Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[Cat_Driver]

Did a search and didn't find any recent threads so here we go......

At 58 with the Good Lord willing my retirement window is 4 to 7 years out. Job is steady albeit stressful at times and hoping I can just ride it out and be happy until it's time to pull the trigger. Finances are in order and almost debt free! Wife and I have been truly blessed.

I hang out here on TBN hoping to buy that subcompact one day for a retirement toy. It will be the Massey GC when that day comes.

One marital debate is will we uproot and move to a retirement dream home we've always wanted or will we stay closer to home and family.

So for the experts:

- What have you learned in retirement?

- What would you have done/planned for differently?

- Did you move away or stay at home and are you happy?

Thanks for your time.

Andy in N.C.

Retire as early as possible. I've heard too many horror stories of couples "waiting" and before they retire one of them dies. They never made it to that "perfect age" get out early and enjoy life because tomorrow is promised to no one.

 

[check]

Retire? Ha! I’m going out feet first. The government forces us to start taking our pension at age 71, but we can remain working and collect both pension and salary.

 

[ultrarunner]

In a family business where all work is anyone really there with a handout windfall?

I've seen it first hand with 4 generations working a family Dairy...

The older ones slow down and the younger ones step up but all working side by side.

Small business is often good at what they do unlike large concerns that have in house legal and top firms on retainer...

My grandparents and dad and uncle on both sides never retired...

Farm records show old farmer retirement written in so many eggs, so many pigs, cows, etc... and bushels...

 

[lman]

My parents retirement plan was to sell the farm and move to a place with only 40 acres and new home.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^Is it still on schedule?

 

[lman]

^^^Is it still on schedule?

Dad died a couple of years ago in his retirement home at 93, so I guess it worked. Mom is still there. They lived very frugally as they always did. I'm 20 miles from there and wish I could convince mom to move someplace where she didn't have to mow 2 acres at 87 years old. She leases farmland for hay.

 

[ultrarunner]

I do think Americans are more casual with Land Ownership and one stat says we move a lot compared to other industrialized nations.

When I worked in Europe it was common to visit coworkers at the family home often centuries in the same family...

Property tax was seldom a burden and passing title to the next generation taxed at a very nominal tax if done a certain way...

Life Estate is the method whereby one generation deeds to the next but the one deeding has a Life Estate which means the actual value is quite low.

If someone offered you a property but you can only occupy when the giver dies or voluntarily vacates what would you pay realizing the giver could remain for decades...

Another caveat with farms is the land passes to one person but should any land be sold siblings and or others share in the proceeds providing incentive to not sell off portions.

 

[two_bit_score]

Dad died a couple of years ago in his retirement home at 93, so I guess it worked. Mom is still there. They lived very frugally as they always did. I'm 20 miles from there and wish I could convince mom to move someplace where she didn't have to mow 2 acres at 87 years old. She leases farmland for hay.

The mowing maybe one of the things that is keeping her going.

 

[two_bit_score]

I do think Americans are more casual with Land Ownership and one stat says we move a lot compared to other industrialized nations.

When I worked in Europe it was common to visit coworkers at the family home often centuries in the same family...

Property tax was seldom a burden and passing title to the next generation taxed at a very nominal tax if done a certain way...

Life Estate is the method whereby one generation deeds to the next but the one deeding has a Life Estate which means the actual value is quite low.

If someone offered you a property but you can only occupy when the giver dies or voluntarily vacates what would you pay realizing the giver could remain for decades...

Another caveat with farms is the land passes to one person but should any land be sold siblings and or others share in the proceeds providing incentive to not sell off portions.

They have it figured out.

 

[forgeblast]

I am settling in on retiring this summer and I am thinking of investing about 20 to 25% of my liquid assets in Real Estate under a Self Directed IRA to give me some diversification outside of Vanguard and Fidelity. I asked about this earlier and I now know a little more (but not much more). Has anyone done a Self Directed IRA, even if it did not include Real Estate?

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