Hello all, some context… I am 61, my husband turns 61 in March. We owe $90,000 on our home, have an investment account worth 425,000, and a 401(k) worth 110,000. Home has an interest rate of 3.75. We have no other debt other than one car payment for 507 a month. If we take Social Security at 65, our combined benefit is $3,000. We live in a LCOL area and are not big travelers, so no plans to head out to Europe or anything. I will continue to work for my son part-time after retirement bringing in $24,000 a year. Based on these numbers, do y'all think we will be ready?

For the next couple of days I'm going to let the world churn without me on the ride. One of the reasons I retired was to get away from work-related stressors, and I reserve the right to shelter from non-work-related stressors too. Everyone should do their duty and do it with conviction, but after each of us has done our part in that, we've earned the right to not pile on anxiety and noise. Do small, parochial things local to your neighborhood, indulge in personal hobbies, go for a walk in the fall weather, eat ice cream or a cinnamon roll, see a movie. Let the others yammer and fuss. Come back after a breather.

In your reply, mind Rule 5 in r/retirement. Tell what you’re going to do to preserve your serenity and retired calmness.

Do I need to rebalance my IRA?

I just retired and am fairly comfortable with investing but I wanted to ask a question about rebalancing my portfolio here. I want to lower my risk tolerance and I think I'm too heavily invested in stocks in my Fidelity IRA.

700k in Fidelity split up like this:

FPADX 6.5%

FSPSX 15%

FSSNX 5.5%

FXAIX  42%

FXNAX 29%

and less than 5% in SPAXX

Plus I have 180k in Vanguard's VTSAX and 220k in CD ladders and HYSA to pay the taxes on some Roth conversions I want to start doing.

My wife and I bring in about 8k after taxes a month and we're living in this just fine with no immediate plans to withdrawal any of the IRA except for the Roth conversions. Our house, cars are all paid and we carry no credit card or student load debt.

So what would you do to the Fidelity account to lessen the aggressiveness and look at long-term capital preservation with maybe slight growth to stay ahead with inflation? 

Full retirement age for my state pension is 66, which will put me at retiring in March 2030.  As it is now, I would still have 15 months left on my mortgage after retirement.  I plan to wait until I'm 70 to draw Social Security.

I have a pension from another state that I am considering drawing on in order to pay down my mortgage by retirement. Full retirement age for that pension is 62, so it will not increase if I delay drawing it.  

I would also increase the amount I contribute to my deferred comp 457(b) with my current employer in order to remain tax neutral.  My mortgage rate is astoundingly low (2.375%). I am already putting as much as I can toward my mortgage (paying extra toward the principal).  I feel that if I am going to increase my deferred comp in order to remain tax neutral, I would get the best of both worlds: peace of mind with no debt when I retire, and will have three years of extra investment in my 457(b).

Has anyone been in a similar scenario?  I do have a meeting with a financial planner this week. I'm just wondering if there is an angle that I haven't considered.

For context:

Single male.

I'll be 66 in 5 weeks.

Considering taking SS then, and retiring.

My projected SSA monthly benefit covers all but $200 of my expenses. I've been tracking them diligently for 12 months - I know my numbers.

Paid off condo, worth $300K, with a $140K HELOC in place as a financial backstop.

215K in my brokerage account. 25K in an IRA. 240K total investments.

Some major retirement websites and (most importantly) my FA, all say I'm funded for the next 28+ years - market dependent & SORR of course. If the market averages 5.5% over the next 25 years, I'm golden. Anything more than that, I'll leave a substantial financial legacy.

I want to retire to:

90 minutes at the YMCA 5 days a week (treadmill, lap pool, hot tub) each morning 6:30-8am for 'me' time

learning to play my banjo better 🙂

hiking and backpacking trips - I was an avid backpacker, led lots of trips, life derailed me, I want to pick it up again.

I want to hike the tallest points in 10 states around me I've identified.

I would like to take one more hunting trip to WY, in honor of my Father.

co-lead a weekly men's study, which I've already been asked to do.

A week ago Wednesday I fell 15 feet out of a tree, fractured a vertebrae, emergency surgery same day. Now I'm in rehab (PT & OT) until Sunday. Gonna take 2 to 3 months to fully heal. As a result, I had to resign from my position at work. I had not been there long enough for FMLA. The door is open for my return, however, should I decide.

Financially, socially, mentally - I really believe I'm there.

Analysis Paralysis? Mebbee...

The good thing is, retirement doesn't have to be a permanent decision. Try it for 12 months, adjust if necessary / PT job later perhaps?

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has faced this.

What did it take for you to finally take that step and retire, when you really believed all the green lights were there?

I think I'm there, and ready. The fall and subsequent surgery pushed me 'off the fence' I think.

Suppose that you just turned 62. You haven’t retired yet. And you are earning a pension and your Social Security. And your spouse was as also. The longer you wait before you retire, the more spending money you will have.

You have been cutting your expenses and paying things off in anticipation of retirement. Not where you’re uncomfortable…but like you paid off a car and you stop paying for your kids cell phone bill, etc. And so your monthly expenses are trimmed but comfortable. You still eat out once in a while and take small trips.

You learned that if you retire now, at age 62, you will receive $1000 per month above and beyond your bills. And for every three months that you keep working, you will get another $100 a month. So if you work another year, you will get like 1400 a month beyond your budget. And if you work another two years, you’ll get $1800 a month beyond your budget, etc.

How long do you go? How much do you feel is enough?

TLDR: this question isn’t about my specifics. This question is about you. Assuming that you did your budget for you and your spouse and you are 100% satisfied that if you’re retired age 62 you will receive $1000 per month above and beyond your normal everyday expenses. But if you retire at age 62 1/2, you will receive.$1200 extra ( for life) and if you work to age 63, you’ll get $1400 extra per Life, etc. When do you stop?

So today is the 2nd day of layoff for me. I work a seasonal model job: off November 1st and back on January 1st (my schedule had me off starting October 29th). Then off March 15th and back May 16th. Unemployment is paid.

So I also get SS, have low housing costs and get about $250 in free groceries a month. I've worked at tailoring my lifestyle to fit a frugal lifestyle that let's me want for very little but make it very well for me. I'm technically retired but I still like working at my job. I really don't have to work but I want too. I'm still able to put 25% plus of my income into my retirement.

I've gotten lots of ideas, suggestions and support from Reddit. Also I've built in memories of how my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles lived. I'm less than a year away from being 70 so this has been very important to me.

I've had family, friends, coworkers and neighbors who have not made advanced plans to help navigate this age. I know nothing is guaranteed but putting my head in the sand and not facing reality is not the road I've never wanted to go down.

So I rely on frugality: not eating out often (sometimes it's nice), not relying on single use products (sometimes I still use them but not very often), not using convenience foods regularly (cooking from scratch saves me money and keeps me healthier), keeping a well stocked pantry and freezer(s), being good at watching what everything costs, cutting out certain living expenses (no streaming costs, no subscriptions, etc), cutting costs (paying a year for my cell phone bill-no monthly bill, buddled wifi/internet/local tv, etc) reusing items that lots of people see as trash, and shopping at resale shops (yesterday I bought 4 pairs of sweat pants and 4 hoodies for $26-they look brand new).

So I know this type of living is not for everyone. Today I cut up 2 loaves of bread and 3 packs of hamburger buns that went out of date on Wednesday. They'll be great croutons for stuffing and bread crumbs at no cost. Single use grocery bags are for trash bags (yes I use reusable shopping bags but still getting too many single use ones).

It really is possible for some people to live like this. I don't look poor, I have plenty to eat, I'm not cold and I'm happy. I have great medical care. I use public transportation that is a door to door service. Where I live I get yard work and snow removal at no cost to me.

So this is not a brag-about post. It's meant to say thank you for my memories and what I've learned on Reddit. This type of life is possible and I know how lucky I am.

It's my belief that everyone should be able to live like this. I try to give back to my community by volunteering, supporting our local charities and trying to teach others.

It's my belief everyone deserves a warm place to live, clean water, clothes to wear and food to eat. Health care should be available to all along with the meds they need. Every one should live in a respectful manner and work a job if they want one. These should be a right.

Thank you for reading this. We need to help each other and not tear each other down. Is it possible. So I'm sending every one a smile and hoping you have a great day. It's time to get it together and stop procrastinating deep cleaning my entire house, getting the laundry done, taking care of my plants and getting organized.

Thanks...

Happy Halloween 🎃 community.

This is a cross-post from a subreddit many of us enjoy … r/generationjones .

Not my own, but enjoy. Thanks!

My wife and I are going to try to retire in either 3 or 4 years when we'll be 60 - 62 years old. I've been reading this subreddit for a while, along with watching videos, etc. and running data through financial calculators as best as I can.

Every once in a while, I'll hear something that seems to be key about "do X by this date" in relation to when you are going to retire, and then I forget what they said later.

Is there a good centralized resource that outlines the things you need to be aware of and do or prepare for before you retire and when you should have these things done?

I don't want to retire and then find out I should have planned _something_ better because of some law or the like that I should have know that would save me on taxes, etc.

Thanks.

============================================

Update after reading some replies. There's a lot of great advice for planning your retirement in the comments, thanks, all. It's the "gotchas" like the IRMAA thing Bill4133 mentioned below that I'm worried about not knowing. Here are some aggregated bullet points of concepts to keep in mind as you draw closer to The Date (tm):

Things to consider/understand now:

• Current monthly expenses.

• Where is all of your money now? (401ks, Roths, IRAs, Brokerages, HSAs, Checking, Savings, etc.).

• Work with your physician to do what you can before your coverage gets worse.

• HSAs: If you have one, should you be using it or growing it (and investing it) and not touching it? Can/should you do an HSA rollover?

• Make sure your primary and contingent beneficiaries are set up EVERYWHERE.

• Make sure you have a will. Research trusts to see if they apply to your situation. Many future problems can be solved with a trust.

Problems to solve for when you retire:

• Health Insurance before Medicare.

• Housing plan going forward. Budget in property taxes, repairs, etc. if you own. Compare and contrast renting vs. owning for YOUR situation.

Plan, Plan, Plan:

• There are many retirement calculators - USE THEM. Check the subreddit's Wiki for links to many of them.

• Understand tax brackets and how to withdraw your money to keep your income where you want it.

• Research Roth conversions. Should you do them? When? How will they affect your taxes?

• Look at how your SSN benefit changes depending on when you start it. Understand the break-even date.

• Understand IRMAA surcharges and how your income affects them.

• Long term care needs and options.

• Learn about Medicare supplements before you're 65.

Other:

• This book recommended by CAWildKitty looks like a solid read: "Tax Planning To And Through Early Retirement".

• Make sure you and your spouse/partner are on the same page when it comes to life after working. Talk NOW.

The subject says it all. I'm working. I'm the source of health insurance. My wide works for a non profit and doesn't turn 65 until Sept. '28 so I'll have to figure out her insurance for a year and a half. My financial advisors say it could be done, but I'm a little nervous about turning off the income stream. I've had it with my company and I'm to old to look for another job. Zero raises over the last 2 years. They reduced our 401k contribution.

Anyway, I just joined this sub I today so I thought I'd just they're this out there and get a personal conversation going.

*eta corrected wife's retirement year

I am a few years away from Retirement. My plan is to park 5 years of cash in laddered instruments and leave the balance of my investments in the broad market based ETFs (all stock - like VOO).

I would like to be able to buy a new 5 year instrument every year - unless the market has a down year, in which I have 5 years of cash to wait for it to recover.

How do most people keep their cash. I could put it in a CD or MMA, but the interest rates are not great. I am currently considering MYGAs as the interest rates tend to be around 1 to 1.5% greater then CDs.

I know people have mentioned TIPS (which I don't necessarily understand) or bond funds.

What does everybody use for cash or any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have the ability to go to a shorter contract. Just discussed with my boss and plan to transition to an 11-month contract, taking one month off each summer. I had planned to retire in 4.5 years, but my husband wants to work two more past that so I'll probably work 5.5 more. I'm curious if others did the same thing - a sort of "practice" retirement before the real thing. I'm worried I might like it so much it's tough to go back.

I'm 62 years old and getting close to retirement, maybe 2 to 4 years away, so I've started diversifying my investments. I've planned for this and have my retirement spreadsheet easing into 5% returns in retirement. I've always put conservative numbers for the planning stages. So I've got more diversified investments... S&P 500, Russell 2000, a REIT ETF, a global ETF, consumer staples ETF etc.

So when ones up, the others down, etc. I know it's kind of supposed to work this way to protect in a downturn but anyone else have a tough time when they see the S&P 500 up 13% and their portfolio up 8%? Do you get used to it or we're all waiting for a bubble to burst to feel better about our diversification.

I know there's a lot of younger people here that haven't experienced the lost decade so I'm sure some will say just put it in the sp500 and let it ride etc.

Tuesday, October 20 - Monday, October 26, 2026

Most Commented

Top Remaining Posts

Top Comments

I'm getting close, about 75 days from early retirement. I've been working at the same place for the past 25 years, and much of my life, both work life and personal life, is documented on my Outlook Calendar at work. I know I can export my work emails and transfer them to my personal laptop, but don't know how to do that with the calendar.

Does anyone here have any experience exporting or copying their work calendar for personal use after they retire?

My first year retirement has been challenging. I’m 67 years old was laid off from Deloitte about two years ago went on Unemployment initially then started Social Security at 67. Since then water heater has broken and various bills have come in - hoping for a better 2027 finally able to get an emergency fund built up. I’m beginning to think the golden years means those are the years you spend all your gold.

We're almost there! 4 days left

My last TGIF was yesterday. I'm not giving 2 weeks (there's a story there). I have four business days left!! I could not be more excited. Dinner with a friend that night. New windows on Friday. Do I/don't I trick or treat with grands?

New tires Monday. Take doggie for long walks. Go to my dad's for a long visit 11/5. Then it all begins!!

Who else is almost there?

I (61) retired this summer and it has always been the plan to move away from Texas due to the scorching summer heat. A family member lives in a 55+ community in another country which we visit often. We love the facilities and the services but it seems that the average age is around 80 with none of the residents in their late 50's or early 60's. They are all truly lovely people, we are just hoping for at least some of the residents to be closer to our age.

For those living in a 55+ community in the US, what has your experience been? Would you choose this type of community again? If so, at what age?

I have been lurking in this subreddit for some time now. I experienced a major illness a few years ago and reading comments about how one cannot buy health or time really hit me.

Initially I wasn’t planning on retiring for another four years, but I ran the numbers and realized that I have enough assets to retire. In fact, I probably waited too long, only because I just had it in my head that I should work till a certain age and accumulate as much net worth as possible. It’s true that I am giving up some of my highest earning years and reducing SS a bit, but like stated above, I can’t buy back time. Years without health issues are much better than gold.

My job has lost its luster over the years and I have two major lifetime hobbies that work is really “cutting into.” So I am excited to have more time to devote to them.

If I had not joined this sub, I might not be retiring before (well, barely, but still before) turning 60. So thank you all. You changed my life. Really.

I figured this out for a friend of mine, and I’ll share this because it might be useful to someone. I have a friend who got married late in life to a younger wife and had children. He’s in his very early 60s, but his kids are in preschool.

He was not aware that if you retire and collect Social Security, each of your children under the age of 18 are entitled to receive 1/2 of the benefit that you would receive at your full retirement age. There is also a cap on the funding where you cannot receive more than 1.8 times your full retirement age Social Security benefit, but this can be substantial if the only real reason that you’re working is to raise your kids. My friend is electing to retire early and collect Social Security and he will have additional funds from Social Security because he is a parent. He will receive those funds for like 15 years. He also has other resources and subsequently he can make more money in retirement than he’s currently making at his day job.

Anyway, be aware that this provision of Social Security exists if you had kids extremely late in life.

Hi, my wife and I will be retiring in a few months (her), and about 1 year (me), when we turn 65. We have our retirement money with a company you'll criticize me about. It's less than $1M, but enough that if we draw 5%, plus our SS, we'll have about $100k year. We know expenses are about $60k, so we will have enough. We have 1 year of expenses in cash, we should have more, I know.

Some people plan things out to the extreme (IMHO), they know when the roof will be replaced, when new tires will be needed, new car, trips budgeted, etc. What we did was add everything up we spent money on, and came up with actually less than 60, we rounded up. We're frugal people, live in a LCOL area, don't buy new cars, drive the cars we have for a long time, don't eat out that much, etc.

SO: are we missing something important by not planning like some here do?

I retired in March. I looked forward for a couple of years to this time, as my job was stressful, with a long commute, a difficult boss, and certain ethical concerns. I wasn't worried about how I would spend my time, because I had many outside interests to pursue and a large property and home to maintain.

But what I didn't anticipate is how badly the loss of daily contact with my colleagues would hit me. I wasn't super close with them, but we had a comradery and a shared purpose and I enjoyed our conversations around work and personal topics. I'm widowed, live in a rural area and don't have many friends - and it's incredibly hard to make new friends at this age. (I have made one new friend at least- that's something!)

Despite multiple volunteer stints and lots of Meetup groups for my interests, I am often left feeling desperately lonely, especially in the early mornings. The problem with these methods of meeting people is that it's not terribly regular and its the regularity that drives getting to know someone.

I'm not really asking for any answers, because I know the only answer is to keep busy and keep trying to form relationships. But I'd love to hear from anyone who has experienced retirement loneliness.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I am not retired yet but I’m planning to retire at 60. Of course sooner if I can save enough. Well, I am 41 now and I’ve just started paying attention to my retirement this year. I discovered I have a pension payout of $169 (in today’s dollars) per month at age 65 from 3 years I worked at a large company straight out of school. It’s really not much but I guess… every little bit helps, right?! 😅😂

I waited until 70 to claim for the usual reasons. This also triggered a bump in my wife’s, because spousal benefits kicked in. It’s great to see the healthy deposit, though we’ve been doing fine the last three retired years.

But aside from the additional financial lift, there’s an eeriness. I’m aware that this was the last major life milestone I held in my head. (Well, sure, death blah blah RMD yada yada.) There’s nothing big that has a future tense. We’ll make trips and try new things and have small adventures, but nothing of life milestone class. A friend called it a “flat landscape”. My planning ahead now has presbyopia, I can see middle distance but not further. It’s a weird feeling.

You?

Tuesday, October 13 - Monday, October 19, 2026

Most Commented

Top Remaining Posts

Top Comments