the adventure.

[Ripley]

I'm in my late 30s, and retired earlier this year.  I love(d) my job but my ex-husband offered to match my full-time salary and retirement if I'd stay home full-time with the kids. Since I only worked part-time most months, this was too good of an offer to refuse. 

 

When I retired, I moved near my parents. I plan to stay here for as long as they're here and kicking. Eventually I'd like to retire near my (grand)children, and help out however I can. That might be working so my daughter or daughter-in-law can stay home with the kids, or it might be staying home with the kids so the child's mom can work - I'm flexible. I can live anywhere my family is.

 

 

 

 

 

[Camelfeet]

No clear retirement plan here, but we are both only 30 so we've got some time to think about it.  We will likely retire back to Canada, ideally someplace within 3-4 hours driving to our relatives but with a lower cost of living than most big cities. We work abroad and pay no tax, but unfortunately get no company pension and can't save towards RRSPs either.   

[Pawz4me]

We've got a pretty solid financial plan, but location . . . not really.  Odds are we'll remain right in this area.  We've talked about a lot of different areas inside and outside the U.S.  But the COL is relatively inexpensive here, we're already familiar with everything, the weather is pretty good, family/friends are here.  In reality it would probably be hard to justify pulling up and moving away.  We won't be staying in this house, though, but downsizing so I have a lot less to keep clean.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Dh is 53 but our youngest is 6 so we figure that means a minimum of 16 more years of work for him. By then we can hopefully sell our behemoth of a house for something smaller right here in our small town. At this point we have no need to move elsewhere. I hope to volunteer for literacy and food bank groups. He just wants to "putter". Not very exciting plans.

[creekland]

We talk about this often, and our results are incredibly varied.  I'm not really sure what we will do.

 

We could stay here, but snowbird away the coldest months of winter either domestically or internationally.  (This is likely to start next year since youngest graduates this year, BUT, it's not really retirement since we'll still be working.)

 

We could become completely nomadic via small RV or sailboat.  (This is what we used to want to do, but now I'm not so sure - our community is really nice and we feel we "belong" - emphasized by recent medical issues.)

 

We could follow our kids wherever their lives lead them.

 

We could end up somewhere in the developing world assisting with water projects or similar. (Hubby's specialty.)

 

It's fun pondering the options.   Time will tell if we get to do any of them, but nonetheless, it's still fun pondering.

[Laura Corin]

We lived overseas for some years and considered retiring there for the weather, the culture, the cheap help and the cheap medical costs.  Things that made us decide against it:

 

- many Brits retired to Spain for exactly those reasons, but people live a long time these days and countries change.  Many found that they could no longer afford to live in a country that had developed and become much more expensive.  They had to move back to the UK and found themselves in financially very difficult circumstances.

 

- having gone through illness overseas, I would not underestimate the importance of feeling 'at home' when not on top form

 

- wanting to be close to children/grand children.  Both my boys felt that they missed out because of being a long way from family.

 

Your priorities might be different.

 

We plan to work for as long as we can.  We won't get a government pension until we are 67, so at least until then.  We have a rental property that provides some income too.  We plan to move out of our current house - larger than we will need and with 3 acres of land - by the time Husband is 70, or when we can't manage it any longer.  My mother didn't move and has completely lost control of her house and garden.  She's 89 now and doesn't feel able to move.  I don't want to put my children through that kind of worry.

 

At 70, we'll look at where our children are and move somewhere reasonably close to them.

 

L

[Luckymama]

We are in our late 40s and are financially right on track for retirement. Dh won't officially retire until 70, probably, because he loves what he does (he's a Certified Financial Planner). He is planning on gradually decreasing his workload by his late 50s by taking on a junior partner.

 

We both love where we live so, but things change and we may have to or want to move in the distant future.

[bettyandbob]

I think will we be working. One of us may not be able to work because one of us may have to care for/supervise our ds with disabilities. It depends on if ds is able to work. It depends on how we can work on housing for ds. We don't live in a state that provides much support (ranked 48th ), but work is here so we don't move. It will be hard if we go down to knew income because ds can't work. We do not have good retirement savings, several health issues when dc were younger took care of that.

[Night Elf]

DH will be 57 in February, so yes we've talked about it. We really like where we live so we won't be making any drastic move, probably just changing houses because we feel our current house isn't designed for older people. He'll work at least until he's 65, and then evaluate if he wants to retire or not. We don't have any specific plans like traveling, so retirement will just mean puttering around the house which is probably going to be boring for him. I like the idea of working in a daycare again but I don't know if any place would be interested in hiring a 50 something year old woman. I may be a putterer too. I'm used to it though.

[Chris in VA]

Yeah, when I say dh wants to consider going to Israel, it wouldn't be for a long term thing. And who knows what the situation will be like there anyway.

 

I wish I had some sort of ancestral home, or at least that we had a home that we could stay in. Dd is growing up here in the Rectory, but she'll never be able to "come home" when we leave. She'll never bring her kids here to "Granma's house," or that sort of thing. 

 

Sometimes I wish we hadn't moved here. Most of the time I'm ok with it, and grateful, as I should be, but sometimes...

[brehon]

Well, there's the fantasy retirement where I retire in 15-18 years (I'm 41, dh is 53) and we have enough money to live comfortably where ever fancy takes us. We'd love to move to Scotland or northern England.

 

Then there's reality. We have 6 kids, the youngest of whom is 14 months. Although we do save some, it's not near enough to live out the fantasy.

 

One of the benefits of my work is an incredibly generous pension plan - one of the best for county workers in the state. The big downside of my work is that it is incredibly physically demanding and I - well, let's just say that a lot of my job is really a young man's job, as it were. I don't know if I'll last 15 years on the streets. <sigh> And w/6 kids to launch (& most probably headed to some sort of college or university) I'm just not sure when I'll really be able to simply retire. If I can't finangle a job in the office at some point, I'll probably find another job somewhere.

 

We'll see.

[Danestress]

We will retire where we are. We will (god willing) have Moms in their 80s/90s when we are retirement age, and they both live here and will need looking in on, at the least.

 

We have one son who is likely to stay here, and we want to live near at least one of our children.

 

We have friends here, memories here, our church - it's hard to imagine moving unless it were to be nearer grandchildren. But we couldn't do that until our Mothers have passed on anyway, and hopefully by then we will be old.

 

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

[creekland]

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

I want my mom to come with us and she's said that, sooner or later, she will.

 

Hubby's folks are not likely to still be around at that point.  We'll see.

 

My dad... he's on his own for the most part.  He's not at all easy to live with for anyone due to "issues" I discovered in an Abnormal Psych class (growing up one assumes their parents are normal...).  At best we'd pay for part of what he needs - somewhere.  I treasure some of the memories I have as a kid with him, but as an adult, there are few memories - much less treasurable ones.  (Many times he never wanted to see us or his grandkids.)

[Carrie12345]

We've had a basic financial plan which looks like it will need to be tweaked (in a good way) soon. At this point (we're both 36) I don't have any desire to GO somewhere to retire. Our plan is to get a bigger house in the near future. I'd really like to keep the big house for hosting my adult kids and their families.

 

I admittedly have my own biases. My parents and siblings moved away (to the same area) when I was a young adult, and I resent their expectation that I should travel more when I had nothing to do with the decision to be separated.

[SwallowTail]

Retire?  LoL

 

With dh being the primary provider while I homeschool dd and do freelance stuff ont eh side, we will need me working full time for probably 20 years after she goes to college.  That will have me around age 73.  I imagine I will drop dead shortly thereafter.  Ha.

[Joshin]

What is a fully funded retirement?

 

How is that possible when the future is so uncertain?

 

It's having enough saved and invested to live off the interest without ever needing to touch the principal. A combination of lowering living expenses and raising savings rate makes this possible. We strive to live at only half of the expected returns rate on our investments, which makes it possible to live comfortably even during times of economic upheaval.

[Pawz4me]

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

 

We'd be absolutely thrilled if my parents and DH's dad were still here to need caring for. :sad:  I lost my mom nine months ago, so that's still a very raw spot.

 

At the rate MIL is going, she may be the one caring for the younger generation.  :)  If/when she does need care, her daughter (SIL) has made it clear that she will be the one doing it.

 

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

 

Fractured family.  DW's mother is slowly dying because she chooses not to treat her cancer.  My mother is in a fused relationship with my unemployed sister, so they'll just grow into their own Arsenic & Old Lace thing.   My father may or may not be in Alaska, and may or may not be remarried.

 

So yeah.

 

I'm thinking a nice housetruck would allow us to maintain a close enough but not stalking relationship to give DD the assistance we never had.  Something small and subtle, like this one:

 

 

[Laura Corin]

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

 

Husband and I are both the youngest children of parents who had children late.  My mother is the only grandparent left, and she is 89.  By the time husband is seventy, she will be 102.

 

L

[Dandelion]

Those of you who feel free to just pick a place to live, do you have other family members to care for your parents and DH's? I don't really feel free, I guess. I am ok with it, but I sort of envy people who don't have any responsibility in that regard.

 

DH is the youngest of 9 kids.  His 8 siblings have all stayed near his parents.  Most of them live within 10-15 minutes of MIL and FIL, and all of them live within a couple hours drive. So MIL and FIL have plenty of help. DH is the only one that moved out of state.  

 

My mom tends to follow me wherever I go.  She moved from Germany to the U.S. a few years after I moved back to the States (to Oregon) at age 18, and then she moved from Oregon to Colorado a few years after DH and I moved out here.  She currently has her own house (she lives 20 min. away from us), and is in good health at age 74.  However, I anticipate that she'll probably move in with us at some point and then just go with us should we decide to move. 

[readwithem]

Solid financial plan, no timeline and no set place.  We both like mountains and would prefer a more "four seasons" climate (we're in TX now - no family here, just the job ;))  

 

We have moved around a lot with dh's job and have friends scattered all over the world so I have no doubt we would find friends wherever we landed.  DH isn't the type to chase around a little white ball and we both are heavily involved in service here so I feel sure that would play into our decision.  

 

And as others have mentioned, if grandbabies are in the picture, all bets are off - we have never lived near our parents during our own parenting stage, and I would love to be close enough geographically to be more involved in their lives.

[Seasider]

I know where we would like to retire, but the plain truth of the matter is that it depends on where the kids end up. If they all settle here, we will stay here but probably downsize and get a small vacation place in our desired retirement spot. If the kids all scatter, well then all bets are off. We will likely choose to retire someplace that all kids and grandkids would consider a great place to take a vacation.

[Lolly]

I've told dh he cannot retire until the kids are all done with me schooling them. That means we have a year and a half to go. I don't think he will actually retire then. I have no idea if he ever will. We will stay put. 

 

As far as taking care of family, we already did that with dh's parents. My mother and father will not want their kids to go that route. Mom has already said they will do a nursing facility or assisted living instead. My brothers both live near them. I am more than willing to take the time to pull my share there if they do need me. I don't foresee it requiring a move. If anything, they would come to us.