My Uncle Passed Away Last Night

[bjl584]

64, healthy, avid runner, ate well.
Aneurysm in his groin burst on Sunday night. He died last night after 3 surgeries. Too much blood loss and stress on his organs.
He and my Aunt have been talking about retirement. He has worked all his life at 2 different companies and had pensions from both.
They were going to do some travelling and go to Myrtle Beach a few times a year.

He never got to realize retirement or any life away from the 9 to 5.

We're all in shock, as this was out of nowhere and happened so fast. Especially close to the holidays.

It does sort of put things in perspective.
I'm not saying I'm going to quit my job today, but I am wondering if I should reevaluate retirement plans.
When should I pull the trigger? How much money do I really need?
I don't want to just drop over dead one day and never get to experience some freedom from work life.

[james.hendrickson]

Dang, BJ, sorry to hear that. I hope you're feeling alright.

[Fishindude77]

Sorry for your loss.
All of your points are valid. Get out of the 9-5 thing soon as you can and start doing what you want to do , on your own schedule.

[disneysteve]

Very sorry for your loss and I totally agree with your thoughts. As Fishindude said, I believe people should retire as soon as they possibly can and take time to enjoy life. We never know how much time we've got.

[myrdale]

My father died at 60 years old from advanced prostate cancer. He had a PSA test performed through work, and it showed a value of 10 (anything over a 4 or so and you'd better get checked out). He didn't review the paperwork and work didn't follow up with him about it. A year or so later he was really sick and at that time his PSA was 400, and the cancer had spread through his spine, shoulders, ribs. He did treatments for a bit, but the horse was already out of the barn. Prior to the diagnosis, we had already been on his case about his weight, uncontrolled diabetes, and uncontrolled high blood pressure. He felt like he had been "cheated out of his retirement". That is 10 years now I've missed with him, but if it wasn't cancer, the blood pressure or diabetes would have been the issue by now I am sure.

My grandfather, at age 62 retired. Two months later he was diagnosed with Leukemia and a month or two later was dead.

Personally I try to eat healthy and exercise regular. I've had my PSA checked annually for the past 10 years. I am just now in my 40's. "No one" under 40 gets prostate cancer but I will continue to monitor myself.

Aside from the dismal survival rate in my family (better on my mother's side 94-96 years), I continue to plan for my future retirement and save.

My personal advice is know, understand, and accept that you ARE going to die, but plan to live as responsibly as you can between now and then. My classmates who died at 18 years old in car wrecks have missed an awful lot since then, I'm glad I'm here with y'all for the time being. Fingers crossed we have another 60 years together!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Yes, a sudden death like that is a shock. So out of nowhere. If, by chance you hear of other aneurysms (burst or not) in family members, talk to your doctor about whether you should get screened. It's a thing in my DH's family and three of six siblings have discovered aortic aneurysms, the first by way of sudden death at only 35.

My husband absolutely loved his job, but retired early when a new administrator made the work excruciating for several years. My husband has been really happy retiring early. I have mostly had only part time jobs, so have been really flexible with my time. We really enjoy each other's company, and I'm grateful to have had so much freedom and time together. Actually we have not retired with all that much financially, but we've got what we need and life is good. We feel really lucky, blessed.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I am so sorry for your loss. Things like that put things into perspective. It makes me wonder why my aunts 67 and 69 work? For what? More money to never spend? To live life constantly saying they don't have enough? By whose standards? I'm not saying go Mr Money Mustache and austere living unless you want to. But there is a balance. I say this because my aunts work a lot of hours and complain non stop and whenever I say just retire, they say "you're only 40...you have no idea what it costs to retire." Whatever.

[disneysteve]

I am so sorry for your loss. Things like that put things into perspective. It makes me wonder why my aunts 67 and 69 work? For what? More money to never spend? To live life constantly saying they don't have enough? By whose standards? I'm not saying go Mr Money Mustache and austere living unless you want to. But there is a balance. I say this because my aunts work a lot of hours and complain non stop and whenever I say just retire, they say "you're only 40...you have no idea what it costs to retire." Whatever.

I'm 58 so somewhere in the middle. We would probably be just fine if I stopped working entirely but I'm still not mentally accepting of that, so I continue to work about 8 hours per week. At least I'm not full time. I actually enjoy still going in twice a week for 4 hours. It's enough to stay active and stay connected with everyone but 4 hour shifts go pretty quickly even when they're super busy so my plan is to keep doing this for a couple more years and then reevaluate. Hopefully by then the market will have recovered a decent amount.

[ua_guy]

I'm very sorry to read this, BJ. What a shock.

It really is something to stop and think about. We save for a magical day in the future when we're no longer obligated to work, a "golden years" retirement. I often wonder how I can better allocate resources to having fun and enjoying life a little more in my younger/working years when youth and good health are still on my side. There's a lot of risk in saving for retirement - not just the rate of return or viability of an investment - but the possibility that you may never get to enjoy that money "someday".

[crazyliblady]

I'm very sorry to read this, BJ. What a shock.

It really is something to stop and think about. We save for a magical day in the future when we're no longer obligated to work, a "golden years" retirement. I often wonder how I can better allocate resources to having fun and enjoying life a little more in my younger/working years when youth and good health are still on my side. There's a lot of risk in saving for retirement - not just the rate of return or viability of an investment - but the possibility that you may never get to enjoy that money "someday".

I also struggle with the balance of saving for my future retirement while also enjoying some of it now. My difficulty that I cannot do anything about is that I am the only working person in a 2 person household, so the weight of all the normal bills falls on my shoulders. My husband is not eligible for 2 years.

[terri77]

I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ve had two co-workers die suddenly in the last month. It really puts things in perspective.