Retirement: I think it's time

[disneysteve]

Over the past couple of years, I've cut back from full time to part time to per diem at my job. In 2023, I mostly worked 8 hrs/wk, and sometimes 4 or none. A couple of weeks I worked 12 hrs but that was the exception. I decided that for 2024 I would cut back to 4 hrs/wk. I scheduled myself for 16 hours in January but ended up calling out one shift when I had COVID so I actually worked 12 hrs all month. By the time I sat down and picked shifts for February, there were only 2 shifts I really wanted so I only booked 8 hrs for the month. At that point, I started to realize that continuing to work was kind of silly. The money I'll make in 8 or 12 or even 16 hrs/month is not enough to move the needle on our retirement plans.

I ran Firecalc again, checked our SS estimates, and touched base with our CFP. Everything is in place for me to stop working with no problem and 100% predicted success rate. Plus, I used 150K as our spending figure for all of the calculations but I'm estimating that our actual spending this year will be 15-20K less than that for various reasons (cheaper health insurance being the main one) which makes the math even better. My wife is totally onboard with me stopping work so no issues there.

I already had a meeting scheduled with my lead physician next Tuesday for something else so I'm going to use that as my opportunity to give notice. Our contracts require 4 months notice so that means I should be done mid June. I'm looking into some of the non-financial logistics like how I inactivate my license, if I will still have any continuing education requirements, and stuff like that, but none of that is anything that would interfere with the plan. I just need to know how it all works.

So it looks like I'm going to be retiring in June!

[QuarterMillionMan]

Congratulations, tremendous accomplishment. Also when you turn 65 medicare is about $160 a month in today's dollars vs ACA which you are probably paying close to $900 a month now. I wish that I could get medicare now which would help me to retire at 58.

[kork13]

Congratulations!! I wondered when you would finally pull the trigger. You're 58 right now? 59? I remember having discussions about how long you thought the per diem period might last, so I went searching .... first week of Aug'22 when you started per diem work, after a few months doing part time. I couldn't find a specific plan for how long you then planned to keep doing per diem, though some of us predicted inside of a year ... but in any case, I'm very happy for you to have decided it's time to call it quits.

What's the plan for your eBay selling? How much are you counting on that income? (I expect the answer is "not much"). I know you enjoy it as a solidly income-producing hobby, but I expect with the volume you're selling, it's probably still a fairly significant time committment, at least 8-10hrs a week. With your full-up retirement, are you going to also start backing that selling down as you clear out your existing re-sale inventory?

But the big question ----- Sooooooo...... when are you buying that house in Florida?

[disneysteve]

Congratulations, tremendous accomplishment. Also when you turn 65 medicare is about $160 a month in today's dollars vs ACA which you are probably paying close to $900 a month now. I wish that I could get medicare now which would help me to retire at 58.

Yes, we are around $900 for ACA though it will be lower once I retire since my income will drop making us eligible for a larger subsidy.

Agreed about Medicare. There have been efforts to expand it but of course there is political opposition to the idea of helping people. If they could lower it even a little, like to 62, that would help millions of people be able to retire sooner. So many people are only hanging on at work because of insurance which is a really crappy reason to have to keep working especially if you're health isn't fantastic.

The good thing is that ACA coverage is way cheaper than what we were paying on COBRA ($2,000/mo) which is why I expect our expenses this year to be a lot lower. Also when I retire I can drop my disability insurance which is about $300/mo. I'll continue to belong to my professional association but dues drop from about $600/yr to $100/yr which saves us another $500. I'm checking on continuing education. If I no longer need to meet that requirement, that expense goes away. I spent $1,600 for the conference I attended last year.

[disneysteve]

Congratulations!! I wondered when you would finally pull the trigger. You're 58 right now? 59? I remember having discussions about how long you thought the per diem period might last, so I went searching .... first week of Aug'22 when you started per diem work, after a few months doing part time. I couldn't find a specific plan for how long you then planned to keep doing per diem ... but in any case, I'm very happy for you to have decided it's time to call it quits.

What's the plan for your eBay selling? How much are you counting on that income? (I expect the answer is "not much"). I know you enjoy it as a solidly income-producing hobby, but I expect with the volume you're selling, it's probably still a fairly significant time committment, at least 8-10hrs a week. With your full-up retirement, are you going to also start backing that selling down as you clear out your existing re-sale inventory?

But the big question ----- Sooooooo...... when are you buying that house in Florida?

I was 59 in August (so hit the magic 59.5 this Saturday).

I've actually been working on ramping up my ebay business. I'd like to get my net up over $10,000 this year. It was just over $8,000 for 2023. That doesn't necessarily mean devoting more time to it though as I've steadily been working on upping my average sale so I can make more money without doing much more work. It's just as much work to sell a $50 item as it is to sell a $20 item so the more higher dollar sales I can make, the more profit I make without additional effort.

The house in Florida is still a big question mark. I've been very turned off by a lot that has happened both with Disney and with Florida overall. Plus we really can't leave for any extended period as long as my mom is still with us. We're scheduled to go to Mexico later this month for a week and we're still not 100% sure if that's going to be happening. My mom is just beginning to entertain the idea of moving to assisted living. While that wouldn't happen that soon, if she were to do that within the year, it would definitely make it easier for us to travel as we'd know she was being taken care of in our absence.

[ua_guy]

Congratulations! Your plan has come together nicely. I hope the travels to Mexico work out for you all.

[Jluke]

Any chance your 4 month notice could be waived and you could retire sooner?

it’s great to see all your planning and financial strategies paying off.

enjoy!

[disneysteve]

Any chance your 4 month notice could be waived and you could retire sooner?

Not a chance. They're quite strict about that. Of course, being per diem, I'm only required to work 24 hours every 12 weeks. Once I know my official last day, I'll work around the 12 week period that falls in and can likely make it so I don't have to work at all the last few weeks.

[disneysteve]

Congratulations! Your plan has come together nicely. I hope the travels to Mexico work out for you all.

Thanks. We're also hoping the Mexico trip happens. With my 93-year-old mom, there's always a chance something could happen to require us to cancel. I did select our seats and pay for our checked bags today which was the last thing I needed to finalize for the trip, and we stocked up on sunscreen yesterday.

[Drake3287]

Congratulations and welcome to retiree life! Not sure how old you are but I think most of us know when the times right, both financially and more importantly, mentally. I had I job that I loved for 32 years but still love retirement and haven't looked back. Enjoy this next chapter of your life.

[bjl584]

Congratulations!
Sounds like things are well in order and you can now enjoy the retired life.

[srblanco7]

Congrts DisneySteve! Well earned. Enjoy!

[Fishindude77]

It's time to retire ...... when you have enough -or- when you've had enough.
Congrats !

[james.hendrickson]

Wow ! Big changes.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Congrats! Sounds like the wheels are turning and in motion.