Planning for Retirement

[ciao_yall]

Yes, you have the go-go years, the slow-go years, and the no-go years in retirement.

I also think that the moment you can financially swing it, you should retire. Time past 55 is more important than money.

I grapple with that.

I enjoy my job. I'm not sure I could afford to retire and travel as poshly as I enjoy.

[Kron3007]

Yes, you have the go-go years, the slow-go years, and the no-go years in retirement.

I also think that the moment you can financially swing it, you should retire. Time past 55 is more important than money.

I grapple with that.

I enjoy my job. I'm not sure I could afford to retire and travel as poshly as I enjoy.

I guess it depends on what you think of your job.  I have some time to think about it, but I am not sure what I think of retirement.  There are parts of my job I dont love, but overall, I get a lot of satisfaction with my work and dont know that I would want to fully retire at 55.  If I did, I guess I would probably seek other work anyway (consulting or something).

If I were really rich, maybe I would sing another tune, but even then I think I would probably build out a lab anyway and keep doing a lot of the things I am currently doing.

[clean]

"If I were really rich, maybe I would sing another tune, but even then I think I would probably build out a lab anyway and keep doing a lot of the things I am currently doing."

"I also think that the moment you can financially swing it, you should retire. Time past 55 is more important than money."

What does "really rich" mean?  (DO you have a $value for that... a number?)
I ask because I wonder how much people think that they need for retirement... how much is enough?

I had a department chair retire and say, "once you have enough, why continue working"?  He also said, though, "Retire TO something, not FROM something"

That seems to be the conundrum of the last few posts.  How much is enough, and what how do I want to spend the rest of my life?

It boils down to Willingness and Ableness.  To retire, you must be willing, and you should be willing  (have something else to fill your time).

We have a faculty member in the sciences area in his 70s.  He has stopped taking on new PhD students. He has even bought out his teaching responsibilities.  He has sufficient grants to pay a subset of his salary, and he essentially pays his salary from his grants, and the university is ok with that.  He enjoys the lab work and focusses on that and publishing.  From the university point of view, he is paying his own way, and reaping the benefits of him being around. 

Unfortunately, I am in business, so that is not an option.  I think that I will cross the willingness/ableness border in 2 or 3 years.  On the other hand, we will be getting a new dean next year and that may mean I will cross the willingness border even sooner! 

I would like to travel more, and there are a lot of things that I would do in the Fall and Spring that it is too hot or crowded to do in the summer, and not enough time to do in the holiday filled Winter.    BUT, i really like to cruise/tour in Alaska and that isnt something I could afford to do as much and feel secure about my Ableness to retire (and keep My Bride comfortable once I am gone). 

[Minervabird]

Yes, you have the go-go years, the slow-go years, and the no-go years in retirement.

I also think that the moment you can financially swing it, you should retire. Time past 55 is more important than money.

I grapple with that.

I enjoy my job. I'm not sure I could afford to retire and travel as poshly as I enjoy.

That's fair enough. I think I feel this way because I've had a couple friends die suddenly at 60, and others become quite disabled in their mid 60s. My job was enjoyable until the past 4-5 years when my university was subject to massive financial cuts and we were on constant strikes. Didn't want to move jobs because my husband is living where he grew up, and it is nice here. Plus, I have to admit that in addition to careful planning, we also inherited a goodly amount of money which made putting up with the job stress unnecessary.

As I was used to being pretty frugal, I'm more than happy pootling around in our camper, with a holiday on the Continent once or twice a year on Eurostar and some long weekends. We live very rurally so don't really eat out much...lots of reading, listening to the radio, vegetable gardening, taking country walks, painting my watercolours. We don't have kids, so not really worried about leaving our estate to anyone...we are donating it to charity.  Everyone is different.

I thought I would miss work but after 6 months, I really didn't. No more emails, grading, and dealing with administrivia.  Much happier doing my research and writing without constraints, gardening, and reviving my art practice.

[Vkw10]

That seems to be the conundrum of the last few posts.  How much is enough, and what how do I want to spend the rest of my life?

It boils down to Willingness and Ableness.  To retire, you must be willing, and you should be willing  (have something else to fill your time).
 

My plan was to be able to retire at 62, but continue working as long as I mostly enjoyed work. I've reached 62, I'm financially able to retire, and I look forward to more free time for hobbies. I'm negotiating a three-year phased retirement, but not sure I'll stay the full three years. Campus climate is declining, budgets are tighter every year, and my last grad student is near completion. Why stay?

[Puget]

We have a faculty member in the sciences area in his 70s.  He has stopped taking on new PhD students. He has even bought out his teaching responsibilities.  He has sufficient grants to pay a subset of his salary, and he essentially pays his salary from his grants, and the university is ok with that.  He enjoys the lab work and focusses on that and publishing.  From the university point of view, he is paying his own way, and reaping the benefits of him being around.   

I have colleagues well into their 80s doing this! Some just never retire, and others are "research active emeritus" meaning they are not teaching or doing service but still have a lab and grants. The latter can be a good thing (this arrangement only last while they have grant funding, so it is really win-win), but the former sometimes don't recognize some of the ways they are not as sharp and on top of things as they once were, and the department suffers from sub-par teaching and service, and suffering grad students.

For some, they truly just love it, and for others, I think their identity is so tied to it that they can't conceive of what they would do without it (I don't think those are identical).

Personally, although it is decades away and maybe I'll feel differently then, I don't think I'd want to delay retirement too much, certainly not past 70. For one thing, although where I live in the northeast is nice enough, I would really like to get back to the west when I retire, and do so at while I'm young and healthy enough to enjoy outdoor recreation there.

[dismalist]

A long, long time ago I decided to retire at age 70, and did. The reason was that I was only ever afraid of having to get carried out of the classroom for being non compos mentis.

[clean]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/survey-shows-widespread-roth-ira-regret-among-seniors/vi-AA1GFAEu?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=b35ce5c4a3e24b5c95e8ec894e2bf895&ei=42

A <2 minute video about polls showing the reasons retirees regret not contributing more/sooner to a ROTH.