This this this! I joked with a friend last night "If I never decumulate then I'm bound to live forever."Ha, I can beat that. I've worked full-time 50 years. It's about 55 years if you count the years I worked my way through college (BS and MS). Image may be NSFW.Some of it is a fear of not having a paycheck and switching into decumulation mode. It's a mental adjustment even if your finances look solid. I retired last summer at 65, and although I had some nervousness, things have worked out. I haven't claimed SS yet, so that's kind of a "break glass in case of emergency" situation which provides some extra security.
As for keeping busy, my thought was that I needed to give myself some space to make the transition to this next stage. Meaning, I didn't have a set list of "something to retire to", as is often recommended. It's a process. I don't miss work. I'd been working since 16, and 44 years full-time, and I'd had enough. Image may be NSFW.
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After roughly 40 years of working and saving I hit my number (and then some) by being laid off and not suing. Thought I'd land another corporate gig eventually but it's been 3 years. C'est la vie. One thing that's helped my mental state is consulting. I work maybe 30 hours a week and make about a third of what I used to with no benefits. But having a small income come in with no stress is far more valuable to me than the income alone would suggest. My wife is the CEO of a medium sized creative agency. She's also a bit younger. Both of us can't be doing 60 hour weeks any more.
I view it as my transition period. Maybe I'll get a gig, maybe it won't happen. But I don't miss that #$%ing alarm clock one bit. Granted my toddler wakes me up at the crack of dawn sometimes but that's much nicer.
Statistics: Posted by BrooklynInvest — Tue May 14, 2024 4:44 pm — Replies 134 — Views 14888
