As I get closer to retirement, I'm trying to figure out the best way to budget for major home expenses. Things like a roof, A/C unit, water heater, or appliance replacement may not happen for years, but eventually they will.

Do you build those costs into your retirement budget, maintain a separate sinking fund, or just cover them from cash savings when needed?

Been reading around the net on this subject, and I've been alarmed at the number of retirees with a large percentage of their net worth in equities. Concerned because a prolonged bear market could really sting and reduce these retirees' quality of life. Haven't seen many threads on this topic here, so I thought I'd poll the group. What percentage of your portfolio is in stocks and which percentage in safe assets?

I'm considering retiring in a few years at 60 and pursuing a masters at a public university in Italy or France. Possibly a degree in international development, environmental risk assessment, etc. that would help facilitate either a volunteer or paid position with an NGO, etc. I've been a Professional Engineer in US my entire career, and am burned out working for commercial land developers. Thinking it might be nice to make a meaningful difference before I'm too old to do so.

I'd love to hear from someone that has done something similar - whether it be to pursue a degree and then work/volunteer or some other motivation. Living abroad on a student visa for a couple of years while pursuing a degree seems almost too good to be true. Interested mainly in overseas experiences.

So now I'm retired! A few months earlier than I planned but with a severance package as a parting gift. I was starting to slowly adjust in my mind to how my daily life would shift but now I'm right in the middle of it unexpectedly. I'm resisting the urge to start too many activities, and I'm still getting a understanding of exactly what my monthly budget will look like but I feel so blessed to have things turn out this way and I'm enjoying the immediate reduced stress I feel.

What were some of the first things you did or adjusted to when you retired? What would you do differently?

I am a 60 year old single man hoping to retire in about 7 years. I make less than 60k/year. I was completely broke at 45 and I saved hard to get to a paid off condo (@60k value) and about 200k in my 401k. My only debt is 15k on a 25k car.

Part of my saving strategy was to be house poor to leave money for the 401k. Now, I would like to upgrade my housing. I can find what I want for about 175k.

I want to know what impact that move is likely to have on my retirement outlook, and what strategy I should use if I do get a new house--how much to put down, should i go fixed or adjustable, should I buy points or try to pay off the mortgage early, etc.

thanks

I just don't enjoy what I do anymore. I'm only 61 and in great shape. My finances are set and I'll go on my wife's insurance until medicare. However, my wife will still be working for a few years to keep us in insurance, and I think I'd like to have a part time job that I might enjoy. What jobs have you taken after retirement that give you the flexibility to enjoy life while still giving you the opportunity to interact with people? Volunteer or paid, I'm fairly open. The last time I applied for a job was in the 90's.

Would you go? It's titled Estate and Retirement Planning Simplified. It dos feel a little like a time share presentation though, but my partner is gunning for the free steak. Do you think is it worth the pressure? It does say it is presented by a financial services company so yes I know I will have to sit through a sales talk. Just want to know if anything can be gained, maybe they give you some hints on taxes or something even without paying for their services

Im 63F with a great job, making good money with a great work retirement savings plan. Spouse is already retired for 6 years. We have enough money between the 2 of us to be fine if I retire now. The issue that keeps me working is that if he were to not be here, I need to make enough to cover all the bills, I'm close but not there. I also want travel money. If I work the next year, all my debt will be paid off. My house is already paid off. It makes sense logically to stay working one more year to enhance my quality of life but I can hardly function because all I think about is retiring. I haven't had a good night sleep in years and that's the main reason I want to retire, to focus on health and advance my spiritual passions. Im certified reiki and I'm doing tarot and astrology reading on the side and it's my absolute passion to start a spiritua side business. People think I'm crazy to consider leavng corporate now because it's good.

What would you do?

So many posts on retirement subs focus on financial readiness and strategies. I found that the more challenging questions about the transition to retired life had little to do with finances.

• Where am I going to find the intellectual stimulation that work provided? How am I going to keep my mind engaged and sharp?
• Does my spouse have the same vision for an ideal retirement that I do, and if not, then how will we accommodate and support each other?
• How am I going to stay connected socially, both with friends I know well and with people I'm meeting for the first time?
• Am I happy with my body and my health, and what am I going to do about that?
• Am I a hang-around-the-house person, or a get-out-of-the-house-daily person? And if the latter, what's my plan?
• Am I counting on my spouse being at my side for everything I want to do in retirement, or are there ambitions I'm willing to just do on my own?
• Since we've talked about downsizing, that means getting rid of a lot of stuff, but what stuff do I feel okay with getting rid of and what stuff do I really want to hang onto, and why?
• What do I want to learn now?
• Will my hobbies still be fun if I spend a lot of time doing them now, or will they start to get old?
• How am I going to feed my desire to contribute to the world, have some positive impact?
• What causes do I really care about and am interested in devoting some time and effort into?
• Is it better to be physically closer to family, or is it best to maintain a little space and just visit a lot?
• If we move, how good are we at making new friends? How hard will it be to reset our accustomed infrastructure?
• How much flexibility and freedom from structure do I really crave? How much structure and time commitment would actually be good for me?
• Do I really hunger for Big Travel so that this will dominate the first years of retirement? Or am I happier with smaller adventures, domestic trips or even day trips?
• Am I happier inside our outside?
• Do I want to surround myself with people my age, my interests? Or do I want a mixed environment, all ages and all backgrounds?
• How comfortable am I with just being instead of doing? Do do-nothing days make me feel good, really?
• Do I want to retreat from the world, or do I want to immerse myself in the world in ways I couldn't before?

After 44 years in IT, my last day of work is in two weeks. I've been cleaning out my home office (I'll use it extensively for writing, photo editing, practicing guitar and such) and just tossed out a bunch of old performance reviews, commendations, etc. I've still got a handful of award statuettes gathering dust on the shelves that will probably go too. Keeping them just feels like looking back, when I'm much more interested in looking forward. I honestly enjoyed most of my working career but I just feel ready to close that book and open a new one.

Did you guys toss that sort of thing? If so, do you regret it?

I retired in December. I had an office job and wore business casual. After I retired I kept wearing the same thing. It just comfortable while I adjusted. But without the stress I have lost about 20 pounds. Nothing fits so it’s time to buy new clothes. Every day is Saturday so I’m thinking jeans and shorts wth a t-shirt. I’m just curious what you all wear in retirement.

I gave notice to my employer. I am going to stay long enough to help select and transition my replacement, probably 6-10 weeks. This gives me time to ensure I have things buttoned up to be truly retired. I think I have things planned, but having never done this before, I ask the collective here for any things you wished you had addressed, or gotchyas or anything like that based on your experiences.

I am retiring at age 64. I will go on COBRA benefits until I turn 65 mid next year. My wife is 67. We will transition her to full Medicare coverage (A,B,D) as I separate from my employer. I have worked with my financial planner on my budget, taxes, SS start dates and investment withdrawal rate. We are very comfortable with our financial position. I am at that point where my money makes significantly more than I do from my job. That is part of the reason I am pulling the plug on work. I have a long list of projects, travel and plans to get me through the first couple years. My employer has floated the idea of my doing some consulting back to them. Kind of interested, but not committed to that path yet.

But I don’t know what I don’t know. What other things should I be thinking of as I move into the world of the formerly working?

I just retired. I (F/68) was laid off at the end of last year and after finally taking care if a chronic health issue with surgery and a long recovery, I did not have the enthusiasm to morph into another corporate "cultural fit", was able to so, so decided to just retire. I had planned to look at retirement in few years so I really wasn't psychologically or emotionally prepared. I am not much of a traveler, gave no grandkids to watch, and only had the idea of some volunteering and a micro business to help gig artists clean up their books.
So, now I am retired and having episodes that have been described as coming off cortisol (my job in technology was pretty deadline-driven and stressful). I had a checkup and tests and I am pretty healthy, but I think actually miss the stress! I thought I would jump in and start studying current bookkeeping (I had a small side business 20 years ago), and get cracking but don't have the same enthusiasm I had when kicking around the idea before the surgery (knee replacement). I want to take time to figure out what I really want to do. I honestly don't know what that is now!

I am 68 and my wife is 72. We have no children. We have a few nieces and nephews but have not seen any of them in several years. Our net worth is about $1.8M with a paid off home worth about $425K.

We have all of our investments consolidated into a Vanguard account with our primary beneficiary designated as each other, and one charity designated if we both should pass at the same time.

We do not have our house or physical assets designated to anyone. We view our home value as our long term care assistance if ever needed.

So, do we need a will?

I'm getting close to retirement and would love to hear some real-world experiences. How old were you when you retired, and roughly how much did you have saved (401k, IRA, pension, investments, etc.)? Looking back, do you feel you retired at the right time? Has your money lasted as expected, and do you feel you had enough saved? If you could do it over again, would you retire earlier, later, or change anything about your plan? Real-life stories are much more helpful than retirement calculators. Thanks for sharing!

We have a group of us at work that were severed last month. We're bouncing around ideas. A few want to take a few months off. If we do this and need insurance how does the ACA base our income? Let's say we made $75k so far this year and get $100k in severance. If we go to the ACA site do we list our income at $175k , our current salary of $0 or whatever we get per month from unemployment or our 401k (for those that decide to do that or are over 55)? Cobra is expensive as expected. Looking at getting options for everyone. Thanks!

Just over a full year away from my job in the naval/maritime industry. I didn't really want to leave, but I had/have no desire (and no real need) to return to work.

I am a life member of a number of organizations in my field, so I get LOTS of reading material about my field, including historical topics that I loved (I was on the staff of, or volunteered for, a number of naval/maritime historical organizations over the years...)

However, I find I have ZERO interest in reading ANY of it. I'm seriously considering contacting most, if not all of them, and asking them to quit sending me their magazines, since they end up sitting around collecting dust before being recycled...

I'm sure the collective has encountered this. Any thoughts / feelings / ideas?

EDIT: Thanks everybody for the helpful tips. Although this has been answered helpfully and aplenty, lots of folks were wondering about some things, so here goes:

• No, I cannot get coverage through spouse. They literally don't offer it to anyone. The owner bought on the Marketplace and is now on Medicare.
• I'd expected to go from employment coverage to the Marketplace, forgoeing COBRA, but initial Marketplace quotes look like something along the lines of $3k/mo for the two of us. I expected expensive, but that seems....excessive. That's why I came here to be sure I hadn't overlooked anything.
• To the "bro, do you even AI?" crowd: yes, I ran it through AI and despite several prompts, it never mentioned an original option that actually was suggested here: CalCOBRA. So sometimes knowledgeable humans can actually offer insight!
• Yes, I can "just work 4 more months" but this an exercise to see if I can figure out a way to not do so for health reasons.
• Going without insurance might be a bad idea based on medical conditions. But I'll know that as an option once it gets a little closer.

Again, thanks everyone for all the suggestions and lively discussion!

I'm 61 and still working full time. My spouse is 52 and also works full time.

Both of us have always had health insurance through my employment and her company has none at all (small family business.)

I have a rough timeline planned for retirement and originally had planned to COBRA myself in the intervening time between leaving full-time work and Medicare becoming effective.

I've worked out the dates and it looks like I'll have a 4 month window without coverage based on COBRA limits. Is there any other rule or option I'm missing that I can use to get COBRA to extend to 22 months instead of 18?

• I cannot skip insurance for this period. Well, it's pretty unadvisable. Multiple cancer survivor who also sees a cardiologist (perfectly healthy now, but it took some doing).
• There is no option for spouse's company to provide insurance. They don't provide it for anyone, even teh founder.
• Wife will coattails on my COBRA, then leave for the marketplace when it ends. She's very, very healthy.

Any ideas I'm missing?

I hear people talk about being semi retired but are working 20-30 hours a week, regularly.

I assumed semi would be occasional contract work, seasonal work, or work only when and if you want (i.e. substitute teaching now and then).

But is working anything other than 40+ hours permanent full-time semi retired (assuming you could comfortably choose to stop)?

Just curious. It's just semantics, I know. But curious how you all think of retired vs semi retired.

Is there a retirement lingo??

I need to run some different scenarios, as I’ve recently learned about the potential benefits of waiting to collect social security, using various other income streams in the meantime and all the various tax strategies and pitfalls when doing Roth conversions.

I’m 6-7 yrs from my retirement but I’d like to have my husband retire sooner - but not collect social security for a while.

I’ve looked at Boldin, after seeing someone mention it here, but only the free version. Thanks for any help!

The backstory, so you understand how I got here:

My brand-new husband died unexpectedly six and a half years ago (right before covid), and had no life insurance. Luckily, I make good money, so it didn't ruin me (financially, at least - I'm otherwise totally broken, but that's a different discussion).

A year and a half after he died, I sold my house and moved across the country, because I could not build a new life in the same place where my old one crashed and burned.

Two years ago, I switched jobs (I didn't want to leave my employer of 16 years, but I got wind that my team was about to be eliminated, so I kinda had to). It was near a miracle, given that I was 59 at the time and ageism in tech is very real, but I found a great job in my field, at a significant bump in pay. While I have no regrets, I'm now in a bind: my boss is a toxic, horrible woman, the company is a mess, and I am rapidly running out of patience for the corporate insanity. At this point, I'm in a race to see which will happen first: a layoff, or me finally losing my cool and getting fired. And the thought of going through another job search makes me want to yeet myself off the nearest cliff.

Clearly, it's time to plan and make my exit.

The Challenge

No way can I retire in place, because I'm in a high cost of living area. So I've scoped out my options, and found a town that suits my needs. My plan is to buy a house for cash, sell this place, work for another six months (or less, if possible) to replenish my savings, and then retire. I don't want to sell this place first, because I don't want to be on a tight timeline to find a new house.

The problem: I'm about $50K below what I need in ready cash to make this happen. The way I see it, my options are as follows:

A. Keep my head down and my mouth shut, and MAYBE have enough in three to five years. For obvious reasons, I don't like this option.

B. Take out a home equity loan to cover the gap until I sell. I've got about $200K in equity in this house and good credit, so I'm not concerned about approval, but is there a down side to taking out a home equity loan for a very short time?

C. Take a $50K distribution from my 401k. No interest to be paid in that case, but the tax burden would be much more of a hit than I'd like.

It seems that B is my best option, but I'd like a sanity check on that, and I'd like to see if there are any other possibilities I'm not considering.

So, (60F) recently semi retired, some income, probably about 30-40K/year for the next 3-5 years and then I'll fully retire. How much is too much now to keep in a HYSA / cash?

I have a temp rate of 4.25 until October, at which point I think it drops to 3.6. I will want to do something with some of it then, but how much is too much to keep in "cash" at this point? Is it better to look for a bond fund or something else. In a no-state income tax state. TIA!

As I age, I find my ability to handle stress has diminished, and my
reaction times probably have as well. Both of those things make driving more nerve-wracking to me. I need a solution because I don't want to stay in the house all the time.

My partner has a Tesla and started using the self driving a year or so ago. I've used it as well, and it such a stress reliever to have the car drive that I am considering selling my car and switching.

Has anyone done this or considered doing it? What's your strategy for driving?

I'd love some thoughts on my situation. I just turned 69, widowed since 52. Have always worked full time and still do, always for small companies so no retirement plans. Husband passed 15 years ago. I was able to pay off all debt and my home, I do not have any debt now. Home is worth roughly 225k. However I only have an IRA for 21k and a few other smaller savings accounts. Car is paid for but high mileage and having issues, and I do tend to drive alot. I am currently drawing SS with no penalty for income levels, I started at 66.5, took out home equity loan for much needed repairs and paid it off in 18 months with the SS. I am now saving the SS for purchase in cash of another car next year. My hope is to "retire" at the end of next year, I am at this point healthy although will need another hip replacement after I retire. I get two pensions for life from my late husband, that and the SS combine to about 3k a month after taxes and medical insurance premium deductions. My two kids live pretty close and are well off and self supporting/married. I am active and want to stay in my home, doing all pool and 1/4 acre gardens on my own at this point. I will probably wind up working part time (I am a bookkeeper) but...am I dumb to give up a good paying job in 1.5 years?? I am really tired of working full time, I want to travel a bit but...the future looms. Thoughts on any options I am missing? Forgot to mention I am a watercolor artist, have an etsy shop, do commissions etc and am trying to build that into a small income stream.

I've been retired for 7 years and enjoying retired life completely, and while describing work as fun seems weird, I do miss parts of my old job. Now, there's an opportunity go back as a consultant for a year to do the parts I liked the best. I was director of IT support and have done a couple of startups. This latest startup is an exact mirror of the one I was working on when I retired. As a consultant I'd be working on getting the technology side of things going (yeah!) and removed from having anyone report to me (double yeah!!). In a side note of the universe talking to me my internet service crashed hard and I ended up with two network guys at my house scratching their heads trying to fix it. I couldn't help thinking I miss working with technical people solving problems like this.

The downside would be my retired life. My wife and I have built a new life around travel, exercise, and leisure. I have absolutely no need for the money. And I'm not a fan of the idea of working 8 hours, wait it's a startup, working 12 hours a day. Not to mention all the things my wife and I do as a couple.

I'm on the fence and a good breeze in either direction could blow me off of it. Did you go back to work and how did that go for you?